Type That Survives the Footnote: Brousil on Choosing Fonts for Real Use

Why Does a Good Mockup Tell You So Little?

Creative Boom's interview with Tomáš Brousil, founder of Prague's Suitcase Type Foundry, argues that a polished specimen shows only ideal conditions. He compares it to a glossy food photograph, where the best ingredients face the camera and the rest is hidden. His four practical tips move from thinking in systems rather than sheer family size, through testing across a full hierarchy and checking figures and language support, to choosing retail fonts over custom work when they already cover a brand's needs.

For brand builders, the piece is a useful corrective to choosing type on looks alone. It shows how optical sizes, alternate characters and clear licences affect everyday use, and it uses the KRO bistro identity as a worked example. Brand managers, designers and anyone specifying typefaces for print, signage or product interfaces should read it before committing to a family.