Typography.com, the home on the web of the magnificent Hoefler & Frere-Jones type foundry, is a magical place. Typography.com should really be renamed inspiration.com. That’s what you really get from going there. Yes, the typefaces are expensive, but they are quality, they look the part, and don’t they just look incredible in the little image slideshows showing the particular uses of each one. When wondering how a certain typeface should be used, I somehow end up back at their site, browsing through all the wonderful snippets of books or magazines or tables that somehow bring out the best not only in their work, but in typography in general. If only normal (and by normal I mean system) typefaces could be displayed in such glowing auras. If only.
And all of a sudden, I came across the little bit at the bottom of each page. That little section headed “H&FJ Suggests…”. It’s amazing. You can spend hours just looking at the pairings and at how damn well they go together. Obviously this is on every font page, and you can keep clicking through to the next font and going straight to the pairings. It’s as good as the Wikipedia game where you aim to relate two seemingly unrelated articles in as few steps as possible. This time though, you conjure up some cool ideas in the process.