Grids: Typography Archives

SPD Member's Exclusive: Monotype's Pencil to Pixels

Typography 05.02.13 posted by The Editors

EXCLUSIVE PRIVATE VIEW FOR SPD MEMBERS!

Venerable British Typography firm Monotyope has dreamt up the ultimate showcase for the font fiends in all of us with their new exhibition "Pencil to Pixels".

Monotype have teamed with SPD to offer our members an exclusive private view of the show when it comes to NYC next week. Sign up today to get on the list. We hope to see you there!

Thursday May 9th, Noon-1pm,

Tribeca Skyline Studio,

205 Hudson St (Penthouse)

NYC, NY 10013

Full invite after the jump

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The ABCs of A2: An Interview with Henrik Kubel

Typography 03.16.12 posted by The Editors

A2-Type spun out of London-based design studio A2/SW/HK in the fall of 2010. The studio was founded by Scott Williams and Henrik Kubel, both members of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). Their type foundry was established to release and distribute over a decade's worth of specially-crafted typefaces the firm has created.

Martin Salazar had the opportunity to meet Kubel at a Type Director's Club event last summer, and has been an avid follower of A2's work ever since. Salazar, a designer at ESPN The Magazine, recently caught up with the A2 founder to talk fonts...

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The 1912 ATF Specimen ... Now Available Online!

Typography 01.24.12 posted by Patrick Mitchell

Jonathan Hoefler tweeted recently that he'd found a site that had digitized the American Type Foundry's 1912 Type Specimen book. It's true. If you don't know this book, next time you're at a bar with a typographer, mention that you've got a copy--your drinks will be free all night.

Familiarity with the ATF book will only serve to increase your typography cred among your designer friends, too. Being able to present examples on your iPhone is even better. It's definitely worthwhile to spend some time looking through its pages.

Get a PDF of the book here.

Sample pages after the jump ...

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Eat Your Words: The Commercial Type Pop-Up Dinner Party for Marian

Typography 10.18.11 posted by The Editors

There isn't a word yet for being both a foodie and a typophile, but we're sure it's coming soon. And will probably be invented within the week by someone (possibly you?) who's going to attend the closing dinner party for Commercial Type's "Thieves Like Us" pop-up show. Open since October 13th, the pop-up showroom at 29 Kenmare St (at Elizabeth, NYC) in Nolita features a collaboration between Commercial Type and artist Dino Sanchez, exhibiting Marian -- a new typeface by Paul Barnes. (ABOVE) More on the pop-up and the type-dinner mashup after the jump... … MORE

Six Essential iPad Apps for Type Lovers

iPad 08.23.11 posted by Reed Reibstein

The language of magazine design is type. Publication designers have to know a loop from an ear, a ligature from a swash, and Erik van Blokland from Mark van Bronkhorst. Aside from being a spectacular device for news apps (as Mike Burgess, Joe Zeff, Jochem Wijnands, and Michel Elings described at last month's "Indie App Night"), the iPad boasts a number of truly useful tools for letterform education and inspiration. Here's a typographic twist on our ongoing series of essential iPad apps.

Above: Comparing typefaces in FontBook

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Joe Newton: Head of Type

Typography 04.01.11 posted by Gail Anderson

I first met Joe Newton at Rolling Stone about 20 years ago (yikes!) when he was visiting from Seattle. He was a cool cat in a pork pie hat and rolled up jeans, and we immediately became music buddies. Joe was working at The Stranger at the time, and since then, has served as deputy art director at Rolling Stone (small world) and spent some time with me at SpotCo.

Joe's now got the best title in the industry--"Head of Type" at Veer. He's they guy who makes those great little font specimens you see on the Veer site, and more importantly, Joe is the curator of the Veer font collection. But in case you didn't know, in his spare time, Joe designs type and does some pretty swell illustrations (and is available to do them for your publication...).
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Your Moment of Type Zen #12

Typography 03.30.11 posted by Gail Anderson

Apparently, vanishing type on walls is called "ghost type." New York City is filled with it, so I want to start documenting some for myself before it's too late.

