The Week in Type

Notice anything different? iLT has gone green. In addition I have a new masthead. For more than a year, one of my all-time favourite typefaces has graced the head of these pages; but it’s time for a change. I had given some thought to a complete redesign, but then I asked myself, why? So, I’ve chosen not to redesign just for the sake of it. Instead, I’ve made some relatively minor changes, including the menu at the very top, tweaks to the sidebar, and swapping out the red for a little green. Now who can name the typeface?

OK, on with the show. Let’s start out with some more green. This lovely poster from ColorCubic:

And this even more impressive piece:

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by Alec Julien

Five?

There are generally taken to be five vertical measures of note in type design (from bottom to top): descender, baseline, midline*, caps-height, and ascender.

But if you delve into the minutiae of font design, you soon discover that there are a slew of important vertical metrics that aren’t much talked about. In this article, I will take a look at several of these metrics, and how they are used in font design.

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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.

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Quality Free Font

A very brief post about a typeface from a type designer I’m particularly fond of. FF Reminga from Xavier Dupré is a great little text face with a sumptuous calligraphic italic. FontFont is offering the Bold Italic completely free of charge for a limited time. So, be sure to take it for a spin. And, be sure to check out some of Xavier’s other types.

Download Reminga Bold Italic. Be sure to let me know if you use it. Would love to see.

Thanks to Ivo for the heads up!

The Best of Type

This year has been a great year for type, with many new releases. Some of them are exceptional. Following is a list of my personal favourites of the past year. This is by no means an exhaustive list; there are, in fact, many others deserving of accolades.

Compendium

Difficult to imagine a best-of list with no showing from Ale Paul. This one is no exception. Ale released several great faces in 2008, but my favourite has to be Compendium. A fluid, beautifully crafted script, made all the more wonderful with a large helping of OpenType wizardry:

I wonder what Ale Paul has in store for 2009. I’ll be sure keep you up to date.

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Come on Marlene

Fast closing in on 2009. I can’t believe it. What happened to 2008? The very lucky winner of the Seb Lester poster is mentioned toward the end of this post. Thanks to everyone who entered. This week’s the week in type is a big one, so make sure you’re sitting comfortably. Enjoy.

A beautiful new letterpress poster from Cameron Moll. I’ve ordered one:

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Call for Submissions

For over 60 years the Type Directors Club has been the leading international organisation whose sole purpose is to support and promote excellence in typography wherever it’s found. The club was founded in 1946 by some of graphic design’s legendary pioneers, the TDC’s earliest membership included Aaron Burns, Freeman Craw, Louis Dorfsman, Gene Federico, Edward M. Gottschall, Herb Lubalin, Bradbury Thompson, and Hermann Zapf.

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Mightier Than…

Type designer and typographic illustrator Seb Lester is truly passionate about letterforms. His recent limited edition posters have been a huge success. His typefaces are used by the likes of Dell, Intel, The New York Times, The Sunday Times, and GQ Magazine, to name but a few. Seb kindly took time out of his incredibly busy schedule to be interviewed by iLT.

How did you get started designing type?

I was doing a foundation course in Birmingham in the UK in 1992. I stumbled across a book, ‘The Graphic Language of Neville Brody’, in the college library. That man really has got a lot to answer for because I became obsessed with type and typography. I later studied Graphic Design at Central St Martins in London where I got some help digitising my first fonts in FontStudio from a tutor there.

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