I’ve been a fan of the design work of Mark van Bronkhorst for years – and he’s just relaunched MVB fonts and fired up a new Twitter account.

And if you signup/subscribe/givehimyouremail, you’ll get cool things showing up in your inbox which will include a free copy of MVB Embarcadero Bold (a real font, worth 79 bucks)  . . .

All you have to do is go here and do what it says.

Offer ends September 15, 2010.

Found via Delve

‘Moshun’s a fairly simple design – done in just two days in Illustrator and After Effects – that happens to leap, spiral, and shimmy into place.’

Moshun (pronounced Mo-shun, of course) was created by Dutch designer Jeroen Krielaars. Article (with much more detail) here.

‘Abbot Nicolaus Telegdi purchased the Vienna Jesuit press in 1577 and started to work immediately with its own worn typefaces. His first works were publications of his own speeches.’

Amondó Szegi’s take on Telegdi’s types are a well-worn set of fonts. With some kooky dingbats.

Snag em here. Or here.

The Caslon family took type to much bolder heights in the 19th century. And a copy of their 1841 specimen book can be perused thanks to Google Books.

Go here.

Found via I love typography

It had to do with pizza.

Font Bureau’s Nick Sherman dropped by my hotel room at TypeCon in Los Angeles. He read on Twitter that I had pizza left over – and he’s a major pizza freak.

I thought I was a pizza freak, but I don’t even come close (video below).

Nick said he was up late working on something big.

Turns out this big thing is the launch of Webtype, a collaboration between Font Bureau, Ascender Corporation, Roger Black, Petr van Blokland and DevBridge.

fb’s offerings
Font Bureau makes incredible fonts – and some of their best, Benton, Interstate, Miller – are now available as reasonably-priced, optimized-for-screen Webfonts that can make html pages zing with class.

Read more about it here.

adobe throws their hat in
Meanwhile – over at TypeKit (which carries web versions of my own fonts) – the team at Adobe has also optimized some of their classics for web use.

This includes Myriad, Minion, Chaparral and (of course) Trajan. Plus, the wonderful Adobe Garamond is available thru their free trial plan. More info here.

No Adobe Caslon yet. But hey, I can dream.

Not our pizza: Photo by Nick Sherman, from his blog: Pizza Rules!

I’ve been in love with it ever since. I use it on just about everything – including this blog’s title, my own logotype. I’m a font designer myself, but still don’t consider my own letterforms to even come close to what was accomplished with this particular interpretation of Caslon.

‘Twombly worked primarily from a 1924 specimen from the Caslon foundry, although she referred also to specimens from 1738 and 1768′ -Serif: The Magazine of Type & Typography, Fall 1995

the maker
Carol Twombly (above, photo from this book) was an incredible type designer. Retired from the type world, she lives nearby in Grass Valley. I’d say I’ve learned to draw letter forms myself by taking apart her lettering. There’s some incredible decisions in her outlines.

Years ago I was lucky enough to find an Australian design magazine that printed her roughs and sketches for Adobe Caslon. I devoured these with glee.

‘Desktop-published’ daily paper, from ATypi 1994

94
I met Twombly in 1994 at the ATypI Conference in San Francisco.

She was a bit shy, but I was  . . .  in awe and simply had to say hi. We had a short talk, and she did make a point to mention that there are people behind every typeface that appears on the font menu; a concept I pass on to my students.

And she was shocked that the Australian magazine I had found was available in America (Thanks to the obscure things that were carried by now-defunct retail version of Tower Books). Said she gave the interview to them because she was hoping no one in the US would see it.

She had also just won the Prix Charles Peignot. Then did a few more fonts and left the business.

There’s been some conjecture on why she left, but what we have today is an incredible legacy of typefaces. To use and abuse.

others
Twombly was also co-designer of the incredible Myriad – now used to make Apple look cool.

Trajan and Lithos

The most accurate version of Trajan is her’s as well, as is the Greek-inspired Lithos – with which the 1990s never would have existed.

Adobe Caslon Pro

still goin
Adobe Caslon – now expanded as a Pro font – is now commonplace on many computer systems and is a great drawing that simply can’t be beat. For me, it’s part of a journey into typography that’s inspired me all these years. Good type that holds up well.

