I have three kids — one in college, a senior in high school and a middle schooler. They’ve grown up in a school district where they’ve had their own Chromebooks for the majority of their education. They use Google Docs and Slides, plus a host of online tools like Canva. Chromebooks dominate the K-12 education market, but once they graduate, what do they use?
When my oldest went off to college, we purchased an M2 MacBook Air and that’s been the computer that she’s used for the last three years. It’s a great computer, but honestly, it was far more powerful than she needed.
When my senior in high school heads to college in the fall, she’ll be taking a MacBook Neo1. It’s the perfect computer for what she needs, and a massive step up from the crappy Chromebooks that she’s used for the last decade.
Kids raised with Chromebooks are comfortable with the laptop form factor, and the MacBook Neo is a nice step up for kids heading to college. Affordable, and as a bonus, it works well with the iPhone they likely already have. I expect that next year across campus, most of the computers I’m going to see will be MacBook Neos. It’s a computer made for college campuses.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
I plan on blogging about my dissertation process, and I figured I’d start with something basic — my choice of writing tools. I wanted to use some less traditional tools when writing my dissertation. When I’m writing for myself, I write in Markdown, usually in an app like Ulysses. I considered something more robust like Scrivener. But neither Ulysses nor Scrivener works easily with Zotero, my chosen citation management program which already contains years of sources and notes on my topic. I was intrigued by Essayist, a new academic writing tool for Mac, iPad and iPhone. It looks well-designed, but has its own built in citation manager. Theoretically, I could export my Zotero Library in a BibTeX format and import the entries into Essayist, but I’m just not confident it will work.
That leaves me with two options: Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
I want to be able to write on my Mac or iPad so honestly, Microsoft Word is the better option for me. Google Docs is frustrating to use outside of a desktop browser. Subscription cost isn’t an issue since the University of South Carolina is a Microsoft school and we’ve already got an Office 365 subscription. It’s a boring choice, but given my requirements, it’s the right choice.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
For 13 years, I managed the visual brand of the University of South Carolina. I led creative teams and worked with vendors and agencies. I produced banners, designed signage, wrapped buses, worked on TV commercials, and installed 6-foot high USC letters. And while I loved my time as the “Guardian of the USC Brand,”1 this summer, I started to think about making a career change. I’m getting close to finishing my Ph.D. The design industry has changed in countless ways since I started my career almost 30 years ago, and while some of it is great, there are other parts that I don’t love as much. I wanted to stay at USC, so I started looking for other jobs on campus that I felt like would be a good next step for me.
I assumed that role would be a communications job in a different unit on campus. Or maybe a teaching position. I couldn’t wrap my head around what a new career could look like. Making a career change is hard, especially when you are moving from a job that is perceived as more of a “calling.” Design was more than just my chosen profession… it was my identity. I added USC’s jobs listing to my RSS feed and checked every day to see what new opportunities were posted.
One day in early September, I saw a posting for a Director of Research Training position. I read through the post and instantly thought that this was a job I’d enjoy. And then, I started second guessing myself. Was I really qualified for the job? Would I even be happy in a non-design job? I bookmarked the job, but moved on to look at other options.
A couple of days later, I randomly came upon a link to a YouTube short from a podcast with Simon Sinek2 interviewing Arthur Brooks from Harvard Business School about career changes.3
The basic gist of the clip was that most people limit a career change search to something close to what they already do. Instead, Brooks and Sinek suggested that you should look at how your skills, abilities and interests could be leveraged in other careers. Ask yourself “What is my greatest area of interest?" Your instincts should guide you in these decisions. Ideally, Brooks noted, you want to go into a career change with 80% excitement, 20% fear and 0% deadness.
I thought back to the research training position description and looked at it through this new lens. I was limiting myself to adjacent career fields — only considering typical communications or design jobs. Through my grad school experience, I learned that I really enjoy academic research. I loved working with the campus community. Was there a little fear leaving the design world? Absolutely. But that fear was overwhelmed by the excitement of something new. I took a chance, decided to apply and figured I’d see what happened.
The interview process went incredibly well, and right before Christmas, I started my new job: Director of Research Training in the Carolina Grants and Innovation Hub at the University of South Carolina. It’s part of the Office of the Vice President of Research and is focused on helping faculty and staff maximize grant opportunities. It’s very different than what I’ve done for the last few decades, but it’s very much aligned with where I want to go with my career. I’ve only been in the office for a about a month, but so far, I couldn’t be happier with my choice. I feel better than I have in a long time.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
That phrase was literally in my job description. ↩︎
Humorously, my former boss was a huge Simon Sinek fan. He left after an absurdly short stay at USC, but the only reason I noted the video was Simon’s involvement. So I guess I have him to thank… ↩︎
I recently created a couple of new fonts over on Fontstruct: SbB Crunch’d and SbB Papaya 26.
SbB Crunch’d
SbB Crunch’d is a little random. Normally when I start working on a type design, I have an idea of how it will be used. In this case, I started with the shape of the “scalloped edges” and built out the font from there. I like how it turned out, even if I have no idea how I’d use it in a layout.
SbB Papaya 26
Last year, I built a font based on the numerals on McLaren’s F1 livery. The new SbB Papaya 26 updates the font to align with the look of the 2026 preseason McLaren social media graphics. Compared to my original interpretation, the 2026 font is a little more conservative and more readable.
I shared a post earlier today about Honda’s logo change and included two inline links to connect something I wrote in 2024 with a recent press release. Micro.Blog posted it to my site, and then crossposted it to Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon. Here’s how it looked on the Micro.Blog timeline:
Including multiple links is how the web works, but I know that’s not how social media typically works. So how did other services render the two links?
Threads and Mastodon take the typical social media approach. They only shared the first link, and instead of it being an inline link, it was in a box below the post.
