Variable Fonts in Practice
We replaced six font files with one variable font and saved a third of our font weight. The headings got better too.
Reading work aloud is the cheapest editing tool there is. Your ear catches rhythm problems that your eye skips over, especially in long sentences.
We keep a running document of things that went wrong on past projects. It is not a list of failures so much as a list of warnings, and we read it before every kickoff.
Taking notes by hand is slower, and that is the point. The friction forces you to decide what matters before you write it down.
Feedback lands better when it describes the effect rather than the fix. “I lost track here” is more useful than “move this paragraph”.
Constraints are underrated. A fixed word count, a single typeface, or a two-colour palette forces decisions that an open brief lets you postpone forever.
Related posts
Kerning Pairs We Fix on Every Project
The awkward letter combinations that always need a nudge.
White Space Is Not Empty Space
Margins do the quiet work that makes a layout feel calm.
The Serif That Made Us Slow Down
Why a single typeface change doubled the time readers spent on a page.
Comments · 2
Small typo in the third paragraph, but otherwise a perfect read with my morning coffee.
Great list. Adding two of these to my reading pile right now.