Chapter I: A Site That Felt Off

I wasn’t doing a full redesign of my site, but I knew it needed updates. The project detail pages in particular had to go deeper, showing more of the thinking and process behind the work. Once I designed those, though, something still felt wrong. The site looked better, but it didn’t feel right. It still felt off and that made me sad.

That’s when I realized the problem wasn’t just the layout. It was the type. The whole thing needed a cleaner, more sophisticated, more timeless foundation. I started working on headlines for the hero section while I searched for fonts, trying to figure out how to explain what I do in a way that was short, simple, and compelling.

My portfolio is a mix of brand, UX, product, campaign, and marketing work. At first glance, it can seem like a lot of different directions. But as I explored different headlines, I kept coming back to one truth: the thread running through all of it was the results I deliver to my clients, customers, and comrades. (FYI, I’m a die-hard free market guy. I just like the word comrades sometimes, so please put the Che Guevara t-shirt back in your closet and let’s continue on my journey.) I bring them real, tangible business results. That’s the center of everything I’ve done.

After testing countless lines, I landed on one that finally captured it:

“Designing Clarity for Complex Brands”

It had the weight I wanted, without the clutter. Now I had the headline. What I needed was the right font to bring it to life. Something that carried the elegance of a serif, but felt modern, clean, and timeless. I even considered buying a custom face, ready to spend real money if that’s what it took.

But then I found it hiding in plain sight: Libre Baskerville, a free Google font with the perfect anatomy, refined, balanced, and built to last.

Chapter II: From Lacquerware to Letters

Libre Baskerville is the digital descendant of a typeface created by John Baskerville in 18th-century England. Baskerville began not in printing but in high-gloss lacquerware so polished it seemed to hold light. With the fortune he earned from that craft, he turned to books.

He invented smoother paper, developed richer black ink, and designed letterforms with sharper contrast and graceful curves. His critics in England called his type “too perfect” and hard on the eyes. In France it was celebrated. Voltaire used it for his own writing. Baskerville was not one for compromise.

Chapter III: Rediscovering the Craft

I studied type anatomy in college. I knew the names of terminals, counters, ascenders, and descenders. I could explain why x-height changes everything. Over time that knowledge faded into muscle memory I rarely called upon.

Early in my career, I chased novelty. If one font looked good, three looked better. I paired typefaces for the thrill of it without respecting the quiet discipline that great typography demands.

Choosing Libre Baskerville brought me back to that discipline. It was not about novelty anymore. It was about finding the single voice that could carry my brand without distraction. The more I read about Baskerville’s perfectionism and precision, the more I realized I had been treating the craft too casually.

Chapter IV: A Kindred Heretic

Baskerville’s life was as distinctive as his work. He lived with Sarah Eaves for years before marriage, which scandalized polite society. He was openly skeptical of religion and chose to be buried in unconsecrated ground. In 18th-century England those were not safe choices.

I have always admired people who stand apart when it matters. People who refuse the safe road. Using his typeface began to feel like joining a lineage of deliberate, independent thinking.

Chapter V: The Restless Grave

Even in death Baskerville did not rest quietly. His garden burial was disturbed decades later, and his coffin moved repeatedly. At one point it was stored upright so visitors could view it before being reinterred in a Birmingham cemetery.

Like the man himself, his typeface traveled. It was revived and reinterpreted many times, eventually inspiring Libre Baskerville in 2012. This modern version keeps the grace of the original but adapts it for screens with a taller x-height, wider counters, and lower contrast.

Chapter VI: Bringing It Home

Now, when I open my site and see those headlines in Libre Baskerville, I see more than a font. I see a man in 1757 chasing perfect black ink. I see centuries of craft carried forward in curves and serifs. I see quiet defiance etched into every letter.

It reminds me that great work is built on care, patience, and deliberate choices. It also reminds me that the tools we use carry their own histories, and when we choose them with intention, we step into that story ourselves.

That’s my font love story, with a bit of dramatic flair.