Threads:
Mastodon:
Bluesky, however, handled it perfectly, including both inline links. I was pleasantly surprised:
In this case, the links were just to provide background for anyone that wanted it. To share two links using the social media approach, I’d need to post the first link and then follow up with a comment and second link. In my opinion, that approach puts way too much emphasis on the links.
Hopefully, these newer social media sites will realize that communication is more clear when they allow basic HTML including inline links. And while they are at it, these services should allow basic formatting like bold and italic. Availability of basic formatting is one thing I really like about Micro.blog, and it really does enhance the reading and writing experience.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
Every restaurant is a portal — a way to remember who you were and how things felt when you were, say, 19, or 27, or 35, but also to remember the particulars of a city, a neighborhood, a block.
I started to think about the restaurants that I’ve loved that are no longer open. I started with a longer list1, but here are three that I really miss:
The West Side Bowery
Aiken, South Carolina Closed in 2013 after a 32-year run
There weren’t many nice restaurants in Aiken when I lived there. The Bowery wasn’t exactly upscale, but the food was great. We didn’t go often when I was in high school, but I did go there for dinner before my junior and senior prom. My connection to the Bowery grew over time, though. My wife, Liz, was a waitress at the Bowery, working there in high school and then every summer when she was home from college. She’d always work the slow shift between lunch and dinner, and I’d stop by to visit her when we were dating. They catered our wedding and whenever we’d roll through town, we’d stop to grab a bite and say hi to the owners. Whenever I go to Aiken, I have to urge to stop by the Bowery, but sadly, it’s a Mellow Mushroom now.
My go to order was a Pepper Jack Steak Sandwich with fries and a sweet tea.
Birds on a Wire
Columbia, South Carolina Closed in 2009, after a 15-year run
My first job after college was on Devine Street, walking distance from Birds on a Wire. We ate there frequently and the office would sometimes ordering catering. The whole menu was fabulous, but the rotisserie chicken was the star. Just phenomenal. It eventually moved to a new location and was sold2 to different owners, who couldn’t keep it going and declared bankruptcy. When Liz and I first got married, we lived in the neighborhood and would get take out from Birds frequently. They even catered Liz’s graduation party when she earned her Master’s degree. I still tell people about how great the pulled chicken was…
My go to order was 6 oz. Pulled Chicken with Hoppin’ John, Baked Potato Wedges, and sweet black bread.
Yesterdays
Columbia, South Carolina Closed in 2020 after a 43-year run
When my brother started college at USC, we would drive up to visit him and often ate at Yesterdays in the middle of Five Points. When I started college, my photojournalism professor, Don Wooley, held his office hours at the Yesterdays' bar. The menu featured southern favorites and there was always something for everyone. Over the years, we had lots of family dinners there when people were in town. After Liz and I got married, we’d order take out. We did get to take our kids there several times. (They loved the fish tanks.) There are plenty of other places that I can get Southern comfort food, but aren’t nearly as nostalgic.
My go to order was County3 Fried Steak, but I ordered lots of different stuff off the menu including some fabulous chicken nachos.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
My initial list included Blue Flour, Harpers, Willy’s, the Garden Bistro, the original Hunter Gatherer, The Filling Station, and Nonnahs. Each has specific memories attached to them. ↩︎
The original owner is now the mayor of Columbia. ↩︎
Originally called the Confederate Fried Steak. Thankfully was renamed at some point. ↩︎
The warning signs were there. Ten years ago, I wrote my first Twitterless article, followed by part 2 in 2017, part 3 in 2022, a “final” chapter in 2023 and an epilogue in 2024.1 My initial concerns were about Twitter’s financial shape, but after Musk took over, I quickly realized the new service wasn’t going to be for me, closed my accounts, and moved on.
For people and brands, if you continue to stay on X, it tells me you care more about your so-called audience than your so-called values. The time to leave “Twitter” has passed. There are viable options. Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon all provide a similar experience to Twitter. I prefer the smaller, independent Micro.Blog which lets me cross post to other services. None of them are the Twitter you loved, but you know what, X isn’t the Twitter you loved either. It’s gone. And it’s time for all good people to move on. What remains isn’t worth your time.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
One of the benefits of having a blog is being able to reflect on stuff you’ve written and shared over more than a decade. ↩︎
Each year, I set a theme for the year. Last year was incremental progress. I did write a lot during the year, and I released somenewtypefaces, but I wasn’t able to reach my health goals and organization is still something I want to continue to work on.
For this year, I’m excited about a fresh start. I start an exciting new job (that’s really a completely different career). I’ve finished all of my Ph.D. classwork, so I’m just focused on my dissertation now. With those two clean slates, I’m going to focus on building a healthy routine and organizational plan to support it. I’m optimistic about the year ahead.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
Today, I saw another couple of variations to add to my list from the Apple Japan web site as part of their New Year’s Celebration:
For a company known for their branding, I think it’s fascinating to see all of these variations from Apple. Especially since it runs counter to what most brands do.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008 and an Apple user since 1994.
I was thinking this morning about goals and themes for 2026, but as I thought through my plans, I realized that 2026 is going to be a big year for me and my family.
New job. I have a new job, and it’s a massive shift from what I’ve done for the last thirty years. I’m excited, but I have a lot to learn. Thankfully, I have a supportive team and I’m still at the university that I love. I officially worked a week in the new job in 2025, but I hit the ground running on January 2. Excited for the fresh start.
Dr. Wertz? I’ve finished all of my coursework for my Ph.D in Mass Communications. The only requirements left are my comprehensive exams and my dissertation. In theory, I should be able to accomplish everything in time for a December hooding. That’s the goal, but we’ll see. With everything else going on in 2026, I may need to push things back a semester and finish in early 2027.
Another grad. My middle child, Jill, will graduate from high school this year. Lots of traditions and celebrations ahead this spring, and then, late this summer, we move her into college. (She was just accepted into the University of South Carolina Honors College, which was really her first choice. One or two other schools out there that are a possibility, but hopefully, she’ll be on campus with her sister Norah next year.)
