Twenty-ten type

Jan 5 2010

The Week in Type

Hoping that everyone is feeling refreshed, invigorated and inspired after Christmas and New Year. That we are now in 2010 is arbitrary, but it is at the same time a marker, the end of something, and the beginning of something else; a kind of armistice, an opportunity to dump all the bad, and begin a anew with the good. Well, that’s quite enough verbiage from me. May I present to you the first week in type of the 10s.

I sometimes forget that not every one of the world’s 6-point-whatever billion inhabitants is on Twitter, so I never announced the Font Game here on ILT. For those who haven’t heard:

Thus far, it has received rave reviews. It’s only ¢99, so give it a try. Some astonishingly quick times posted to the Hall of Fame (faster than I can complete the levels — and I chose the fonts!)

This History of the book Flickr set is the beginning of a wonderfully ambitious project hoping to assemble a collection of some 20,000 photos of initials, ornaments and type from Royal Library, The Hague, and the Archive at Alkmaar. Its author, Dr Paul Dijstelberge, is going to be writing about the project here on ILT, so keep your eyes peeled. In the meantime, enjoy:

This lovely initial from the golden age of French typography:

And one of my favourites from Antonio Miscomini, whose arrival in Florence marked that great city’s ‘sharing in the magic of Renaissance printing.’*

From the sixteenth century back to the twenty-first: I’d read about the development of Scala Scala Sans before, but was inspired anew by seeing Majoor in person in this inspiring lecture from Martin Majoor on the creation of Scala and Scala Sans.

Recorded in 2005, but still a gem. Be sure to take a look at Martin’s own web site too. And while you over at the Typo berlin site be sure to watch Christian Schwartz discuss his work for ‘T’, the New York Times Style Magazine; Jonathan Hoefler & Tobias Frere-Jones on Better Living Through Typography; and Matthew Carter’s Truth to Materials.

I’ve just ordered a copy of Typographic Conundrums by Harry Pierce:

Don’t forget Baseline Magazine. Looking forward to reading the latest issue, ‘Going Dutch’:

Futura Livefont Motion by Colin Sebestyen

via @naosukebe

In December, the FontFeed devoted a week to Web fonts. One of the highlights is this interview with Christian Schwartz:

And some interesting comments and links in this related Typophile thread, Christian Schwartz on Screen Fonts.

Last year (still feels odd saying that) — and inspired by Tobias Battenberg — I got together with a talented local photographer, Gabomi, and took shots of projected type. Hoping to do another round. Might even sell some of the prints.

A little of Patrick Griffin’s Memoriam:

Rui Abreu’s stunning Orbe

and a little Meta Serif, with thanks to model, Kozue-san (curator at a museum of art by day):

We’ve had ‘fonts’ made from chocolate and eyelashes, even potatoes; and now

Some lovely lettering in these large-scale murals from A love letter for you:

The uppercase, lowercase clock. A wonderful stop motion piece from Rui Abreu of Fountain Type:

Celebrating one of the best magazines ever. Emigre No.70: The Look Back Issue – Celebrating 25 Years in Graphic Design:

Jonathan Barnbrook starts the decade with a bang and a nicely redesigned web site:

Dutch type foundry Bold Monday (Paul van der Laan and Pieter van Rosmalen) has a nice new site too:

Nice to see H&FJ’s Sentinel in use at Digital Podge:

New fonts

FF Yoga & FF Yoga Sans from Xavier Dupré:

P22 Civilite, the work of three designers: Colin Kahn, Richard Kegler and Milo Kowalski. And a beautiful specimen by Joe Newton:

Two fonts from Ale Paul and Angel Koziupa. First up is Biographer

second is Bravissima:

ITC Chino in five weights:

Coming up

Up next is my list of personal favourites from 2009 — scripts, serifs, and sans. I’ll try limiting it to about 30, and will resist calling it ‘30 gutbustingly amazing fonts every designer must have on pain of death.’

Have a great week.

