Oh, the times they have a-changed since we wrote last year’s Top 10 Fonts post! (Wow, has it really been a year already?) There’s an old Japanese Proverb that states, “beginning is easy — continuing is hard.” A year ago, YouWorkForThem had seen its eighth birthday, and some parts of the shop were getting dusty. And so we started anew, with new design leadership, a deeper focus on our mission, and a plan to finish out our first decade by growing substantially.

Well, boy howdy, have we grown! A year ago, YWFT handled ~300 font options. As we write this, we handle over 6500! And don’t mistake this massive growth for lack of oversight, we only ever pluck the créme de la créme, and we are still curating only the best of the best. In fact, YWFT handles the most creative type releases in the world. We also saw a massive surge in sales and customer satisfaction, for which all of you have our extreme gratitude. Thank you! All right, enough bragsterin’, let’s get on with the show.

The Top 10 Fonts has never been more interesting. In the past, this list was fairly easy to predict, since we only handled a few releases. But with the incredible amount of new additions this year, we had no idea who would come out on top. While the #1 spot remained the same, last year’s #2 (YWFT Agostina) didn’t even make it into the top 30! It’s very possible that serves to somehow quantify how much we have changed, but we’re not psychologists. Also, these winners are based purely on how many times they were purchased, not revenue totals, so the winners have been entirely determined by you: the font-lovin’ public!

Note: you can purchase the whole lot of these winning fonts in the all new Top 10 Fonts of 2010 value pack, saving over 20% off the original prices.

1 - YWFT Hannah - Staying on top once again is our ever-so-popular YWFT Hannah. A few clones and straight up wannabes came along throughout the year on other font venues, but none of them had the detail and opentype power that was set into YWFT Hannah. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for, so don’t be fooled by the knock-offs, there can be only one.

2 - Lodgecode – The only public font release by Jeff Warrington, who hit a total bases-clearing home run on his first time at bat. Dude never even saw a bat before, and he knocked this one clear across the avenue and broke a window across the street. Even though Lodgecode is a caps-only design, it contains opentype alternates and works great in headline, and at small sizes onscreen. Now, if we can only get him to add lowercase options in 2011…

3 - Clairemy – Not even a traditional system font, this handset conquered the charts throughout the mid part of 2010. (This should be made into working opentype format, shouldn’t it? Okay, note to self: “design hang-gliding robot sled.” NO, NO, I mean “make opentype of Clairemy.”)

4 - YWFT HLLVTKA – This crazy hand-drawn beast from the darkest depths of 2007 started the year as a handset, and ended it in opentype format. It’s like a were-beast that way. While only just being converted to opentype in December, it easily became the top seller in December. Because lycanthropes freakin’ love December. Look for this to compete for the number 1 spot next year, Casey Kasem.

5 - YWFT Black Slabbath – For the third year in a row, ‘Slabbath the Slab’ is in the top of the tops but drops two spots. What more do we need to tell you? We know, you know, and the Children of the Grave know: ain’t nobody slayin’ the Slabbath, this one is made of iron, man. (See what we did there?)

6 - YWFT Gavin – At 837 letter designs (handset), it comes as no surprise YWFT Gavin is in the top 10 this year. Released in early January, this handset went on to dominate sales in the first quarter of the year and gained much notoriety in numerous design magazines. NUMEROUS top men noted it, Doctor Jones.

7 - Social Gothic – Coming out of nowhere, SG® jumps the ranks and winds up in the Top 10 this year. A classic and quirky serif design from the type hounds at Canada Type, this release is great for poster and headline use. See, cuz it’s both Social, and Gothic.

8 - Cowboyslang – This uniquely fun slab was well-received for the first few months it landed on the site. Who would think a western-style slab would beat out some of the best serifs on our site? All so-called type gurus, take note: the people have spoken! They want a full slab! With sauce!

9 - NE10 – One of the finest and most fashionable stencil designs to hit in the past decade, NE10 will tear up any design gig. Heck, use it on your upcoming wedding invite, why not? Mr. and Mrs. NE along with Mr. and Mrs. 10 cordially invite you to the Old Moose Lodge, RSVP here.

10 - YWFT Thinaire – Retaining a rank in the Top 10 again this year, YWFT Thinaire was the original design idea that later formed in to YWFT Hannah. (Oh, right. No wonder it’s in the Top 10.) YWFT Thinaire is currently available in handset format.

YWFT Studio Picks

Proxima Nova
Michael Paul Young (YWFT Creative Director) – ”I have to pick one release, but I really have two in mind. This year I chose Mark Simonson’s Proxima Nova for all of our internal materials and branding, which automatically makes it my favorite, of course. But, I think the best (overall) release on the site for the year was really URW Grotesk. It comes with 59 clean, slick, fully functional and minimal sans-serif options for only $99. Seriously, how do you even beat that kind of a deal?”

YWFT HLLVTKA
Jackkrit (YWFT Senior Art Director) – “YWFT HLLVTKA!”

YWFT Valley
Norrasak Ramasute (YWFT Junior Designer) - ”Really, my favorite would be Proxima Nova, but MPY already picked that, so I would have to say YWFT Valley is the next in line.”

Ok, thats a wrap! Don’t forget, you can get all of these at a 20% discount in the Top 10 Fonts of 2010 value pack.