Lacrosse. My youngest, Ryan, is an 8th grade lacrosse goalie. He’ll either be playing junior varsity lacrosse, or be on a C team. He’s reached the point where he’ll be playing with a travel team in the off season. So we’ll be shuttling him to and from practices, and traveling to games. It will be fun and I’m looking forward to the season, but it’s a lot of scheduling and logistics.
Everything else. In addition to all of that, my wife is continuing to fly through her Ph.D. program and our oldest is getting closed to finishing her art education degree. We want to get healthier. I’ve got some projects to complete around the house. I’m still doing some type design and consulting.
So as I am thinking through my themes for next year — which I typically post on New Year’s Eve — I need to place them in the context of what all is going on in 2026. I’m excited for the year and really think 2026 will be an incredibly rewarding year for me and my family.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
I’m not the audience for Brian Recker’s Hell Bent. He’s writing for evangelicals (and former evangelicals) who are questioning their faith. I instead came to his book as a lifelong Lutheran who is baffled by how the Christianity that I grew up with has become warped by others who also profess to be Christian.
Brian’s thesis is that evangelical theology is so rooted in the fear of hell, that they struggle to see the message of love that is core to Jesus. I think it’s a pretty convincing argument. Brian breaks down all the ways that a fear of hell actually undermines having a relationship with God and sabotages healthy relationships with others. Faith rooted in fear leads to a very different place than faith rooted in love. I appreciated the exploration of evangelical theology, and all the personal examples of how Brian’s life changed when he started to question hell. It’s a very personal book. I learned a lot along the way, and was able to explore some of my own beliefs. I highly recommend that you check out Hell Bent.
When I became a designer 30 years ago, you needed three types of apps: a page layout app, a photo editing app and a vector app. You purchased those apps from whoever had the features you needed. Quark Xpress and Adobe Pagemaker1 were your options for page layout. Macromedia Freehand2 and Adobe Illustrator were your vector options. And while there were other photo apps, Adobe Photoshop was the dominant professional photo editor.
Quark missed the boat on Apple’s shift to OS X. Adobe purchased and discontinued Freehand. Without strong competition, Adobe’s Creative Suite app bundle essentially made InDesign free for designers who needed Photoshop and Illustrator anyway. Quark faded. Adobe switched to the subscription-based Creative Cloud model and became the only game in town.
But even with no competition, Adobe still offered separate apps for page layout, illustration and photo editing.
Affinity tried to be a non-subscription alternative to Adobe and so the original versions of Affinity tried to match the Adobe structure. Affinity Designer was Illustrator. Affinity Photo was Photoshop. Affinity Publisher was InDesign. However, the new Affinity is a single app, with vector, pixel and page layout modes. A completely different interface model. We don’t need three different apps any more. We just need one.
This unified model makes sense for the modern era of computing that is mostly focused on laptops and tablets. In playing with the new Affinity since its release, switching between modes is intuitive and I like the approach. (I was even able to easily hide the Canva AI tab that I wasn’t interested in.) Being able to freely switch between vector and pixel modes is liberating. On my M1 MacBook Pro, the Affinity app is absurdly fast.
I’ve been using Affinity off and on for 10 years mostly for personal projects.3 To be honest, I’ve mainly supported them because I wanted an Adobe alternative to exist. With Canva’s purchase and transformation of Affinity into a modern design app, I think they are posed to finally provide a realistic alternative to Adobe’s subscription model. It will be interesting to see how Adobe responds.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008, an Adobe user since 1994, and an Affinity user since 2015.
I typically watch one or two NFL games a week, and yet, I don’t really have an NFL team. (I’m currently watching the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night Football as I write this.)
When I was little, I was a Cowboys fan. We’re taking about the Tom Landry, Danny White, Tony Dorsett era Cowboys. When Jerry Jones bought the team and got rid of all my favorite players and their legendary coach, I decided I was no longer a Cowboys fan. I briefly pulled for the Bears when I lived in Chicago and they won the Super Bowl, but I was never fully invested and then, they fired Ditka.
In the early 2000s, I had a fantasy football team each season. That meant that I pulled for players, not teams. Every year, I’d pick a new team and have a new rooting interest.
I’m a South Carolina Gamecocks fan, so I’ve often pulled for teams with former Gamecocks. But trades and free agency happen. The Bears and Alshon Jeffrey became the Eagles and Alshon Jeffrey. The 49ers and Deebo Samuels became the Commanders and Deebo Samuels. Picking a team based on a player means that when a player leaves, your affinity for that team fades.
I’ve only been to one NFL game — a battle between the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets when my dad lived in Miami. Both teams were terrible and I can’t remember who won. I obviously didn’t develop an affinity for either of those teams.
Every so often, I feel like I’m missing out by not having a favorite NFL team. But how do I choose?
I’m not choosing the Cowboys. Also, I’m not choosing a team with orange as their primary color.1 As a Gamecocks fan, I do not wear orange.
I could pull for Chicago Bears since I grew up there and am already a Cubs fan and Bulls fan. I could probably live with their orange secondary color.
I could pick my team based on geographic proximity. The Carolina Panthers are a couple hours up I-77. I do live in South Carolina, and the Panthers are theoretically my “home” team despite being just across the border in Charlotte, North Carolina.
I could pick my team based on color palette. My favorite color is green. The Jets, Eagles, Packers and Seahawks are the only teams in the NFL with green incorporated in their team colors.
After thinking about it for a couple of weeks, I think that the most logical team for me to pull for is the Carolina Panthers. They have been terrible, but seem to be improving. (They just beat the Cowboys today.) They usually have a couple of Gamecocks on the roster. I do love their black and blue color scheme. And if I really do become a fan, I could easily catch a game up the road. I’m going to start making a point of watching Panthers games. We’ll see if it sticks.
