Graphic Design Resolutions for a New Decade

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A decade of poor letterspacing is coming to an end!

For the last 10 years, the back-to-back zeroes in the years 2000–2009 have wreaked havoc on typographic design, their rounded forms making those numerals look too far apart unless consciously kerned by an attentive typographer. To celebrate the dawn of a new typographic decade, featuring a much more visually appealing “01″ character combination, it’s time for some graphic design resolutions!

Since I have already made my resolution for 2010 (I resolve to figure out what’s in that Tupperware container in the fridge at my office) and also because I am an insufferable jerk, I thought I’d propose some resolutions for graphic designers in general. Here we go:

  1. I will not use eyeballs or globes in logo designs.
  2. I will spell “a lot” as two words.
  3. I will stop with the drop shadows already. (Guilty as charged.)
  4. I will use a single space after periods, an em-dash (—) instead of two hyphens (–), and an ellipsis (…) instead of three periods (…).please
  5. I will not use quotes for emphasis (pictured).
  6. I will throw away that clip art CD.
  7. I will travel to Jupiter with John Lithgow to rendezvous with a giant, creepy baby and try to figure out what happened to HAL 9000. (Roy Scheider only.)
  8. I will not put auto-play audio or video on my website.
  9. I will not underline text on my website unless it’s a link.
  10. I will stop being such a nerd. (I make this resolution every year. It hasn’t worked yet.)

To all of our readers who have made writing this blog so much fun this year, happy holidays, happy new year, and thank you. See you in 2010!

4 thoughts on “Graphic Design Resolutions for a New Decade”

  1. Oh man, number 5. I know a person who constantly uses quotation marks for emphasis and it drives me crazy. Especially on signs such as: Please “wash” your dishes. Ugh.

  2. The best “01″ combination ever used was on the side of the General Lee in the Dukes of Hazzard. It was orange too.

  3. Paul … not so fast on the nerd thing … we are still waiting on Shea to the clarify the difference between … nerd – geek – dweeb – dork … without using the terms Paul, Jeff or Shea

  4. Happy New Year back at ya!

    Thanks for such a fun and interesting blog this year, you two!

    Even though I will not resolve to stop using Papyrus and Viner Hand… sorry.

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