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Your Moment of Type Zen #11

Typography 03.23.11 posted by Gail Anderson

More from my Sunday morning in Williamsburg. I felt like I was a tourist in another country, and honestly, was a bit uncomfortable taking pictures while people were going about their business. I didn't want to gawk or be rude, but the type was so great that I couldn't resist. So I was discreet... … MORE

Your Moment of Type Zen #10

Typography 03.16.11 posted by Gail Anderson

Okay, I'm not as cool as you are. I only made my first trip to Williamsburg a few months ago, to pick up my cousin. Who knew it was so groovy? Not me, I guess. I could have spent the entire day there taking pictures of amazing signs, but there was family to tend to. But I'll be back.

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More Great Typography from Cee Lo Green

Typography 03.11.11 posted by Josh Klenert

Cee Lo Green is proving to be heavy user of great typography. While Green's hit "Fuck You" was hard to miss over the summer--the video was effing great. Check out the video to his new song off Lady Killer, "Bright Lights Bigger City" featuring Wiz Khalifa.

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Your Moment of Type Zen #9

Typography 03.02.11 posted by Gail Anderson

More random NYC pix that make me happy. There are so many great moments around the city, and it's been kind of nice to stop here and there to capture a few. I can't imagine what it must be like to be a visiting designer from out of town. So much good stuff, and you barely even realize it when it's just part of your daily routine.
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Your Moment of Type Zen #8

Typography 02.23.11 posted by Gail Anderson

Lovely and crusty hand-painted lettering graces the roadsides of just about every American town. I was especially taken by the sign for wheelchairs along Route 206 in New Jersey (they used to sell potatoes, and then it was hub cabs).

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Your Moment of Type Zen #7

Typography 02.16.11 posted by Gail Anderson

I've been on a mission to collect religious signage, though I'm careful not to be disrespectful. And, of course, in attempting to be ecumenical as possible, I'm reaching out to all faiths. I will continue to post more, assuming the spirit moves me.

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Der Moment of Type Zen #6

Typography 02.09.11 posted by Gail Anderson

Ever wonder who's using all those Frakturs? The faux-Bavarian town of Leavenworth, Washington, that's who. This past fall, I spent the weekend at an AIGA Seattle retreat in the scenic Cascades, and took a quick tour of the local tourist attraction -- an entire town designed for a permanent Oktoberfest celebration. Enjoy. … MORE

Your Moment of Type Zen #5

Typography 02.02.11 posted by Gail Anderson

Italy is incredible. I don't know what else to say. The colors, the light, the food... and of course, the type. I finally got there this past fall, and here's a small sampling of what I wanted to take home with me.… MORE

Your Moment of Type Zen #4

Typography 01.26.11 posted by Gail Anderson

It's much easier to do the photo thing on my bike than in the car, so you'll be seeing more of these NYC posts in the coming weeks. There's an endless supply of typographic eye candy around the city, so it's pretty much a no-brainer. I'm learning that you just have to be careful of curious pedestrians... and people who definitely don't want to be in the picture.

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Your Moment of Type Zen #3

Typography 01.19.11 posted by Gail Anderson

I have a thing for portable signs. The letters are always kind of crunchy and the words are sometimes misspelled -- or just plain missing. And the copy itself is often priceless. I've always been drawn to this kind of rural roadside advertising, and am now kicking myself for all signs I've whizzed by over the years. So it's time to start pulling over and taking a few quick shots before I lose out on any more of these little gems.

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Wow = Typecalendar.com

Typography 01.14.11 posted by Gail Anderson

Did you know that on January 7th, Charles Addams was born, as well as one Mister Nicolas Cage? Or that January 6th was the date that Nancy Kerrigan got clubbed on the knee by Tonya Harding? Let renowned designer Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich (born November 11th) supply you with all of the fun facts and useless trivia you'll need to dazzle friends at cocktail parties in 2011 with amazing Type Calendar ("A type a day keeps the doctor away"). Roberto's challenge: to create one clever digit design a day that ties in to historical events--and keeps us coming back for more. I think he's got that coming-back-for-more thing covered. Wow.
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Your Moment of Type Zen #2

Typography 01.12.11 posted by Gail Anderson

I hope you enjoyed the first batch (or actually, even looked at them). I drive along Route 206 in New Jersey fairly regularly to visit my folks in Leisuretowne (yes, there really is such a place -- and it's a retirement community). There's some crazy-good stuff that I pass along the way, so I'm trying to get some pictures little by little before all those great signs disappear. If you're ever in the area, be sure to say hi to Lloyd and Nola.

