Isn’t it interesting how things such as paper quality, ink color, and even fonts can affect how we emotionally react to printed material? It’s all in the presentation and during this holiday time of year, that is clearly evident in the Christmas cards we send out to those we love and want to remember. It’s a generally happy season, and so we want to only utilize effects that will evoke joy in our recipients.
Ever wonder about fonts? Who creates them…how they are developed…what goes on in the mind of those who do bring them into being? It’s clearly an art form, something that never existed before – and then is. When I think about creation, things such as music and literature are easy enough to process. We put together words, and come up with something someone else reads and reacts to. We string together sounds, and the result is music that can stir someone else’s soul, or make them want to run and hide with their hands over the ears.
Yet fonts, while they truly are art, take an existing reality-a letter-and that letter is developed into various shapes, sizes, and formats to bring about a completely different set of visualizations for that one previously-simple reality. It’s almost like a math equation. Take one letter, add one shape and another slant, and the final count is a completely different creation.
The best-recognized fonts used for the Christmas holidays are often the traditional ones, those we have adjusted ourselves to seeing year after year. Times New Roman or something old-fashioned like Bookman Old Style, or a script such as Royal Classic-these bring to mind, somehow, turn-of-the-century snow rides, cocoa by the fireplace, Victorian houses decorated in fir trimmings and snowmen in the big front yards…and Currier and Ives-esque lifestyles.
Then there are singularly-recognizable Christmas fonts, created just for the holidays…fonts called Snowcaps and Snowdrift, both with the images of dripping white at the top of each bold and solid letter; or Christmas Regular which shows letters drawn inside of tree ornaments; or of course the so-traditional Christmas Tree or Christmas candy letters or snowflakes, all of which are self-explanatory and logical to the mind’s eye.
Fonts created out of recognizable pictures are more literally artwork than developed fonts, and it becomes your choice to decide if you’re looking for something which compliments the holiday artwork, or which becomes the holiday artwork. There are many sites online these days offering free fonts, and they can be beneficial to someone who wants to develop their own Christmas cards with an online printer. Find that font that speaks directly to you, go to your printing choice, and use the online options to design your own cards.
Your creativity is limited in today’s world only by that which your imagination-or your search engine-can bring to your mind. And, really, we don’t have to understand the art of fonts to appreciate them and the senses they create in our hearts and minds. Mix it up and make something unique for this holiday season!