# The Music of Type Design ![rw-book-cover](https://ilovetypography.com/img/2024/04/blog-thumb.png) ## Metadata - Author: [[John Boardley]] - Full Title: The Music of Type Design - Category: #articles - Summary: insert summary - My notes: - Summary: Type design is like a musical orchestra, where letters have conversations like musicians playing different instruments. The type designer acts as a conductor, guiding these conversations to create harmonious letterforms. Understanding these conversations is key to designing a typeface that sings like a well-orchestrated piece of music. - URL: https://ilovetypography.com/2024/04/16/the-music-of-type-design/ ## LLM Chats ## NotebookLM ## LLM Audio ## Highlights > A typeface is a series of conversations happening simultaneously between different characters. For example, in the Latin script, the lowercase **b** talks to the **d**, talks to the **p**, talks to the **q**, and they respond. So there is this ongoing conversation between the **b**, **d**, **p**, and **q**, and then there is this other conversation happening between the **m**, **n**, and **h**. And then all the diagonals, like the **v**, the **w**, the **x**, and the **y**, are talking to one another as well. At some point, you realize that these conversations are all happening in the same space, and the groups start talking to one another as well. The role of the type designer is to facilitate these conversations. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1qqfz6exk0y5nhe7kp0grma)) > A good typeface is one that’s able to master that harmony. That’s not to say that all letters need to look the same or that they are entirely modular. This is a common mistake that newbies coming into type design will make: that the essence of type is to create a module (or unit), then attach ascenders and descenders to it. But type design is not like that — it’s a series of conversations that are related to one another, existing together, but not really the same. It’s about creating a system of harmonic variation and not a series of individual parts — even when those parts look good independently. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1qqhwqmz7yq05snztwp5frt))