According to my timesheet, I spent a total of 27 hours on a certain client’s holiday packaging — most of which were spent on kerning. Kerning, for those who do not already know, is the process of adjusting the space between two letterforms to create a visual balance. It is also an art and discipline for the most patient designers. Zooming down to pixel–level, evenly measuring out white space, flipping everything upside down, kerning can be extremely tedious and time consuming. The result, however, is always a beautiful reward that makes the hours spent count.
At the time, adjusting the space between every single letter was painful. Staring at the computer screen all day in class, then coming into the office to do the same started playing games with my eyes — my contact lenses were the only casualties (literally fell out of my head after completely drying out). After seeing the final files sent to the printers today, I don’t feel bad about the time spent on meticulously measuring whitespace. I’ve even utilized my new kerning chops this week for my personal identity and business set assignment for final portfolio. It’s nice to see my type A, obsessive compulsive personality put to good use and exercised in a healthier way than normal.
Think you know a thing or two about visual balance? Test your skills as a designer with this kerning game by Mark MacKay for Method of Action, Kerntype, which showed me just how much I actually knew about kerning type.
I scored an 89 on the test. Some fonts and letters were easier than others. It’s sometimes amazing how much of a difference kerning can make—esp. with letter combinations such as Aw, Av, Ay, etc. I’m sure your client appreciated the attention to detail.