Typedia: Blog http://typedia.com en info@typedia.com Copyright 2012 2012-05-12T13:30:42+00:00 Type News: Dry Transfer http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-dry-transfer/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-dry-transfer/ Ahoy! We’ve charted a course and are heading straight for a week’s worth of new type.

Chartwell Specimen

When we covered the first release of Travis Kochel’s Chartwell back in March of last year, we were gobsmacked by its clever use of stylistic alternates to dynamically visualize chunks of numerical data. Now that FontFont has taken the face under its wing, FF Chartwell has been pumped up (and to the right) with additional chart styles and more flexible OpenType-powered formatting. The original Pies, Lines, and Bars are now joined by new “Polar Series” styles, including Rose, Rings, and Radar — as well as a vertical bar variation.

Scuba Specimen

But that’s not the only FaceFace from the FontFont FolkFolk. There’s also a natty pair of sans families to show off this week. The first to surface is Felix Braden’s FF Scuba — an “offline companion” to Matthew Carter’s ubiquitous Verdana. Braden has created a balanced, yet dynamic sans with a tighter set stance and wide range of weights that still manages to blend with its screen-biased contemporary. Try it out for yourself — the regular weights of FF Scuba OT and FF Scuba Web are available free for a limited time.

Tisa Sans Specimen

In one last bit of FontFont news, the much anticipated unslab’d sister of Mitja Miklavčič’s FF Tisa has finally arrived. FF Tisa Sans sports the same range of weights and typographic features as its serif counterpart, but with specifically “fine-tuned” traits — such as reduced ink traps, adjusted colour density, and a softening of the family’s distinctive stroke endings.

Refren Specimen

To celebrate its third birthday, Dušan Jelesijević’s Tour de Force foundry invited the cheerful Refren to the party. This simple, single weight monoline features a casual, handwritten vibe and a stylish set of alternate initial caps.

Bulo Specimen

The term ‘bulo’ is Catalan for ‘hoax’ — but Jordi Embodas’ Bulo isn’t trying to pull something over on us. This lightly condensed sans is about as straightforward as they come — although Embodas does describe the structure as “a mechanical force with a little humanist fragrance”. Compact ascenders and descenders, prominent x-height, and a pleasant tonality make for a very readable five weight face.

Magallanes Specimen

Another week, another extensive text family from Latinotype. Daniel Hernández’s Magallanes is a gently extended, “neo humanist” sans with subtle calligraphic hooks and lines. The eight weights cover a lot of water, but only vary a little bit in width while sailing from ultra light through black.

Sugarplum Specimen

Something sweet is behind the counter of the Tart Workshop this week. Crystal Kluge’s handlettering artistry and Stuart Sandler’s technical chops have prepared a double batch of Sugarplum — a playfully rough and tumble hand-drawn headliner. Two weights, an extra bouncy baseline, and just enough alternates to keep the type dancing in your head.

Krul Specimen

Ramiro Espinoza’s Krul has a long and winding heritage. From the 17th century Dutch calligraphy that inspired the often overlooked Amsterdamse Krulletter — or “curly letter” style — to mid-century drinking establishment signage and the meticulous lettering of Jan Willem Joseph Visser. Espinoza gives Krul a unique revivalist spin — painstakingly recreating the complexity, contrast, and flourish of this historical face.

Avenir Next Rounded Specimen

It had to happen sooner or later. Under the watchful eye of master Adrian Frutiger, Linotype’s Akira Kobayashi and Sandra Winter have taken the sans serif belt sander to one of the foundry’s most beloved text faces. Avenir Next Rounded extends the family with four weights of softened, understated “contemporary variants”.

And now for the rest of the happenings this week:

The sun is shining in Brooklyn, so that’s all for this week!

Big ups to Grant Hutchinson for ripping another week’s worth of type.

]]> Type News Ahoy! We’ve charted a course and are heading straight for a week’s worth of new type.

Chartwell Specimen

When we covered the first release of Travis Kochel’s Chartwell back in March of last year, we were gobsmacked by its clever use of stylistic alternates to dynamically visualize chunks of numerical data. Now that FontFont has taken the face under its wing, FF Chartwell has been pumped up (and to the right) with additional chart styles and more flexible OpenType-powered formatting. The original Pies, Lines, and Bars are now joined by new “Polar Series” styles, including Rose, Rings, and Radar — as well as a vertical bar variation.

