[andrewmcwatters]

No, but there is historical precedence and coherence. It's like putting Greek columns on a Walmart. Or rapping in Old English.

There's "nothing inherent to the aesthetic principles" of rotary phones, but you don't use a smart phone with a rotary phone interface do you?

Taste is formed with the times in which they are developed in. And there are those who have taste coherence and those who do not.

"Nothing inherent to the aesthetic principles" of emo hair fringe or disco attire, but you wouldn't wear either to a historical reenactment of the American Civil War, either.

When people use Humanist typography they are invoking a specific feel.

[crazygringo]

I guess I just find myself disagreeing. I don't find lowercase numerals any different from extending a Latin font to Cyrillic or Greek. In my view, they're just extra characters, rather than an aesthetic choice of the font. Ideally, good body text fonts will have both types of numerals to choose from.

[andrewmcwatters]

I think it's just OK to disagree. But among designers, it does standout. It's like whitewalls on a contemporary supercar.

But you know what, there are plenty of out of place things that can still just be appealing sometimes. /shrug