We love typography
I’ve been a little quiet here of late. Now you know why. I’ve been working days and nights on a new site, something I see as a natural extension to this one. Meet WLT — welovetypography.com, a collaboration between myself and Kari Pätilä. It has been great fun to create, and I really hope that it inspires.
Rather than spend paragraphs explaining how and what it is, just take a look for yourselves. It’s like an FFFFound for type-related content, a type-themed delicious for the eyes.
One of the features that I’m particularly fond of (Kari’s handiwork) is the search by colour.
You can learn more about the site on its about page, and more about its contributors on the, um, contributors page. They’ve been busy bookmarking some 1000 images and videos!
To share, just add #WLT to your tweet, and see what others are saying. Enjoy!
Other news
There’s now a more mobile-friendly version of ILT at m.ilovetypography.com. The clever people at mobify.me created it. It certainly loads incredibly quickly, and supports dozens of mobile devices. Would love to hear what you think.
I’ll now be back to posting more frequently here on iLT. Coming up is a packed-to-bursting the week in type, a book review, a wonderful essay from a great type designer, a couple of interviews, and lots more besides.
It’s a beautiful sunny day here! Wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing, or thinking of doing, have an exceptional week.
— Stephen Coles
— Hochuli & Kinross
Robert
Very nice! It has been a real joy to be with iLT since the beginning. It’s great to see how big its gotten. Good stuff John.
-Robert (aka nerdski!)
Apr 15, 2009
Joey Pfeifer
This is awesome, Johno. Great idea and nice job! I’m glad to have something just for typography now, considering browsing FFFFound can be something of a crapshoot at times.
Apr 15, 2009
Katherine
Lovely! Looks great. I’m going to have a gander now… :)
Apr 15, 2009
Teresa
Looks very interesting… all 89! pages. I can’t wait to explore more of it… when it’s not 2am in the morning and I’m wide awake and not procrastinating on finishing my tax return! Thanks for sharing; I love this kind of thing!
Apr 15, 2009
Daus
Congratz on the new site. Very interesting. And you are so lucky to have that domain name :)
Apr 15, 2009
divinefusion
likey! I especially love the right menu bar with the fonts on black. beautiful.//
Apr 15, 2009
Torbjørn Vik Lunde
Great stuff like always.
I know I’ll use WeLoveTypography to search for inspiration. FFFound can def. sometimes be lacking the in the typographic department.
mobile-version of iLT seems to work great. The only complaint I have is that the text might be slightly small, I feel like I have to hold the phone a bit close for comfortable reading. (Might just be me though.)
Apr 15, 2009
Julian
Beautiful! Congratulations! :)
Apr 15, 2009
Imprimante
Smart & useful!
It’s a good idea to be able to search through the site.
It makes it much more than a bookmark tool, it is also a place for serious diggin’.
Thank you.
Apr 15, 2009
Satwik
Firstly, love the we love typography header. Perfect size and perfect type(goes without saying, still wanted to say it). Amazing work, amazing collection! Thank you so much again and again! Its such amazing inspiration for newbies like me. ive learnt more from iLT than everything in 4 years of college! RESPECT!
Apr 15, 2009
anton
Very nice! Only thing I have to say is that I would want the search bar input to have text-align: center;
Apr 15, 2009
M72
Wow! This is great. I am often too lazy to read all articles but I can stare at one picture for minutes if it’s good, interesting, inovative. You and collective around you often bring such flawless images so… this is really great :)
Apr 15, 2009
Andy
This is really cool!
Just what is needed when you’re looking to be inspired to work with type again and again.. Added to my feed reader straight away :)
Apr 15, 2009
Alexander Dimolaidis
Congratulations! The new site is awsome. I already found some of my favorite designworks, like the ones from Paul Lee…
Thanks for the hard work and affort.
Apr 15, 2009
Kari Pätilä
The colour search was the one I had most fun working with. Too bad I couldn’t get more than the 5 colours (blue, yellow, purple/violet, orange or black) working on launch day.
Incidentally, it’s the feature I’m still working on. We should have more wonderful stuff available soon enough.
Apr 15, 2009
James
Hey Johno, Kari
Absolutely loving WLT—ffffantastic idea! The design and type is, of course, gorgeous.
