To a typetastic new year

Jan 5 2009 [comment]

The Week in Type

A belated Happy New Year to all. It’s that back-to-work time for everyone. Feeling inspired? I’m hoping that 2009 will pass by a little slower than 2008. Here’s iLT’s first post of 2009. Enjoy!

You may have wished for one of these at Christmas. The leather ‘type bag’ from Assouline. If you have a spare $450, it’s not too late:

Via typornography.

House Industries, makers of fine type, metal ampersands, and, just about anything type related, have redesigned their Web site. Very nice too:

Some nice illustration and lettering from Steve Leadbeater:

A a couple more pieces by Steve, including this great found type compilation, available as a print:

and this clever t-shirt:

You can check out Steve’s other work on redbubble.com.

Plenty of inspiration and numerous illustrative type techniques to be found at debutart.com:

Via Veerle.

Very clever chair alphabet from Amandine Alessandra:

The Designer’s Review of Books is a great sites with some wonderful reviews; and a lovely masthead set in Ale Paul’s Buffet Script:

Another victim of the economic downturn is the bilingual (Japanese & English) PingMag, for a long time one of my favourite graphic design blogs. At some stage I guess they’ll actually take down the site, so I suggest you head on over to PingMag’s typography category and eat it up before it’s taken off the table. Some great articles, including an interview with Linotype’s director of type, Akira Kobayashi; a 2006 interview with Jonathan Barnbrook, and lots more.

In 2008, I stumbled upon numerous posts about the typography of film titles. But I think Art of the Title is the first Web site dedicated to the topic:

Thanks, Anton.

A stunning image from Ebon Heath’s Stereo.Type: a typographic ballet:

Thanks, jcapDesign.

Lovely illustrative type from Jonathan Caplan:

Some nice illustrations and spreads from Jihad Lahham:

Via Andre & Vivien.

I’ve mentioned this site before, but it has recently been updated to include most of the type specimens (back to 2004) of the work of Uni of Reading MA in typeface design students:

Well worth taking a look it.

Smile type

I have nothing against Helvetica, but I don’t think any amount of money would have me repeat this:

Found on the Typophile forum. The first comment made me smile:

What made you go with bold?

Priceless.

I challenge you to find a more bizarre f:

As a good friend of mine commented, “…this is what happens to signage when hair stylists are involved.” Indeed, stick to hair.

This is fun, though I don’t believe that it has been digitised yet. The toast font from Radomir Tinkov:

Like these experiments from Jakob Nylund:

Be sure to read Dan Reynold’s Twelve memorable type occurrences:

Ivo Gabrowitsch’s list of top types of 2008 is another must see. Die besten Schriften 2008:

Free fonts

The Danish publishing company Aller has released their Aller Sans for free:

Used for today’s masthead. Thanks to Mark Adkins for the heads up.

News

Just in case you missed my announcement on twitter, here’s a new site from iLT. Typenuts is a place to download free iPhone and desktop wallpapers. Some designed by me; many others contributed. You can also subscribe, so that you always have a fresh stream of papers in your RSS reader.

I’m also working on another site (almost identical in design to TypeNuts) for showcasing Type-related posters, with links (if available) to where they can be purchased. No launch date on that one, but coming soon. If you’d like to get involved in gathering resources for that site, then mail me at johno@ilovetypography.com, please.

Thanks to everyone for reading and contributing to iLT in 2008. Do you have a favourite post from 2008? I’ll do more than my best to step things up, and bring you better content, and more of it. Hope you all have an inspiring, productive and, above all else, a happy 2009.

happy and prosperous 2009 from iLT

SHARE THE LOVE:

49 comments * comment * trackback

Anthony James Bruno
A Typetastic New Year Indeed!
That Lower Back Tattoo is just NASTY! Creative Fail!
-ajb
Jan 5, 2009
Kyle Meyer
Jonathan Coplan’s illustration is gorgeous, wow.
Congrats on the typenuts launch, I’ve been using iLT wallpapers for some time now and this is going to be much more convenient to keep up with.
Jan 5, 2009
inspirationbit
and a very Typetastic Happy New year to you, John and to all iLT fans. Keep up the great work, just don’t drive some of us to bankruptcy with whetting our appetite with beautiful type and type-related accessories like that gorgeous leather type bag ;)

Jan 5, 2009
Travis
I love what you’ve done with Typenuts. Wouldn’t mind seeing a category added to it (or a post on iLT) for typographic patterns that can be used as Twitter profile backgrounds.
Cheers to a type filled ‘09!

