typographica

glennf, 25 days ago to random

This is the Wayfinder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk6UVnMn9ts&t=1s

I want a behind-the-scenes on this: the use of vernacular (informal) and designed (highly expensive/intentional) concrete architecture throughout the ad is a thing of beauty!

eWalthert, 1 month ago to random

Some lettering highlighting in Vannes

GARENNE CONEMA mural with geometric sans art nouveau lettering and fitting geometric illustrations.
Friperic 👽 Coiffeur, combining sixties hippy lettering with alien gray had.
VAMEA lingerie shop, bronze on gray, with elegant looped letters.

typographica, 2 months ago to random

What is represented (if anything) in this illustration on the title page of Bernhard’s extrabold fraktur? Topiary? Some printer’s tool?

#LucianBernhard #TypeSpecimens #Fraktur

typographica, 3 months ago to Fonts

Speaking of Google Fonts, though: while we’re still in the midst of the weird-and-wonderful wonky soft serif phase, I am shocked we don’t see more Fraunces. It’s better than most of the others in the genre and deserves far more attention: https://fraunces.undercase.xyz/

#Fonts #Typography #WindsorTypeface #CooperBlack

typographica, 4 months ago to calligraphy

Anyone know a good short video that demonstrates through action the differences between calligraphy and lettering (at least as they are most often broadly defined – written vs. drawn)?

#Calligraphy #Lettering

typographica, 4 months ago to Typography

[From the Twitter archive – Oct 24, 2021]
Kanye, Mayer, Stipe… who are other major celebs who care about typography?

1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicksherman/14157864053
2. https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/john_mayer_on_licensing_fonts.php
3. Michael Stipe (and @BijouType).

#REM #MichaelStipe #Typography #Fonts

typographica, 4 months ago to random

When Monotype pulled the plug on FontShop in Dec, I assumed all the content was gone. Just found thru an old link that at least some of the fontlists https://www.myfonts.com/pages/fontshop-fontlists-futura-alternatives?rfsn=6624774.1c86e7 and articles https://www.myfonts.com/pages/fontshop-from-compressed-light-to-extended-ultra?rfsn=6624774.1c86e7 are now retained on MyFonts.

@internetarchive also backed up some FS editorial content.

2014–19 (@baldcondensed era): https://web.archive.org/web/20201001122324/https://www.fontshop.com/news/type-essays

2010–13 (@davidsudweeks @theresa era): https://web.archive.org/web/20131021115628/http://blog.fontshop.com/

2005–15 (@stewf @baldcondensed @hitext era + FontFeed): https://web.archive.org/web/20171120052112/http://fontfeed.com/archives/category/news/

Luke, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to Typography

Totally scouring anything URW++ online and now reading Wikipedia about them.
#typography #typeHistory #purloining

typographica, 5 months ago to Fonts

56 font makers responded to today’s survey.

75% plan to offer variable fonts in 2024.
46% will make most or all 2024 releases variable.

25% do not plan to offer variable fonts in 2024.

#VariableFonts #Fonts #TypeDesign #TypeIndustry

https://typo.social/@typographica/111557685313551814

typographica, 5 months ago to worldwithoutus

Our list of Black Type Designers https://library.typographica.org/black-type-designers-foundry-owners is about to get much longer! As just shown by @tphinney at Face/Interface, Google hired over a dozen designers to create new fonts that support the characters needed for Latin-based African languages.

While experienced designers and typographers, many were new to type design, so part of the program included training with Type Electives and Practica, and a shipment of books such as Making Fonts. https://bookshop.org/p/books/making-fonts-a-comprehensive-guide-to-professional-type-design-chris-campe/18213468?aid=2416&ean=9781584237747&listref=typeface-design-making-fonts

#Africa #TypeDesign

typographica, 6 months ago to random

Chat GPT still lies about basic type facts that are readily available online.

I asked, “Who designed WPA Gothic?”, which is a font I cobbled together with @fontstruct back in 2008. The answers:

typographica, 6 months ago to random

An under-documented aspect of type design is the origin of typefaces for typewriters. One of the few people tracking them down is @marsidesino (see her Reading dissertation https://www.academia.edu/15850041/Type_design_for_typewriters_Olivetti and Typographica article https://typographica.org/on-typography/typewriter-typeface-the-legacy-of-the-writing-machine-in-type-design/).

María introduced me to Caractères, a Swiss company that made type designs and “fonts” (drums, discs, balls, wheels, etc.) for typewriter manufacturers.

Their best known design, Cubic, really stands out among typewriter styles: https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/75648/cubic

Photo of a page from a type specimen book for Richard Gans, S. A. - Madrid with a type sample titled “Máquina de Escribir” (Typewriter).

Okay, 6 months ago to random

If you’ve taken my Printer’s Row history tour, you’ve heard me talk about W. B. Conkey’s work for The 1893 Colombian Exposition.

Now there’s a near mint copy of the Official Directory on eBay I reallly wish I could justify buying.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115970783367

typographica, 6 months ago to random

Village has closed: https://www.laborandwait.xyz/newsletter

Established by Chester and Tracy Jenkins in 2005, the company was a “boutique/co-op/collective” of foundries (incl. @feliciano, @klim, @KLTF, @kontour, @mckltype, @typesupply, @underware). That concept of a handful of independent labels “going it alone, together”, was novel and rare. Given the current environment in the trade, an idea like this seems as valid as ever.

Image: @internetarchive capture from July 25, 2005 https://web.archive.org/web/20050725002313/http://www.vllg.com/Village/

typographica, 6 months ago to random

Piano or mechanical composition? John F. Trow specimen, 1856. (cc @onpaperwings)

image/jpeg

typographica, 6 months ago to calligraphy

Apartment signs of the Grand Lake neighborhood, Oakland, CA.

#Lettering #Signs #SignPainting #1950s #1960s #Oakland #LakeMerritt #GrandLake

Photo of a reddish wood-paneled facade with a white sign in three sections: “The Empress 3952”.
Photo of a shingle sign on a wall. One panel reads “Available” in a bouncy slab serif. The second panel hanging below reads “One Bedroom” in a casual sans.
Photo of very large address numbers (“651”) painted in the side of a building.

typographica, 7 months ago to calligraphy

The Frasher Foto Postcard Collection https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6s2019xp/ hosts over 5,000 picture postcard views of California and the Southwest taken by Burton Frasher in the 1910s–1950s. Among the many shots of landscapes and people are street scenes, offering a time-travel tour of early 20th-century American signmaking.

Tucson, AZ, 1938 https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt1199p910/?layout=metadata&brand=oac4

Randsburg, CA, 1934 https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt600018mv/?layout=metadata&brand=oac4

#SignPainting #Lettering #1920s #1930s #1940s #Arizona #California #NewMexico #Nevada #Utah

A neon projecting sign reading “MARTIN ROGERS / COLLEGE STORE / BOOKS ·· SUPPLIES ·· CAFE ·· GIFTS / WE SERVE Elite ICE CREAM”
A relief facia sign reading “CAFE / FOUNTAIN”.
A storefront with a large painted sign reading “ICE CREAM / JONES DRUG CO. / DRUGS SUNDRIES / SODA FOUNTAIN”