Only one very tiny note: typos inside words of big fonts tend to stand out; see the contributors page and the word “subscribe.”
Keep being great :)
James
Apr 15, 2009
Atherton Bartelby
What a fantastic new addition to the ILT “family”: a wonderful concept, and beautifully executed. Congratulations on such a fabulous new site!
Apr 15, 2009
Julian Schrader
Wow, great new project—superb idea and beautifully executed :-)
Thanks!
Apr 15, 2009
Steve K
Fantastic resource Johnno, love the simple but effective design.
Apr 15, 2009
Séb
Great Stuff ! Thanks !
Apr 15, 2009
Sander
Congrats John & Kari on this great new photo resource! Browsing through the website now! Only one thing that I noticed, how about the license of the photos? Good luck with your new project.
Apr 15, 2009
Kari Pätilä
@Sander
Copyrights are mentioned at the bottom of the page. There’s also a more detailed version at http://welovetypography.com/copyright/
Apr 15, 2009
Jeff
WLT Looks great! A perfect complement to this site and very valuable when looking for type inspiration. The mobile version of the site looks nice and is much easier to browse on my iPhone. Thanks!
Apr 15, 2009
Mike Skocko
Oh, just great. Now I have yet another page to view every day. ;)
Thanks! A wonderful idea realized. WLT will be a terrific resource for my students (and me).
Apr 15, 2009
Justin
I see a well-spaced future where you are involved with, on some level, every type-related site on the internet. It is a lovely place. :)
Apr 15, 2009
Dustin Senos
Congrats on the launch! Site is beautiful, content is beautiful and the concept will keep people inspired for the life of the site. Search by colour is the icing on the cake.
Apr 15, 2009
Aaron Mc Adam
Awesome stuff! This will keep me happy for ages!
Apr 15, 2009
Moisés Ribeiro
Great job! Congrats.
Apr 15, 2009
Jelmar
Very nice project, John. If you ever need another fellow-typehead contributor, let me know. :)
Apr 15, 2009
Satwik
I’m having a problem viewing images bigger than the screen resolution, the scroll is just causing a shake in the picture. Am i having this problem because of the setting or are other people having it?
Apr 16, 2009
Kari Pätilä
@Satwik
Which browser/OS combo are you using? Scrolling through large images works fine for me.
Apr 16, 2009
Satwik
Its windows xp; mozilla firefox. I could download google chrome. Does it work on that? I’ll try it out. Also the page numbers are just numbers. They arent working as buttons. i’m sure its a problem with my browser. However, i have a request: All the systems in my class have the same os and browser; infact most of the internet cafes i know in india(I know about Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai) have the same os and browser; will it be possible, therefore, to probably make it compatible with this on your end? Thanks for the prompt reply!
Apr 16, 2009
Gwóźdź Web designer
I admire quick and easy interface. It just work as is supposed to work :-) Your project is very useful, especially for designers looking for typo inspiration. Congrats!
Apr 16, 2009
Kari Pätilä
@Satwik
The pagination not working is really strange, since they are nothing but regular links. I had a chance to test both issues with Win2000 and Vista, but neither caused any problems for me.
Apr 16, 2009
mepc
ilovetypography.com is a great site to visit when in need of inspiration, fresh fonts and ideas. Look forward to browsing the new WLT site.
Apr 16, 2009
Lan Truong
Ohmygosh. I frickin’ love welovetypography. I visit it several times a day. AWESOME idea!
@lantru
Apr 16, 2009
Daniel
Congrats on the WLT site. It looks like it will be a great addition and resource for us all. Looking forward to many inspiring post.
Apr 17, 2009
Satwik
Hi Kari
I think the problem might be with my version of mozilla firefox. Its working well on internet explorer and chrome. Also i checked with many other friends last night. It’s working very well for them too. Sorry for causing all the alarm! can you please clarify one more thing: The search is unusually sized, but it works great, functionally speaking, what made you go with that as opposed to the usual?
Apr 17, 2009
Kari Pätilä
@Satwik
The design is mostly John’s. I got involved after the layout was done, but if I’d have to guess I’d say that it’s because our focus group tends to work with rather high screen resolutions, hence the large font size. That, and the focus being on typography and search, it’s kind of natural to emphasize both.