NOTES:
* A short history of the printed word — Chappell & Bringhurst, p. 80

Moeed Mohammad

Inspiring stuff as always.

Chino is beautiful. As is the work by Ale Paul.

Jan 5, 2010
binocle

I bought your game just to know the name of the example displayed screen. And I had to play several games to know it: Ingeborg Heavy Italic ;-)

Jan 5, 2010
Glenn Weatherson

Look forward to the 09’ list, cheers.

Jan 5, 2010
Alec

Merry New Year, fontites!

(Loving Biographer — beautiful piece of work.)

Jan 5, 2010
Sander

Happy New Year John! Looking forward reading iLT in 2010, keep it up.

Jan 5, 2010
nigelsnoxell

So, whats happened to the Font Game for real people?

Jan 5, 2010
Dave Jacob Hoffman

We had a ‘font’ grown from e-coli in our student type show last year. You can see it briefly at the beginning of this video:

http://vimeo.com/4155953

Jan 5, 2010
Pedro Leal

Just to wish you a Happy New Year John!
Great stuff as always!

Jan 5, 2010
Torbjørn Vik Lunde

I was starting to miss I Love Typography.

Interesting stuff as always. I’m loving The Font Game. It is a really fun way on improving your eye for fonts.

Lovely photographs!

Ale Paul’s typefaces always makes me want to find an excuse for buying and using his fonts. They are absolutely gorgeous!

Oh, and happy new year! Looking forward to read more on type in 2010!

Jan 5, 2010
A u d e e

ITC Chino is superb! <3 it!
Happy new year everyone :)

Jan 6, 2010
Ryan

Some really nice stuff in here, as always. Looks like ILT will continue to be my first port of call for all things typography-related into the New Year.

Jan 6, 2010
Rahul Jha

Hi John,

A small request. Could you please format your links so that they open in a new window/tab. I know it’s a minor detail but it’s a little irritating to always remind myself that the links on ILT open in the same window.

I am not sure how your publishing system works, but here’s the html code for the same:

read this

PS. I love your stuff, keep up the great work!

Jan 7, 2010
Torbjørn Vik Lunde

Rahul Jha: If I’m not mistaken it’s pretty bad practice to have windows open automatically in a new window.

I also find it quite annoying and I’m happy that ILT does not follow this practive.

More info:
http://annevankesteren.nl/2004/09/new-window
http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day_16_not_opening_new_windows.html

Jan 7, 2010
Yasmine

i’ll totally download that app!

and happy new year!

:)

Jan 8, 2010
Gareth Coxon - Dot Design

Can’t believe I’ve only just found this site, its now firmly in my rss reader, great blog. Happy 2010!

Jan 12, 2010
Rachel

We received our copy of Typographic Conundrums as well. Very enjoyable!

Jan 12, 2010
Ryan Le Roux

I can’t wait to get my iphone. I plan on getting all sorts of sweet apps. Has anyone used the Ghostly music app? It’s to die for.

Jan 14, 2010
Sveinbjorn

Love the new game!

One bug though: i was almost finished with a perfect score,when in the final question, two Of the options were the same typeface, one with the prefix - FF -.

Jan 16, 2010
johno

Gareth
Welcome to ILT.

Sveinbjorn
Thanks. We’ll look into that.

Jan 16, 2010
S.

Somehow I missed the font game when you posted it to twitter. Will have to check that out!

And that French typography is just gorgeous!

Jan 19, 2010
Attitude Design | Graphic Design Portfolio

Thanks for the post. I love the ‘Q’ initial from French typography - such intricate detail - brilliant!

Jan 20, 2010
Webdesign

Wouw, amazing article and a huge collection of interesting boomarks. thankyou for this. indeed brilliant!

Jan 20, 2010
offset printing

Great post I think 2010 will be a great year for fonts and looking forward to seeing your fav fonts of 09.

Jan 20, 2010
Colin_movecraft

Thanks for the link up! More type motion on the way!

Colin

http://www.movecraft.com
vimeo.com/movecraft

Jan 22, 2010