Sunday Type: community type
The Ten-Gallon Hat
First i would like to thank Mark Otto for iLT’s new menu (the one above the masthead). Thanks also to Hamish who raised the whole issue over at TypeSites. I’m thrilled that iLT readers are contributing in this way, so thanks. In the coming weeks I’ll be making some other minor changes to the site: tidying-up the sidebar, and generally making things easier to find.
Let’s begin with a versal or initial capital. The whole point being that it easily marks where the reader should begin reading. On a busy page, it’s especially useful. There are many forms; here is the mother of all raised or elevated caps courtesy of Circular Magazine from the Typographic Circle.
And talking of initial caps, I’m reminded of this wonderful sentence from The Elements of Typographic Style:
If there is a chapter title, an epigraph, a sidenote, and a photograph and caption, the opening of the text will need a banner, a ten-gallon hat or a bright red dress to draw the eye.
With the proliferation of typographic t-shirts, it looks as though the new black is type. Here’s the Sans Serif t-shirt from Matthew McInerney:
Via mattmc. I really haven’t forgotten about the iLT t-shirts. I have the designs. It’s just a time thing.
Letraset Love
Last week I mentioned Able’s Letraset piece. This week, I’ve found a whole Flickr set dedicated to it.
In fact a Flickr search revealed some great Letraset typography. This Carsonesque one is one of my favourites:
And, yes, you can still buy Letraset transfers. Oh, and just one more while we’re on the Letraset theme:
Next some organic or floral type by neuarmy:
Via katize.
Events
If you’re within a few hundred miles of Hamilton, you might want to go along to a screening of Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica. Special guests include Brian Maloney and Patrick Griffin. They also promise “plenty of swag.” The screening will be held on Thursday, May 22nd. Find out more here.
And don’t forget TypeCon in Buffalo, July 15–20. Then, the cherry on the icing on the cake is The 2008 ATypI conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, September 17–21.
Experimenta has a review of Kris Sowersby’s National:
Free Fonts
Metalista from the Suitcase foundry is available free for a limited time.
Designed by Tomáš Brousil who also designed the Dederon Serif Family, which I’m quite a fan of.
New Type
They’ve been a long time coming, but at last Mark Simonson’s Metallophile Sp8 has a couple of new weights. In addition the whole family is now in OpenType and has a much larger character set.
Mark plans to release yet further weights in the summer, so keep your eyes peeled. Be sure to take a look at the PDF too. I bought the medium weight for today’s header.
Sunday Links
The Next Page: Thirty Tables of Contents
Sexy, Bold And Experimental Typography
Cubescape—making type
ABCZ—via Carey Girl
TypeWalk Flickr Group
Anamorphic Cups—thanks Ricky
Blog: The Calligraphy Alphabet
Underware in Deep—custom type for Suunto
Video: John Gall, book designer—thanks, Hamish
Interview with Phil Martin—from the Typographica archives
For Your Next Type-Themed Party
Inspiration
Nicholas Felton is pretty talented when it comes to presenting data. His Felton Annual Report is no exception:
Some 3D type via Fuzbiz:
Not sure that this will be the next fashion hit, but it is fun:
A simply beautiful image from the Ministry of Type:
And I love this masthead from the CharmingWall web site (nicely animated too):
Crossword Winner
Thanks to everyone who sent in their entries for iLT’s first Type Crossword. Of those who completed the crossword, the winner—picked at random—is Julie Sims. Thanks again to Henning who offered such a wonderful prize in Haptic. Here’s the completed crossword:
As this one was so popular, I may make the crossword a regular (monthly) feature.
Today’s Types
First, something fun from P22. Great for those Sex Pistol-esque record sleeves. Dada Special Edition:
I mentioned Dederon Serif above. Well, here’s the perfect Sans accompaniment, Dederon Sans:
Coming Up Next…
an interview with type designer Stefan Hattenbach. Have a great week!
—Karen Cheng
26 Comments, Comment or Trackback
Joey Pfeifer
You’ve outdone yourself again, Johno! Really enjoyed this post. I especially like Nicholas Feltron’s portfolio (and site, too) along with Dederon Serif.
I’m amazed that you’re able to do this every week!
May192008
johno (iLT)
Joey
Thanks. really appreciate your kind words. I’ll certainly keep doing it.
May192008
ferdinand
I love the sans serif tee. I’ll definitely try myself at the next crossword puzzle.
May192008
Sander
Another great sunday roundup! The new header is looking good. Have a great week! And looking forward to the community changes for iLT.
May192008
DazzleCat
metalista looks great esp as its also free too! nice work
May192008
Dav, Forma
Until the interview with Stefan goes ‘live’, some may be interested in reading another interview with him, over at ‘The Forma blog’: http://for.ma/blog/?p=64
May192008
Mitternacht
Thank you so much for the link to the Letraset flickr group. I really love this sort of typo-art — and congrats for iLT in general, you’re really doing a great great job.
May192008
Alec
Love the new top menu — very clean.
May192008
Hamish M
Haha, I see a type-tshirt trend coming on. ;)
Great stuff John, thanks again for bringing it all together. I’m also glad to see the new menu in action, really adds to the site!
Oh, and congrats to Julie on winning the crossword challenge. That was no easy task.