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Your Moment of Type Zen #1

Typography 01.05.11 posted by Gail Anderson

I've got a lot on my mind these days (don't get me started), so to relieve some stress, I've decided to take some pictures... of type. Yep, I know -- there are lots of type blogs with amazing, obsessive collections. But are they sharing them with you, right here on GRIDS? I think not. So take a moment from your busy work day, and have a look at some tasty type. Maybe it'll inspire you; that's what I'm hoping for in my own case. These are from upstate New York, in the Ulster County area. Next up, Route 206 in New Jersey, right off the Turnpike. Enjoy.

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Our Type of People

Typography 12.22.10 posted by The Editors

If your office is a little on the slow side this week thanks to holiday fun and frenzy, a quick reminder that in addition to prepping your entries for SPD's PUB 46 (why scramble that week after New Year's? get this done in 2010! PUB 46 entry forms here) the Type Directors Club annual competition is also accepting entries now for their January 12th deadline. Enter online here and show off that amazing typography you're using in your magazine!

Type Directors Club: An Evening With Veer Type

Typography 11.29.10 posted by Robert Newman

The Type Directors Club will be celebrating Veer Type with a show and presentation on Thursday, December 2, from 6-8p, at 347 W. 36th St., Suite 603.

More Than a Pretty Face features a look at Veer's typography and promotional projects, including merchandise, posters, interactive displays, animations, and type specimens. Veer's Head of Type, Joe Newton will give a presentation at the opening of the show that will look at the type-focused work from the Veer creative team. There will be lots of background on how they create their cool award-winning promotional work, as well as plenty of typographic details for type geeks.

On the next page we've got some Veer Type promotional samples and merchandise.

(Above): Veer promotional sample using the font Eloquent Pro.

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"How Does It Fit In with the New Technology?"

Typography 11.08.10 posted by The Editors

"It doesn't."

In a world that's all iPad and interaction design and expiration dates, it's always nice to see someone dedicating love and energy to the classics. "Linotype: The Film" looks at the Linotype typecasting machine with just this kind of love. Called the "Eighth Wonder of the World" by Thomas Edison, the Linotype revolutionized printing and society, but very few people today know anything about it. More about the film and the preview after the jump...
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NSFW Typography

Typography 08.24.10 posted by Arem Duplessis

Hot off the press. This is a new single from Cee Lo Green's upcoming album, Lady Killer, called "Fuck You". The song is amazing, but what really got me was the video, all set in type and type only! Kudos to the designer, not sure who did this one but I thought it deserved some designer love.

(You might want to keep your volume low at first. Hard to resist taking it to 11, but... -- Ed.)

The Cooper Union + the TDC Are Taking You Back to School

Typography 08.20.10 posted by The Editors

Do you, like Kanye, get a little emotional over your typography at times? Fret not! You're not alone. (And no, we don't just mean that you and 'Ye will have something to talk about when you hang out at the next shoot.)

Spurred by the resurgence of lettering in design today, and the ways that digital tools are enhancing the process, The Cooper Union and the Type Directors Club have partnered together to create The Typeface Design Certificate Program, a first of its kind in North America.
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Web Fonts Take The Next Step

Typography 08.19.10 posted by Josh Klenert

The Roger Black empire grows by one more company: going live today is Webtype--a partnership with The Font Bureau, Ascender, Petr van Blokland, and DevBridge.

This new company's goal is to provide quality typography for websites. In the past, for live, searchable, dynamic type websites were limited to the basics (Georgia, Arial, etc.). Otherwise, Photoshop graphics were needed to be cut to add a bit of unique type flavor.

