For all my fellow word nerds out there… If you haven’t discovered Wordle yet, it’s a must, particularly if you also love typography and layout. Nerd heaven.

From wordle.net:
Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

For example, below is a wordle I just created in less than two minutes, using some of my favorite lyrics.

Facebook Fans…Free gift to the first Sproutreach FBF to provide the correct artist and song title (via FB comment).

AUTHOR’S NOTE: If I were forced to restrict this blog to just one post, I think I’d choose this one.

Support Stem Cell Research Bumper Sticker

Available as a bumper sticker (10″ x 3″) or a T-shirt.

As the title of this blog entry suggests, I find type design to be fun. This particular use of typography might also be the most important design I’ve ever created.

A personal connection

Stem cell research has the potential to impact many diseases and injuries, including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autoimmune disease, blood diseases, leukemia, severe burns, spinal injuries, and many more. In fact, it is estimated that stem cell research has the potential to help over 100 million Americans who suffer from these and other diseases and injuries.

Among those 100 million lives is the one that is at the center of my world. It is the life of Lisa —my beautiful wife and my hero— a life which includes Type 1 diabetes and its many complications. My support for stem cell research is rooted in my love for Lisa and my desire to help others avoid the endless struggles she bravely faces in her fight against this disease.

Want to learn more about stem cell research?

Stem cell research, while a controversial issue, is also one of today’s most misunderstood issues. Regardless of one’s position or beliefs, information, and the sharing of that information, is critical to improving understanding. A great place to start is tellmeaboutstemcells.org.

I Love Typography has created a terrific series explaining some of the terminology that often leads to furrowed brows and/or blank stares during our conversations with the saner folks (i.e. non-designers).

Part I, Who Shot the Serif? Typography Terms provides a brief, illustrated explanation of serif fonts and their anatomy, including such terms as ascender, ligature, spine, and bowl.

Part II, The Return of the Serif, Type Terminology, a further explanation of serif fonts is provided, delving deeper into the differences between Adnate Serifs and Abrupt Serifs, as well as the evolution of serif fonts.