Jan 5, 2009
johno
Anthony
So you won’t be getting one then? ;)
Kyle
Glad you like it. Don’t forget to submit some.
inspirationbit
A great 2009 to you too, Vivien. I should have a cheap type section.
Travis
That’s a great idea.
Jan 5, 2009
Dan Reynolds
Happy New Year, Johno. I can’t wait to see you poster site in action. I’m sure that by this time next year, if I write up my recollections of 2009, you’ll have done lots of things that must be mentioned on anybody’s list.

Jan 5, 2009
Mark
Another great “week in type”. As always it will take awhile to go through everything, which isn’t a bad thing I love having loads of typographical loveliness to peruse.
P.S
I would definetly get that Helvetica tattoo but smaller. Although I don’t think I could trust any local tattoo artists to get it right. Oh well.
Jan 5, 2009
Manuel Martensen
Hey John.
I am suprisingly not that much into “reading about type” lately—I am a gemini, guess zapping it’s part of our design—so I did not check back here very often: I love it how you cleaned up the sidebar! And it is great to watch this blog growing and you becoming the lord of typebloggers!
All the best! ;-)
Jan 5, 2009
Hamish M
Great as always! Wishing you a very typetastic year as well, John! :)

Jan 5, 2009
AO
This is completely unrelated.
How do you pronounce Neue?
Do you just say New?
Jan 6, 2009
Able Parris
Johno, a wonderful typetastical year to you, sir. Look at what you have created! This site is a wonderful success.
And thanks for the link to the January wallpaper. Actually, while I was scrolling down, I saw “Smile type” and thought you might have featured my “ap” logo. Anyways, it’s an honor to be linked for anything here.
Cheers!
Jan 6, 2009
Hamish M
AO
Actually, I believe it’s pronounced “Noy” — rhyming with “Roy”.

Jan 6, 2009
Robert
Really great stuff this week. I to also love the re-design of the House Ind. website. I really like the Art of the Title website. I am taking a motion graphics class this quarter and one of our projects is an opening credit video, the site is an awesome resource, thanks! Oh and I like what you are doing with Typenuts, will there be a possibility where others can submit wallpapers?

Jan 6, 2009
Sama
Hi Johno, I’m new (really new) to type design and you can’t believe how helpful your blog is.
I’m still gobbling up your past entries but one of my favorites so far is 30 inspiring type treatments. I think I want to spend my time designing posters so I eagerly await your new site.
Happy new year! you have gained a new subscriber! and typenuts looks great!
Jan 6, 2009
Andy Polaine
What a great set of links to kick of the year and thanks for the mention of the Designer’s Review of Books. iLT is, of course, a favourite read of ours too!
Jan 6, 2009
Alec
Thanks for a great year of posts, Johno. Here’s looking forward to another awesome year!…

