More recently I found about Finlandica for Finland, quite nice too. https://toolbox.finland.fi/brand-identity-and-guidelines/fin...
Sweden Sans
41–50 of 190 posts
Re: Sweden Sans
#42I am fascinated by typography and page design and enjoy reading about it, but I have to admit I don't understand how this level of pedantry is able to survive. The amount of documentation and attention to detail spent on typefaces and when to use them is often off the charts compared to the time spent on stuff like keeping the website running, documenting the API or even the basic functionality of the app. It's like…
Typographic documentation is for designers generally, but there is a world where this can actually help everyone. Designers should make consistent designs. By doing this Developers can create functional designs systems that have sane default behaviors. Once you can get to that point, the system serves to reduce the load from the dev, not increase. I have created a tailwind-based design system interpretation like this…
I agree with much of your comment, but take umbrage with:
> the point of the entire backend of an app is to serve the front end
It’s a phoney argument. Once can just as easily say “the whole point of a front end is to provide simple access to the backend, rather than doing it via APIs”.
The whole system is important.
Some backends have appalling frontends and are still popular. The opposite is also true.
Re: Sweden Sans
#43Sweden Sans logically implies America Bold and Italy Italic
Not Bolivia Bold?
Re: Sweden Sans
#44I am fascinated by typography and page design and enjoy reading about it, but I have to admit I don't understand how this level of pedantry is able to survive. The amount of documentation and attention to detail spent on typefaces and when to use them is often off the charts compared to the time spent on stuff like keeping the website running, documenting the API or even the basic functionality of the app. It's like…
Typographic documentation is for designers generally, but there is a world where this can actually help everyone. Designers should make consistent designs. By doing this Developers can create functional designs systems that have sane default behaviors. Once you can get to that point, the system serves to reduce the load from the dev, not increase. I have created a tailwind-based design system interpretation like this…
Good points which I generally agree with, but I still think it's common to see a remarkable level of time and effort spent on typography compared to even other parts of the frontend. Not always, but surprisingly often.
Many companies have these style guides around typography. Beautiful, thoughtful, very well made things for sure, yet when some backend dev makes a typo so the custom font drops to arial or whatever, it can be days before someone notices and the ones who notice are the font nerds from marketing. Nobody else seems to mind much.
Compare that with what happens if someone misunderstands the 20 year old SQL schema and writes the wrong magic string to a table. Instant crash, everybody notices immediately. Yet database schemas for internal applications tend not to be documented in Porsche-brochure-like sites like this Sweden Sans is.
How did the typography guys get a voice so strong? Note that I don't mind it, I like to see well made things in general, but it's puzzling. It's like there is a secret society of typography nerds that have spread to all major organisations.
>Might I also remind you, the point of the entire backend of an app is to serve the front end. An app with amazing backend practices but fails at matching designs or specs is just a failure and is noticeable by customers.
Just checked my notes and it turns out that frontend is just a temporary fashion-dictated skin over the actually important features of the backend! ;-)
Re: Sweden Sans
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Makes a lot of sense to me if you look at the examples, and think of all the wacky things people will try to do with video because they think they know that branding means "stick the logo in the video somewhere". It's adding consistency to the presentation and harmonizing with any accompanying non-motion graphic styles, as you might see in a cultural presentation environment with both packaging/signage and video or i…
I did and, in my opinion, they are far too generic to offer any semblance of value in terms of video composition. I'm no expert though, so maybe a videographer can chime in - but it feels slightly pedantic.
They're not telling you how to compose a video. They're giving you something to compare with as you compose your video. Too many other details will emerge, so it's a guideline and not a how-to.
And, later, those guidelines give a designer an institutionally-bought-in way to talk to someone without talking down to them. Refer to the guideline and discuss the guideline, not "I'm right, you're wrong." It's not meant as purely a technical spec as it may be interpreted by more tech-oriented mindsets IOW.
Re: Sweden Sans
#46It's called Sweden Sans, but it appears to have serifs on at least some of the letters like lowercase i and l. Am I misunderstanding what a serif is? Or am I understanding what sans means in this context?
There's a lot of wiggle room. Sometimes a font designer will even throw in a single serif because hey--this is also an emotive art. Or maybe for a specific reason due to the project spec.
When I used to teach typography in the 2000s, sometimes students would point this out. Or as an example of a beginner's lesson, they'd use a font without really examining it, and some detail about the font would catch them out later.
It's weird but most people pick fonts without really thinking about the font itself, or even reading its name, let alone examining it. They are thinking about their design, their thoughts & feelings, their message, their amazing design opportunity, or whatever.
Skilled designers need to be trained to think about whether they're basically hallucinating the purpose of the font, as a few seconds of inspection will often make the original purpose really obvious. To people who learn how this works, it becomes just that obvious why those slab serifs might be in there.
Re: Sweden Sans
#47Sweden Sans logically implies America Bold and Italy Italic
> America Bold
Sadly, it's Calibri. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/us/politics/state-departm...
Re: Sweden Sans
#48I am fascinated by typography and page design and enjoy reading about it, but I have to admit I don't understand how this level of pedantry is able to survive. The amount of documentation and attention to detail spent on typefaces and when to use them is often off the charts compared to the time spent on stuff like keeping the website running, documenting the API or even the basic functionality of the app. It's like…
It is actually amazing how much effort is seemingly expended on things like this. I think it's pretty simple: - there are a lot of people out there who love obsessing over typography - they want to obsess over typography - so they invent a purpose for obsessing over typography I love it, I'm here for it, and I think we should give people money for obsessing over typography.
i think it's even simpler
- there are not that many people out there who love obsessing about typography
- the few that do have figured out that they can make a viable business of selling typefaces for slightly less than the cost of licencing helvetica
- writing a document like the one linked here makes people feel a bit better about cutting a big cheque for a typeface
Re: Sweden Sans
#49Re: Sweden Sans
#50https://archive.is/7ytlz I think we hugged it to death.
Sorry, I know HN isn’t a support forum, but am I the only one who gets “Safari couldn’t establish a secure connection” to any of the archive.xx sites? It’s been happening for ages now.