tagged graphic design – lucas did this

Welcome to our library of original guides to the world of typography, which the Google Fonts team is producing in collaboration with typographic experts from around the world. Google Fonts Knowledge enables designers and developers of all skill sets to choose and use type with purpose.

— from Google Fonts Knowledge

I’ve been an admirer of the great (typographic) work¹ of Elliot Jay Stock for quite a while already, so I was thrilled to learn about his recent collaboration on Google Fonts Knowledge. After consulting his blog –like the article series on ‘Advanced web typography’– for years now, this might become my new go-to resource when it comes to web typography.

¹ Amongst other things he created the beautifully designed magazine Lagom, which unfortunately was discontinued after ten issues. I still browse my copies from time to time –not only for the interesting content and the beautiful photography but particularly for layout and typographical inspiration. Even though the Lagom store is offline nowadays, there are apparently still back issues available to buy: There’s a dedicated contact button for this purpose on the about page of elliotjaystocks.com.

fonts.google.com/knowledge

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.