Sunday Type: monday type

Mar 17 2008 [comment]

100 Words

First, I must apologies that today’s Sunday Type is closer to a Monday Type. I have now moved and am surrounded by numerous half-open boxes, and I have to wait until March 21 until I get connected. What an odd feeling it is not be connected to the Internet. Anyway, I’ve found an Internet Café close by, so I’ll survive until I get connected at home. Oddly enough, I appear to have lost several boxes during the move, and my heart missed a beat when I thought that I’d forgotten my FontBook. Anyway, that’s quite enough of moving mishaps. Here’s Sunday Type:

First up, we have a simple and yet very effective type treatment. A word comprised of words. This one would make an interesting classroom lesson; how about the word typography constructed from typographic terms.

Next is a collection of Album Covers. Part of the allure of Vinyl is not only its distinct sound, but its size and shape, which makes it a great canvas for design. CD cases are too small. For those of you too young to remember Vinyl, head on over to Mark Simonson’s site. Oh to be born with the surname Kern.

Next we have a special offer. Who doesn’t like special offers! Ginza is another typeface from Neil Summerour (30% discount):

What to do if your parcel gets lost in post limbo? Repackage it like this. Something tells me, this one won’t be getting misplaced:

Type links roundup

How much of a font do you draw out by hand?—Typophile
Type Club of Toronto—promoting good typography in Canada
Proceed and be bold—from Type For You
Design is in the details—A List Apart
Type Workshop—by Underware
Women printers in Mexico—easily amused

I really like this simple logo idea:

And from my very favourite Found Type site, Ace Jet 170, the mostly overlooked side of postcards:

And a great article on the em and em square, hidden away in the Font Bureau archives:

And while on the subject of the Font Bureau, this month they released two new typefaces, Scout and FB Moderno. Moderno, initially designed in 1995 has grown into a family of 32 rather lovely styles:

Today’s type

Block Gothic Extra Condensed from Red Rooster Type:

Coming up

Some Extreme Type Terminology, book reviews, several interview, a series on type foundries and much much more.

And finally

Thanks to everyone for their comments on Kris Sowersby’s wonderful From MoleSkine to Market article. Wherever you are and whatever day it is where you are, have a great day. See you all mid-week for some more type goodness. For me, it’s back to the joys of unpacking.

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37 comments * comment * trackback

Luci E.
Sunday is a day to think about God more than we do usually. But people have put God out of the question and here they are, trying to fulfill their lives with satisfaction that comes from music, fun or fonts… Too bad though, that this things don’t satisfy the soul. So right now, today, turn to God and seek His plan, to live life as He intended, not as you wish. Because in the end, at the judgement, it’s His decision that matters…
Mar 17, 2008
Sander
Thanks John for the roundup, the thoughtful blog seems very interesting. Good luck with getting your things together after the move.
Mar 17, 2008
Marty D.S.
Excuse me, I think your right on the daily matters,
but I do also believe that by making art you connectt
with the divine, and typography is an art!
So I now turn to God in an artistic way …
Wonderful Monday Type, Thank you!!!
Mar 17, 2008
Luci E.
To Marty D.S.: There is only one way to turn to God, and that’s not an artistic way. It’ by believing in Jesus Christ and what He did for all people…
Mar 17, 2008
Ric
To Luci E.
Please go away and take your imaginary friend with you.
Mar 17, 2008
gemma
The egg/spoon logo is great! Took me a couple of seconds to get it but then it was worth the wait!
Fed Ex sent me a formal apology letter after receiving the angry-typo-box…but the letter was fraught with typos and grammatical errors. I had to refrain from writing all over it and sending that back too … :-P
Mar 17, 2008
Luci E.
To Ric: God is not imaginary, nor fictive, He is REAL. In fact, He created you too and the hole universe, but of course stubborn people always tried to find inteligent explanations for the things they don’t believe. The most foolish thing is an atheist trying to prove there is no God.
Mar 17, 2008
miha
Typography is so great that it must had been made by God:)
Mar 17, 2008
Ric
Luci, I will not take lessons in anything from people who can’t spell.
Mar 17, 2008
TypoJunkie
HI John!
I just saw the “Egg & Spoon” logo somewhere… DesignWeek awards, maybe? I must admit it is really nice. I love it when the viewer “gets” the logo. Gotta love The Chase. FB Moderno looks nice, although it reminds me a bit of typefaces I dislike (Didot and Bodoni). I guess it’s the contrast.
I wish you luck with he move, as I’ve done that a few times in the past. I don’t know why, but there’s always boxes that stay closed.
I remember the agony of not having internet at home… Stay strong!
Mar 17, 2008
Tony
Luci,
The hole universe, huh? If only…
In the words of Richard Dawkins:
“we are all atheist about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in…some of us just go one god further.”
Mar 17, 2008
David Airey
Hi Johno,
I hope the unpacking goes smoothly. I’ve always found it easier to unpack than to pack, but stressful all the same.
I saw the Egg n Spoon logo a few weeks back, and contacted the designers about it. They said they’d look-out some sketches for me, after I asked about the process, but nothing yet.