Adobe Caslon Bold as tattoo – details here

‘How much should a revival of a typeface look like the original? Well, just as with performing an old song – an analogy Matthew Carter has made – there is something you have to like in the original in order want to revive it. And you can’t depart from the original too much, or you lose the charm of the old song that appealed to you in the first place.’

Over at I love typography, a look at William Berkson’s Caslon revival – and the work involved in such an endeavor. Read more here.

Available thru The Font Bureau.

‘A revival of classic eighteenth-century type by William Caslon, featuring shorter descenders, and higher contrast giving the face a more useful, modern quality.’

I was lucky enough to see the Replay type family in production. And a got to play with some of the beta versions; used one for a fashion logo.

Stefan Hattenbach has been working on this beautiful Caslon update for a few years now. And like all his fonts, there is brilliance in the details.

Replay is available exclusively through Veer.

“Caslon’ is an example of what became known in the commercial world of the 20th century as a ‘brand’: a family name that was not only widely recognised by customers but which stood as a guarantee of long-standing integrity.’

William Caslon’s types keep making a comeback.

One of the first revivals was made in the late 1800s by Chiswick Press, London.

Full story here.

‘It was Benjamin Franklin’s favorite typeface, and the first printings of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were set in Caslon.’

I am a history junkie.

And I loved the scene in HBO’s John Adams miniseries when Adams disputed the accuracy of the above painting (video, below). And how Ben Franklin’s approach to French diplomacy was more  . . .  ardent, than formal.

(I also loved how the miniseries used titled camera angles – like the United States was founded by villains from the old Batman tee vee series)

William Caslon’s fonts were the typefaces of the American Revolution.

Here’s some great reads on early American documents – as handy PDFs.

And here’s a link to John Adams on DVD.

Student and Caslon g from my Spring typography course [artnm 303] at American River College, Sacramento.

Class starts up again this Friday August 28, 2010. Waiting list is full. Can’t teach everyone.

It’s gonna be an unavoidable ‘that teacher’s an asshole’ session.

Self portrait by Samantha Costanilla

This one is always a favorite.

‘Lyric video for Ceelo’s big, big single FU.’

Love this video, but  . . .  Dang!

Typos.

Found via Bwargh Von Modnar

New type concept: The ‘hy’ typographic ligature. Developed by former student Holly Rabayda-Wickland.

Some modern examples of Arabic. More here.

Found via designnewz

My type mug goes well with the real Pepsi that’s back in stores this month.

Get the mug here.

Pages from Recueil d’Alphabets à Dessiner by René Henry Munsch (1951).

More here.

Found via Biggest Apple

‘A video of two people drawing the alphabet.’

‘Hand sprinkled cinnamon’

Snapshot by student Rikki Morehouse. She went thru several cups of coffee til she got them serifs right.

(Hedline written by former student Devon Cloutier)

Matthew Carter’s Georgia is among my favorite fonts. And recently, Georgia turned into something a bit  . . .  more.

I love that Georgia exists, or the interwebs would be Times forever (well, until WOFF kicks in) – and without Georgia, the argument that sans fonts online are more legible (which I think is hooey) sort of wins.

And if you’re reading my blog directly online (without using RSS), you’re reading Georgia. It does what I like it to do. Reads well.

The original Georgia, 1993

new georgia
Behind the scenes, the boys at Ascender (including the great Steve Matteson) got the license to expand the Georgia type family into some really cool weights – and working with Carter & Cone, The Font Bureau and Microsoft – did just that.

Georgia Pro: 20 new fonts, beyond the basic set that one sees on the web. The details really come out as things get bolder and heavier.

Check em out here. Condensed versions here.

And
To balance things a bit – Verdana (below) has also gone  . . .  more.

Isla Waite’s extremely heavy, laser cut student final from my most recent experimental typography course. Her research subject was Erik Spiekermann.

No digitally-made drop shadows here.

Type Munching Dinos by Tiffany Valdez.

Erik Spiekermann was the guest on Design Chat last week.

Archive here. Detailed post about Spiekermann (with additional videos, links and tons more) here.

I still use his Sheep book as my intro text to the world of typography.

