A week ago, we introduced you to Google Web Fonts; or maybe, you had already heard of them!  The fact is, this just-over-a-year-old tool is gaining popularity fast.  There are currently over 100 million font requests each day at Google Web Fonts!  The website is also seeing a 30% growth month to month.  We think those are some pretty impressive statistics, and well deserved, too.

When you consider that Google Web Fonts is becoming a mainstream tool, it only makes sense to utilize it to the fullest extent for your online marketing needs.  More than a handful of prominent websites out in cyberspace have already delved into the open source dream that is Google Web Fonts.  For example, the Royal Wedding website  made creative use of Web Fonts by picking a font with a cursive, ‘handwriting’ feel to it for people to sign their virtual guestbook.  Norad Santa Tracker, a volunteer-run site devoted to making Christmas stories a reality for children, uses Google Web Font’s “mountains of Christmas” (how fitting)!  There are numerous other sites around the web that use Google Web Fonts as well.

So maybe you thought of a creative way to incorporate Google Web Fonts into your site already.  That’s what we like to hear…but here’s another idea…why not take Google Web Fonts off of the web and into other areas of the Denver marketing world?  South by Southwest, a huge music, film, and arts festival held each March in Austin, Texas, made use of Google Web Font’s “lobster” typeface.  ”Lobster” was used on South by Southwest 2011 t-shirts and other merchandise, and consequently essentially became a visual identity of its own.

The fact that Google Web Fonts are completely open source is a huge factor in the philosophy behind web fonts as well as the growing popularity.  As technology becomes more advanced, and designers and developers form and share numerous ideas, open source tools thrive around the web.  On Google Web Fonts being open source, Google Web developer stated, ”they’re your fonts just as much as they are Google’s.”

Just in case you aren’t already convinced that Google Web Fonts can help you meet your internet marketing needs, we will tell you a little bit about how great Web Fonts is for mobile internet.  By definition, mobile internet is simply internet accessible via smart phone or other mobile device.  Obviously, with a large percentage of the world’s cell phone users turning to smart phones, mobile internet tactics are fast becoming vital to the marketing mix.  Google Web Fonts has the ability to detect what kind of device the user is accessing a website from, be it a laptop or a smart phone.  Web Fonts then takes this information into account to optimize the version of the typeface or font families that are being used on the website in question to cater to the device.  Let us also not forget that, in the case of mobile devices especially, Web Fonts are a much better option than images.  Why, you ask?

• less loading time (Web Fonts take up way less storage space and use less bandwidth than images!)
• quality is upheld by Web Fonts even in the case of zooming in (whereas image quality would decrease)
• with multilingual options, Web Fonts can work internationally (that fancy logo you make with Web Fonts can be translated into Turkish and Arabic…could an image do that?)

Now, we just have one more question…
why aren’t you using Google Web Fonts yet?!
We will leave it at that for today, and next week we’ll start some brainstorming for Denver marketing tactics with Web Fonts thrown into the mix.

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Arial, Times, Verdana, Courier New, Georgia…what do all of these font families have in common?

If you happen to be a web designer or developer, you could probably have told us that these are a handful of the meager font-family options that are made available to those creating a website.  Considering the thousands of available font faces found in graphics programs and all over the world wide web, the web-friendly choices are rather disappointing.

Not to worry though, because we have some good news for you.  Google has recently developed and released a program that is already changing web typography as we know it.  This revolution has been dubbed “Web Fonts” and is a piece of cake to use!  Google Web Fonts allows anyone to obtain a new font for their website with three easy steps:

step 1: search and make a choice

Google Web Fonts database can be combed through with any criteria of the user’s choosing.  Users can simply type in keywords in hopes of finding a font face similar to one of their favorites, or can even narrow down a search with variables such as “thickness” and “slant.”  Fonts can also be found according to linguistic script or basic filters such as serif versus sans serif.

step 2: review your choice

This part is quite straightforward.  Once the user has chosen a font they (think) will work well embedded in their website, they will view all aspects of the font that Google Web Fonts has to offer.  Users will see all the styles and variations of their chosen font, so there is no mystery behind a font choice!

step 3: copy and embed the code

Google Web Fonts makes this step as simple as can be, too.  The code and directions for the font of the user’s choice are on the page (and oh-so-easy to use, especially considering we are all aware of how CSS3 works now, right?), ready for copying and pasting.

So, assuming you are all ready to break away from the Arial, Times, and Georgia bandwagon, let’s talk a little bit about how this simple yet fantastic new tool can be useful for Denver marketing.

Synchronization in terms of design

Perhaps all of the graphics on your website do not make use of fonts that fit the Arial, Times, etc. mold.  Though very typical, it can be frustrating not to be able to incorporate that curly, bubbly, or otherwise creative font into your website’s design without spending a good chunk of time on it in Photoshop.  However, with Google Web Fonts, you can certainly find fonts to match your graphics (or, likewise, find the fonts in Google Web Fonts prior to making graphics) and incorporate your newly found fonts into aspects of your website that do not demand a whole graphic to themselves.

Getting trendy

Out with the oh-so-popular Helvetica, in with a new font perhaps?  A unique new Web Font may be able to help you create a trend and attach a certain identity to your brand or company.  Making good use of your favorite Web Font around your website, and maybe even in your logo would be a great way to revamp an old visual identity, or create an entirely new one!

Peter Strom's official website

We recently launched the official website for Peter Strom, a Denver-area singer and guitarist.  The site’s main purpose is promotional, with a short introduction, Pete’s repertoire, client testimonials, and song samples, with a call to action to a contact form.  As it is a small site, we were able to spend some time making a more complex and visually interesting layout than would be possible for a large, content-heavy website.  In particular, we focused on pushing the CSS code to create higher-end typography usually only seen in print media.  The visual design is based off of the logo and color scheme we designed for Pete a few years back.  We were also able to take the time to build some nice illustrative effects on the navbar buttons as well.  It was a fun project and a good change of pace from some of the larger website projects that we’re currently working on.

I love studying the languages and cultures of the peoples of the world, and integrating them into my work—one look at my graphic design portfolio will demonstrate that.  While up to this point most of my non-English design work has involved Chinese language and cultural elements—no surprise given that I lived in China for 3 years—I’ve always been keen to observe the shapes and forms, and the creative possibilities inherent within, in the written languages and traditional folk patterns of other people groups.  I especially love seeing examples of Arabic calligraphy. The letterforms in Arabic calligraphy run the gamut from traditional, highly readable letterforms, as can be seen here, to highly stylized, abstracted letterforms, as can be seen here.

The communication design blog Graphicology recently posted galleries of Arabic typography, focusing on how famous English-language Western brand identities translate visually into the Arabic script.  It’s pretty interesting to see how the companies translate their identities into an entirely different script, while still trying to retain a consistent visual branding across both languages.  Graphicology has a gallery of brand identities here, and a gallery of packaging design here.  Check it out, and let me know what you think.

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