Planet Typography had a brief chat with David Johnson-Davies, the creator of the very popular Identifont, Fontscape, and Fontifier. The faceless, content-first quality of these sites has contributed to their success, but it’s nice to get a glimpse of the man behind the curtain. Wish there was more. Maybe it’s time we do our own interview.
See also: Identifont : Fontifier launches : Fontscape launches
There’s a feature on Fontifier in the soon-to-be current issue of MacUser (2 April 2004). Great concept.
I had a couple of conversations with David during ATypI-Rome, and he seems as modest as he is intelligent. Which is great, except it will take a really good interviewer to expose the innards of the wonderful work he’s doing! Much needed stuff, the world between programming and design.
hhp
Identifont and Fontifier, OK.
But David has bitten off a lot more than he can chew with the amateurish Fontscape.
There is a range of font users, and sites like this, and Myfonts, make a point of not scaring off the mainstream by looking too elitist (or as some would say, “well designed”, referring specifically to style rather than function). Hence the cheesy dimensionalized type with dropshadow. But ideally, a good design targeted at everyone should be acceptable to everyone, as Adobe has proven with its corporate look. So for someone dealing with design professionals at foundries, David’s sites could do with a little more professionalism in their design — and that doesn’t mean sacrificing the simple functionality, which, along with Stephen, I do admire.