And if being a Panthers fan doesn’t stick, I’ll just go back to pulling for good games and Gamecocks.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
I did break this rule when I became a fan of McLaren’s F1 team. That said, I still haven’t purchased any McLaren merch. ↩︎
It’s always funny to me what pop culture symbols acquire added cultural meaning.
My son is a big fan of the manga series, One Piece. I haven’t watched much of it, but I know the basics… renegade pirates fighting against an authorization government in search of the ultimate treasure. It’s amazing to me that the One Piece Jolly Roger, with a grinning skull and a straw hat, has become the symbol of protests across the globe.
In a similar way, the logo for the Marvel vigilante and anti-hero Punisher has become a symbol controversially used by military, law enforcement and fascist groups. I often see it on pickup trucks, sometimes combined with an American Flag pattern. I doubt any of these people read the comics, but are instead attracted to concept of excessive violence that the symbol projects.
We live in a world now where our media outlets are owned by a small number of conglomerates. And while this is possibly a more profitable set up for the corporations that own these outlets, it also makes it easy for them to be manipulated by billionaires and governments.
Our distribution channels are corrupted as well. Social media and newsletter platforms are controlled by a small number of players all motivated by advertising profits. We find sites through search engines that increasingly favor AI summaries over original content.
It shouldn’t be like this. No venture-capital-funded start up is going to provide a solution. No existing player is going to erode their own platforms. Instead, it’s going to be a grassroots effort to embrace the open standards we have (for example, RSS). We need to promote discussion by sharing stories that are meaningful and powerful. We need to support platforms and creators who are trying to address these issues without trying to build the next Google. We need to embrace technologies that make society better.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
My Ph.D. research is focused on consumer response to logos and visual identity, so as you can imagine, I’ve talked about Cracker Barrel1 a lot over the last few weeks. Everyone has an opinion and is eager to share it. I held off writing this because the social media chatter was just chaotic, but now that things have calmed down, I wanted to share some quick thoughts based on my research.
People care about logos.
In my forthcoming study on logo attitudes with a sample of 1,000 American consumers2, over 60% of respondents agreed that if their favorite brand changed their logo, they’d want to know why. Cracker Barrel did a really poor job of explaining why they were changing their logo. It seemed to consumers like change for the sake of change and when challenged by consumers (plus a really strange political sideshow), they had no story to tell. And with no official rationale, people concocted their own narratives.
Context matters
When I saw the news of the Cracker Barrel rebranding, I only saw a picture of the logo on a white background. When news outlets ran their stories, the only picture they used was of the front of a Cracker Barrel with the old logo. After Cracker Barrel had announced they were going back to the old mark, I saw examples of the new logo in action, and you know what, it looks nice. I can see what they were going for.
My study published in the Journal of Product & Brand Management found that viewers reacted more favorably when the logo was shown with additional context — examples of the new logo in use, behind-the-scenes sketches, and implementation details.
Cracker Barrel provided none of these images at launch. All consumers had to go on was the logo on a white square. And in general, people dislike new logos without context.
Armchair quarterbacks are everywhere
Everyone seemed to have a solution to Cracker Barrel’s problem. I lost track of how many hot takes I saw on social media. Young designers quickly providing their versions like it was a design school exercise. Branding consultants rushing to talk about how Cracker Barrel had abandoned their loyal fans. And most of these people weren’t fans of Cracker Barrel, they just wanted to capitalize on the attention.
This is the reality of design criticism these days. It comes from everywhere. I’ve been digging into the literature on deprofessionalization and the democratization of design for my dissertation and it’s clear that some of this criticism is rooted in a skeptical view of the design profession.
This level of criticism is going to accompany any major rebranding and companies like Cracker Barrel need to expect and prepare for the inevitable criticism.
The launch is critical
Cracker Barrel seemed surprised and unprepared for obvious criticism. With no story and no context, they weren’t able to respond to critics effectively. This has nothing to do with whether the logo was “good” or “bad.” Instead, it shows how critically important the launch is for any rebranding. People will always have opinions. Logos are the tangible representation of a brand’s relationship with their consumers.
A good launch can go a long way to softening criticism, but a bad launch might completely sidetrack your branding strategy.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
And to a lesser degree, the MSNBC -> MSNOW rebranding. ↩︎
The study was presented at AEJMC Detroit in 2022 and has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication in Visual Communication Quarterly. Sadly, it’s not published yet. Reach out if you want details about the study. ↩︎
A friend was digging through some college artifacts and found my 32-year-old business card from when I was an officer with Carolina Productions, the University of South Carolina student programming board. She sent me a picture and I noticed something funny: I still have the same email address.
I came to USC as a student in 1993 and got my first email address. I used that email address with a command line system until I graduated in 1997. At some point years later — I became an adjunct instructor and was able to reclaim that address and use it as an IMAP account. When I became full-time staff, I continued to use the same email address, this time connected to Microsoft 365.
I’ve had several home addresses and a couple of phone numbers since 1993. Those were connected to my physical location or my service provider so as I moved, things changed. By contrast, I’ve had two of my three main personal domains — sketchbookb.com and bobwertz.com — for almost two decades.1 I’ve changed my hosting service a couple of times, but the URL remains the same.
One of the benefits of domain-based identity systems used on the web and in email is permanence. Social media platforms come and go, and when you are connected to them, it’s like a physical address. When you move or the service disappears, the address changes. But as long as you renew the domains2, you can maintain your digital identity, even as technology advances or you change providers. I really like the domain-based usernames on Bluesky and I hope other services follow suit. Hopefully in 30 years, I’ll find one of my current Sketchbook B business cards and still be able to go to my website.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
I added sbbfonts.com a couple of years ago to give my type designs their own site. ↩︎
I will note that for many people, the cost snd process of renewing domains is a legitimate issue. ↩︎
Yesterday I turned fifty. And to celebrate, I released a typeface for free. SbB Nineteen 75 is a fun little faux-stencil display font that is available for free. I had also planned to release a commercial font, but the scheduled release on MyFonts hasn’t happened yet. SbB Certiphica is my blackletter-inspired font that you will soon be able to purchase at MyFonts.
