Monday August 24, 2009
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Links
Type History
Typedia is Here
Typedia, a shared, online encyclopedia of typefaces, just launched today.
It’s the brainchild of Jason Santa Maria, who invited me to contribute when it was in its early planning stage. I helped mostly with the classification system. (I actually have mixed feelings about classification systems in general and I think the tags will be ultimately more useful. But the classifications will at least provide a starting point.)
I’m very excited about Typedia. I’m hoping it will be the online equivalent of resources like Matt McGrew’s American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century or Jaspert, Berry & Johnson’s Encyclopeadia of Type Faces, two books I rely on when I want to know the history of a typeface (see my Son of Typecasting series).
However, unlike a printed book, Typedia will be continuously updated and will grow in its usefulness as more and more people contribute to it.
Friday July 31, 2009
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Links
Type Industry
Type Radio Video
Type Radio is my favorite podcast. Now there is a video about it. So, that’s what they look like. (Thanks to Paul Hunt for posting a link to the video on WeLoveTypography.)
Friday May 1, 2009
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Font News
Links
Veer Premieres "F is for Fail"
Proxima Nova stars in a new animated short film by Brent Barson, sponsored by Veer: “F is for Fail” (and co-starring Adobe’s Arno Pro). The still from the film (above) sums up my reaction. Well done, Brent! (And thanks to Veer, too.)
Thursday April 23, 2009
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Font News
Links
Lakeside and Filmotype Zanzibar Favorited
I’m really honored to have my Lakeside and Filmotype Zanzibar among the 40 typefaces chosen in Typographica’s “Our Favorite Typefaces of 2008”. Thanks so much, Dyana and J.F.
I participate in this annual tradition from the other side of the fence as well. I chose Nick Shinn’s Modern Suite, which blew me away when I saw the specimen book for it at last year’s TypeCon in Buffalo.
Sunday April 5, 2009
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Type Industry
Links
You Say Font, I Say Typeface...
The results of a survey on the meanings of the words typeface and font among both “type industry professionals” and graphic designers, conducted by Thomas Phinney. My opinions on the matter fall squarely with the “type industry professionals” for the most part.
(via Typophile.com.)
Wednesday March 25, 2009
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Links
Personal Archaeology
Interview on ArtBistro.com
Sorry for not posting more stuff here lately. I’ve been busy working on fonts (probably a better use of my time anyway). In the mean time, here is another interview with me, this time with Grant Friedman of ArtBistro.com.
Sunday March 15, 2009
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Links
Personal Archaeology
RBtL Interview
I’m the featured guest on episode #6 of the typography and design podcast Read Between the Leading.
Wednesday February 25, 2009
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Links
Old Type & Lettering
Township Type
On his blog, Shane Durant is sharing his collection of photos of South African township type and signage.
Sunday February 22, 2009
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Son of Typecasting
Links
Art of the Title Sequence
I purposely exempt titles from my nitpicking about anachronistic type in movies. I consider them part of the world in which the film was created, not the world in which the story is set. They may be appropriate or inappropriate, but they can’t be anachronistic.
Nevertheless, it’s one of my favorite parts of watching movies. A friend alerted me to an op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times, Credit Where Credits are Due, about how there ought to be Oscars for movie title sequences. Perhaps, but the lack of an award hasn’t stopped title designers from doing brilliant work.
This reminded me of my favorite site on the topic. The Art of the Title Sequence maintained by a pair of fans, Ian and Alex, who have compiled a growing list of their favorites from movies and TV shows. You can watch most of the sequences in their entirety, some in HD. Many include short articles or interviews with the designers.
Thursday February 12, 2009
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Links
Font Haikus
Extensis is having a font love haiku contest (with prizes) to help promote Suitcase Fusion. Kind of silly, but could be fun.
Sunday January 25, 2009
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Links
ADDA Slide Show from 1962
AIGA New Orleans has posted a really cool video on Vimeo: A slide show from 1962 created by the Art Directors and Designers Association of New Orleans (now an AIGA New Orleans). The pace is almost painfully slow by today’s standards, but patience yields a fascinating glimpse into the design world of the early 1960s.
Several things caught my eye as I watched it, including two Filmotype typefaces I recently revived: Ginger (at 4:43) and Glenlake (at 14:16). But I did a double take, and then a triple take when I saw this slide (at 30:52):
First of all, it looks like a White Stripes CD cover.
