Image by Tala Safié

As Jonathan Hoefler recently told the New York Times, “Typography passes for being invisible. People really don’t think about the fact that typefaces are indeed made by people.” But this week on Twitter, a bunch of people who don’t usually think that much about typefaces started thinking about them. A lot. And they started thinking about the people who make them, too.

It began quite strangely. First, for reasons still mysterious to the Eye on Design editors, #TimesNewRoman was trending (more on this later). Then, the aforementioned NYT article began bemusing Twitter users far and wide in its attempt to paint a picture of a monthly TypeThursday meet-up. People just couldn’t believe how much this bunch of New York type designers interviewed, including Paul Shaw, Mirko Velimirovic, and Juan Villanueva of Monotype, cared about typefaces.

Type Twitter had a few things to say about the article. First of all, they called out the blatant error in the headline.

Next, they began pointing to a second mistake (one quickly amended by the editors). It was a mistake you could only really make if you didn’t actually care about typefaces.

Soon, on a more serious note, the most disappointing error of all was called out: The fact that not a single woman from New York’s type scene, or the TypeThursday meet-up, was interviewed for the piece.

Interviewees, as well as those contacted by the article’s writer, began revealing some of the behind-the-scenes conversations that had taken place.

And the growing threads sparked commentary about the media’s blinkered interest in type design more generally.

However, mainstream media outlets were treated to a taste of type design fervor when none other than #TimesNewRoman was spotted trending on Twitter. It started with an innocent call to overshare—that over 4,000 people answered in earnest.

The 91-year-old typeface enjoyed its 15 minutes of viral fame when a slew of commenters came out in proud support of its classic, legible, time-honored design features.

And it stumped just as many others.

And finally, some official U.S.A. design news from the highest office in the land—the official unveiling of a federal logo, in all of its esteemed, ceremonial flair. JK, it was a tweet:

It’s the logo for Trump’s Space Force, the latest branch of the Magnificent Military.

But boy does it look like familiar.

Anyway, designers had fun with it.

And with that, we’ll leave you with a quick PSA to our freelance friends out there: it’s tax season—be prepared: