… type design is widely seen as the last arena where the graphic designer is still in charge of his or her own work. Typeface designers will bang the table and say that commissioners of typefaces are every bit as picky as commissioners of other types of graphic production. … typeface design feels like one of the last arenas of free expression. It also feels like the exercise of a craft. It feels like proper old-fashioned ‹making›, at a time when huge areas of graphic design practice have become increasingly robotic. Adrian Shaughnessy .

The reason so many design students feel compelled to design a typeface is that typefaces don’t speak back like clients do. It’s a safe place to work where one is dealing strictly with form, and the complexities of human interaction are minimized. There’s no thought, other than formal thought. And when you’re done, you have the semblance of relevance. Mark Kingsley.

When a family is emigrating, and they fill the paperwork out—that is graphic design. And if the designers can think that through and make that smarter—that’s where design helps real people. Someone getting their license plate. They fill out the paperwork; that’s graphic design. So I’m really interested in that kind of stuff. Yes, design is crucial because it can make the little things in our lives … better. Aaron Draplin.

… readers can and should participate in the typesetting process … influencing or overriding our design decisions about font-sizes, line lengths, colors, and more. … Reader participation is the new magnifying glass. The new bedside lamp. The new refolding of newspaper pages. People will read however they feel most comfortable. Allow for this reality, and elements of your design will endure; Resist it, and your design will be replaced by more comfortable experiences. Tim Brown.

Good typography is about creating balance and beautiful details. Lines should break in harmony with the rhythm of the writing. They should make a pleasing shape, in the way of a natural coastline. The fun comes in hiding little surprises—a particularly nice alignment with other elements on the page, say, or a colour change for just one word in a dozen pages. It's about creating hidden systems—systems that may not be discovered, but that will be felt. That sort of thing requires love, and love requires time. Sure, you can bash out a piece and be done with it, but why? Slow your breathing and tend to the garden. Stefan G. Bucher.

The automated flush left provided by InDesign was no longer precise enough for me, for example. I had to go in and adjust the start of each line to create a visually smoother edge for the paragraph. This is madness. Nobody but me would notice this, but having noticed it myself, and—crucially—having defined it as an error, I couldn't absolve myself from the duty of fixing it.

This is a bit of a problem with my design work in general: I see it as my job to fix things. If information comes to me in an ugly state, I take it upon myself to make it beautiful. If something is already beautiful, I don't always understand the need to simply make it different. (Of course, in a marketing sense it is a problem if something has simply ceased to be new, but that gets into a philosophical discussion. Right now, I'm worried how my response to this question will look online, where I can't control the line breaks.)

Stefan G. Bucher.

For me, typography certainly requires an obsessive attention to detail. Typography is shaping text into an illustration. I'm not just saying that about custom lettering or headlines or special effects type. Give ten designers the same text, ask them all to use Univers 55 at a size of 12 points on an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper—hell, tell them all to set the type flush left—and you'll get ten completely different pieces of art.

Just placing a paragraph of type on an otherwise empty page creates a composition. The way you break and space the lines makes a difference, as does the way individual words are kerned. Good typography is as much about making those positive choices as it is about fixing errors—adjusting poor default kerning, for example. As such, the process never gets faster, because with every piece you learn to notice more things you like and more you don't.

Stefan G. Bucher.

A typographer deals with the design and structure of letters; the building blocks of printed language. His/her role in society and culture is a serious one that carries with it a tremendous amount of responsibility. It's also a fulfilling path that breathes life into one's creative soul.

Of course, an outsider may see the tendency to work on small details as an obsession. But I don't see my work as obsessive, I see it as a ‹serious play› that gives me a peacefulness that is almost meditative, providing both clarity and pleasure simultaneously.

Oded Ezer.

Every craft requires attention to detail. … building something that will be used by other people … everywhere, it needs to be built as well as can be.

Typography appears to require a lot of detail, but so does … brain surgery. Sometimes only the experts know the difference, but if you want to be an expert at what you're making, you will only be happy with the result when you've given it everything you have.

I strongly believe that the attention someone gives to what he or she makes is reflected in the end result, whether it is obvious or not.

Inherent quality is part of absolute quality and without it things will appear shoddy. The users may not know why, but they always sense it.

Erik Spiekermann.

Unless you are obsessed by what you're doing, you will not be doing it well enough. Erik Spiekermann.