Karbon type
I’m struggling to keep up with all that’s new in type. Exciting times. Lots of great new releases, and some very novel and creative uses of type and lettering. Let’s jump straight in.
I am tempted to try something like this:
Futura vs Verdana IKEA Smackdown:
From RocketBoom. Via @DesignObserver.
Something a little more serious: a short profile of the wonderful Gerard Unger, the designer of one of my all-time favourites, Swift:
And talking of Swift, Linotype has just released an updated version. Originally designed by Gerard Unger in 1985, in the mid-90s he redrew all the fonts with PostScript outlines. Swift Neue LT Pro (or Neue Swift), its latest incarnation boasts an expanded character set, and OpenType features. Long overdue for such a great face:
And from Dutch type to Dutch ads of the 40s & 50s, in this great little Flick set from Henk van het Nederend:
Another great Flickr set — Typographics from Trip Print Press.
This Blue Flickr set, doesn’t comprise type-related imagery only; however, there are some great ones in there, including this sign:
And this one from eyetwist’s signs+type set:
Like that 5.
Last week, I mentioned the release of Ale Paul’s latest script, Semilla. He’s teamed up with French photographer Stéphane Giber to bring us some wonderful specimens:
You can see the specimens on Behance, buy Semilla from Veer, and see more of Stéphane’s work on Flickr. — via @typegirl
Fell in love with this the moment I set eyes on it. The work of Matheus Barbosa:
Love these new business cards for Jos Buivenga’s exljbris foundry. Great idea, beautifully done:
Inspiration
The work of Jeffrey Osborne:
Lettrage by Marin Van Uhm. Seventeen geometric shapes used to construct an alphabet:
Via texturism.
Carolyn Sewell’s Pedestrian ‘Typography’ Flickr collection. No typography in there, but some lovely lettering:
Lovely cover for Illusive — Contemporary Illustration Part 3, from Gestalten:
This brought to mind the Guardian newspaper’s 1977 April Fool’s about San Serriffe. This is the work of the Verona-based Happy Centro design studio:
Via Jacob Heftmann.
I wouldn’t mind a few copies of TYP (not to be confused with the Czech title TYPO):
Anyone have a Flickr set of TYP spreads? I bet David Březina has a stack of them. — via @mmcgovern.
A fun Flash experiment from The Man in Blue. Bokeh Type:
Thanks to @haraya.
Can’t believe I haven’t featured Jonathan Barnbrook’s blog here before. Let’s fix that:
And here’s the latest from Jonathan’s Virus foundry, Hopeless Diamond:
Which leads us on to a raft of other new releases:
New type
This stunning ornament typeface from Jonathan Perez. Meet Cadence:
You really must see the Cadence PDF specimen.
From DS Type, Finura:
Kris Sowersby is an exceptional type designer, so I’m very pleased to get a sneak peak at his upcoming sans, Karbon:
The above scaled-down image doesn’t do it justice, so please visit Kris’ foundry site KLIM for a better view.
There’s also Karbon Slab Stencil, commissioned for Winegrowers of Ara via Parallax Design; though I’m no fan of stencil types.
Quatro available in Ultra Black and Ultra Black Italic. Like the italic k:
Interestingly, yet another to be spaced with Igino Marini’s iKern service.
Almost missed Alright Sans which was released in August. Drawn by Jackson Cavanaugh:
If you’re looking for a movie partner, a pal to watch a DVD with, then I suggest you do so with anyone but Mark Simonson. And if you do, then disable the pause button on your remote. Read The FontFeed’s post, Mark Simonson’s Changeling Stars In Star Trek to discover why.
A free Restraint letterpress print for one person who can name the character Mark replaces in my dreadful PhotoShop rehash, plus the name of the typeface used in the caption “Boldly Going”. Don’t write your answers in the comments; instead tweet & append your answers as hashtags; e.g. #Stanley_Morrison #Proxima_Nova. I’ll choose a winner tomorrow.