Mar 17, 2008
Manuel, Æstheticrew
Luci E., you are most welcome to celebrate your sunday in a way your boss finds appropriate. But i bet he won’t appreciate the way how you try to advertise his qualities.
“People have put God out of the question” you say. Most likely because of comments like yours.
God (or however one might call it) is everything, that’s what i read in your book. For some, it is that divine being you read about in the bible, for some it is something different. If we here appreciate the day with something beautiful, something that lifts up our spirits, then i am sure he appreciates it, as we celebrate life, calling him or calling him not.
Sorry for the offtopic, John. Love the words in a word idea! :)
Mar 17, 2008
interrobang
Since type terminology is being provisionally mentioned for subsequent discussion above, it should be stated for the record that the “EM space” in the fine and informative article on the FontBureau site should correctly be referred to as an “Em quad”. EMs are always quads. There are “EN Spaces” which are half the “set width” of the EM of any given face.
In ascending order of “set”, there are 5 to the Em spaces, 4 to the Em spaces, 3 to the Em spaces, En spaces, Em quads, 2 Em quads and 3 Em quads. Additionally, there were 1/2pt copper and 1pt brass “thin spaces” that were independent of the various sets of any given point size. That is another discussion.
This is the American typesetting standard. European foundries (Haas at least) issued incrementally different fonts of spacing material that further subdivided spaces and quads into 10 or 12 set widths.
Beyond that, the “horizontal space” mentioned is correctly referred to as “set width”. Ergo, the set width of an “M” in any given face is not necessarily an EM in set.
That is all.
mjb
Mar 17, 2008
leah
I feel I need to say to Luci E, at the risk of continuing this tangent too long, that if this is your Sabbath, you do realize you yourself are online. And on a blasphemous font site, no less!
I’m not going to get into my religious beliefs except to say that I am a pious-ish person, who believes that true faith and grace come out in our actions towards other people and beings. Whether or not I read about fonts on a Sunday has nothing to do with my attitude toward God.
John, Another great round-up of type! I’ve been away for a week or so and come back feeling like I’ve missed a month! :) Good job on making the articles on the main page small sections, with the option to read more if wanted. That makes it easier for my dial-up-beleaguered computer to load the page. I have lots of catching-up reading to do!
Also — I had to bring the Bringhurst back to the library. :( But, it was a great book for the little time I had with it, and I really loved his writing. I copied down a few passages and from time to time, as I was reading the book, would read out loud to myself. That’s where his poetry background is really evident! It seems like a great resource to have on hand, to browse through, to learn about other fonts, to supply some gorgeous bits of writing to an otherwise lackluster day. :) I ordered (again from the library) another one of his books, A Story as Sharp as a Knife, and will start it soon. (Although every time I think of it, I start humming Bryan Adams… “Cuts like a knife..” :) )
Mar 17, 2008
Carla @ WordPlay
What joy to find this blog. I just became a subscriber the other day.
I’m an art director from w-a-y back. So far back in fact, the company I worked for had an almost-room-sized CompuGraphic machine that generated type galleys we had to paste down with wax. The only way we got to have “fancy” fonts in our magazine was if we used rub-on letters. Wow.
Anyway, how wonderful it is to see that others enjoy type as much as I do. And I see from your links that there are actually other blogs that celebrate type as well. You don’t know how happy you’ve made me! I look forward to reading more.
Mar 17, 2008
Stephen Tiano
Nice round-up, John.
I have an item that I believe might fit in at this point in a general kind of way. And I can’t take credit for this, as I discovered it via the blog Designers Who Blog.
The “this” is Daily Type, in their own words now: “… a creative project run by several russian type designers. Day by day, they create original typefaces and post their results along with routine.”
Mar 18, 2008
Armen
Aw man, that logo is so awesome.
I also love the words in the word poster too. Nice. Gives me a few ideas too.
Mar 18, 2008
johno (iLT)
Luci E
I don’t wish to offend you, but this is a blog about typography. I believe there is a time and a place for everything. Here we talk about type. I’d be more than willing do discuss other topics with you, but not here. My personal email address is jboardley@gmail.com. Feel free to mail me.
Sander
Thanks. Still lots of unpacking to do, but great to arrive at the Internet Cafe and find all these comments.
Marty D.S.
Thank you, Marty. Pleased you enjoy it. I really enjoy writing it.
gemma
You’ll have to post the letter to your blog :)
miha
Good to see you again. Thanks for your comment.
TypoJunkie
Thanks for the link. I guess if your not a fan of the Didones, you won’t be a fan of Moderno. Thanks for the encouragement. I’m going to celebrate finally getting connected.
David
Please let me know if you do get those sketches. Perhaps you can post them to Logo Design Love.
Manuel
Thanks. I haven’t forgotten about the sIFR. I’ll be in touch soon. Thanks for your help thus far.
interrobang
Thanks for the comprehensive clarification. Hope that you’ll write for iLT some day.
leah
Pleased you like the excerpts. I’ve never read his A Story as Sharp as a Knife. Let me know what you think. If I start humming that Bryan Adams tune, you’re responsible.
Carla
Thanks for your kind words, and welcome to iLT. I look forward to seeing you here again.
Stephen
Thanks for the links. The Daily Type idea is a god one.
Armen
If it does inspire something, then be sure to let me know. It’s given me a few ideas too.
Mar 18, 2008
inspirationbit
John, I do hope you’ll find your lost boxes? Did you move everything at once, with a moving company (can you contact someone if you can’t find the boxes)? It’s strange that you’re getting connected to the internet a week after you move in, why is it taking so long there to get connected? Here we got connected the next day after we moved.
Hope there are cafes in Japan where you get free wifi with the purchase of hot java ;-)
The egg-spoon logo is very clever indeed, I like those type of logos.
Nice to see that someone is promoting a good typography in Canada as well. Those vinyl record covers are ravishing. There’s definitely lots of inspiration in everything antique.
P.S. yesterday I kept checking my calendar, thinking that something must be wrong with it, since I didn’t see Sunday Type from iLT online ;-)

