Prompted by an outcry over the use of Papyrus for the subtitles in the movie AVATAR, this article from last week’s BBC News Magazine online relates the passions—pro and con—that were provoked. Various other heinous examples of crimes against typography are included.

In 2009, the Swedish retail giant IKEA changed its signature typeface from Futura to Verdana—a font that had been created by Microsoft specifically for screen display.

As in other cases, widespread outrage ensued, with bloggers and tweeters madly weighing in:

“On Aug. 26, Romanian design consultant Marius Ursache started an online petition to get Ikea to change its mind. That night, Verdana was already a trending topic on Twitter, drawing more tweets than even Ted Kennedy.”

It must be noted that some opinionators were more sympathetic.

While typography has a rich history that goes back to the earliest written forms, new typefaces are always arriving on the market, making it tempting for designers to stray from the classic choices. And, sometimes, with good reason. Depending on the target audience and the branding message, it may be perfectly reasonable to select one of the very latest typefaces, especially if it can be effective across a wide variety of corporate needs—website, business cards, magazine and billboard advertising, price tags, serial number labels, Hi My Name Is badges, exterior and interior signage … the list goes on.

I found some great Best and Worst lists. Here’s one that I particularly like because it includes my favorite two Worst examples—#2 and #3, where companies invested in a logo redesign when what they really needed was an overhaul in corporate practices.

If your scroll wheel (or your two-finger touchpad action) is in good shape and you have an extra half hour, check out these collections from Smashing Magazine, an online resource for web design.

• 80 gorgeous typefaces for professional design, in no particular order, based upon suggestions from designers and web developers all over the world (scroll past the well known fonts at the top of the list to see more unusual examples later in the list)
• 60 effective typefaces for corporate design, offering a much quirkier selection than the first list
• 30 new typefaces for corporate design—just what it says: new typefaces

I saved the best for last, but this one isn’t strictly typography. If you have read this far, you may be interested in two visually engaging articles on Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World. Part 1 is here, and part 2 is here. My bet is, you’ve never seen such an array of writing samples from so many historical language roots and from virtually every corner of the world.

Calligraphy from illuminated Armenian Gospel manuscript

(Bonus points if you noticed which typeface I used in the numbers in my thumbnail illustration at the top.)

I monitor some keywords on twitter via some Hootsuite columns. One of them is “insurance” and I have a geo-tag with it to grab tweets mentioning “insurance” within a 40 mile radius of Corvallis.

Once every week or two I catch someone asking a question or mentioning they’re getting quotes, and I respond. Earlier this week was just such an opportunity.

Ty Hildebrand, a Realtor in Salem, mentioned he was looking for homeowner’s insurance, so of course I responded. Something to the effect of, “If you’d like us to get you a quote, I’d love to help”. Much to my happiness, Ty replied with his cell phone number.

Turns out, Ty has a property that is currently vacant- very difficult to insure, and expensive. I took my time to explain to him the what’s and why’s, but ultimately told him I couldn’t help.

About five minutes after I hung up with him, I thought to myself. What in the world did I do? Here this guy was looking for help, and in the end, I did nothing for him. Lame, if you ask me.

So I quickly called a broker buddy of mine who’s able to do oddball stuff and asked if he could do vacant properties. He said he could, so I asked how much (ballpark), and what options there are for payment. Then I called Ty back.

“Hey Ty, I can’t believe I finished my last call without giving you some actual help. I have a guy I trust that can write your property for you. You can pay for 3, 6 or 9 months of coverage, which will help, because it’s kind of spendy. Expect it to be about 3x the cost of a normal homeowners policy, annualized. My friend is expecting your call. Let me know if I can ever help you with something else. Cheers.”

What impression would Ty have had of me if I hadn’t made that second call?