Scuba Specimen

But that’s not the only FaceFace from the FontFont FolkFolk. There’s also a natty pair of sans families to show off this week. The first to surface is Felix Braden’s FF Scuba — an “offline companion” to Matthew Carter’s ubiquitous Verdana. Braden has created a balanced, yet dynamic sans with a tighter set stance and wide range of weights that still manages to blend with its screen-biased contemporary. Try it out for yourself — the regular weights of FF Scuba OT and FF Scuba Web are available free for a limited time.

Tisa Sans Specimen

In one last bit of FontFont news, the much anticipated unslab’d sister of Mitja Miklavčič’s FF Tisa has finally arrived. FF Tisa Sans sports the same range of weights and typographic features as its serif counterpart, but with specifically “fine-tuned” traits — such as reduced ink traps, adjusted colour density, and a softening of the family’s distinctive stroke endings.

Refren Specimen

To celebrate its third birthday, Dušan Jelesijević’s Tour de Force foundry invited the cheerful Refren to the party. This simple, single weight monoline features a casual, handwritten vibe and a stylish set of alternate initial caps.

Bulo Specimen

The term ‘bulo’ is Catalan for ‘hoax’ — but Jordi Embodas’ Bulo isn’t trying to pull something over on us. This lightly condensed sans is about as straightforward as they come — although Embodas does describe the structure as “a mechanical force with a little humanist fragrance”. Compact ascenders and descenders, prominent x-height, and a pleasant tonality make for a very readable five weight face.

Magallanes Specimen

Another week, another extensive text family from Latinotype. Daniel Hernández’s Magallanes is a gently extended, “neo humanist” sans with subtle calligraphic hooks and lines. The eight weights cover a lot of water, but only vary a little bit in width while sailing from ultra light through black.

Sugarplum Specimen

Something sweet is behind the counter of the Tart Workshop this week. Crystal Kluge’s handlettering artistry and Stuart Sandler’s technical chops have prepared a double batch of Sugarplum — a playfully rough and tumble hand-drawn headliner. Two weights, an extra bouncy baseline, and just enough alternates to keep the type dancing in your head.

Krul Specimen

Ramiro Espinoza’s Krul has a long and winding heritage. From the 17th century Dutch calligraphy that inspired the often overlooked Amsterdamse Krulletter — or “curly letter” style — to mid-century drinking establishment signage and the meticulous lettering of Jan Willem Joseph Visser. Espinoza gives Krul a unique revivalist spin — painstakingly recreating the complexity, contrast, and flourish of this historical face.

Avenir Next Rounded Specimen

It had to happen sooner or later. Under the watchful eye of master Adrian Frutiger, Linotype’s Akira Kobayashi and Sandra Winter have taken the sans serif belt sander to one of the foundry’s most beloved text faces. Avenir Next Rounded extends the family with four weights of softened, understated “contemporary variants”.

And now for the rest of the happenings this week:

The sun is shining in Brooklyn, so that’s all for this week!

Big ups to Grant Hutchinson for ripping another week’s worth of type.

]]> 2012-05-12T13:30:42+00:00 Type News: Not Pervy http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-not-pervy/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-not-pervy/ Hi! Come on over; let’s hang out and enjoy some news and new type — you know, because we care. A lot.

Four families by four designers for four writing systems. Colvert is a visually harmonious undertaking with subdued “optical continuity” across its Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek, and Latin editions. This tidy — and brilliantly cohesive — text face from the Typographies.fr foundry was designed by the talented typographic quadrumvirate of Natalia Chuvatin, Jonathan Perez, Kristyan Sarkis, and Irene Vlachou.

Miguel Hernández’s substantial Tikal Sans attributes some of its style from the ancient Mayan glyph meaning “the spoken word.” The large x-height, curvaceous terminals, distinctive angular strokes, minified counters — and an extremely perky ear on the binocular g — provide a lot of personality in the this twenty face sans from Latinotype.

A self-confessed “child of the seventies,” Laura Worthington pulled out all the bellbottom’d stops for Funkydori. Her latest groovalicious display face comes with a swinging set of swash alternates, ligatures, ornaments, and an unconnected titling style.

The structural inspiration for Massif came from Steve Matteson’s attempt to “capture the Sierra Nevada terrain in two dimensional letterform designs”. The stone-cut character of the strokes and the natural, organic curves give this six weight sans a unique, “un-neutral” personality — from the “twig-like” thins to the irrepressible bolds.

To finish up this week’s new type, Galen Lawson dishes up Blancmange — a pair of flavourful, upright headliners. This compact display face comes stuffed full of tasty swashes, loopy alternates, delectable ligatures, and other typographic condiments.