Apr 17, 2009
szabiakanich
Wow. That looks amazing. Really cool. Very simple (and efficient) layout. Very slick looking. Congratulations on creating yet another fantastic type related site. :) Bookmarked.
Szabi
Apr 17, 2009
Satwik
yes, that is true! Now the site is working perfectly and i am amazed at the collection! really, really amazing work! A big thanks to you, john and all the contributors!
Apr 17, 2009
Vim
Nice site, I love this site, So many pages as well, i like the fact that you choose by colour, how long it take build the site at this standard?
Apr 17, 2009
Patrick
I’m absolutely delighted by this new site, great work! Thank you!
Apr 17, 2009
Ralf Herrmann
The site is a huge pool of copyright infringements. The images are moved to a new server even if they are explicitly marked “All rights reserved”. The copyright owners are not asked.
Looking at the list of contributers, they all should know better. I am very disappointed.
Apr 17, 2009
Kari Pätilä
@Ralf Herrmann
Fair use is a shadowy area, but we’ve made it clear that the copyrights of the images belong to their respective owners. Bookmarking doesn’t change the copyright status of the image. The origin of the image is also clearly displayed and every post contains a link to the original.
The copyright holders can also request an image to be removed at any time.
Apr 17, 2009
Ralf Herrmann
Copyright is not shadowy at all. And it is not about “naming a source” or “linking the source” either. It’s the explicit right that the copyright owner can decide over every single use of his work!
You do not “bookmark” those images. You move them to a new server where they are not under the control of the copyright owner anymore. You need an explicit permit of every copyright owner to do this. This is common law in almost all countries of the world. Every single image on this page that is not in the public domain or under a creative commons license is a clear copyright infringement.
The fact that you remove images on request must be some sort of a joke. Do you really expect that every copyright owner in the world should check this page every day to see if someone uploaded an image of them? No! You need to ask them if they agree to your use in the first place. And I no you didn’t do that, since I found several of my images that were marked “All rights reserved” on Flickr.
You might continue this site by carefully choosing images that are in the public domain or licensed under Creative Commons (but even that would need refinement, since at the moment the respective owners are not clearly named. The contributer seems to be more important than the creator of the work). But I strongly suggest that you remove all images that are not PD, under CC or a similar license.
Apr 17, 2009
Aaron
I’m responding to Ralf Herrmann’s comment:
Ralf, I agree with you that copyright violations run rampant throughout the web. Most “gotta catch em all” web sites do ignore copyrights.
Usually, I turn a blind eye to sites that are non-profit or hobby type sites such as ilovetypography and welovetypography - or those sites that link to the actual copyright owners website.
The day you start to see “gotta catch em all” web sites making a profit with advertising, THEN you can sound the copyright violation alarm.
Oh now I see your point, by then It may be too late. Hum.
BTW - To the author(s), I love the sites. However, Ralf has a point. Maybe add an extra line that includes the copyright status for each image on welovetypgraphy?
Apr 17, 2009
Kari Pätilä
@Ralf Herrmann & @Aaron
I’ve been giving this one some thought, and feel there’s more we should/could have done.
There are exceptions to the law if the purpose of displaying the images is for nonprofit educational purposes, of which wlt clearly is an example of, but using the full-sized images without explicit permission is clearly something we shouldn’t be doing, even though it seems to be standard practice or seem harmless. It’s not my place to speak on behalf of the contributors, but I believe they are doing this strictly with an intent to promote 3rd party content.
@Ralf Herrmann
Even though at first you seem to come on pretty strong, I personally appreciate this kind of criticism. If you wish to continue discussing this in greater detail, then, please, contact me directly at kari.patila (at) gmail.com. In either case, expect your content to be removed from WLT shortly.
Apr 17, 2009
Ralf Herrmann
My suggestions are:
Set up an approval procedure!
If a contributor wants to add a copyrighted image, an email or html form is created and a ticket number assigned. The form contains the image (linked from the original source) and a request to move it to WLT. The author can then enter his name (because something as a Flickr screen name may not constitute a proper way to name a copyright owner) and choose a license for the use of the image on the WLT server.
The form must then be faxed in to an administrator. Only after the signed form is received the images can be moved to the WLT server. Not one second before.