Many people won’t pay for fonts — even professional designers. There are so many typeface designs all over the web that you can find with a quick Google search. Many of them aren’t fully featured. Some are pirated. Software like Canva offers many excellent default options. Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts provide high quality options. So I understand why people hesitate to pay for quality type. There is, however, a vast marketplace of unique designs out there and I encourage you to explore beyond what’s already in your font menu.
I decided that I wanted to offer a typeface for free in honor of my 50th birthday that had some fun OpenType features. That free font is SbB Nineteen 75. It started life as a random Fontstruct prototype that I felt like would benefit from some additional development in Glyphs. I rebuilt it from the ground up and added an italic version, as well as some fun Opentype features — stylistic alternatives, discretionary ligatures, and a set of random icons.
The end result is a curvy faux-stencil with a vaguely 1970s feel – completely appropriate since I’m celebrating my 50th birthday and I was born in 1975. Why faux-stencil? I channeled some stencil design elements, but it wouldn’t work practically as a real stencil font. (Plus I skipped the stencil cuts on a couple of letters like O and Q because they were more readable without.)
The font is also a unicase design with the same upper and lower case. I’ve become slightly obsessed lately with unicase designs, especially ones that draw more from the lower case. I’ll probably need to write a blog post about that, but I’ll save it for another day.
The stylistic alternatives give some options for a handful of letters. The design of the letter t led to some interesting ligature designs. And I threw in a few fun icons of limited use. I have no idea who will use “Happy Frankenstein,” but I think he’s hilarious and it’s my birthday.
I wanted this font to actually be free so I chose to license this design under SIL Open Font License, version 1.1. Basically it allows you to use it in any project, personal or commercial. You can modify it and redistribute it as long as you offer it on the same terms. I’ve reserved the name SbB Nineteen 75, but other than that, it’s free to use. You can download your free copy at SbB Fonts.
SbB Certiphica
I’m always baffled at the range of uses for blackletter typefaces — from heavy metal bands and newspapers to tattoo parlors and college diplomas. A true blackletter is defined by a calligraphic stroke, and SbB Certiphica isn’t really that. Instead, it takes inspiration from the boldness and compression of blackletter designs to create something modern. It’s a great option for a certificate or diploma where you want the feeling of a blackletter, but without the hundreds of years of baggage.
SbB Certiphica comes in three widths and three weights, with an italic version of each. 18 fonts in all. The design is unicase, meaning the upper and lower case are the same.
The ascenders and descenders are very short, meaning that you can use extremely tight line spacing to get a dense block of text. When you purchase the family, you also get the variable font that allows you to dial in the exact width, weight and slant that’s perfect for your project.
I’m really happy with how Certiphica turned out and hope you all like it, too. I scheduled it to release on Friday on MyFonts, but that didn’t happen for some reason. I’ll update this post when it is available.1 The best deal is to get the entire set plus the variable font for $49.
Hope you enjoy SbB Nineteen 75, and if you are in the market for a blackletter-inspired display typeface, check out SbB Certiphica.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
It was scheduled to be released on August 1. In retrospect, I should have just had MyFonts release it when it was ready a week ago… ↩︎
When Liz asked me what I wanted to do to celebrate my 50th birthday, I told her that I wanted to go to a Cubs game in Wrigley. I hadn’t been to Wrigley since 1988 when we moved back to South Carolina. Liz and I decided to make it happen, albeit a week before my birthday. Instead of dropping one image at a time, I figured I’d take more of a photo essay approach.
We dropped our kids off at Lutheridge in Arden, North Carolina. Our oldest is a counselor there and the kids have always been Christmas week campers. Once they were settled, Liz and I hit the road.
On the way up, we visited Buc-ee’s for the first time and eventually stopped for the night in Indiana. Liz had never seen Batavia, Illinois where I grew up, so that was our first stop. The next day, we got to Batavia around lunchtime and ate in a pub where the grocery store used to be. Spent some time driving around town and got to see our old house and the church that my dad was pastor. Crazy to see how much has changed and how much is still the same.
In retrospect, this workroom in the church was a great influence for me, filled with copiers, paper, folding machines. Everything a someday graphic designer might love. The door was exactly the same as I remember it.
We found the old windmill by the Fox River where we used to go sledding…
…and even paid a visit to the coolest school field trip location in the world, Fermilab.
Once we got to Chicago, we walked over to Lake Michigan and Navy Pier.
We walked along the Chicago River. And the John Hancock building was a couple of blocks from our hotel. We tried to walk as much as possible, but the heat was pretty bad the last day we were there.
We met a few dinosaurs at the Field Museum. I wanted to visit Sue, the T-Rex. But Liz loved Maximo, the Titanosaurus.
We made it to Wrigley for the Cubs game. I got to see the Cubs beat the Royals 6-0 in a game that included a little bit of everything including Suzuki stealing home.
To break up the trip on the way back, we stopped in Lexington, Kentucky and had an amazing dinner at Dudley’s on Short. I’ve never been to Lexington before and it was great.
We had a wonderful time, even if road construction threw us a couple of curveballs. Really thankful for Apple Maps, which made some time-saving route recommendations. The kids had a great time at camp. And we’re finally back home.
Next week, we celebrate my 50th birthday for real, but this experience was exactly what I wanted.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
Years ago when I started selling my typefaces, my goal was to keep prices low. At the time, the prevailing wisdom on MyFonts was to set prices insanely high, then run massive promotions to lower the price to something reasonable. That seemed wrong to me. I just wanted to set the prices low to keep my typefaces affordable. Over the last decade or so, the situation has changed. MyFonts recommends that a single font start at $20. Apparently, if I set my prices too low, MyFonts won’t promote them. Subscription services are further complicating the pricing structure.
