Steve West - Meaning in every letter

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, May 24th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Here’s WORLD commentator Steve West to help hone our appreciation for the little things in life, like, the typeface.

STEVE WEST, COMMENTATOR: After reading less than one paragraph of Simon Garfield's 2012 book, Just My Type: A Book About Fonts, I can't stop noticing the shape and look of the typefaces all around me. The red, bold, all caps of the NO WAKE sign that I paddled wearily by today in a kayak, against the tide and wind. And the artistic flourish on the face of a Hobie paddle-board that a bearded, mature surfer shows us later. He’s explaining to us the difference between the boards.

I'm too old for this, I type, in Geriatric font.

At the law office where I used to work I was surrounded by a stodgy Courier New font. I assume someone believes it’s a dignified medium for legal documents, having gravity. A serious font for serious matters. In fact, the relatively serious Times New Roman font showed up in the waiver of liability I recently signed. The one in which I agreed I would not hold the sun-bleached surfer who called me “dude” liable if I killed myself as I am propelled through the waterway - on my kayak.

Just once, I'd like to file a legal document in something more playful, like Chalkduster or Felt Marker. But that would probably get me an invitation to the judge’s chambers for a tongue-lashing.

Fonts convey moods and are often selected to help sell us something, convey excitement, mark a brand, and include you in the tribe. Or as in the case of legal documents, invite sober consideration. But these messages are often subconscious. We’re not often aware of how they affect us. It's not devious. Not usually anyway. But it’s often purposeful.

And that word “Hobie” on the paddle-board? Well, the over-the-top excitement conveyed by that surfboard font made me want to think I could get 'amped' and 'ride the curl.' Do I have that right, surfers? But then, as I look over the surf shop employees, I think, probably not.

Being aware of type is just a part of being attentive to the world, of living life with eyes wide open. Simon Garfield’s previous books about letter-writing, cartography, and stamp collecting are just as fascinating and eye-opening, a mind-expanding experience. We can’t live in such a state of high alert that we are constantly aware of the richness of either natural, built, or cultural environment around us. Such manic attentiveness would literally drive us crazy. But we can cultivate a better love of Creation, of a rich and varied world. God’s world. Type is just one of those parts of life that can better enrich us if we notice and understand its effect on us.

Maybe, say the words on the surfboard, you could do it, with a little practice. Maybe on a steady longboard, just maybe, you too could surf.

If God so loved the world. Well, then so should we. Even as tiny a thing as type. A word on a page. A letter. The dot on an “i.” All of it.

I’m Steve West.

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