At I Love Typography, William Berkson has begun a fascinating discussion about reviving Caslon, “the pursuit of authenticity,” and how previous versions of Caslon vary based upon their medium. You can see additional ways that Caslon’s type and various media interact in the Typefoundry blog’s account of the journey of Caslon’s Long Primer No. 1 from specimen sheet to bronze memorial.

In an attempt to eliminate the ubiquity of Helvetica in modern design, Bruno Maag has released Aktiv Grotesk. At the Ministry of Type, Aegir Hallmundur has an astute assessment of this new typeface.

Helvetica was not the only typeface under attack in recent weeks; perennial favorite Comic Sans continues to be mocked, even among sportswriters. Ascender has offered up additional fodder with updates to Comic Sans as a part of their new font pack.

If the names of certain typefaces or typographers feel like a pain to pronounce, consider this handy pronunciation guide on Typophile. Or perhaps you could create your own unpronounceable face after completing the new certificate program in typeface design at the Cooper Union; applications for the first program year are due August 31, 2010.

Other items of note include TypeCon2010: Babel, held August 17 – 22 in Los Angeles; the recent release of the documentary Typeface on iTunes, Amazon VOD and Netflix; and the WebFonts Working Group publishing the first draft of the WOFF File Format. (If the world of web typography is new to you, consider experimenting through the new FontFonter service.)

Finally, Elliot Jay Stocks announced the first issue of 8 Faces, “a new magazine for devotees of typography.” The print edition sold out in under two hours. If you missed out, don’t fret: you can still order a PDF copy, and he’s considering a second printing. No matter the format, it promises to be worth your while.

Did we miss anything important? Let us know in the comments!

Great ideas can’t be tested

Typography Shop presents the first theme in their new line: The Ten Commandments of George Lois. From his groundbreaking work at Doyle Dane Bernbach to his controversial Esquire covers to “I want my MTV,” George Lois has carved a career sans equal in the advertising industry. Set in Franklin Gothic No. 2, designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1902 and News Gothic, a related 1908 Benton creation.

How it Works

Anyone can enter the contest by taking just a minute or two to do a good deed for Typedia. It could be something as simple as adding a release year, or uploading a specimen, or contributing some background information. Tell us your good deed in the comments to be entered in the contest. You can only enter once. You have until 12:00 PM EDT Monday, April 5th, to enter. After 12:00pm, a winner will be randomly selected, and we’ll announce the winner here.

Good luck!

Seeing the alphabet differently

From abstract to zeitgeist, ABCing: Seeing the Alphabet Differently spurs alternative approaches to seeing and understanding letterforms and the world. Colleen Ellis has dismantled the Latin alphabet, shifting the focus from the subject—the letter—to the surrounding space, introducing new ways of visualizing, thinking, and talking about art and design. Each illustration is created using only the negative shapes of a letter. The shapes are rotated and resized; they are not duplicated, mirrored, or otherwise altered. The shapes are then composed as a visual translation of a given word’s meaning, creating visual and conceptual connections between the letter, the word, and the surrounding space.

How it Works

Anyone can enter the contest by taking just a minute or two to do a good deed for Typedia. It could be something as simple as adding a release year, or uploading a specimen, or contributing some background information. Tell us your good deed in the comments to be entered in the contest. You can only enter once. You have until 8am EST Monday, March 1, to enter. After 8am, a winner will be randomly selected, and we’ll announce the winner here.

Good luck!

Update: And we have a winner! Congrats to Giddy Hill, and special thanks to Mark Batty Publisher for sponsoring the giveaway!

A loveletter to blackletter

From Berlin-based graphic designer Judith Schalansky comes Fraktur Mon Amour, with reproductions of 300 variations of Blackletter fonts, ranging from historical fonts to contemporary reinventions, in a sensuous, beautifully crafted, hot-pink prayer book-style catalog. Each Blackletter font is presented on a full page along with its complete alphabet, date of origin, the name of its designer, and its original foundry. On the facing page is a composition created from that font that explores the subversive beauty of this unique typeface. In addition, 137 of these fonts—including four created exclusively for this book—are collected on an enclosed CD for free private and restricted commercial use. Fraktur Mon Amour is the winner of several awards, including the Type Directors Club of New York’s 2007 Award for Typographic Excellence.

Love Typography

From Typography Shop come three t-shirts, perfect for proclaiming your love of type.

Proclaim your passion and declare your love via a five line specimen display of Simoncini Garamond. Designed by Francesco Simoncini and W. Bilz for the publishing house Giulio Einaudi Editore, in 1961, it’s one of the warmest and most versatile of the modern day Garamonds. Printed in white on an American Apparel 100% cotton sheer tee. Available for men or women.

