A series of stunning photographs of statuary with videoesque distortion by Swiss artist Lauris Paulus. Three questions:
Would we have looked at these differently 20 years ago, when horizontal bands of video distortion weren’t a sort of artifact themselves? I think yes.
What do you want to bet we’ll see a trade paperback book cover (matte stock of course) using that last one in the next half year? It’d make a lovely reprint of Brave New World. For that matter the first one could serve to update Chip Kidd’s original cover for The Secret History, and if I were tasked with covering a book on celebrity culture, I’d definitely make one comp using the David one.
We have a problem with prints. Too many, not enough walls, and we keep seeing and buying more that we like. We have tried being more discerning: saying “no” to handlettering genius Ray Fenwick at Tiny Showcase this week was tough for instance.
Then Johno, typeblogger extraordinaire, comissioned a reasonably-priced limited edition letterpress “Typography” print set in Restraint by Marian Bantjes. I mean seriously how many words in that sentence aren’t fantastic? “In” and “a?” The print is gorgeous, the best use of Restraint we’ve seen yet (its interesting usage agreement keeps you from seeing it just anywhere). And over at the site of the printer, Typoretum, you can see pictures of the magnesum printing plate (so much prettier than photopolymer).
Here’s the Ray Fenwick print that we “showed restraint” and didn’t buy this week. Love the text.
oy, do we love Jessica Hische. Our copy of her gorgeous alphabet print is being matted right now at Cheap Pete’s. We’re excited for her that she is setting off on her own and leaving Louise Fili, but equally psyched that Cardon Webb (of Cardon Copy) is filling her shoes.
–
reative and prolific, Ms. Hische’s newest side venture is the sort of thing that we definitely support. Daily Drop Cap not only features a beautiful letter every day, but also the html to make it a drop cap and the creative commons license on how to use it. So, don’t be surprised if occasionally our posts start getting all Book of Kells on ya.
–
nd, it is a brand new project — she’s only up to “C”— so you can pretty much be the first on your block to use it. Yes, this last paragraph was just an excuse to use the “A” — I promise we’ll never use three drop caps in a post again. That’s just gaudy, people.
We’re happy to announce our second ever birthday card is now available in our Etsy shop. It’s Gocco-printed in bronze and light blue ink on black duplex paper (white on the inside) or chipboard or special limited quantity on pale aqua and reads Happy Effin’ Birthday.
The message and ornaments are hand-lettered in a Victorian-era style of calligraphy called copperplate. I spent much of the summer learning it, and now know it well enough to make very pretty letters — heck, I’m nearly ready for the marathon challenge of addressing wedding invitations and decorations using a red cloth tablecloth for this purpose. But, I wrote this about halfway through the class — we wanted it to have of imperfections and downright mistakes so that your birthday recipient won’t squint at it and say, “oh is that Kuenstler Script?”
We’re type geeks for sure. But, then there are the Jonathan Hoeflers and Robert Lees of the world, who collect type sample books from centuries past and trade anecdotes about the quirkiness of the editions. Now, with Taschen’s help, we can aspire to join their elite level of type-geekery.
Type. A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, Vol. 1reproduces over a thousand pages from type specimens 1628 – 1900 (volume 2 will cover 20th century specimens). And it comes not with a CD, but with an account code to download high res scans from the originals, not printing-rosette’d reproductions. They are fantastic. Oh and the book is gorgeously hefty, matte-paged, and printed with spot-gold accents.
Is it Ariel or Helvetica. Font ID test with only two fonts; shames you into learning the differences.
Ariel vs Helvetica When you tire of identifying the distinction, it’s time to move on to the streetfighter-style brawling game between the rival sans.
Cheese or Font. Sort of a one-note joke but I was surprised by how many I’d never heard of and guessed wrong on.
KERN for iPhone/iPod touch. Like Tetris meets The Eyeballing Game with letters. I know a few experts who’d love this… if it weren’t so close to what they’ve spent a zillion hours getting paid to do.
Tania Alvarez is from Mexico City but studied in Montreal. She put together these astonishingly delicate, organic vector art alphabet systems. The first sample is from “Fabric” which wraps its vector tatters about a bodoni-esque hairline frame. The second is from “Overseas,” where the tatters themselves make the letterforms.
One more of each after the jump. Lots more through the links.
Attention loyal readers; one of the most prolific foundries around is having a spectacular half off everything sale for one day only this Monday. Get em while the US dollar’s worth somethin! Ten of our favorites after the jump.
Paul Renner’s Futura is an amazing typeface, equally adept at playing 60s modernism as timelessly contemporary cool. Some have made iconic use of it: A. Volkswagen (an Erik Spiekermann variant), B. fave-director Wes Anderson (not just for titles but in-film signage), C. Barbara Kruger (bold italic), D. Draplin Design Co./Field Notes and E. Ikea… whoops, until now.
Yes that’s right. Ikea just switched from their bold, iconic use of Futura to Verdana, and their stated reasoning reflects a very poor thought process. They want to use the same type for all countries, including Asian ones, and Verdana has Asian character sets. And yet: there’s tons of modern monoweight Asian character sets that would match Futura perfectly well. They want to match the web to print. Yes, that does get a bit tricky, but other companies have found workarounds, and besides haven’t these people read “Harrison Bergeron“? Handicapping your display signage by putting it in a web text face just so that everything can match, for shame! So Futura doesn’t have Asian characters: Verdana doesn’t have effin display weights, it’s made for onscreen legibility! Use it large (as Ikea is bound to do) and it looks plain goofy instead of awesome like big Futura. Will every piece of furniture be available only in websafe colors?
There’s a lot of outcry and discussion on this (see designer discussion on typophile, mostly nondesigner discussion on metafilter, a good visual post on idsgn, the online petition, sets on flickr, etc.) and our hope is they quickly reverse their decision. The CIO claims that their identity is not wrapped up in Futura, but we disagree. See this 1965 catalog for what we mean.
oy, do we love 
reative and prolific, Ms. Hische’s newest side venture is the sort of thing that we definitely support. 
