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Homeless Fonts

homelessfonts.org

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Re: Homeless Fonts

#41

Post by UVB-76 »

chanced wrote: post #23

This was posted on reddit awhile ago but taken down and reposted several times. This bio really made me go "wtf?": > Loraine was born in London. She was an ordinary, hardworking family person, with nothing to worry about beyond paying the rent at the end of the month or keeping the fridge full. Until in 2009 she came to Barcelona on holiday. Soon after she arrived her passport was stolen from her and she had a series…

I know this is absolutely not the case in large parts of the world, but in many developed countries it does takes some degree of desire to remain street homeless for any significant period of time.

The support is often there for the taking, but some combination of mental health problems, drug dependency, etc. will see a person "choose" to live on the streets.

Re: Homeless Fonts

#42

Post by Mz »

UVB-76 wrote: post #41
chanced wrote: post #23

This was posted on reddit awhile ago but taken down and reposted several times. This bio really made me go "wtf?": > Loraine was born in London. She was an ordinary, hardworking family person, with nothing to worry about beyond paying the rent at the end of the month or keeping the fridge full. Until in 2009 she came to Barcelona on holiday. Soon after she arrived her passport was stolen from her and she had a series…

I know this is absolutely not the case in large parts of the world, but in many developed countries it does takes some degree of desire to remain street homeless for any significant period of time. The support is often there for the taking, but some combination of mental health problems, drug dependency, etc. will see a person "choose" to live on the streets.

I am really uncomfortable with your statement. I am homeless. Well before I became homeless, I had a class on homelessness. Which is to say this is something I have both studied and also lived firsthand.

Due to my medical condition, I am unwilling to remain in a homeless shelter. They simply aren't clean enough for my needs. I would take real help in a heartbeat if it were available. But the kind of "support" that is available to homeless individuals is often rather sucky, to say the least.

So, yeah, you could say I "chose" to not go into a shelter and to thus remain on the street. That isn't completely inaccurate. But it sure makes my life sound a lot more empowered than I am experiencing it as being.

Let me put it this way: Many people wind up on the street by leaving an abusive relationship. So you could say, hey, they chose to be on the street. They could have remained with the person providing a roof over their head. But it sort of conveniently sweeps their very real problems and challenges under the rug.

Re: Homeless Fonts

#43

Post by DaveWalk »

joshuamerrill wrote: post #6

"It's better than new. Now it has a story." -David Mamet Not only are these beautiful and useful fonts, but each one has a story that's as unique as the typography itself. I can't wait to use one of these in a project soon.

Nicely said. It might just be my USA-centric views on poverty, but I find the idea of turning homelessness into a story with a contributed artistic element--typography--refreshing in a sense. Maybe it's just because all the people are smiling in their headshots :\

I realize the charity element to it might obfuscate the idea of it being "art," but I think it strikes an interesting balance between the two. Compare that to artists who document homelessness and use their art as a kind of charity, hoping to draw awareness to the issue: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2090360/Lee-Jeffries...

Re: Homeless Fonts

#44

Post by tommi »

Mz wrote: post #42
UVB-76 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this is absolutely not the case in large parts of the world, but in many developed countries it does takes some degree of desire to remain street homeless for any significant period of time. The support is often there for the taking, but some combination of mental health problems, drug dependency, etc. will see a person "choose" to live on the streets.

I am really uncomfortable with your statement. I am homeless. Well before I became homeless, I had a class on homelessness. Which is to say this is something I have both studied and also lived firsthand. Due to my medical condition, I am unwilling to remain in a homeless shelter. They simply aren't clean enough for my needs. I would take real help in a heartbeat if it were available. But the kind of "support" that is…

What is the real help you need?

Re: Homeless Fonts

#45

Post by ygra »

apendleton wrote: post #26

Without commenting too much on the narrative aspects of this (because to be honest it sort of feels a bit exploitative and icky), I think these typefaces could be improved quite a bit with the use of some more-powerful OpenType features, and particularly random contextual alternates, which let you supply multiple variants of a given glyph of which one is selected at random each time. It makes handwriting typefaces fe…

It's not random, usually, but dependent on the context (mostly so strokes don't overlap).

Re: Homeless Fonts

#46

Post by poopsintub »

pkaye wrote: post #25
poopsintub wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather have them try to get back on their feet with fonts than pestering me everytime I go into the grocery store. Do you have a few dollars? No, I don't carry cash. If I did, and gave it away, I wouldn't have any because every other person is coming up to me for a hand-out.

This is not going to solve the pestering problem because there are far more homeless than the needs for fonts.

Well, nothing is going to solve the homeless problem entirely.

Re: Homeless Fonts

#47

Post by judk »

te_chris wrote: post #30
esMazer wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point taken. We as a society should be doing way more to help these people. But then again.. when was the last time you really tried to help someone on the street?

I shouldn't have to do anything as they should have their basic needs cared for by the state through govt. agencies paid for by taxation. This idea that the welfare of the worst off can be left to ad-hoc private charity is just cruel.

Government... It's made of people!

Good government isn't a natural right, it is every citizen's duty.

Re: Homeless Fonts

#48

Post by judk »

MrZongle2 wrote: post #27
esMazer wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point taken. We as a society should be doing way more to help these people. But then again.. when was the last time you really tried to help someone on the street?

I agree that more resources should be directed towards dealing with the causes of homelessness and helping those who need help. But in response to your question, consider this: About two years ago, my wife saw a woman in the parking lot of a large retail grocery/goods store holding a sign that said "anything helps". She had noticed this woman before on at least one occasion, and it occurred to my wife that perhaps th…

Did you stop to ask what her needs were? If you lost everything except your food supply, would you be all good to go?

Re: Homeless Fonts

#49

Post by MrZongle2 »

judk wrote: post #48
MrZongle2 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that more resources should be directed towards dealing with the causes of homelessness and helping those who need help. But in response to your question, consider this: About two years ago, my wife saw a woman in the parking lot of a large retail grocery/goods store holding a sign that said "anything helps". She had noticed this woman before on at least one occasion, and it occurred to my wife that perhaps th…

Did you stop to ask what her needs were? If you lost everything except your food supply, would you be all good to go?

The sign "anything helps" would imply that .... wait for it ... anything people could give would be appreciated and used.

It's not like my wife was throwing old socks, underwear and car parts at the woman. A meal means at the very least, there's one meal you don't have to pay for.

Re: Homeless Fonts

#50

Post by Mz »

tommi wrote: post #44
Mz wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am really uncomfortable with your statement. I am homeless. Well before I became homeless, I had a class on homelessness. Which is to say this is something I have both studied and also lived firsthand. Due to my medical condition, I am unwilling to remain in a homeless shelter. They simply aren't clean enough for my needs. I would take real help in a heartbeat if it were available. But the kind of "support" that is…

What is the real help you need?

I need help developing an income that doesn't keep me sick. I run various websites. At the moment, I need help figuring out how to get traffic. There are some other things that need work but I think the fact that I don't know how to get traffic is currently my biggest issue.
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