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I LOVE TYPOGRAPHY

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:

swift neue lt pro typeface

And from Dutch type to Dutch ads of the 40s & 50s, in this great little Flick set from Henk van het Nederend:

old-dutch-ads

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:

copyright eyetwist

And this one from eyetwist’s signs+type set:

eyetwist-5

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:

Semilla by Ale Paul

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:

Matheus Barbosa

Love these new business cards for Jos Buivenga’s exljbris foundry. Great idea, beautifully done:

Calluna cards

Inspiration

The work of Jeffrey Osborne:

let-there-be-light

Lettrage by Marin Van Uhm. Seventeen geometric shapes used to construct an alphabet:

lettrage

Via texturism.

Carolyn Sewell’s Pedestrian ‘Typography’ Flickr collection. No typography in there, but some lovely lettering:

pedestrian typography

Lovely cover for Illusive — Contemporary Illustration Part 3, from Gestalten:

illusive

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:

happy centro from verona, Italy

Via Jacob Heftmann.

I wouldn’t mind a few copies of TYP (not to be confused with the Czech title TYPO):

typ czech avant-garde.

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:

bokeh-type

Thanks to @haraya.

Can’t believe I haven’t featured Jonathan Barnbrook’s blog here before. Let’s fix that:

jonathan barnbrook blog

And here’s the latest from Jonathan’s Virus foundry, Hopeless Diamond:

hopeless diamond fonts

Which leads us on to a raft of other new releases:

New type

This stunning ornament typeface from Jonathan Perez. Meet Cadence:

cadence fonts by jonathan perez

You really must see the Cadence PDF specimen.

From DS Type, Finura:

Finura

Kris Sowersby is an exceptional type designer, so I’m very pleased to get a sneak peak at his upcoming sans, Karbon:

karbon by kris sowersby

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:

quatro

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:

alright sans typeface

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.

star trek mark simonson

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):

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 CompetitionModern Cyrillic 2009
Free copy Letterform with October issue of Grafik:

grafik magazine

A great piece on the German MyFonts blog about the making of Tim Ahrens’ Facit:

facit typeface by Tim Ahrens

Surprised not to see more of Facit; it’s a pretty special sans. Google translate will give you the gist.

Ah! Chocolate & type:

milky way chocolate wrapper

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:

pop-up-letterpress

Two new type- and lettering-related sites. First, Friends of Type from Aaron Carambula & co.:

friends of type

Second, Type Goodness. Great little site; just a pity there are so many ad’s plastered everywhere:

type goodness

And a nicely redesigned TypoJungle:

typo-jungle

The beautiful Daily Drop Daily from lettering artist, illustrator, and creator of Buttermilk, Jessica Hische:

daily-drop-cap

Via @shiflett.

Events

The Night of the Italians — Thursday, October 15, 2009.

night-of-the-italians

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:

league gothic free fonts

I’ll conclude with my WLT pick of the week. A still life photo from Trevor Dixon:

trevor-dixon-still-life

Thanks for reading, and enjoy what’s left of your weekend.

Header type: P22 Allyson Pro.

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next: Type Camp

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