Setting prices for any artist is challenging, but I’ve noticed over time that most artists initially set their prices too low. I think I’ve fallen into that trap. I’m working on a new release right now1 and I’ve decided that I need to finally shift my pricing strategy. On August 1, 2025, the prices for all Sketchbook B fonts will increase. Single fonts will be $20. Small families will be $39. Large families will be $79. This increases them significantly from their current prices, but brings pricing more in line with the industry standards.
To provide a transition — and because August 1 is my 50th birthday — I’m going to run a 30% off promotion for the month of August.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
I’ll also have a couple of birthday-related font announcements coming soon. ↩︎
I mentioned a couple of days ago that I was playing around with some new-to-me features and bricks in Fontstruct. After I finished SbB Roundabout1, I decided those techniques would work really well on a symbol font. So I started playing around with building a couple of little faux emoji. Then decided that I needed to add some color. And before long, I’ve built an adorable set of icons in Fontstruct… SbB Emote.
I don’t know which my favorite is – either the robot or the minifig-inspired smiley. “Happy Frankenstein” is a classic, too. In total, the set has 63 glyphs. The build used over 140 different blocks and 6 colors. It’s probably the most complex Fontstruction I’ve made, since I normally like to keep it really simple.
One cool side effect of using the techniques and blocks from SbB Roundabout is that the two designs work really well together.
I think I’m at a stopping point for the time being. I’ll be honest, I really need to be working on my dissertation and independent study. But I’ve got some ideas for characters I could have drawn… so you never know when I’ll revisit the font. I’m still not sure what to make of color fonts, but I could see how a custom icon font could be useful.
I think you have to be a patron on Fontstruct to download color fonts, so most of you won’t be able to download SbB Emote, but SbB Roundabout is free to download with an account.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
Now a “Top Pick” on Fontstruct. And by the way, I’m going to need a new name for Roundabout. It’s taken. ↩︎
I’ve been playing around with Adobe’s Project Indigo computational camera app recently. I’ve got an old, but completely functional iPhone 12 Pro. Tonight at a minor league baseball game, while we were waiting for the game to end and the post-game fireworks to begin, I decided to try Project Indigo out in some challenging light. First, from our seats on the first base line, I took a shot with the iPhone’s stock camera app:
The shot’s fine, but it’s clear the net was an issue. The iPhone processing made it seem far more prominent than it really was. I then tried to take the exact same composition with Project Indigo:
This looks a lot closer to reality. It handles the sky and the net better. You can’t really tell from this upload, but detail is much cleaner with fewer artifacts. Project Indigo is still slow to process and occasionally overheats your phone, but in the right situation, it’s a great option.
Your mileage may vary, especially if you have a newer, more capable iPhone. But if you are trying to capture an image in some challenging light, give Project Indigo a shot.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
Recently, I started playing around on Fontstruct again. The tool has evolved massively in the 17 years I’ve used it, but I interacted with it largely the same way — placing blocks on grids. I’ve been thinking about how I use design tools lately. I use apps like Photoshop and InDesign the same way I used them a decade ago. In general, this works fine, but I don’t really take full advantage of the advancements in the software. I’ve been trying to explore new features in Photoshop and Glyphs lately, and I decided I wanted to try out some of the features I haven’t used in Fontstruct, too. I just made two designs public: SbB Vertica and SbB Roundabout.
SbB Vertica.A bold all-caps display font consisting of vertical bands. I used the brick size and grid spacing filters to create the banding effect through the letters. To get the angled corners to line up, I needed to use the nudge command to bump bricks up or down.
SbB Roundabout. A thin pseudo-stencil unicase design using rounded corner bricks that I don’t think I’ve ever tried before. This approach also required some nudging, and composite bricks to make everything line up.
Both designs are incomplete and I plan to keep working on them, but I’m happy with how they’ve turned out and wanted to share them. Both would have been impossible or very challenging without these techniques and bricks. It’s a reminder that unused features in my favorite software applications might be just what I need to execute a particular idea or concept.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
A brief “review” of Bo-Linda: Bojangles AI-based drive-thru ordering system
Bojangles is a fast food restaurant chain in the Southeastern United States that serves chicken and biscuits. Last year, I drove up to a Bojangles drive-thru in downtown Columbia, South Carolina and was greeted by a computerized voice. There were no signs indicating that they were using a new system, but it was clear that the voice wasn’t a human. I placed my order, the system asked for the drink on my combo, confirmed my order, told me my total and asked me to move forward. Quick and efficient.
A few months later, the Bojangles in Chapin near my daughter’s school switched to the same computerized system. I’d stop there occasionally to grab breakfast after dropping her off. This time, the system informed me that there was a 5-minute wait on my steak biscuit and asked if I wanted to switch to something else. I did not want to wait, so I changed my order. The system handled it, gave me a total, and I was intrigued.
A quick search revealed that this new system had a name: Bo-Linda. Bojangles website describes Bo-Linda as “a dynamic conversational drive-thru AI platform to augment human interaction with digital restaurant systems.” I also discovered that many people hadn’t had positive experiences with the new system when it debuted in Charlotte. I started to pay attention to the system any time I ordered and figured I’d share some observations about the system, and the potential societal impact of AI.
With normal orders, it works fine. I haven’t had any issues with it misunderstanding me, or having a severe lag time. It seems to be about as accurate as a person. The order is shown on the display so you can easily confirm that your order is correct.
My daughter’s order confused it. I was ordering something just for my high schooler who doesn’t eat much meat: two plain biscuits and a large seasoned fry. Bo-Linda heard two sausage biscuits and a large sweet tea. When I tried to correct it, the system just failed, gave me an incorrect total, and told me to pull to the window. I had to tell the employees what I actually ordered.
