The story begins in 2006 with a trip down Route 66. Day in, day out, I looked at U.S. traffic signs that were either set in the old, somewhat clumsy “FHWA font series” or the new Clearview HWY typeface. Approaching the signs, I would often test myself: which typeface works best from a distance, and […]

Peter Biľak I remember a conversation from back in my student days where my typophile friends and I debated what the ultimate typeface of the twentieth century was, a typeface that summed up all of the era’s advancements and knowledge into a coherent whole, one that would be a reference for years to come. Helvetica […]

Honesty in form is one of the major tenets of modernism. In other words, a design should accomplish a narrowly defined function in the simplest manner possible. This belief is extolled in many design disciplines, including typography. In 1931, Eric Gill wrote:

The Week in Type Welcome to another ‘week’ in type. So much is happening, I can barely keep up. If you haven’t already read it, then head on over to Typographica for their brilliant list of 50 favorite typeface releases of 2011. A great list and some fine reviews. Really like Typographica’s use of FF […]

by Taro Yumiba 2010年の九月から約一年間、オランダ、ハーグにある王立芸術アカデミー、通称KABKのTypemediaコースに留学されたタイプデザイナーの岡野邦彦さんに卒業制作で取り組まれた書体Quintetを中心にインタビューさせて頂いた。 どのようにしてタイポグラフィとタイプデザインに興味持ったのですか？ 大学ではグラフィックデザインを専攻していました。ポスター制作などの課題が出た時に、使う文字を調べるために書体のカタログを見たりしてたのですが、なかなかイメージにぴったりと合うものがありませんでした。だったら自分で好みの書体を作ってしまおうと思ったのが始まりでした。 また運のいいことに、当時まだ高価だったMacintoshとFontographer3.1が大学の研究室にあったんです。Macintoshがまだそれほど普及していない頃で、誰も使い方がよく分からなかったのですが、これは面白そうだと思って手探りでフォントをつくり始めました。パソコンで文字を描くのに慣れるまで時間が掛かりましたが、初めて画面にフォントが出てきたときの興奮が忘れられなくて文字作りにのめり込みました。

By Taro Yumiba How and when did you become interested in typography & type design? At university I majored in graphic design. I used to leaf through typeface catalogs in search of letters to use in my poster design assignments. However, I could never find any typefaces that matched perfectly what I had in mind, so […]

The Week in Type More than half a millennium has passed since the invention of moveable type in Europe. It’s now just about impossible to imagine a world without it. That very sentiment is set in ink in this new print collaboration with Stefan Hattenbach. A sumptuous screen-print of gold, white, and black inks on […]

by Ludwig Übele A line of text is like a silhouette on the horizon. Closer inspection reveals the detail, the trees, bushes, rocks; details that, though only vaguely perceivable from afar, create both rhythm and variation. The beauty of this landscape is born of both regularity and variety.

The Week in Type Hard to believe that 2011 is coming to a close. Autumn is showing its face, and before you know it, we’ll be Christmas shopping. Some inspiring stuff in this week’s The Week in Type. Sit back and enjoy. Let’s begin with a gorgeous book cover by Carlo Giovani for the new […]

The Week in Type The type-obsessive, thoroughly inspiring Andrew Byrom in this TEDxUCLA talk, If h is a chair:

by Dan Reynolds From May 19–21, FontShop hosted its 16th annual TYPO-Berlin conference. Over 1,600 guests were in attendance. This year’s conference theme was “Shift,” and the subtext of many of the presentations dealt with how to bring one’s design work to the next level, whether that is the next level of your own personal […]

The last five months have been pretty intense. Creating a 164-page magazine from scratch is an enormous project and, looking back, I’m happy that I was naïve enough to think it could be done. Along with Carolyn Wood and Working Format we think we’ve created something very special indeed. I’d also like to thank MailChimp […]

The Week in Type Before I dive into this week’s the week in type, I’d like to tell you a little more about Codex, the journal of typography. First, I’d like to introduce the Codex team: the Editor in Chief, Carolyn Wood and Assistant Editor, Allen Tan. It’s a joy to work with them — […]

The week in type Hope you enjoy this week’s week in type. To kick things off, lets all give a warm hand to the makers and bakers of the fonts that made it into MOMA’s permanent collection. Particularly happy yo see Barry Deck’s Template Gothic in there — one of my all-time favorite quirky display […]

The Week in Type Two thousand and ten has been something of a blur, but it’s been a good year. It’s been another good year for type design and typography, with some great new work, and some wonderful new type designs. So, to ease you into 2011, and the wonders that await, I present to […]

the week in type Perhaps you thought ‘The Week in Type’ was dead. Well, this post marks its resurrection. It won’t be weekly just yet, but from 2011 it will be: a weekly roundup of new releases, type and lettering to inspire, type tips, videos, and lots, lots more. If you haven’t yet subscribed to […]

New Fonts The delightful new Capucine by Alice Savoie. Available through Process Type Foundry. Related: ILT’s interview with Alice. Two minutes with Alice Savoie.

New Type FF Amman Sans and FF Amman Serif from Yanone: New (type) face for Amman from Yanone on Vimeo.

by Stefan Willerstorfer After five years of intensive work, my type family Acorde is finally on the market. It is a reliable workhorse for large, demanding design projects. The typeface’s name is derived from a corporate design typeface. However, Acorde is not only suitable for corporate design programmes but for information design and editorial design […]

New Fonts New from Jos buivenga, and now available from MyFonts. Geotica, with one style free.

New Fonts Anchor, a very nice rounded sans from Eric Olson. Available in four weights from Process Type.

New Fonts Panno Text, drawn by Pieter van Rosmalen. Available from Bold Monday.

New Fonts A voluptuous new script from Ale Paul of Sudtipos. Meet Fan Script:

New Fonts A very nice, no-nonsense, humanist sans from Stefan Willerstorfer. Meet Acorde:

By Kris Sowersby The impetus for Founders Grotesk originally came from Duncan Forbes of The International Office. We had often discussed the nature and usefulness of the classic grotesks, and the possibility of creating a new one. After trawling through my 1912 Miller & Richard specimen, he became enamoured with their series of Grotesques, particularly […]