My mentor told me to stop using the same three fonts for everything, and it was the best push I ever got.

She said it last year after looking at my portfolio, and pointed out I only used Helvetica, Garamond, and Futura. I felt stuck, so I made a rule to find one new typeface for each project, starting with a branding job for a cafe in Portland. I found a great display font called 'Messina' that completely changed the vibe. Has anyone else had a simple rule that broke them out of a design rut?

3 comments

3 Comments

faithbarnes1mo ago

My last studio actually had the opposite rule, limiting us to a core set of five typefaces. Forcing variety can become its own trap, where you pick a font just to be different instead of it being the right fit. Sometimes mastering a few classics is better than constantly starting over.

drew_grant521mo ago

My old boss in Chicago made us do a quarterly "font amnesty" where we had to delete one overused typeface from our system. It was brutal but it worked. I remember finally ditching Myriad Pro and it felt like losing a security blanket.

ward.julia1mo ago

Honestly that sounds like making a big deal out of nothing. It's just fonts. Deleting one file doesn't magically make your work better, you know? You could still just use the same boring style with whatever's left. Feels like a manager trying to fix a problem that isn't really there.