New books
From Hyphen Press, Modern typography in Britain: graphic design, politics, and society (Typography papers 8):
From the Dept of Typography at Uni of Reading.
Type links
Creative Characters — an interview with Jos Buivenga
10 ‘letterpress’ type tutorials — 6 Revisions
A magazine called Elephant
Type Design Competition — Modern Cyrillic 2009
Free copy Letterform with October issue of Grafik:
A great piece on the German MyFonts blog about the making of Tim Ahrens’ Facit:
Surprised not to see more of Facit; it’s a pretty special sans. Google translate will give you the gist.
Ah! Chocolate & type:
I actually remember this chocolate — at that price.
Be sure to read CR Blog’s piece by Gavin Lucas, on Maker Difference: pop-up letterpress studio:
Two new type- and lettering-related sites. First, Friends of Type from Aaron Carambula & co.:
Second, Type Goodness. Great little site; just a pity there are so many ad’s plastered everywhere:
And a nicely redesigned TypoJungle:
The beautiful Daily Drop Daily from lettering artist, illustrator, and creator of Buttermilk, Jessica Hische:
Via @shiflett.
Events
The Night of the Italians — Thursday, October 15, 2009.
What a line-up! On the panel: Louise Fili, Francesco Cavalli, Massimo Vignelli, & Matteo Bologna.
Free type
From the Open-Source foundry, The League of Moveable Type League Gothic:
I’ll conclude with my WLT pick of the week. A still life photo from Trevor Dixon:
Thanks for reading, and enjoy what’s left of your weekend.
Header type: P22 Allyson Pro.
— Hochuli & Kinross
34 comments * comment * trackback
Dan Reynolds
Thanks for featuring Neue Swift this week! The “Swift Neue LT Pro” is just a bit of technical mumbo jumbo. Of course the typeface’s name is Neue Swift.
The font files themselves are named otherwise… by putting Swift before Neue, the font appears alphabetically in the font menu under S, which is where it should be, right? Looking for it under N would be silly, I think. LT is there to indicate that the font file was produced by Linotype, and Pro means that it has a certain character set, namely—at a minimum—the glyphs defined by Linotype’s Pro character set. We also make fonts with other character sets (Std, Com, etc.), so sometimes a customer may need to differentiate between font variants. This is the case with Helvetica or Frutiger—but not, at the moment, Neue Swift.
How about a link in your right-hand sidebar, for September Fonts or October Fonts, to Neue Swift?
I really love the Dutch interview with Gerard. Even though I’ve met him many times over the last few years, and studied under him a bit at Reading, the interview was full of new insights for me into his career, his design process, and his world view.
Sep 27, 2009
johno
Dan
Thanks for the clarification. Neue Swift is indeed scheduled to star in the sidebar, in October. Are you working on anything of your own? A follow-up to Malabar?
Sep 27, 2009
Dan Reynolds
Well, my day job at Linotype doesn’t give me the kind of time to devote to new typeface design, like I had at Reading to design Malabar. I spend most of my time helping bring typefaces to market, like Libelle or Neue Swift. And also, Malabar isn’t even finished yet, since I will still finish and release the Devanagari! That said, I am working on some things that might seem the light of day, but I can’t talk about that on a public forum. It’ll be awhile before it is ready anyway.
Sep 27, 2009
Anton
I love ILT but I must say, it got too much at the same time this time. Update more often is my advice :)
Sep 27, 2009
Victor Zuniga
The font used in “Boldly Going” is Futura and the character’s name is *********?
Sep 27, 2009
Simon Robertson
@Victor - did you read Johno’s request that the answers not be put in the comments?
Great round up Johno, it’s gonna take me all week to get thorugh it! (but i like that!)