Webtype is the next step forward in this much needed movement towards "real fonts" on the web. Make sure to read the fine print (monthly subscription) and know what browsers your sites users use as some browsers (desktop and mobile) do not support this new technology.

Overall, there's fewer reason now for your publication to use the same great fonts in print and online.

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Mommy, My Font Hurts

Typography 02.17.10 posted by Andrea Dunham

Don't strain your eyeballs while they involuntarily roll to the back of your brain, but Helvetica has insinuated itself into my Saturday morning bake-a-thon and here's the reason why. Enjoy this painfully cute little blog entry while you're salivating. I kin bayke butt now I hav to lurn how to spel bettr!

One Day Only: House Industries Pop-Up Shop at TDC

Typography 11.19.09 posted by The Editors

If you're in NYC today, you're in luck: as part of their closing-Friday exhibition at the Type Directors Club, House Industries is celebrating today with a pop-up shop (all the rage!) featuring some of their best posters, t-shirts, wood prints, nativity sets -- all sorts of goodies to gift others, or yourself! 11:30 to 6pm at the TDC hq -- all info here.

Lubalin Now

Life Outside of Work 11.04.09 posted by The Editors

Herb Lubalin is best known for his wildly illustrative typography and his groundbreaking work for the magazines Avant Garde, Eros, and Fact. Of course, at SPD, we have a special place in our heart for him as the namesake for our lifetime achievement honor, the Herb Lubalin Award, given just 12 times in our 45-year history. On Thursday, November 5th, The Cooper Union is opening their new gallery with "Lubalin Now," an installation of recent posters, publications, and motion graphics by internationally recognized graphic designers that spotlight an emerging trend toward expressive lettering and typography. Original sketches, magazines, logotypes, and posters selected from the Lubalin Center Archive will illuminate Lubalin's influence on contemporary graphic design. Some samples, and info on the Opening Reception after the jump... … MORE

Font Bureau vs. NBC: Must Steal TV?

Typography 10.09.09 posted by Amid Capeci

As first reported by cityfile.com this morning, on Tuesday afternoon, NBC was served with a lawsuit by the Font Bureau, one of the country's leading typographic design firms and the company responsible for crafting typefaces for the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and the New York Times Co. What would prompt a company that designs fonts to wage a legal assault on the media conglomerate?
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Think You Know Fonts? How About Cheese?

Typography 09.24.09 posted by Jeremy LaCroix

Telling the difference between the two is tougher than you might think, even for a font nerdy crowd such as ours!

Make sure you have five free minutes before checking out this site and testing your knowledge: Cheese or Font

Photo:Chris Rochelle; Chow.com

Futura and Verdana Battle It Out at IKEA

Typography 09.02.09 posted by The Editors

idsgn reports that IKEA has ditched their longtime custom Futura-based typeface for one of the web-standards, Verdana. Not surprisingly, strong opinions are being expressed, memorials for older IKEA catalogues are being posted, and petitions have been started. What do you think? A nice refresh, or so bad they might as well have chosen Comic Sans?

This Typeface Drives 55

Typography 07.29.09 posted by The Editors

Treehugger reports on the Toyota iQ typeface, designed by 2 typographers, a race car driver, and a programmer to promote the new Toyota iQ microcar:

The goal was to design a typeface by tracking the moving car using special software, and the whole undertaking documented with photos and video. A camera mounted on a crane...was used to track 4 color dots on the 4 corners of the car. The movement was then turned into fonts using custom software.

More photos and the making-of video after the jump...
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Face-Off

Typography 06.09.09 posted by Nancy Stamatopoulos

I annoy my husband, Steve, to no end with my compulsion for the need to name all fonts that pass by my way...on menus, in movie titles, on advertisements. If he were in the design field, I guess it could turn out to be some friendly competition. But no, he's a Captain in the FDNY, and couldn't give a rat's arse about a TYPEFACE. If it weren't for his use of his own (gasp) Dell laptop, he would never have even heard of (another gasp) Times Roman and Arial.