Jan 6, 2009
Risto
Happy new year!
Surfing throw your links (www.typographyserved.com), I came across a font very similar to the toast font - Rainbow and it’s downloadable. :)
I’ll get around sending you some samples on Newzald beeing used on newspaper later this week.
Risto
Jan 6, 2009
Bert Vanderveen
Neue… Say ‘noi-uh’ and most german-speakers will understand you.
Jan 7, 2009
johno
AO
Hamish & Bert are right. You can listen to an audio file of the pronunciation of neue over at Forvo.
Jan 7, 2009
Michael McKelvaney
Like most other people I was saying it wrong. Funny how you just make up your own word for it. Say what you see……
Jan 7, 2009
Matthew Chambers
I like the idea that ‘Neue’ is pronounced like a spring… ‘Noioioioioi!’
Jan 7, 2009
Vinz
Happy new year !!!
Why typenuts only for iphone wallpapers??
Jan 7, 2009
George
First-off a very happy new year to everyone! :)
I’m loving the type illustrations (The Readies) looks like a gorgeous book & the convo about the pronunciation of the word ‘Neue’ was interesting as well, Forvo is brilliant [Bookmarked].
Sadly, I think the Aller Sans download link is has gone down :( will try again in a few days.
All the best for 2009 everyone, here’s to another year of great type!
Jan 7, 2009
MP
Vinz, I agree with you! Always excluding the other Smartphone owners. :) You could always download the wallpaper and crop to you screen size, if it doesn’t mess up the composition. Thanks Johno for sharing Toast Font, it’s looks quite tasty. Happy New Year, all.
-MP
Jan 7, 2009
johno
Vinz & MP
Let me know the device name & the required size, and I’ll begin adding them to TypeNuts.
Jan 7, 2009
johno
Here’s the command c paper at 320 by 240.
Jan 7, 2009
MP
Thanks Johno! I’m a BB user, so 320X240 works great. Just added the Command C on my phone. Looking nice!
-MP
Jan 7, 2009
Josh
Quick question: this is the second time I’ve tried importing Aller and it is giving me a “serious problems found” warning, saying that the OpenType features do not exist. Anyone else getting that warning? Is it anything to be concerned with?
Jan 7, 2009
johno
Josh
I didn’t encounter any errors, but I will check the original font files.
Jan 8, 2009
AO
Thanks for the correct pronunciation of Neue.
I was thinking it was ‘New eh’ like the pacific island Niue. I was dreading the day I’d have to say it out loud.
Jan 8, 2009
mj petroni
any more news on the aller sans opentype issues? my 10.4-version font book returned the same error as josh. love the font, don’t want a crash or a nightmare with an important print job. :(
Jan 9, 2009
mj petroni
any more news on the aller sans opentype issues? my 10.4-version font book returned the same error as josh. love the font, don’t want a crash or a nightmare with an important print job. :(
please reply to this comment and not the previous one; this one has the email followup checkbox checked….
thx! @mama_j
Jan 9, 2009
johno
mj
That’s odd. I have just finished running some tests, and all the fonts passed with no errors. I’m running the latest FontBook (2.1) on Mac OS X 10.5.6. I’ll ask around.
In the meantime, it’s probably worth mailing them about your problems. There’s a mail address on the download page.
Jan 9, 2009
aprintaday
i <3 your blog. period.
Jan 9, 2009
johno
aprintaday
Thank you. Would be great if you submitted Hair Type as an iPhone wallpaper for typenuts.com.
Jan 9, 2009
Anthony James Bruno
@johno
Maybe a Gill Sans tattoo! HA
Jan 9, 2009
BORABORA
Thank you for being part of my daily inspiration!
You guys truly rock!
Btw: If there were a luggage-bag-version of the “type-bag” above, I would definately think about buying it :D
Regards
Jan 11, 2009
JetGirl
wow, @ helvetica tattoo. there isn’t enough tequila in the WORLD..hhahah
Jan 12, 2009
Kari Pätilä
Your Google Search Results plugin seems to be acting up. I get results for aller and typeface for no obvious reason.

Jan 12, 2009
johno
Kari
Am I using that plugin? You have a screen-shot? Whatever it is, I’ll get it fixed.
On second thoughts, perhaps it’s the cache plugin, caching others’ search results. Will investigate.
Jan 13, 2009
Kari Pätilä
I think that’s a part of some search feature that ships with WordPress, but for some reason the results aren’t there anymore. So, problem solved!

Jan 13, 2009
Zoe
I am doing a report on typography for school and I absolutly love it. I took a digital arts class that introduced me to it and i am intrigued by it ever since
Jan 14, 2009
zibex
v3wptZ hi! nice site!
Jan 21, 2009