Declare your love via a truncated alphabet display of News Gothic. Designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1908, News Gothic preceded its workhorse rival Trade Gothic by 40 years. Printed in grey and red on an American Apparel 20010 Fine Cotton Jersey T-Shirt. Available for men or women.

The word “Love” simply set in Futura, Simoncini Garamond, and Akzidenz Grotesk, labeled with their respective classifications of Geometric Sans, Oldstyle, and Grotesque Sans. Printed in white on an American Apparel Fine Cotton Jersey T-Shirt. Available for men or women.

How it Works

Anyone can enter the contest by taking just a minute or two to do a good deed for Typedia. It could be something as simple as adding a release year, or uploading a specimen, or contributing some background information. Tell us your good deed in the comments to be entered in the contest. You can only enter once. You have until 9am EST Monday, February 15, to enter. After 9am, four winners will be randomly selected, and we’ll announce the winners here.

Good luck, and Happy Valentine’s Day from Typedia!

Update: And we have four lucky winners! Fraktur mom Amour goes to Taufik Nurrahman, plus Hélder Mendes, viaAndrea, and HyperCreatice each win a love tee! Congrats to all, and special thanks to Princeton Architectural Press and Typography Shop.

An ode to handwriting

Business Penmanship is an ode to a handwriting from the era when penmanship was a highly-valued part of business education and practice. This feature-rich font includes over 1200 characters, covering ligatures, alternates, a large set of beginning and ending extensions, as well as a wide range of Latin-based languages, including Turkish and the languages of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic region.

How it Works

Anyone can enter the contest by taking just a minute or two to do a good deed for Typedia. It could be something as simple as adding a release year, or uploading a specimen, or contributing some background information. Tell us your good deed in the comments to be entered in the contest. You can only enter once. You have until 8am EST Monday, February 8, to enter. After 8am, a winner will be randomly selected, and we’ll announce the winner here.

Good luck!

Update: And we have a winner: Chris O’Donnell wins the copy of Business Penmanship from Veer. Congratulations to Chris, and special thanks to Veer for supporting Typedia. We’ll be back this Friday with a special Valentine’s Day giveaway.

Mexico’s only typographer/luchador

El Vética, also known as El Kernudo, fought out of the small town of San Serif. He held the Mexican Inter-Continental belt for an unprecedented 7 years, from 1977-84. He also starred in several telenovelas, most notably Las esposas del Luchador and El Santo y sus Súper Amigos.

El Vética tees are printed on standard American Apparel shirts, and are available in both women’s and men’s sizes.

How it Works

Anyone can enter the contest by taking just a minute or two to do a good deed for Typedia. It could be something as simple as adding a release year, or uploading a specimen, or contributing some background information. Tell us your good deed in the comments to be entered in the contest. You can only enter once. You have until 8am EST Monday, February 1, to enter. After 8am, two winners will be randomly selected, and we’ll announce the winners here.

Good luck!

Update: And we have our winners! Christine Davitt and André Gonçalves survive until the final round. Congratulations to both, and special thanks to Mule Design for supporting Typedia!

A History of Exuberance

In 1896, William E. Loy—a San Francisco printing equipment salesman and scholar—decided to write a series of profiles of type designers. Loy took a long view of history, realizing that it was important to document the men who created the nineteenth century’s fanciful types. His work was serialized in The Inland Printer over the next three years and included biographies, photographs of the artists, and lists of the type they had designed or cut, which Loy painstakingly compiled through correspondence with the type founders and other craftsmen. Unfortunately, due to the technical limitations of a monthly periodical, it was not possible to show the typefaces mentioned. Here, finally, is the work as Loy envisioned it, with over 800 illustrations of typefaces designed by the craftsmen he discusses.

How it Works

Anyone can enter the contest by taking just a minute or two to do a good deed for Typedia. It could be something as simple as adding a release year, or uploading a specimen, or contributing some background information. Tell us your good deed in the comments to be entered in the contest. You can only enter once. You have until 9am EST Monday, January 25th to enter. After 9am, a winner will be randomly selected, and we’ll announce the winner here.

Good luck!

Update: And we have a winner! JTraylor wins the copy of Nineteenth-Century American Designers & Engravers of Type. Thanks to Oak Knoll Press for sponsoring the giveaway, and we’ll see you again next week!

Creating Letters and Designing Typefaces

Lettering & Type is a smart-but-not-dense guide to creating and bending letters to one’s will. More than just another pretty survey, it is a powerful how-to book full of relevant theory, history, explanatory diagrams, and exercises, ideal for anyone looking to move beyond existing typography to create original or customized letterforms. With a foreword by Ellen Lupton and hundreds of images and examples of work by historical and contemporary designers, artists, and illustrators, including Marian Bantjes, Stefan Sagmeister, Matthew Carter, Christoph Niemann, Steve Powers (ESPO), House Industries, Christian Schwartz, Margaret Kilgallen, James Victore, Abbott Miller, Sibylle Hagmann, Ed Fella, and more.

