the mehallo blog. beta.

‘Nick Martens digs into the pages of the great dictionary that chronicles the history and development of the English language, and unearths some typographic gems.’

Great article about obscure typographic references in the Oxford English Dictionary. Read it here.

Photo found via emdot

Tags: cool finds, design history, education, fonts, typography by steve
3 comments  . . .   

‘MoMA’s announced what might be its boldest acquisition ever. And it didn’t even cost anything: The ‘@’ symbol is now a part of the museum’s permanent design collection.’

Article here.

Pictured above, the @ symbol from Goudy’s Bertham font.

Tags: cool finds, design history, education, typography by steve
Comments Off on MoMA and the history of @

‘SORT stands for Society of Revisionist Typographers and, as their name suggests, they use typography and printing techniques of the past but marry them up with a contemporary design aesthetic’

SORT’s Modern Living stationery set is available thru the Southbank Centre. Other sorts from SORT are available thru their Etsy store.

The official SORT website is here.

Found via Retro To Go

Tags: cool finds by steve
1 comment  . . .   

‘This project has a dual goal of documenting the almost-lost skill of creating metal fonts and of capturing the personality and work process specifically of practitioner the late Canadian graphic artist Jim Rimmer (1931–2010)’

Richard Kegler’s long-delayed documentary, Making Faces: Metal Type in the 21st Century, has just secured just enough funding for completion.

For more about the film, go here and here.

Rimmer and Kegler

Tags: cool finds, design history, education, fonts, typography by steve
1 comment  . . .   

Photo found via David Oswald, Gemma O’Brien and fffound

Tags: cool finds, photography by steve
4 comments  . . .   

‘Mac McGrew’s 1993 2nd, revised edition is an important book for any printer, collector, student or aficionado of letterpress type. Equally valuable as a typeface reference and an insightful history of the typemaking industry in America.’ –Letterpress Type

THE book on metal typefaces cast in America (hint: not all of them have been digitized) is Mac McGrew’s American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century.

Long out of print, this 398 page resource is available once again. Snag your copy here.

Pictured: my dog eared, Post-It note filled edition.

Found via Steve Matteson

Tags: cool finds, design history, education, fonts, typography by steve
1 comment  . . .   

One of the coolest printing history finds in the Los Angeles area is The International Printing Museum in Carson.

Tucked away in an industrial section and run by the incredible Mark Barbour, the museum hosts an amazing collection of rare equipment, The Book Arts Institute (Hi Rachelle!), The Wayzgoose Gazette, a gallery, library and more.

And now they have a new RSS-friendly blog-based website – sporting a new logotype (above) created by Gina Pirtle Simpson.

Click on any image to visit the museum’s website/jump.

Museum photographs by April Rocha

Tags: cool finds, design history, education, exhibitions, photography, typography by steve
1 comment  . . .   

‘The St Bride Library is the largest library for printing, publishing and the graphic arts in the English-speaking world.’

The St Bride Library now has a shop. Limited edition type/printing books, snag em here.

Tags: cool finds, design history, education, typography by steve
1 comment  . . .   

Jason Munn

Just had a discussion – and major test question – involving 19th Century wonder Clarendon in my history class. As a type, Clarendon has been popping up all over the place for a bunch of years now.

I use it (paired with Jenson) for handouts in my introductory type course at ARC, up until recently, it was the corporate font for Starbucks  . . .  it just boldly says, read me.

New article (and cool samples) posted by SOTA’s Tamye Riggs here.

Jessica Fleischmann


Madeleine Eiche

Simon Dovar and Nils Davey

Tags: cool finds, design history, education, fonts, typography by steve
1 comment  . . .   

‘Is there a way to know what fonts will work together? Building a palette is an intuitive process, but expanding a typographic duet to three, four, or even five voices can be daunting.’ –H&FJ

‘how do I pick the right font?’
. . .  is the most common question I’m asked in my type courses. And my answers aren’t usually simple. I liken it to picking the right suit, tie and shoes.

What handbag will work best, nail polish, lipstick, gloss or none, which eye liner will simply look great  . . .

One learns by doing. [Read more →]

Tags: cool finds, design, education, fashion, fonts, thoughts, typography by steve
1 comment  . . .   

Many, many samples: Ads using fantastic typography. Go here.

Found via Veer

Tags: cool finds, design, fonts, illustration, typography by steve
3 comments  . . .