{"id":27199,"date":"2025-09-19T19:05:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T19:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fabiohaagtype.com\/?p=27199"},"modified":"2025-09-19T19:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T19:12:12","slug":"the-certainties-i-had","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fabiohaagtype.com\/en\/the-certainties-i-had\/","title":{"rendered":"The Certainties I Had"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

White hairs have started to appear.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book Change<\/em>, by \u00c9douard Louis, moved me deeply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even some lashes, in my eyebrows, have started to come in white.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the thousands of fans the young Frenchman has won around the world, what touched me, too, was carefully observing the details of the typeface used on the cover of the Brazilian edition, from Todavia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I pluck them with the precision of tweezers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cover\u2019s typeface displays what my masters would call fundamental errors in typographic design. Clear errors that I point out in lectures and workshops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But once white, they return white again.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When do we age in our profession?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems natural to me that after decades of practice, we start to believe we understand something. This is how it works. This is how it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A futurist friend of mine, Tiago Mattos, warns: beware of those who say they have 20 years of experience; perhaps they have 1 year of experience repeated 20 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s something in common among the great creatives throughout history, it\u2019s that they challenged the rules of their time. They challenged the \u2018right way to do things.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monet\u2019s brushstrokes were ridiculed as unfinished, half-done. Picasso\u2019s fragmented faces horrified even his friend Matisse. Pollock\u2019s paint splatters were dismissed as a \u2018mop of tangled hair\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In graphic design, Carson provoked fury by ignoring all the rules of legibility. Paula Scher\u2019s work was once considered “ugly” for abandoning grid systems. Sagmeister shocked everyone by making design on his own flesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we don\u2019t need to be that iconic. It\u2019s natural that new generations come programmed to subvert our foundations. To make mockery of our sacred rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the cover of the book Change<\/em>, I see an O<\/strong> drawn as a perfect circle. “Everyone” knows that an O<\/strong> is never a perfect circle. Because writing comes from calligraphy, and in strokes made with a calligraphic pen, verticals become heavier than horizontals, even in a geometric design like Paul Renner\u2019s classic Futura. Otherwise, the sides of the letter O<\/strong> appear thinner than the top or bottom. It looks “wrong.” Exactly as I see it before me.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Futura, come to think of it, is from 1927. And this cover is beautiful. What is this I\u2019m feeling?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look at this R<\/strong> \u2014 how wonderful!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years and years of practice learning to refine my \u201ctypographic eye\u201d \u2014 what we expect to be a little thinner, a little thicker, a little higher or lower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to the typeface on the book cover, notice that at the top of the D<\/strong>, the connection between the horizontal and the circle is somewhat abrupt.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is very subtle if you\u2019re not a typeface designer. But it’s as if a perfect circle were cut in half and welded to the horizontal strokes of the D<\/strong>. My masters would say those areas, where they meet, need to be smoothed so the design flows more naturally. Natural, according to the act of drawing that stroke by hand. It would happen in one continuous movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, if calligraphy is increasingly distant from our daily lives, perhaps the pixel, a perfect square with no difference between horizontals and verticals, represents a new world order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people who expect to see subtle contrast adjustments will, in time, disappear. But before that, they\u2019ll denounce these errors. The times, they are a-changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will happen very slowly, because typography is convention and evolves at very slow steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both forms will coexist and also give birth to countless intermediate variations. They will shock, or merely seem strange, or pass completely unnoticed, by different people. And that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Different projects will demand different solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, none of this will happen, and it\u2019s just a passing fad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, some truths remain timeless:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sensitivity, contextual awareness, and the advantage of not holding absolute certainties will remain perpetual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what makes Lu<\/a>ciana Fachinni\u2019s<\/a> cover, and the typeface St<\/a>udio Feixen Sans<\/a>, brilliant, especially for a book called Change<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fabio Haag<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udd17
Todavia Publishing House<\/a>
Luciana Facchini Design<\/a>
Studio Feixen Sans<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

White hairs have started to appear. The book Change, by \u00c9douard Louis, moved me deeply. Even some lashes, in my eyebrows, have started to come in white. Unlike the thousands of fans the young Frenchman has won around the world, what touched me, too, was carefully observing the details of the typeface used on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-ideas"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Certainties I Had - Fabio Haag Type<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A type designer reflects on aging, perfectionism, and how new generations challenge design conventions. 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