We’re Mavericks. In a Good Way.

Simon Garfield, author of the new book Just My Type: A Book About Fonts, which asks the age-old question What does your favorite font say about YOU? analyzed the BookPeople logo and told us what our font says about us:

“A maverick font for a maverick store. The BookPeople sign is a big, friendly slightly twisted thing, with a k that looks like it was designed by someone over-keen on making a character that’s never been seen before. The letters seem to take inspiration from all over, and its condensed look suggests that the shop has a lot of stock! It certainly keeps alive the ‘Keep Austin Weird’ ethos, and long may it continue.”

Well all right. Looks like we’re taking back the word maverick. Someone had to do it. And keeping weird alive is definitely what we’re all about. Nice job, Garfield. Now that dream I had last night about the monster eating a spaceship…oh right, that’s for my other analyst, sorry.

The next time you’re in the store, take a look at Simon’s new book, which delves into the history and power of typefaces through the ages. Janet Maslin of the New York Times called it, “…a smart, funny, accessible book that does for typography what Lynne Truss’s best-selling Eats, Shoots & Leaves did for punctuation: made it noticeable for people who had no idea they were interested in such things.”