We Want You; to Feel Good

The very first font I thought of when Professor Leonard assigned this week's blog entry
was the U.S. Army.

It's intimidating, block style lettering gives off this impression of toughness. This "We mean business," like tone. Not that I want to open up Pandora's box, but with women's equality as a major social issue, the U.S. Army font has always carried a masculine tone to it. I am in no way saying that a font style is what keeps females from wanting to join the military, but it's just an example of how strong a psychological message font can play. Font conveys the visual personality of what you are selling or the story you want to tell.

Interestingly enough, each branch of the U.S. military has their own font. Take for example the Marines.

The Marines use Trade Gothic font. It's short and block in style, yet has a polished grittiness to it.

Can you imagine if a branch of our military used Origins font to try and recruit young soldiers? I believe it would send a confusing message.

The same can be said for something that it supposed to come across as elegant like high line magazine Vanity Fair.
In November of 2013, Vanity Fair underwent a font change. The new style was in fact custom made for them called VF Sans Condensed. It's tall, it's smooth, it's fashionable, it's chic, yet aristocratically simple.

A 2005 study by psychologist Ken Larson (Microsoft) and Rosalind Picard (MIT) called "The Aesthetics of Reading" states that readers felt badly when reading poorly designed layout and that good design made them feel better.
They also concluded that, "well-designed reading environments don’t necessarily help you understand what you’re reading better, but they do make you feel good, causing you to feel inspired and more likely to take action."