Fontroversy: The Fonts That Just Aren't Quite Our Type

To kick off 2025, Did I Do That? is turning back the clock back to the waning days of Brat Summer for Fontroversy , live at the AIGA Design Conference! Lena and Sean talk through type’s best known knock-off(?), Arial. Is it a grotesque Frankensteining or merely a case of typeface carcinisation? Is Arial hate the design blogosphere’s first hot take? Is Lena the only person ever to have actually wat...

Lena Hall of Fontroversy is on Did I Do That? ! Or Sean Schumacher is on Fontroversy !? We’re all mixed up because it’s a Did I Do That? - Fontroversy acoustic universe crossover spectacular to kick off one of those shows’ fourth season! The two hosts sit down to talk about the process behind getting Fontroversy off the ground, as well as Lena’s Fallout Boy audition outfit, the meltiest car, and t...

When Lena and Sean start fuming about the most famous (and infamous) font there is, guest expert Freya Kargard steps in to modernize their thinking about Helvetica. This might well mark our limited series' finale, but stay tuned as we might have one or two surprises in store as well! Segment Producer: Freya Kargard Researcher: Robert Ditty Story Editor: Izzy Gavaza Sound Editing and Mix/Mastering:...

When frustration around the meme-iest of meme fonts starts to go viral around the studio, guest expert Sophia Mick bursts in to help set Lena and Sean straight on Impact’s… impact. Segment Producer: Sophia Mick Researcher: Mette Voldengen Story Editor: Milos Dugas "Candy Paper Wrap Crinkling" Sound Effect by Emile99 , licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License. This epis...

When a typeface ripped from the funny pages starts to get contentious, surprise guest expert Whitney McPhie intervenes to school Lena and Sean on what Comic Sans can really do. IMPORTANT EDITORIAL CORRECTION: Gentle Giants Dog Food does NOT, in fact, use Comic Sans on its packaging—it instead uses a DaFont-style Disney-inspired sans paired with, of all things, Bank Gothic Sean apologies for this t...

When Wingdings becomes a sore subject around the studio, Lena and Sean turn to guest expert Lea Thompson to help settle once and for all what good those dingbats are for. Researcher:  Lena Hall Story Editor:  Malia Masterson Segment Producer:  Lea Thompson This episode was recorded Tuesday, May 23, 2023. --- PRODUCTION CREDITS Fontroversy was created by the students of DES 399 Publi...

Wanna know the stories behind all the fonts we love to hate? Introducing Fontroversy, a limited-run series about typefaces that just aren't quite our type, hosted by Lena Hall. Listen every other Thursday starting July 20! Fontroversy is produced by Sean Schumacher ( Did I Do That?  podcast ) and created by the students of the Spring 2023 Public Design Communication course from  PSUGD ,...