What’s your type?

3 fun resources for teaching type

William Love, Sandpoint High School

In my news design class, the students spend a couple of weeks learning about type. For many students, it’s an introduction to the complex, and sometimes controversial, culture of type.

They are amazed learning how serious people can take something that many take for granted. Fast forward a year or two and it’s fun to see how serious those students are when they are determining which type to use in their publication.

There are many great resources available on type. Here are three available online that I have found students enjoy.

 

Type Terms

https://www.supremo.tv/typeterms/

Who knew letters had so many parts? This website includes definitions and does a good job showing examples for those visual learners.

 

The Kerning Game

http://type.method.ac/

This keeps almost every student entertained for at least 5-10 minutes as they attempt to figure out the distance between letters. Don’t know why, but I have them yell out “Yahtzee!” if they score 100 points.

 

Cheese or Font

http://cheeseorfont.com/

This game is not as easy as it sounds. I use this at the end of a class when I have 5-10 extra minutes.
Please share any good type resources you have come across.