Alas, my email updates from ArtBistro.com arrived with a link to a Designer's joy. For all you type gurus out there; or just lovers of all things with characters (or just a character yourself), see how savvy you really are. And enjoy the company of all those other typoholics. (Aren't there support meetings for us?) Test your type IQ here.

SPD PUB 43 Design Annual Has (Almost) Arrived

Awards 11.25.08 posted by Dirk Barnett

Yep, that's right. The hotly anticipated SPD PUB 43 Design Annual will be reaching our shores from Singapore come mid/late December 2008! As it's chock full of the most innovative, exciting editorial design work from 2007--including the Magazine of the Year Winners and the Members' Choice winner--you will definitely want to get your hands on this one as soon as it hits the SPD offices!

Stay tuned to http://spd.org in the coming weeks for more information on how to get your copy, along with an in-depth Q&A from this year's annual designers, Weapon of Choice (Tom Brown and Todd Albertson), as they discuss their concepts behind the design, and why debossing isn't really as easy as it looks.

Nothing But a Ballpoint Pen

Design 09.13.08 posted by Geraldine Hessler

For the September issue of Los Angeles, art director Joe Kimberling collaborated with illustrator and type designer Marian Bantjes to create the cover. The solution, done solely with a blue ballpoint pen, is a notebook covered with doodles inspired by a creative, yet distracted high school student. As Marian says on the contributors page "I did everything but the bar code". Check out more of her amazing work here.

Movie! Movie!

Resources 09.10.08 posted by Gail Anderson

I don't know who this Steven Hill character is, but I think I'm in love. He's got a website of just movie titles--that's it.

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Dylan Went Electric and Ed Fella Has a Website

Typography 08.25.08 posted by Brandon Kavulla

Probably one of my favorite typographers and artists is a gent by the name of Ed Fella. If you aren't familiar, you're in for a treat. If you are very familiar...you're STILL in for a treat.

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Optima vs. Gotham: Campaign Typeface Smackdown '08

Politics 08.20.08 posted by Amid Capeci

There has been much interweb chatter (some of it here! -- Ed.) of not only Hoefler & Frere-Jones's Gotham as the official font of the Obama campaign, but also of a graphic discipline and consistency throughout this election season that companies like Apple and Nike would be proud of. It also didn't hurt to have Shepard Fairey's Obama poster turn into the must-have wall art of the politically aware.
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Be Careful What You Wish For

Behind-the-Scenes 08.01.08 posted by Gail Anderson

Michael Walsh, the art director of the Visual Arts Press, asked me to do the next SVA subway poster this past January. I was completely blown away, and of course, said I'd be honored. The next day, the lovely Ric Grefe from AIGA called to tell me I was getting the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Medal. I assumed that before the end of that glorious week, I'd get clocked by a car on my bike ride home and would linger in a coma that would last beyond both the poster deadline and the big AIGA gala in September. Surprisingly, I've been spared (though I'm still waiting for an anvil to fall on my head). … MORE

Reel Characters

video 07.28.08 posted by Nathalie Kirsheh

Check out this short where a group of film majors-turned-comedians give us a jesting look at what the fonts we know so well on a daily basis would be like if they were..... real people.
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Mario Hugo Gets WIRED

Typography 07.22.08 posted by Scott Dadich

We at WIRED are debuting a new F.O.B. in the upcoming September issue and I'm just bursting with excitement about the new sections. Mario Hugo, who designed our very first "splash" page last February, has just completed a cadre of new page slugs--logos for the START, PLAY and brand-new TEST section--and boy are they gorgeous. Not to mention, we're also officially debuting a year-long project in Hoefler & Frere-Jones new face, Exchange Display Light. The September issue hits newsstands on August 19. Click on this headline for a sneak peek.

Spines of Slovenia

Typography 07.18.08 posted by Gail Anderson

The payoff from a recent speaking trip to Ljubljana for EMZIN magazine: Some of the most beautifully designed book spines I've ever seen, tucked away on the shelves of the town's antiquarian bookshop. WOW.

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