I can imagine you’re sitting there, in your chair, and thinking to yourself smugly, “typophile? What in the name of hell is typophile??!” or something equally as humorous, thinking up all sorts of sick and perverted analogies to try and explain it in your head. And well, I guess a lot of those thoughts are probably pretty true in some regard. Basically, in the simplest sense, typophile is the culmination of sheer boredom, a need to write ridiculous amounts of [(X)HTML, CSS, PHP and the odd bit of Javascript] code to keep myself occupied, and a love of Visual Design and Typography. That love of Typography and beautiful fonts (especially in print media) is what the name comes from; literally a love of Typography.
But enough about that. I guess another aspect of the site isn’t what it is, but more importantly, who it is. typophile is a pseudonym of Benjamin Alldridge [that’s me!], a currently 19-year-old guy hailing from Brisbane, Australia, and an occasional cross-dresser “type slut”. I’ve lived here my entire life, and quite honestly I enjoy it on the whole. That being said, I’ve aspirations to travel the world and sample the finest culture, cuisine, and design each region has to offer. I live a pretty simple life here, working as a part-time “chicken wench” at KFC, cooking the best damn chicken this side of Kentucky, occasionally attending class, and spending ridiculous amounts of time talking to the girl of my dreams.
My background in the field is pretty varied. I spent a lot of my life surrounded by graffiti, be it in an observational capacity, or actually participating. Something about it always drew me… the intensely wild colours, the shapes, and the typographical aspects of it. Basically, everyone’s unique way of producing the same glyphs both astounded and amazed me, and I guess that’s probably the biggest thing that pulled me in. Even today I still draw huge amounts of inspiration from that past, combining it into the majority of my design and art, as well as having won several prestigious awards riding on the shoulders of the skills I gained from that. As well as, I’ve spent a lot of time studying various tangents of design, I’m a former college student of both Print Machining and Design, and a current student of Web Development. That has helped my love of all the related fields inordinately.
Anyway, enjoy the site. And remember, “fashions fade, style Is eternal”.