What to choose as a 'serious' e-mail address... (And a fonts questions.)

1.) I need a 'professional-sounding' e-mail address. Problem: I have a very, very common first *and* last name, and no second or third name that I could insert in between, so all the really logical and 'professional' versions of my name are already taken. So... do I put my year of birth in there somewhere? But that immediately marks me as quite old for a person just entering professional life. Granted, they're going to see how old I am as soon as they look at my C.V., but, still - should I really put that info in my e-mail addy? But what else could I put in there? All the 'innocuous' numbers I can think of are taken already, too. (I think, in fact, that my birth year is already taken also.)

2.) Any fonts you could recommend that are both 'professional' *and* have some 'personality', i.e. that will make my C.V. etc. look like I actually know a bit about design? (Ironically, I *do* know a bit about design, but not really that much about the kind of design needed to create great application papers. Esp. not about fonts. Turns out that all the fonts that I instinctively like mark me as hopelessly boring, conventional, old-fashioned etc. in the eyes of the design-savy. In other words, I always go for the classics. Also, I tend to like expensive fonts, apparently - so I'd also like to get some recommendations for fonts that I won't have to pay hundreds of euros for. *g* (I *am* willing to pay *something*, btw - font designers need to live, too.)

Most prospective employers probably aren't going to judge the font I use that closely, but some might (seeing as how I'm officially a sort-of-professional designer, and might apply for positions involving that skill set.)

Why do I look so bizarre?

(Not ugly, mind you. Just... really, really odd. The proportions of my face are weird, and the face as a whole is just disproportionally huge, as well. And in at least half of all photos of me I look as if I'm *just* this side of manic. How am I supposed to find an appropriate photo for my application papers if I can't look 'normal' in a photo?)

(No, I'm not going to post a picture. But, for the curious, here's some puzzle pieces: *huge*, slightly non-symmetrical eyes; *huge*, oddly shaped nose; rabbit-like front teeth that, obviously, show very much when I smile or laugh; and very thick, dark eyebrows. Which probably makes me sound a bit more bizarre than I do look... The main problem is the eyes, really. I often look as if I'm seeing angels and demons, or something. As I said: just this side of manic. *Not* the first impression you want prospective employers to get...)

Having spent several hours...

staring at my name printed in a variety of fonts, I have now reached the stage where you wonder if your name *really* is spelled that way...

(PS: I haven't found a single non-ugly font yet.)

Two things I know about design

that a lot of people don't seem to agree with, however:

1.) Truly good design never gets boring. So maybe I should just trust my impulse to pick out Avenir from virtually every single list of typefaces I've found so far, and ignore all the people who say it's 'boring'. Yes, it's a classic, yes, it may have been used a lot - but it's quite simply an outstanding example of typeface design. (Then again, I can't afford Avenir anyway... it's in the three digits price range. *sigh*)

2.) This one has nothing to do with my application papers, nor with typefaces, but with a discussion about level/screen design for Knytt Stories I had on the Nifflas forum recently - and also with my liking things like medieval book illumination just as well as the minimalist page layouts and drawing style of Mohiro Kitoh: Very busy designs can be attractive. I absolutely do get the appeal of modernist simplicity (see my love of Kitoh), and am leaning towards it myself in most of my work, but I have a great appreciation for certain forms of 'clutteredness' that I won't deny in the name of any dogma.