Fonts, Are They Worth the $$$?
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- 53feet
Over to our left here, the NTB is running a "Special Promo" for Village, a type co-op: http://www.vllg.com/
Being a type fan, as I am sure many of you are, I decided to see what the village has to offer.
I love the site design; it does a great job in showcasing the nice fonts that are sold there. Nice site and fonts aside, I'm amazed at how much they cost...
Who are these people, to charge $210.00 for 4 faces in a family? and How do you expect to compete with classics like Gills Sans, which would cost $199.00 for the 15 face collection?
- version30
did you say something?
http://www.veer.com/products/ven…
http://www.veer.com/products/ven…so an artist puts in days upon days of work tweaking editing aligning revising and doing characters you don't even know how to access so that you can just type some letters and get paid for the design?
fonts are worth every cent
- 53feet0
Obviously my feelings are apparent, but I wanted to clarify a few things.
I'm not trying to devalue the work it takes in creating a type face, but the cost of reproducing one is slim to none. It cost more to reproduce a sticker, than it does a font. I'm simply afraid that design is becoming a commodity, another thing to be stamped, sold, and branded.
The type creators, in this case, seem to feel that a higher price tag will make the fonts “worth” more, or at least above the vernacular.
- johndiggity0
design really does need branding, like it or not. it's what separates legitmate studios from templatemonster. sorry, it's just the way things are now.
- version30
i know what you're saying but how far can gill go? how cool are avante garde alternates now that a few people are overusing them
helvetica is very nice but it's being seen everywhere so at some point it just drowns in the abyss
you've seen the citibank font right? its cool its unique and people want it.
the thing is though, test pilot collective licensed it to citibank for exclusive use
this is why we notice the citibank advertising more because its type is unique
- mr_snuggles0
* watches typographica put on cape and pick up baseball bat...
- 53feet0
v3-
how far can gill go is a very good question. Pretty far i'd say, it's been around since 1929, and still puts many sans to shame.
Not to mention, many a famed designers (mostly from the modernist era), who've produced some of the greatest design work of all time will tell you, you only need a handful of fonts to work with.
Solving a problem is what design is about, not "wowing" public with visual effects, such as a new "cool" font. If the problem requires a new font, which 95% won't, so be it.
- automaticiam0
i think that any time you create something and then sell it you are creating a commodity - that is how commercial art works no matter what form it takes - typography is the same as illustration, photography, design and even fine art. as a type designer myself i can tell you the time it takes to develop a font is enormous and for that it would be nice to get a small return on my time. However many times a font will never generate a big enough return to justify making another.
So why do it then? Because you have the desire to create and explore new ideas. There are plenty of free fonts sites out but I think in many ways these site demean the over value of typography and type design. I think If everyone just started offering design for free then what value would it have? None.
So I think charging a fair price for good work is acceptable and should be appreciated as such.
- johndiggity0
honestly, if people actually paid for every font, they'd be a hell of a lot cheaper.
- Typographica0
If you think Gill Sans or any of the classics is enough to set your brand apart, go on then, the more power to you. You must be a great designer. It's just a helluvalot easier to look different if you're using something most folks haven't seen.
- dopepope0
I'd agree they seem highly priced, and prefer never to pay that, but when I think about the amount of work that goes into these typefaces we agree are amazing, then the money doesn't seem so bad.
The prices, however, are for larger firms that would probably benefit from the fonts before the rest of the little people, and can afford the cost.
- jondj240
If you really think about it, a well executed typeface done by people who are the best in their field, have every right to charge more than what we are seeing. We are working on two typefaces (our first) and its excruciating. Much respect to the masters...new and old!
- -scarabin-0
fonts are only worth the money when you can't find them for free