‘Fry travels across Europe to find out how Gutenberg kept his development work secret, about the role of avaricious investors and unscrupulous competitors and why Gutenberg’s approach started a cultural revolution.’

Stephen Fry loves design. That’s one of the reasons he’s really cool.

Part two

Part three

Update: The uncredited, pre-set type used for Stephen Fry’s ‘cheat’ was provided by Kitty Maryatt (and her students) of Scripps College in Claremont, California.

Professor Maryatt gave a talk on her Gutenberg project at TypeCon 2010; we spoke briefly after her presentation.

Working with her students, they’d managed to recreate an exact (as possible) replica of an actual Gutenberg Bible page. And this project really showed how detailed (neurotic!) Gutenberg had been. One page kept an entire class busy, the cost of the type alone was in the thousands.

For a bit more about the project, go here.

Found via Aaron Bell

So I’m pretty much out the door right now – driving down to TypeCon.

And this Thursday morning I’ll be speaking as an ‘icebreaker’ in the Type & Design Education Forum. I’ll be going over a bunch of things I’ve learned while teaching; things that I’ve discovered work very well in a creative classroom.

get off your high horse
Being a human being – instead of an authority figure is a big part of this. My talk is going to center around how to make the connection with today’s college age students. And – hopefully – get them to love typography and design as much as the rest of us do.

real change is coming
Every group has to do something to irritate the hell out of the last. This falls in the category of ‘generation defining.’ Been going on for thousands of years. Joseph Conrad’s probably written something about it.

The current group – labeled by the media as ‘idle youth’ – unfortunately has had a hard time discovering their place in a world gone  . . .  hopeless.

And the next group is really pissed off about it. Rightly so.

If you haven’t already, see what The Tiny Masters of Today are up to and – already a troublemaker for her frankness involving adult matters – actress/musician Taylor Momsen is pulling no punches.

‘Vodka eyeballing’ seems to be the first trend that’s already sending shocks from the next batch of kids. Hell, it can lead to blindness. Stupid as hell, don’t recommend anyone do something so ridiculous.

But history does show – things will get more patently offensive as time goes on.

Count on it.

‘I could not be happier about this, or any more proud to live in a city that recognise the importance of preserving this kind of work.’

Vintage signs unearthed and preserved in Copenhagen. Details here.

Found via Martin Klasch

‘Nuit Blanche explores a fleeting moment between two strangers, revealing their brief connection’

A film by Arev Manoukian. Making of video here.

‘The film’s title is an allusion to Tatlin’s Tower. This animated short by Theodore Ushev is like a whirlwind tour of Russian constructivist art and is filled with visual references to artists of the era, including Vertov, Stenberg, Rodchenko, Lissitsky and Popova.’

Brilliantly done! From 2006.

‘We’ll explore the hot button topic of web fonts; antique type and lettering of the textile trade; the typography of Disneyland; making smart fonts even smarter; the influence of Charles Eames; liquid typography; west coast ‘Cholo’ style graffiti; and so much more.’

typecon 2010: babel
Big typography conference next week in Los Angeles. Wood Type preview in Carson today. Designer talks, workshops, dealer room, font makers, stuff.

and me
I’ll be giving my first ever TypeCon talk as part of their Type & Design Education Forum. My title is Tell Lies in the Classroom and Get Away With It. It will be as weird as what I normally do in a classroom.

Promise.

the wind down
I’m also coordinating TypeCon’s after party – Sunday August 22 – at the International Printing Museum in Carson. This great storehouse of vintage type and presses – which I first visited back in 1994 – will be doing live typecasting from period handmolds, running original Linotypes and more.

They also have a working reproduction Gutenberg press – where one can print their own Bible page.

preview
Though TypeCon is next week – the museum is hosting 100 Years of Wood Type TODAY – Saturday August 14, 2010 from 10 am to 4 pm. Not a TypeCon event, but a teaser for what’s coming. If you’re in the area, do check it out. Details here.

News video about the museum below. For more about TypeCon, go here.

‘The broadside is printed on Mohawk Superfine Eggshell, White, 100t. Everyone attending TypeCon 2010 will receive a copy, courtesy of type quizmaster Allan Haley.’

