Welcome to the 23rd Annual Fall Fonts Festival in September of 2017! This year we're going to change and tweak our approach a bit to bring you more interesting tidbits on type, fonts use, calligraphy or hand lettering and the use of fonts and type in graphic design. Back 23 years ago the focus was on free, downloadable fonts. But today, there are 200,000 free fonts online, and more than two dozen sites where you can search and download. So there's really no need to talk about free, downloadable fonts.
Speaking of free fonts, in the last year we've recognized the pandemic growth of 'freebie' cartels, mostly located in the Eastern European block and Russia. All are hawking the same fonts and graphic 'packages' ... they give away low quality fonts, or demo versions, then convince you into subscribing and then they pound away at email marketing. This web model emerged few years back with the Photoshop tutorial craze. Several sites became hundreds of sites by loading up on "freebies" -- putting the site on cruise control with revenue generating ads, and then replicating the site under a new name, look and feel. The cycle repeats itself dozens of times and seems to captivate all of Google's search results. Today, the 'design freebies' sites follow that same model and it seems like a new one pops up every week. I only subscribed once -- evidently they share email addresses, or it's the same owner -- now I've got dozens coming in! So there's no need for me to waste my time showing you free fonts!
So, welcome to this year's Fonts Fest, and to having a great time rediscovering old friends, and discovering new horizons of typography and fonts in use!
Typography Poster - Sometimes things are not Clear.
Dribble is really sort of interesting in that people just post stuff there and don't really talk about it or give any information. Here's a Typography Poster by Toheed Hussain that really kind of says what it says, but no further explanation. 
Toheed Hussain via Dribble.com Here's the whole poster
Fashionable, stylish Asiyah Script
Asiyah Script Font Free Demo is a handwriting font with a unique character. Give this gorgeous font a try for a stylish spin to your graphic design. It's swashbuckling and perfect for single words or short bursts of type. Unfortunately, There is no ampersand, and the demo does not have any of the extras!)
This is another of those being distributed by the Romanian clip art industry as a "FREE" resource. This versibon is cripled. The full version is actually very nice. Aktab studio here'ya go ... download Asiyah Script
When typography goes wrong ... OOOOPS!
We've had many examples of type gone wrong. In 2002 I introduced the world to Choose your fonts wisely where kerning the Handel font goes terribly wrong! It's really unfortunate when this happens, and it happens more often than you think. The designer really needs to proof it, and look at it in all forms and angles BEFORE it is published.
Shea Lignitz points out in "Style" that : "This Tote Bag’s Unfortunate Typography Choice Appears to Spell Hitler" . . . a shame . . . the unfortunate kerning of an amateur, specially in today's political climate.
Shea Lignitz, writing for Brit Media Here'ya go ... you can actually buy this! See our 2002 article on Kerning and the Megaflicks
Follow along the fonts festival
Enjoy this year's festival, and don't forget to send in your favorite samples and selections of type in use, lettering, fonts, typography layouts by sending me an email!
Thanks for reading...
+FredShowker, Editor / Publisher @Showker
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The original edition of this article is at http://www.graphic-design.com/Type/2017/fonts_fest_01.html