(And the same approval is neccessary for your other plans like WLT screensavers …)
For CC content: I would suggest to name the autor and the respective (linked) CC lincense on every page the image is used, even those “thumbnail pages”. Don’t hide that stuff on a different page or require people to follow the link to the original image just to see the license. The license should better be visible whenever the image is used.
With these changes even I would be happy to contribute some of my work to WLT. But I need to be asked first, and so does every other copyright owner. I may be using harsh words, but I have no doubt that other copyright owners might not hesitate to take immediate legal steps against WLT. So these things should better be changed sooner than later.
Apr 18, 2009
Plamen Tanovski
Very nice pictures indeed, but what I miss (on flickr too) is a collection of just “boring” (real) book spreads like those in Bringhurt’s TEOTS.
Apr 18, 2009
Jess Latham
I love the new site!
Apr 19, 2009
Alejandro
Cool project John, very simple layout, i like the twitter integration, it works. Very useful, congratz!
Apr 19, 2009
web design agentur bonn
awesome stuff! … thanks for that … this will keep me happy for ages :D!
Apr 19, 2009
Keith D
Someting to look at and aspire to.
Many thanks.
Keith D
Apr 20, 2009
Kp
I like how you kept it consistent. Very accessible, looks great.
Apr 20, 2009
Mark
The only comment I would have on the site apart from being its a fantastic resource for designers is that it would be great to have a link from the image to the original site that the image comes from rather than going off to another site where the image was spotted… if you know what I mean.
Great work guys.
Apr 21, 2009
Jelmar
@Ralf Hermann: while I agree with you on the copyright issues, I doubt something like that would work for a bookmarking site. If every copyright owner would have to give permission, it could take days before an image can be posted. The site would basically grind to a halt.
If it’s in the fact the the images are copied to a new server, you could link directly to the original server, but with the amount of visitors WLT will probably get, it would kill some of those servers with all the traffic.
And what about sites like FFFFound and Vi.sualize.us? They do exactly the same… they also create a copy on their own server.
Apr 24, 2009
Kari Pätilä
@Jelmar
The premise of any bookmarking site should be that content should be posted by and from people who actually want to be represented on the site. The fact that FFFFound or vi.sualize.us disregard copyright issues in some cases doesn’t in any way make it justified. I feel that this topic has been exhausted to the point where no further remarks are necessary. In Ralf’s case we made a mistake and corrected it. It’s as simple as that.
Apr 24, 2009
Jelmar
Kari: Yes, I agree, I wasn’t implying it justifies it. What I mean was that if every copyright law was to be followed to the letter, alot of sites we think of as the most influential, ground-breaking and interesting, would not exist.
But if you’re only posting content which you are allowed to post in the future, that’s of course good to know. :)
Apr 24, 2009
Mark Spurgeon
I don’t really see what the issue re copyright. Some of the images of my site have appeared on WLT I have noticed and I dont really mind. They are not big enough to reproduce in print for advertising, WLT makes no money from them, they are there for everyones enjoyment and thats why I took the photos and posted them on my site. I dont mind a bit of extra traffic with people having look at them if they want… thats why they are on the web in the first place.
Apr 25, 2009
Suzanne
Well done guys! fantastic site…
Apr 26, 2009
Daniel
i love welovetypography.com - been using it everyday and it’s a great resource. thanks so much for creating it…
D
Apr 27, 2009
Peter
I love this site. Great Design and nice layout
Apr 29, 2009
Dorota
Your site is paradise to me! I am part of the semioticians crowd - ah this is history now - and I am totally fascinated by typography and the “meaning” of all sorts of signs. Congrats, I am going back to WLT.
Best regards from Paris.
Apr 30, 2009
Yanda
This is awesome!
May 8, 2009
منتديات
I love the new site!
Great Design and nice layout.
May 11, 2009
Anthony Proulx of Plastic Printers
Awesome inspirational site! Way to go guys!
May 13, 2009
Kari Pätilä
@Anthony
Thank you. I might have to get in touch with you regarding those business cards.
May 13, 2009
jorge
Wonderful job, I had to do a post in my own blog reccomending it to my few readers.
http://inkandbourbon.blogspot.com/2009/04/tipografia-por-un.html
I am an absolute fan of it.
greetings!
May 13, 2009