How it Works

Anyone can enter the contest by taking just a minute or two to do a good deed for Typedia. It could be something as simple as adding a release year, or uploading a specimen, or contributing some background information. Tell us your good deed in the comments to be entered in the contest. You can only enter once. You have until 10am EST Monday, January 18th to enter. After 10am, a winner will be randomly selected, and we’ll announce the winner here.

Good luck!

Update: And we have a winner! Indra Kupferschmid wins the copy of Lettering & Type! Many thanks to Princeton Architectural Press for sponsoring the giveaway. See you next week!

Both Old World and Old West

This gorgeous font family evokes the freshness and uniqueness of hand-drawn type, yet allows for easy typesetting. A high-waisted, condensed serif face with a distinct Victorian flavor, Phaeton’s nearly 600 characters include a large number of alternates, ornaments, decorative banners, picto-glyphs, and swash capitals, plus 49 wordmark glyphs for “and,” “the,” “with,” and many more.

How it Works

Anyone can enter the contest by taking just a minute or two to do a good deed for Typedia. It could be something as simple as adding a release year, or uploading a specimen, or contributing some background information. Tell us your good deed in the comments to be entered in the contest. You can only enter once. You have until 9am EST Monday, January 11th to enter. After 9am, a winner will be randomly selected, and we’ll announce the winner here.

Good luck!

Update: Congratulations to Elizabeth Carey Smith, winner of this week’s contest, and special thanks to Veer for sponsoring the giveaway! See you next week for more Font Friday fun!

Alphabet Bags

Last week, we gave away two of these natural, 100% heavy-weight cotton bags but we’ve got three left! Alphabet Bags are hand-stitched and beautifully screen-printed in the UK.

Because we can’t let you run off with nothing to carry in your bag, each bag has a book hidden inside. This week, you could win one of the following:

Typographers on Type by Ruari McLean

From Norton, the essays in Typographers on Type chart the course of the profound technological advances that have taken place in the printing industry from a unique perspective: that of the typographer witnessing and experiencing these changes. Included are essays from Milton Glaser, Matthew Carter, William Morris, Stanley Morrison, Jan Tschichold, and many others.

Typeface by Tamye Riggs

From Princeton Architectural Press, Typeface is a unique sourcebook featuring sixty classic typefaces that continue to resonate with today’s most influential graphic designers. The book is organized using typographic classifications such as sans serif, serif, display, script, and dingbats. Each typeface is presented in detail, including its origin, main characteristics, and uses.

Negative Space by Noma Bar

From Mark Batty Publisher, Negative Space features work from internationally acclaimed illustrator Noma Bar. Including works commissioned by publications such as The Economist, Esquire, Wallpaper, The Guardian, and Time Out London, as well as never before seen illustrations, Negative Space focuses on subject matter ranging from sex, global warming, and nuclear warfare to religion, crime, and corporate greed.

How it Works

Anyone can enter the contest by taking just a minute or two to do a good deed for Typedia. It could be something as simple as adding a release year, or uploading a specimen, or contributing some background information. Tell us your good deed in the comments to be entered in the contest. You can only enter once. You have until 9am EST Monday, December 21st to enter. After 9am, three winners will be randomly selected, and we’ll announce the winners here.

Good luck! This is the last Font Friday of 2009, but we’ll be back with more goodies in the new year!

Update: And we have our winners! Congratulations to Elias, Jason Whittemore, and rreibstein! Special thanks to this week’s sponsors, and to all our sponsors from 2009. Happy Holidays from everyone at Typedia; we’ll be back with more Font Fridays in the new year!

Alphabet Bags

These natural, 100% heavy-weight cotton bags are hand-stitched and beautifully screen printed in the UK. We’ve got five bags—F-O-N-T-S—for five lucky Typedia members.

We’re giving away two bags this week, and three next week. Because we want to be sure you have something to tote around in your new bag, each bag has a book hidden inside! This week, you could win one of the following:

Handwritten by Steven Heller and Mirko Ilic

From Thames&Hudson, Handwritten offers a complete overview of handwritten typographics, drawing on an extensive array of letterforms from around the world. Hundreds of examples are presented in creative themes: “Scrawl” (letterforms that are raw, splotchy, untidy); “Scratch” (scraped, cut, and gouged fonts); “Script” (type that is sinuous and ornate); “Simulate” (faces that have been redrawn or copied); “Shadow” (dimensional, voluminous, and monumental letterforms); “Suggestive” (forms that imply the metaphorical, surreal, and symbolic); and “Sarcastic” (the ironic, comic, and satiric in lettering).

