Madame Loves Typography Too

Welcome to 2007’s penultimate Sunday Type. Can you believe that 2008 is almost upon us? I remember, as a child, dreaming about the magical year 2000. Well, that’s quite enough reminiscing; don’t want to short out my keyboard with sentimental tears. I had so much material for today’s Sunday Type that I was going to save some of it for next week’s; but that might smack of mean-spiritedness, and it’s Christmas (almost), so you get it all.

Do you like Madame? No, not that Madame! Linotype’s Madame. She’s had a facelift of sorts: she is now available in the OpenType font format, which will be a relief for many–it should making using her much easier.

Thanks to Dan at TypeOff for the link, the byline and for creating the header. Sadly I don’t have Madame (yet). Be sure to subscribe to Dan’s blog–it’s really shaping into a good resource and a great read. After the success of Dan’s Counterpunch review, you’ll probably be seeing some more of him here.

Thinking about next year: I’m always looking at ways to improve iLT. One of the things I was intent on doing was having contributors; I’ve already had some great ones, and there are many more to come; if you’re interested in writing for iLT, then let me know.

The FontWall is not much more than an idea right now. The lists of monthly ‘fonts’ is growing, so I wanted a place to ‘archive them’, so the FontWall was born; I have a few ideas for it; perhaps you have some ideas of your own? I promise to at least tidy it up!

Perhaps another title to add to your Christmas shopping list is Foyle’s Philavery–a treasury of unusual words; it’s not a type title, but it is rather pretty; and word lovers and wordsmiths will love it. I like the cover. The paper quality is a little poor but, for the price (and content), it’s worth it. The only thing that bugs me about the cover is that rather ‘isolated’ apostrophe. Anyway, the flowers are pretty ;)

I promised myself that I wouldn’t buy any fonts this month. I failed again and bought Feijoa Display; I’ll add the other weights later; that’s always something to keep in mind: that one can buy these great typefaces piecemeal. So, for me, I just wanted to set the header of the interview with Kris Sowersby in Feijoa, and that’s why I opted for the display weight only; later I can buy the other weights and use it for setting texts or whatever.

Isn’t she gorgeous.

If you remember back as far as 15 Excellent Examples of Web Typography, you may also remember that FontShop’s site was in the list. Well, I guess their web designer had some spare time on his hands and thought, how can I make it better?

Sporting more than just a shiny new exterior, the new FontShop.com boasts some solid improvements under the hood, too. Our Font Detail pages have always been the place to get the nitty-gritty on every font in the shop, but the new advanced Character Set viewer lets you see every glyph of every font so you can get even more nitty and gritty.

And the result is great. I wonder if he’ll redesign iLT? That reminds me: if there’s anything that really bugs you about this site (I’m thinking about the design, not me), then let me know.

I just had to include this little story: Kelly Patrick Robinson, an iLT reader from San Diego left this message on my FaceBook profile,

Last night, I found myself in a coffee bar, and my mate asked me to explain a bit about typography. Luckily, there was a newspaper handy, and with the help of an iPhone, the conversation eventually visited iLoveTypography. The site itself became a visual aid.

Made my day.

A few gorgeous new desktop wallpapers (these two designed by Zachary):

She won 700 Penguins!

I said I’d give a copy of 700 Penguins to someone whose question is used for the interview with Kris Sowersby. In fact, I’ve chosen several readers’ questions, so several names went into the hat, and out came Lauren Marie’s. Congratulations, Lauren.

Hoefler & Frere-Jones

If you haven’t heard of H&FJ, then…well, you should have. Not only do they produce some of the most beautiful types on the planet, but they’ve also been running a great Typographic Gifts for Designers Series; I’ve mentioned some of them here before. If you forget how to spell their names, never fear, because they have the best domain name on the Web–typography.com. You’ll find links to all the featured gifts in the left-hand column of the H&FJ web site.

And here’s a taste of some H&FJ love,

I think I need to take a cold shower now! Positively x-rated.

The Sarabande Press

For twenty-odd years, the Sarabande Press has been producing beautiful letterpress limited editions. In that time they’ve designed and typeset over a thousand different books, from novels to scholarly books for major museums, and just about everything in between. I like that they have some short videos showcasing some of their work (perhaps I could do something similar when reviewing books here on iLT). I only wish that those videos were a little larger. Be sure to watch the Beinecke Peep Show video too.

Thanks to Ilisha for the link.

Coming Up

I’d like to thank those who have contributed financially to iLT. We’ve hit the $30 mark. Once the six-part Type Terms is finished, I will rewrite all the articles and publish the entire series in a single PDF file to download (should be around 30 or 40 pages). When writing those articles, I only publish a fraction of what I write in my notebooks (or you’d be scrolling down to Hades), so the PDF will be a much extended version. To support iLT overheads, I might charge for the PDF (a couple of dollars, perhaps).

Face to Face, a new feature on iLT where I interview type-people I like. First on Face to Face is the wonderfully talented, Kris Sowersby–I’ll publish the interview on Wednesday; I think you’re going to like it–a lot! I’ve almost finished writing the third part in the Type Terms series, Transitional. These take quite a while to research, so I’ll most likely publish it around Christmas. Can anyone think of something more original than Face to Face?

And finally…

Since starting iLT, I’ve received hundreds and hundreds of messages from readers–everything from “can you name this typeface for me?” to “can you give me some fonts?” to “are you single?” (that one went into the sympathy pile); but this one has to be the strangest:

Hi there.

I’m thinking of getting a tattoo. I realise making a permanent mark on one’s body is a big decision, and one that I’ll have to live with for many years. I want the word ‘truth’ tattooed on the inside of my wrist and I need to choose a font for it. Being the type guy, I thought that you or your readers might have some wise input. I’ve explored various options, and so far I’m leaning towards using Baskerville for its classic look (the mark still has to look good 30 years into the future…)
Sorry to bug you directly, but I’m not sure how else to go about contacting ILT.
Many thanks in advance!

Anonymous Roger Gordon.

Have a great Sunday, folks.

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