Loads of promotions. The order process starts with a promotion. “Would you like to try our new Bo-Berry biscuit?” This is no different than ordering with a human following a script, but sometimes, Bo-Linda would add several upgrade suggestions at the end. “Would you like to Bo-Size your order? Would you like to upgrade to our new flavored iced tea?” At one point in Chapin, I counted five upgrade or add-on suggestions. I just had to keep telling it no. It doesn’t happen at every location, but frequently enough to be annoying. I wonder if the number of suggestions can be controlled by a manager or franchisee? Or does the AI decide based on volume or sales metrics? No idea.
Humans are listening and can interrupt it. Once I had a person interrupt the order because I ordered something they were out of. Another time, the system just stopped working and a person took over. So humans are monitoring as a backup and stepping in when needed.
They named it, but that name is never used. Someone on their marketing team came up with Bo-Linda and they trademarked it, but they don’t have signs telling you to use their new Bo-Linda AI Ordering System. Bo-Linda doesn’t “introduce” herself when she takes your order. It just appeared one day. I think it’s highly likely that they didn’t want to deal with AI backlash and just tried to quietly make the switch. And honestly, I think that was probably the right call.
So, Bo-Linda works. It’s mostly fine. From the Bojangles perspective, I understand why they’d want to switch to an AI-based ordering system. Bojangles claims that the system improves accuracy, noting that Bo-Linda can take orders 96% of the time with no human interaction.1 They still need a person processing payments and giving patrons their food, but that employee can more easily handle other tasks like filling drinks if they aren’t also taking orders. I’m not sure how employees would feel about it. Are they hiring fewer staff because they’ve automated one of the jobs? Are some employees getting scheduled for fewer hours? Or are they happy that one annoying task simply has been automated? Taking orders at a fast food drive-thru can’t be an enjoyable experience.
From a broader perspective though, this is what people fear when they say that artificial intelligence will take away jobs. Bojangles isn’t the first to experiment with removing humans from the order experience and it won’t be the last.2 Companies of all sorts will look for jobs and positions that can be eliminated or replaced by an AI-driven system. And as they find those efficiencies, they will need fewer employees. I’m a little bit of a skeptic when it comes to AI completely replacing knowledge jobs, but I do think new AI-powered tools will help us get more done in less time. If employees are more efficient, companies will eventually need less people to get the same amount of work done.
With more efficient workers and potentially fewer jobs, the impacts to our society could be significant, especially for young adults. We need to start having serious conversations about universal basic income as a method of keeping our society stable. If employees can do more in less time, then maybe we need to start considering shorter work weeks. There will inevitably be tension between the traditionalists who want to keep a 40-hour work week and maximize efficiency, and the workers who will be asked to do more for the same amount of money. Right now, it’s hard to call AI ordering at a fast food restaurant revolutionary, but I do believe a technical revolution is coming. And as with all technical revolutions, cultural change will inevitably follow.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
I’ll be honest, that percentage sounds low. That means there’s a failure every 25 orders or so. ↩︎
Just notice how many restaurants use kiosks now for people to order inside instead of having multiple cashiers. I’m looking at you, Panera and Whataburger. ↩︎
The other day, I referenced the hype leading up to the launch of a device in the early 2000s that was supposed to revolutionize personal transportation, but realized no one remembered the cautionary tail. Project Ginger was the creation of legendary inventor Dean Kamen. Word had leaked out about the secret project. Tech luminaries raved about it. Venture capitalists drooled at the potential. A 2001 article from Time was actually titled “Reinventing the Wheel” and captures the hype of the moment:
In a heartbeat, hundreds of stories full of fevered theorizing gushed forth in the press. Ginger was a hydrogen-powered hovercraft. Or a magnetic antigravity device. Or, closer to the mark, a souped-up scooter. Even the reprobates at South Park got into the act, spoofing Ginger in a recent episode–the details of which, sadly, are unprintable in a family magazine.
This revolutionary device was the Segway. Spoiler alert: it did not revolutionize transportation.
The Time article clearly explains all of the issues that plagued the Segway: cost, safety, sidewalks. Then conveniently ignores those issues to embrace the hype. In 2001, Segway promised a plant would produce 40,000 Segways a month, but in reality, the company only sold 140,000 in the product’s entire lifespan. Most of those weren’t sold to consumers.
Why do I bring this up? Because Jony Ive and Sam Altman are promising an AI device that will revolutionize how we use computers. Lots of people trust Ive and his track record with Apple. And Sam Altman has steered Open AI and ChatGPT to be the current leader of the AI industry. OpenAI is pushing the hype themselves, buying ad space to sell people… something?1 People are rushing to fill in the unspoken details with their hopes for a new device. Journalists are writing about all the things that this partnership could bring. And yet, there is nothing tangible.
I’m not buying the hype yet. Maybe this new device will be a true revolution and someday replace all of our computers. But based on rumors and Ive’s track record, it could just as easily be an expensive AI-powered necklace with lots of sensors that’s made of some special gold alloy and is voice controlled. The fact is that we don’t know any details, and I’m not even sure Ive and Altman know all the details. I believe they will release something, and when they do, we’ll see what happens.
In the meantime, beware hype without details.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
I was served a really strange OpenAI+Jony Ive ad on one of the streaming platforms. I skipped it. ↩︎
Every so often, Fontstruct has a themed competition and the current competition focuses on the new color features. I’ve pulled together three color designs that try to use color in different ways — a pattern, a bright multicolor whimsical design and a 3D effect.
One of the fun things about the competitions is the amazing creativity that comes out of the community. Fonstructors can interpret the theme is very different ways and it’s always amazing to see the varied approaches driven by a simple prompt. I’ve entered a few times and even got an honorable mention once in the “Reverse” Competition for SbB Codebreaker. I will also note that I’ve been impressed with how Affinity Designer has handled the color fonts. Seems to work flawlessly.
My first idea for a colored font was to make a pattern. I played with a couple of different patterns, but settled relatively quickly on making a plaid. One challenge was related to the scale of the pattern in relation to the size of the letters. My original plaid pattern was much bigger, but didn’t work well with some letters. I tried a couple of different sizes, but ended up with this one. This pattern is often associated with lumberjacks, but I think my wife has pajamas with this plaid pattern.