American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century by Mac McGrew

From Oak Knoll Press, American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century includes over 1,600 classical as well as bizarre typefaces in one of the most massive tributes to the history of printing and metal types. This well-organized work captures the rapidly disappearing traditions and legacy that metal-type printing has left behind.

How it Works

Anyone can enter the contest by taking just a minute or two to do a good deed for Typedia. It could be something as simple as adding a release year, or uploading a specimen, or contributing some background information. Tell us your good deed in the comments to be entered in the contest. You can only enter once. You have until 9am EST Monday, December 14th to enter. After 9am, two winners will be randomly selected, and we’ll announce the winners here.

Good luck! And stay tuned for next week when we giveaway three more alphabet bags“with more goodies hidden inside!

Update: And we have our winners! Indiamos and Mirza each win an alphabet bag and a book! Congratulations to you both, and special thanks to the folks at Thames&Hudson, and Oak Knoll Press for the goodies! Stay tuned for more giveaways this Friday!

Intensely editorial

Designed by José Scaglione and Veronika Burian, Adelle is a slab serif typeface conceived specifically for intensive editorial use. While ideal for newspapers and magazines, Adelle’s many weights and characters, as well as it’s excellent texture and slightly dark color, make it a flexible, multipurpose typeface.

For this week’s giveaway, one lucky Typedia member will win a license to the regular and italic faces from the Adelle family. In love with the entire family? Buy it now from Veer, or check out Veer’s latest releases for more exciting new typefaces.

How it works

As with our last giveaway, anyone can enter by taking just a minute or two of your day to do a good deed for Typedia. It could be something as simple as adding a release year, or uploading a specimen, or contributing some background information. Tell us your good deed in the comments to be entered in the contest. You can only enter once. You have until 9am EST Monday, December 7th to enter. After 9am, a winner will be randomly selected, and we’ll announce the winner here.

Good luck!

Update: And we have a winner! Ben Gilman wins Adelle. Congrats to Ben, and many thanks to Veer for sponsoring the giveaway. See you next Friday!

A feast of type & typography

Typekit brings real fonts to your website in seconds. Simply choose the fonts you want from Typekit’s large (and growing!) library, select which classes or IDs you want the fonts to appear, and you’re done! The Portfolio-level account provides access to the full library of fonts on up to 5 websites for one year.

Now that web fonts are a reality, you’ll need all the typographic advice you can get your hands on. The Typographic Desk Reference includes thousands of facts on typography, including typographic terms, glyphs, guides to anatomy and form, and classifications and specimens. Beautifully written and designed by Theodore Rosendorf, and signed by the author.

How it works

It’s the Friday before Thanksgiving, and let’s be honest—most of you are already daydreaming about turkey and cranberry sauce. So, for this week’s contest, we’d like you to take a moment and do a good deed for Typedia. It could be something as simple as adding a release year, or uploading a specimen, or contributing some background information. Tell us your good deed in the comments to be entered in the contest. You can only enter once. You have until 9am EST Monday, November 23rd to enter. After 9am, two winners will be randomly selected, and we’ll announce the winners here.

Good luck! Font Fridays will be taking off for the Thanksgiving holiday next week, but we’ll be back in full force in December! Happy eating!

Update: And we have two winners! Sannsaan wins a free year of Typekit and Brandy Bingham wins the signed copy of the TDR. Congrats to both, and happy Thanksgiving to all!

Humanist meets geometric

Designed by Mark Caneso, Ratio is a versatile typeface, “exuding the best of both humanist and geometric sans serifs,” and suitable for either print or screen. The basics bundle includes three weights“regular, medium, and bold•€“with matching italics and some lovely ligatures.

How it works

As before, you can enter the contest by answering a question in the comments. This week, we want to learn more about you, the Typedia community; so tell us: are you a print designer, a web designer, or something else? You have until 8am EST Monday, November 16 to submit your answer; you may only enter once. After 8am Monday, a winner will be randomly selected, and we’ll announce the name here.

Stay tuned for a special pre-Thanksgiving giveaway next week!

Update: and we have a winner! mgseeley wins the copy of Mark Caneso’s Ratio. Congratulations, and thanks to psType for sponsoring the giveaway!

A spirited brush script

Designed by Angel Koziupa and Alejandro Paul, Bravissima‘s traditional calligraphy is paired with OpenType features, a wealth of alternate characters, and support for many Latin-based languages. Ideal for food packaging design or anything else that makes you want to eat.

How it works

As before, you can enter the contest by answering a question in the comments below: what is your favorite typographic logo? You have until 8am EST Monday, November 9 to submit your answer; you may only enter once. After 8am Monday, a winner will be randomly selected, and we’ll announce the name here.

Stay tuned for more giveaways next week, plus some Thanksgiving specials coming up!

Update: And we have a winner: Jeremyorion wins Bravissima! Thanks again to Veer for sponsoring the giveaway.