A broadside tribute to ITC’s new Elegy font – printed in letterpress at Patrick Reagh Printers in Sebastopol, CA. The poster was typeset by the wonderful Ilene Striver – who’s managed to talk me into giving a presentation as part of TypeCon’s Education Forum – next Thursday. More about TypeCon in my next post.

More info about the broadsheet here.

Elegy typeface designed by Jim Wasco, 2010

“Where can I get a font of the script used for the ITC logo?’ For almost four decades, this has been one of the most frequently asked questions of ITC. The answer has always been the same: ‘You can’t. The ITC script logo is handlettering and it is not available as a font.”

Now it is. Introducing: ITC Elegy. Two years in production, Jim Wasco took apart Ed Benguiat’s original Spencerian-style script and put it back together with updated spacing and a bunch of stylistic changes.

Detailed article here.

Comparison: Elegy and the original

Found via Delve Withrington

‘The resulting font is based on the physical movements of two Oregon ballet dancers  . . .  The dancers were fitted with infrared LED lights, which captured their steps in real time as they danced all 26 letters of the alphabet.’

Typography combined with ballet. Details (and final font) here.

Found via Lyndsie Ross

Did Arial kill Helvetica? Or is it just bullshit?

Australia-based Hungry Beast correspondent Marc Fennell thinks it’s an ‘usurping bitch.’

‘CMYK Alphabet is a typographic experiment  . . .  Each letter is hand embroidered using a combination of two overlapping CMYK colours.’

Evelin Kasikov recreates a process color rosette using thread. Details here.

Edward Johnston (1872-1944) developed the ‘look’ of the London Underground – thru type and image.

These are snaps of the work of student Grady Fike. Grady spent eleven weeks jumping thru many hoops in my experimental typography course at The Art Institute of California Sacramento.

For the class, I’ve set up an evolving work process – where students are assigned a ‘famous typographer’ (one that I pick, so they have to work within these limitations) and interpret their work thru both loose and strict design iterations.

It’s similar to Project Runway, but for much of it, students often only have about an hour to produce their work. And based on the outcome, their solutions dictate what the next homework assignment will be. It’s all very fluid.

Fluids are actually involved.

This includes recipes, product ingredients, scientific notation, weather reports and other random finds. Throwing the unexpected into the mix is all part of the game.

Most of the work is collected in a large notebook (above) – it comes out to about 50 or so different pieces – and student work runs the gauntlet of media – starting with traditional form, thru digital, traditional painted media, alternate media, photography, video – final projects have included posters and art, paintings, animated films, digital renderings, sculpture, music video, performance art, landscaping and graffiti.

The Sacramento International Film and Music Festival is underway – and this Friday night, my students’ type film (above) will be shown as part of the Art Institute’s Student Showcase, 6 p.m., July 30 at The Crest.

Festival details here.

Official It’s Typography website here.

My font named for Northern California, warzone and great place to buy a damn good burrito.

Get the font here. Burrito here.

‘The pairing and combining of different typefaces has always been a particular graphic design challenge  . . .  Emigre has its own take on this typographic technique. But instead of providing rules, which often render safe but bland results, we believe that ultimately any font can be successfully combined with any other font. It’s not so much a matter of which font combinations to pick, it’s a matter of how you use the fonts in combination.’

The latest Emigre font catalog – Historia – is a bit like an old issue of Emigre magazine. Strong concept, interesting point of view, wonderfully designed.

The 64-page specimen highlights battlefield locations of the Mexican-American war, 1846-48; specifically, the battles that took place in what is now California.

Included is the Sonoma Bear Flag Revolt, where the state’s Bear Flag was designed with a pig on it. It was supposed to be a bear, but apparently William L. Todd was so drunk in celebration, he couldn’t draw an actual bear.

Emigre is selling extra copies of Historia for 3 bucks (10 bucks outside the US). Details and interactive samples here.

This could have been Emigre #71.

A bunch of years back – amidst a bunch of projects – the type for this PSA came off my of laserprinter and was hand trimmed by then student Xing Xiong.

Making of video here.

Fontfabric’s new retro font, AGE. Snag it free here.

Make your own  . . .  here.

Found via Bill Mead