Thomas Phinney wrote:

 

Well, that is a serious, conservative layout, sure. I'm assuming the red text is instructions/suggestions from the teacher, and gets replaced by black text. Is that right?

Is the purpose of the business plan to attract investors or convince a bank or something? If it was, I'd probably change the typeface selection so that it wasn't all in Times. Nothing radical, but maybe a slightly more flavorful sans serif for headings, and a serif body typeface with a tiny bit more character. Could be for example Frutiger and Baskerville. Still pretty restrained, just not identical to most of the business plans they see.

But then again, I'm the guy who jailbroke his iPhone primarily to change the UI typeface, and asked the forum admins to change the default typeface here as well. So maybe I'm a little obsessive on this sort of thing.

Cheers,

T

Oh yes indeed, it's for investors who go through hundreds of Times-based business plans every day. I really like the way you worded things there, "still restrained, just not identical to most of the business plans they see".

Frutiger and Baskerville is a great suggestion! I'm open to more before I go ahead and buy myself a new pair of fonts though.

Much obliged!

You're not really being helpful here

HerbVB wrote:

 

reddvinylene wrote:

"You're not really being helpful .."

In fact, he is. Regardless of whether or not your audience members are  even aware of your material's typography, it WILL have a subconscious  effect.

And the effect of Times or other misused or overused fonts, when seen  on your material would be that it will appear bland and ordinary - and  lend that blandness to your content. A different typeface helps to  differentiate the content of your material! The difference doesn't  have to be radical; it's amazing what subtleties the human mind can  recognize.

- Herb

Well, absolutely. I find it very interesting how design affects the subconscious without us even knowing it. It was just a joke to him dissing the typefaces

But, you could also argue the opposite. I'm not, but if I were I'd probably say that using Times or Helvetica shows that I'm just like everybody else and not some large multinational corporation who takes things perhaps a bit too seriously.

Well, that's what you say. I say that some people don't need design as a reason to use a product or a service, because they simply don't know any better. Instead, they feel at ease with crappy design, going like "Hey, even I could do that" and "Sweet, they're just like me". It is also common that these people see design as merely a way for one person to show how much better he is than everybody else.