Oh god - here we go again. There’s another “environmentally friendly” fad that’s going to get everybody all wound up. The problem, however, is that it’s not actually that helpful at all. It’s just another covert commercial endeavour hiding behind the myst of peoples lack of understanding. (After all, who can forget “Blackle” - which made a tonne of money for its owner, and did very little for anything else).

What’s the new kid on the block, you ask? The ecofont.

Made by the Dutch communications and design firm SPRANQ (did we mention SPRANQ, SPRANQ, SPRANQ, SPRANQ, SPRANQ, SPRANQ, SPRANQ?), it attempts to convince us that using a font with a series of holes in it will reduce ink usage by 20% (proven, how?).

The sad truth is, it’s just as easy to reduce your ink usage by setting your printer to a drafting quality than using their special font. But I guess you just won’t get that warm, fuzzy-inside feeling.

I also don’t know why you’d want to lock yourself into using one particular typeface? Especially when it’s one of the most publicly hated ones around…

Any innovation that leads to more ecologically efficient workflows are a real winner in my eyes. We all just need to be a bit more critical in our judgements in order to steer clear of the snake oil salesmen.

• BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
• « Citizen Kubrick: Or Explorations Along the New Frontier
• » Malcolm Turnbull’s Christmas Message

• BROWSE / IN Advertising Design Internet Publishing Typefaces
• « Thoughts on the Arts
• » Malcolm Turnbull’s Christmas Message