Mar 18, 2008
johno (iLT)
inspirationbit
Hi Vivien. No, I did it myself. I thought, should be easy. I was mistaken. Anyway this Internet Café is pretty comfortable; they even have private rooms with massage chairs. I might try one of those tomorrow. However, I can’t wait until the 21st, when I’ll be connected at home—nice, super-fast fibre-optic connection :)
Mar 18, 2008
inspirationbit
oooh-ho… I guess if we don’t see a new article from you on Wednesday, those comfy massage chairs would be to blame ;-)
Well, at least you’ll get unpacked quicker with less distractions by being unplugged until Fri (I do relate to your internet blues, just trying to look at things with a positive attitude) ;-)

Mar 18, 2008
Hamish
Thanks again, John. Great roundup!
I too love those witty logos. A classic example is the somewhat hidden arrow in the FedEx logo. (Once you see it, you’ll always look for it…)
Also, I’m happy to hear your move is finally finished. I know what it’s like to not have internet, since I’ve been at a Hostel in NYC for the past few days, and I’ve had to hit up the local Starbucks for any connection. (And it’s not free, grrr)
I’m at Penn Station, waiting for my 11 hr train, which leaves in about an hour. So thanks for the great info/entertainment :)
PS. I used the Subway a lot while I was here. Helvetica is all over, it’s great! Hehe.

Mar 18, 2008
Martin
Aw man, that logo is so awesome.
I also love the words in the word poster too. Nice. Gives me a few ideas too.
Mar 18, 2008
Becca
I love the I love typography blog. It rocks. Your articles are a constant source of inspiration. I am currently working on wedding invites for a person who is not related to me. A step up for sure! Any tips for a young (well sorta young) artist who uses type?
Mar 18, 2008
Robert
Thanks for the cool links John. Type Trust has been putting out some quality typefaces. I bought Estilo Text recently for my logo. Oh and that egg & spoon logo is genius!

Mar 18, 2008
Richard Butler
Great typography..! Very interesting..
Mar 19, 2008
Luci E.
People haven’t changed much, can you see? When Jesus came into this world they couldn’t find ONE place for Him so He was left to be born in a manger… They were busy with other important stuff.It’s not the right time, it’s not the right place (read that blog). There is always something (apparently) more important to do than think about God. There is always a new site to visit, a new font to keep you excited or a new bad habbit to explore. Too bad this things cannot save your soul…
Mar 19, 2008
Adrian
The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw that “Egg n’ spoon” logo is Internet Explorer. Was that part of their Master Plan?
I’m frankly surprised to see religious argument here in the comments. Let’s keep it clean here mates. Please find a forum where it would be more appropriate for kind discussion (or vehement argument as is most often the case.)
Mar 19, 2008
Justin
Taking a break from sanding the rough bits of my platen…love the FedUp box, postcard backs, egg logo, and the Proceed & Be Bold trailer. More letterpress, more!
Have you perused CanadaType’s offerings? They’ve got a couple nice, simple blackletters, and a stencil that I actually want.
re Luci E.: I believe she may be imaginary…but it takes all kinds, no? Pax Typografica for all.

Mar 20, 2008
Roger
The FedEx box is inspiring.
FB Moderno is not.
My two cents.
Mar 20, 2008
Roberta Seldon
Egg & Spoon… Brilliant!
Mar 27, 2008