Definitely looking forward to the interview coming up, cheers.
May192008
inspirationbit
Today’s Sunday (in my case Monday) Type I was reading with my daughter, sitting on my lap. She asked me what am I reading, I answered “a blog about letters”. Then she started reading out loud all the letters, finishing them on one image and asking, “what’s next?”, I scroll down, and she says, “oh, more letters”, and goes on spelling them out. Looks like you’ve already got a new reader here, John, probably the youngest one ever (three years old) ;-)
Thanks for another great source of type inspiration. Congrats to Julie Sims.
May192008
Hamish M
Vivien (inspirationbit)
Aww, that’s adorable! Typography really is for everyone. :)
May192008
Julie Sims
John and Henning, thanks so much to you both for the contest and the lovely prize, I am beyond thrilled! Crosswords and fonts… two of my favorite ways to geek out. ;) I’ll definitely look forward to the next one should you decide to do more. Thanks for everything. iLiLT!
May192008
Alice Young
Wow, I just found your awesome site. Beautifully done, and a great source of interesting type info. I have some browsing to do! Your links, of course! I’ll be back often. Thanks! Alice
May192008
Andrew
I could have sworn that 43 Down was Grave, not Acute.
my reasoning via: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_accent
Definitely keep the type crosswords coming. I started a post over at Typophile about this one and a lot of people really enjoyed it. It stumped a lot of us, including me.
I think my only suggestions would be to try to cross more words. It was a real brain twister having only 1 letter to figure out a word. And if you could indicate if a word is an abbreviation (like PT for point) that would help too.
May192008
Richard Roche
I love that shirt, but it seems that every time I see a nice shirt, the men’s medium is always sold out and it makes me sad all day.
May192008
LaurenMarie - Creative Curio
I’m surprised at some of the crossword answers I got wrong! It’s funny, though, because the letters were in the right spots. For example, I had “black” instead of “ultra” and “jot” instead of “dot.” I guess I was trying to get to fancy on that last one. It was fun, though, and I learned a lot, especially about the eszett. I really enjoyed researching the answers.
I like those letraset examples. I need to start experimenting with my typography more that way! Very artistic.
@Vivien, too cute! And I’m sure you hardly share with us a fraction of all the adorable things your daughter does :)
P.S. John, there’s no link to the Charming Wall website! Really awesome animations, though! Wow! I especially liked the Locations one.
May192008
inspirationbit
Thanks, Hamish and Lauren.
Oh, yes, I keep thinking that I should start a blog and post all those cute things my daughter does and says, but then I just don’t have enough time for another blog. On the other hand, somehow I have a feeling that next year she’ll be starting her own blog (she’s already got the site and domain ready for that, thanks to her mom ;-))
When I was typing my previous comment here, she was already spelling every letter that was appearing on the screen (big T, small o, small d, small a, small y, small s, big S…) :-)
May192008
Tom Bland
Great post mate! Definitely the best thing about coming to work on Mondays.
Only one minor flaw though - but I’m sure it won’t affect your bottom line too much.
May202008
johno (iLT)
ferdinand
Yes, please try the next crossword.
sander
Thanks. I’ve started to tidy the side bar. Perhaps the footer next.
DazzleCat
Let me know if you get the opportunity to use it.
Dav
Thanks for the link.
Mitternacht
Thank you. See you tomorrow for the interview.
Alec
Yes, Mark has done a great job. I like it too. Now to tackle some other elements.
Hamish
And thank you for your constructive criticism.
inspirationbit
That’s lovely. Yes, I’m sure she’s my youngest reader—and what fine taste she has ;) Ask her if she’d like to contribute some illustrations.
Julie
Congratulations again. I’ve contacted Henning, and he’ll send you the fonts. I’ve started work on the next crossword.
Alice
Pleased to hear that. Welcome to iLT.
Andrew
I think “grave” is a fair answer, and it does fit; in fact several others gave “grave” as the solution—all those who did went into the correct pile. I will definitely try to “cross more words”. I may even do a cryptic and concise version of the same crossword. Do you have the Typophile link? Pleased you enjoyed it. Next one coming soon.
Richard
Sorry, but couldn’t help but laugh. I’ll be sure to reserve a medium mens for you—when I get round to screen-printing the iLT-T’s.
Lauren
Pleased you enjoyed it; and it’s wonderful that readers can learn something at the same time. I will attempt to construct my next crossword better.
Tom
Thanks. Great to hear. Minor flaw?
May202008
Grapplica
To discover more Letraset-goodness at Flickr, go to Grapplica
May202008
Andrew
John, here is the Typophile link. (I’m Asvetic on Typophile.)
http://www.typophile.com/node/45279
Of all the hints, “Unger’s Bird” made the least sense to me. Even after I had S — -T. And “Idiot Sayings” was a very clever hint, but because I rarely refer to straight quotes as dumb quotes it didn’t come out naturally. Still I enjoyed the challenge.
May202008
johno (iLT)
Grapplica
Thanks for the additional link.
Andrew
Thanks. Was interesting to read that thread. Great to see so many people getting involved.
May202008
That Blogger Guy
Great website. This is at the top of the list when I’m looking for info or some great inspiration for typography. I’ll definetly blog on this topic so check it out if you can!
May202008