Fontroversy: The Fonts That Just Aren't Quite Our Type – Details, episodes & analysis

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 watched the Minecraft: Story Mode show?

ABOUT THE SHOW: Fontroversy is a limited series podcast created by Portland State University Graphic Design students in 2023. You can learn more about PSU’s Schnitzer School of Art, Art History, and Design at pdx.edu/art-design. This edition was presented as part of the AIGA Design Conference in October 2024. Special thanks to Lee-Sean Huang and the team at AIGA for selecting us to be a part of the conference. We <3 AIGA!

WANT TO HEAR MORE? For more episodes of Fontroversy and our parent show Did I Do That?, visit dididothat.design or wherever you find podcasts: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / YouTube / Pocket Casts / Overcast / Castro

CREDITS:

• Host: Lena Hall
• Crew: Tom Cheevers, Tori Mize, Toni Morales, Donovan Wilson-Carr
• Production Assistance (and playing Schumacher’s Monster): Orion Cortez
• Show Art: Robert Ditty
• Theme: “How Can Things Be” by Holizna
• Producer: Sean Schumacher

NOTE: This episode differs slightly from the live version due to technical issues on the stream. Apologies for the less-than-ideal audio quality, particularly in the first ten minutes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 the Wizarding World of Woody Harrelson.

You can find more about Lena ’s work on their Instagram, @ps.its.lena. They are indeed graduating soon and you should absolutely hire them! You can view Lena's font horoscopes for the both of us here!

This episode was recorded Saturday, February 3, 2024 in the Rat’s Nest.

Special thanks to the entire team that made Fontroversy possible: Lea Thompson, Lena Hall, Malia Masterson, Whitney McPhie, Ashley Heeke, Sophia Stoker, Anna Stanton, Hannah Joseph, Sophia Mick, Mette Voldengen, Milos Dugas, Freya Kargard, Robert Ditty, Izzy Gavaza, Dana Ives, Kaitlyn Casey, Aline Chercover, and Orion Cortez.

Closing Music/The Fontroversy Theme: “How Can Things Be” by Holizna

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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: Orion Cortez

This episode was recorded Tuesday, May 30, 2023.

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PRODUCTION CREDITS

Fontroversy was created by the students of DES 399 Public Design Communication in the Spring of 2019 as part of Portland State University’s Graphic Design program in Portland, Oregon. You can learn more about PSUGD at psu.gd. You can learn more about the PSU School of Art+Design at pdx.edu/art-design.

Host: Lena Hall

Show Art: Robert Ditty

Social Media Coordinator: Ashley Heeke

Producer: Sean Schumacher

Editorial Assistance by: Orion Cortez

Music: “How Can Things Be” by Holizna

For more about Fontroversy, visit fontroversy.com or follow @fontroversy.psugd on Instagram.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 episode was recorded Tuesday, June 6, 2023.

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PRODUCTION CREDITS

Fontroversy was created by the students of DES 399 Public Design Communication in the Spring of 2019 as part of Portland State University’s Graphic Design program in Portland, Oregon. You can learn more about PSUGD at psu.gd. You can learn more about the PSU School of Art+Design at pdx.edu/art-design.

Host: Lena Hall

Show Art: Robert Ditty

Social Media Coordinator: Ashley Heeke

Producer: Sean Schumacher

Editorial Assistance by: Orion Cortez

Music: “How Can Things Be” by Holizna

For more about Fontroversy, visit fontroversy.com or follow @fontroversy.psugd on Instagram.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 truly shameful oversight, although in their defense, attempting to look at any one specific type block on the package without being immediately distracted is basically impossible.

Segment Producer: Whitney McPhie

Researchers: Ashley Heeke, Sophia Stoker

Story Editors: Anna Stanton, Hannah Joseph

Sound Editing & Mix: Orion Cortez

This episode was recorded Tuesday, May 30, 2023.

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PRODUCTION CREDITS

Fontroversy was created by the students of DES 399 Public Design Communication in the Spring of 2019 as part of Portland State University’s Graphic Design program in Portland, Oregon. You can learn more about PSUGD at psu.gd. You can learn more about the PSU School of Art+Design at pdx.edu/art-design.

Host: Lena Hall

Show Art: Robert Ditty

Social Media Coordinator: Ashley Heeke

Producer: Sean Schumacher

Editorial Assistance by: Orion Cortez

Music: “How Can Things Be” by Holizna

For more about Fontroversy, visit fontroversy.com or follow @fontroversy.psugd on Instagram.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

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PRODUCTION CREDITS

Fontroversy was created by the students of DES 399 Public Design Communication in the Spring of 2019 as part of Portland State University’s Graphic Design program in Portland, Oregon. You can learn more about PSUGD at psu.gd. You can learn more about the PSU School of Art+Design at pdx.edu/art-design.

Host: Lena Hall

Show Art: Robert Ditty

Social Media: Ashley Heeke

Producer: Sean Schumacher

Editorial Assistance by: Orion Cortez

Music: “How Can Things Be” by Holizna

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For more about Fontroversy, visit fontroversy.com or follow @fontroversy.psugd on Instagram.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, part of the Portland State University School of Art Design.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.