Sep 27, 2009
Victor Zuniga
damn… I didn’t read the whole thing… I just knew the answer and got a lit bit to excited :P
Sep 27, 2009
johno
Victor
No problem. I’ve obfuscated your correct answer. But it’s not Futura. Actually, at that size, it’s a little unfair. Here’s a larger version:
Sep 27, 2009
Words & Eggs
Thanks for the latest iLT bonk, Johno! :)
I am in love with Jessica Hische’s work, and the Daily Drop Caps just pushed me over the edge. In a good way, I mean. Awesome.
I am also drooling over that last WLT still life. The vintage typewriter would have done it on its own; add all the type elements to the composition, and I’m done for.
:)
Hope your weekend is great.
Sep 27, 2009
Callum Chapman
Great post! 2p for a Milky Way chocolate bar… that’s nuts! How times have changed ;)
Sep 27, 2009
Victor Zuniga
Thanks Johno!
Sep 28, 2009
Victor Zuniga
By the way I already corrected the name of the font. I hope I get it right this time…
Sep 28, 2009
Aaron Carambula
Having FoT in this round-up made my weekend. Thank you and thanks for ILT.
Aaron.
Sep 28, 2009
Samer Ziadeh
Hey! That firs Bicycle video is in Toronto xD
Sep 29, 2009
Mark Simonson
ROTFLMAO!
Sep 29, 2009
Matheus
Thanks Johno for the post!
Sep 29, 2009
Will
I like that video a lot. If I was a girl I’m sure I would say it was ‘cute’. But I’m not, so I won’t.
It would make a good advertising stunt I think: type cycling through a city. All though saying that, here in London at the moment TopMan are employing tossers on scooters to drive around and honk their horns for attention. Proper annoying.
But if something like this was done subtly, without screaming out for attention, it could be lovely.
Sep 29, 2009
Rachel
Great post. Nice to see a great roundup of what’s out there!
Sep 30, 2009
Christopher A.
It looks like Jos Buivenga forgot to kern. FO NT at least it looks like it.
And i really want that metalic A on Trevor Dixon picture :)
Sep 30, 2009
johno
Christopher A.
Nothing wrong with Jos’ spacing there. Perhaps it’s the perspective that’s giving you that impression.
I like that metal A too; and the ampersand.
Sep 30, 2009
grendelkhan
Speaking of “San Serriffe” jokes, Donald Knuth (of TeX and Computer Modern fame) has stopped mailing out checks to folks who send in bug fixes or useful suggestions to his works (his bank doesn’t like all the uncashed checks), so he now posts balances online at the Bank of San Serriffe.
Sep 30, 2009
John
Good post! Thanks for the link about San Serriffee - classic!
Oct 1, 2009
Travis Neilson
I love the League of Moveable Type website. There are other great faces there also. Thanks for the link Johno.
Oct 4, 2009
Abigail Johnson
wow.. love your work… keep up!
Oct 5, 2009
Quakeulf
Although I agree that Verdana was a poor choice for IKEA that female just loves hearing herself talk making the movie unbearable. Less talk, more examples I say. >:3
Oct 5, 2009
AM
Hey! That firs Bicycle video is in Toronto xD
Oct 6, 2009
micah
Swift Neue looks very nice…but, a point. The “ft” in the specimen, that’s not actually the way that supposed to look, is it? It appears not to be a ligature, and the touching crossbars are making my brain vibrate.
Hope I’m not coming across like Bitchy McWhiny here. Like I said, very nice otherwise, just seems odd to see that.
Oct 6, 2009
Social Icons
Great typography round up lots of cool finds here!
Oct 6, 2009
BP
Swift is incredibly sexy, especially with the background colors…keep ‘em coming and thanks as always for all the cool stuff you keep us informed with!
-bp
http://www.basinpipes.com
Oct 8, 2009
Matthew
This is a great resource some really inspirational work here. I to really like the business card its amazing. Thanks you for sharing such a wonderful post.
Oct 20, 2009
Jordan Foutz
I could stare at this all day every day. Type is completely under appreciated by clients and most average-or-less designers.
Oct 21, 2009