I wanted to create a bright multicolored design. Really lean into the color theme. (And I always love to create Fontstruct designs that use a single brick.) I started with a square pixel, but eventually switched to a circle. The round dot reminded me of a Lite-Brite. I used Adobe Color to pick a color palette that would work on a black background. I wanted some whimsy, so I created a bouncing effect… Uppercase letters create a character in a higher position. Lowercase letters drop them down a block. So if you alternate case, the letters bounce up and down.
Another random idea was to build a font that would work with 3D glasses. To be honest, I don’t have any 3D glasses laying around, but this feels like watching a 3D movie without the special glasses. So mission accomplished. I kept the design simple, because the type needs to be large to experience the effect.
---
Not sure if any of these will be selected as winners or honorable mentions, but I’m really happy with how they turned out. And I can’t wait to see what everyone else does.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
A number of years ago, Liz and I celebrated our anniversary in Charleston and stayed at an up and coming hotel — The French Quarter Inn. We loved our stay, the location is perfect, right in the middle of the downtown area. At the time, it was a little expensive, but reasonable for a luxury experience. Liz and I stayed there a few more times for anniversaries and birthdays and each time, we loved our experience. I found a shot I took from our balcony in 2013 with a iPhone:1
We weren’t the only one who loved the hotel. The French Quarter Inn was honored as one of the best in America by Travel and Leisure. After they were honored, it was tough to get a reservation and the prices increased dramatically. We moved on to other places that we loved, too.2 While it was disappointing to get priced out of one of our favorite places, honestly, the experience was so great, I’m just glad we had a number of years to enjoy it.
I’ve been thinking about color fonts lately. Experimenting with the color fonts features in Fontstruct and Glyphs. Trying to better understand how to create color fonts. And while I’m starting to understand how they are made, I’m left with one major question… why?
Why do we need color fonts?
If you don’t know, fonts are typically monochromatic. Black and white only. Color is applied in software like Adobe Illustrator or Microsoft Office. The ability to customize is limitless.
Often, the case for color fonts is made for the web. A complex typeface design with color features that can be encapsulated as a vector font and customized via CSS would be appealing. But color web fonts support is inconsistent across browsers. I also think web-based design apps like Canva and Adobe Express that cater to more novice designers might have a use for some pre-colored fonts.
I did think of one application — nautical flags. I built a font on Fontstruct in 2009 with black and white flags, so with the new color font tools, I colorized the signal flags and updated the design. I called it SbB Foxtrot Sierra Charlie1 and I’m really happy with how it turned out.2 Fontstruct now allows you to download a COLR v1 color webfont and it’s free to download if you are a Fontstruct Patron.
I’m going to keep playing around with it, but I think color fonts will be a custom, niche tool with limited applications.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
In the NATO alphabet, Foxtrot Sierra is FS for Fontstruct. And the Charlie is C for color. ↩︎
And I love the little pirate flag I built… I might need to make a sticker out of it. ↩︎
I’m tired. It was a long semester — working full time and taking two classes is always challenging. But one of my classes was much more work than I expected. My son’s lacrosse experience was chaotic, poorly scheduled and quite frankly, not fun at all. I’ve failed at my goal to get healthy by my 50th birthday. Things haven’t gone great professionally. The world seems to be burning down around us. I’m tired. Exhausted. I feel it in every bone of my body.
I’ve always thought that the cure for tiredness was rest — and I will get some vacation time in this summer — but I think it’s more than just taking days off and ignoring work emails. I think the “cure” for this type of tiredness is hope. Hope that things will improve. Believing that I’m headed in the right direction. When things seem bleak, it’s easy to feel worn down. Tired. Hope lifts us up and moves us forward.
Over the last few months, I lost hope. I struggled to find the positives. It was so incredibly hard to move forward… to shake the tiredness… to focus… to be productive…
I need to remember why I’m working this hard.
I start a new summer class on Monday because I’m so close to being done with my Ph.D., I just need to keep going. Before I know it, I’ll be Dr. Bob. We have one more week of lacrosse and then we are basically done with organized sports until October. I’m still thinking about how to get healthier, even though I’ve failed time and time again, because I know I will feel better when I get there. I’ve got some new typeface designs that I’m working on that I’m excited about. Work is in the midst of yet another seismic shift, but I’m optimistic that the changes will be an improvement. Our government and the world is still a dumpster fire, but I’m hopeful for small signs of resistance.
Right now, I’m still tired. I’m hopeful that soon, I will get better.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
Slate Auto announced their new electric pickup truck this week, and I’m intrigued. If you haven’t heard about it, the Slate is a barebones electric truck — intended to be customized — all for under $20,000 with current Federal EV incentives.1
Some of these ideas have been tried before. Jeeps have always promoted modularity and customization. The Slate uses plastic body panels like Saturn did. Toyota tried to target youth with Scion, which was intended to be heavily customizable. But Slate takes these concepts further. Much further:
The Slate comes in one color – gray – because they intend for you to customize it with a vinyl wrap. Wraps are apparently cheaper than paint and with a wrap, you can get any design or color you can imagine. (I built the green version above using their online configuration app.)
Hand crank windows.
No screen. No speakers. But you can add both if you want them. I’m fine using my phone as the entertainment system and adding speakers.
It starts as a pickup, but it can be converted into an SUV. Or a Fastback. Or a Jeep-style open air vehicle.
“Slate University” teaches you how to take care of your own vehicle and customize it.
I love the base pickup, but the fastback looks great too. 150-mile range is plenty for my commute. I’m sick of boring car colors, and as a designer, I’d love to customize the wrap. The base safety tech checks all the boxes. It’s a completely different direction than every other car manufacturer is taking, and I can’t wait to see how it all comes together.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
That’s if the current administration doesn’t destroy the EV market. ↩︎
---