Second, the gizmo in the guy’s hand is a Scaleograph, an aid for sizing photos and art that was commonplace before computers made their way into design studios.
Third, according to the narrator, the guy in the photo, New Orleans designer Bob Brandt, invented it.
I still have one of these once handy gizmos hanging in my office for sentimental reasons. Sure enough, in small print it says: MFD. BY THE BRANDT CORP., NEW ORLEANS, LA.
Cool.
(Via Typohile.com.)
Wednesday January 14, 2009
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Links
Eric Hanson Has a Blog
Long-time friend and colleague Eric Hanson has a blog now (ER-H Blog). Eric is an illustrator and writer. I used to hire him quite a lot to do spot illustrations back in my art director days. He just published a wonderful book called A Book Of Ages this last Fall.
Wednesday November 19, 2008
Filed under:
Son of Typecasting
Links
Yves Peters Gets In on the Fun
Fellow type geek Yves Peters gets in on the fun of spotting typographic anachronisms at FontShop’s FontFeed blog today with a post about some odd props on the TV series Dexter.
Wednesday September 17, 2008
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Links
Miscellany
Typographunnies
Click at your risk: Typographunnies.
Saturday September 13, 2008
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Links
Highly Misleading
My friend David Steinlicht recently posted a time-lapse movie showing the day-to-day progress of his award-winning entry to the seed art competition at the 2008 Minnesota State Fair. It depicts a scene from the video game Grand Theft Auto (of which he is an avid player) with a can of Festal sweet corn. In seeds. Not your typical seed art subject, but David is not your typical seed artist.
The speed at which the work progresses is highly misleading. To put things into perspective, David includes video of the process in real time after the time-lapse part.
Friday September 12, 2008
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Links
Old Type & Lettering
Little Nemo Title Panel Lettering
I’m a long time fan of Winsor McCay, including his hand-lettered titles. Blogger “Morpheus” has posted a big collection of title panels from McCay’s Little Nemo comics on his “Meeting McCay” blog. Amazing stuff. (Via Boing Boing
Thursday May 29, 2008
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Links
Font Nerd x Star Wars Nerd = This
Via Daring Fireball.
Thursday March 20, 2008
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Links
My Brain Hurts
Today I found a photo on Flickr taken by Joe Pemberton, one of the founders of Typophile.com, of his computer monitor displaying a freeze frame from the making-of section of the DVD “The Call of Cthulhu” showing director/producer Andrew Leman, who also makes typographic props and contacted me years ago in response to my Typecasting article, wearing my winning design from the 2002 Typophile t-shirt contest.
Thursday February 14, 2008
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Links
"The Dating Game" for Fonts
In honor of Valentine’s Day, Extensis has posted a silly little game called TYPEmatching wherein you attempt to find romantic match ups between common typefaces.
Thursday December 20, 2007
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Links
Arial Exam
Ever notice how the font name “Arial” looks like a certain other word sometimes? (Via DaughterNumberThree)
Thursday October 25, 2007
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Links
A "Tribute to Men and Women Who Design"
Here is a cool thing that reader “minusf” wrote to me about recently: A half-hour film made by Chevrolet in 1958 called “American Look.” You can see it, split into three parts, on YouTube:
It’s pretty heavy on pro-America/pro-Chevy propaganda, but it’s also a revealing glimpse into a world when most everything was still designed with simple art materials like pastel crayons and clay.
In the third part, they build a design prototype of a ’59 Chevy out of plywood and clay. This was the car my family had when I was a little kid. To me it looked like a scary, angry animal. Little did I know they were going after “sleek and stylish.”
The pre-Fifties world seems to have been erased in the film. People live in thoroughly modern houses, have thoroughly modern furniture and appliances, and work in thoroughly modern buildings. Nothing old seems to exist.
I must have seen a lot of propaganda like this when I was a kid. I fully expected that the world would look like this when I grew up. But in reality, old and new have always lived side-by-side, and probably always will. (I love it when films that are set in the future, like Blade Runner, get this right.)
A lot of the design in the film still holds up well, like the Eames chair. But every now and then they show something that looks utterly old-fashioned—unsurprisingly, anything to do with electronics, appliances and business machines, which have changed radically over the last fifty years. On the other hand, the design requirements for chairs, spoons, and drinking glasses are pretty fixed.