Yum! Let’s move on to the after-dinner drinks, I mean, the news:

Let’s put this week’s calendar items in reverse chronological order:

Whew. Plenty to read, and plenty to do! Until next week, we bid you, “Ta-ta!”

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for caring enough to bring us this week’s new type.

]]> Type News Hi! Come on over; let’s hang out and enjoy some news and new type — you know, because we care. A lot.

Four families by four designers for four writing systems. Colvert is a visually harmonious undertaking with subdued “optical continuity” across its Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek, and Latin editions. This tidy — and brilliantly cohesive — text face from the Typographies.fr foundry was designed by the talented typographic quadrumvirate of Natalia Chuvatin, Jonathan Perez, Kristyan Sarkis, and Irene Vlachou.

Miguel Hernández’s substantial Tikal Sans attributes some of its style from the ancient Mayan glyph meaning “the spoken word.” The large x-height, curvaceous terminals, distinctive angular strokes, minified counters — and an extremely perky ear on the binocular g — provide a lot of personality in the this twenty face sans from Latinotype.

A self-confessed “child of the seventies,” Laura Worthington pulled out all the bellbottom’d stops for Funkydori. Her latest groovalicious display face comes with a swinging set of swash alternates, ligatures, ornaments, and an unconnected titling style.

The structural inspiration for Massif came from Steve Matteson’s attempt to “capture the Sierra Nevada terrain in two dimensional letterform designs”. The stone-cut character of the strokes and the natural, organic curves give this six weight sans a unique, “un-neutral” personality — from the “twig-like” thins to the irrepressible bolds.

To finish up this week’s new type, Galen Lawson dishes up Blancmange — a pair of flavourful, upright headliners. This compact display face comes stuffed full of tasty swashes, loopy alternates, delectable ligatures, and other typographic condiments.

Yum! Let’s move on to the after-dinner drinks, I mean, the news:

Let’s put this week’s calendar items in reverse chronological order:

Whew. Plenty to read, and plenty to do! Until next week, we bid you, “Ta-ta!”

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for caring enough to bring us this week’s new type.

]]> 2012-05-05T21:00:31+00:00 Type News: Pretty in Pink http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-pretty-in-pink/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-pretty-in-pink/ Flushed from another week of gathering the news and finding new type, here we go with Type News number ninety! Let’s jump right in:

Under the direction of Commercial Type’s Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz, the voluminous Guardian has been significantly expanded by the hand of Berton Hasebe. Three new space-saving widths have been added to the humanist headline sans — specifically narrow, condensed, and extra condensed flavours. Each fresh subset comes fully furnished in nine weights with italics. Also provided is an impressive overview specimen, providing a thoroughly comprehensive abstract of the entire Guardian Sans Headline range.

While we’re on the topic of typeface updates, Type Together has just pushed the “go” button on Adelle Sans — a stylistic counterpart to Veronika Burian’s award-winning Adelle. This seven weight family provides a “cleaner and more spirited take” on the grotesque sans category, including coordinating italics and proportions appropriate when paired with its slab serif’d sister. There’s even a set of super clean icons supplied as stylistic alternates.

Also from Type Together comes Alisa Nowak’s Eskapade Fraktur — an experimental blackletter consisting of rigidly formatted angles and strokes, while still maintaining a energetic lightness. The upright roman and Sütterlin-influenced script italic both include an additional set of decorative capitals.

Originally released in 1930, Amsterdam Type Foundry’s quirkily geometric Indépendant typeface forms the basis for Terry Wudenbachs’ 2012 revival. P22 CoDependent is an accurate recreation, featuring solid and shadow styles that can be set separately, or combined for graphically two-tone, Art Deco effects.

Göran Söderström’s second release through Letters from Sweden is the oblongated and “interrupted” Trim. Directly influenced by the truncated diagonals found in the letterforms of Knud V. Engelhardt — most notably in faces such as Skilt Gothic — Söderström trimmed things further by slicing bits and pieces off nearly every single character in this seven-weight family.

The expressive Selva is what the designer Gunnar Link calls his “contemporary interpretation of the textura style.” Four weights of ultra-compact and display-savvy blackletter, with subtle calligraphic nods to Chinese-flavoured scripts.

Update your schedules with these upcoming events:

Finally, our thoughts and well-wishes go out to Bill Jones of Virgin Wood Type, who has been diagnosed with cancer. Get well soon!

See you next week!

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for braving a bunch of Nadsat-speakers to bring us this week’s new type!

 

]]> Type News Flushed from another week of gathering the news and finding new type, here we go with Type News number ninety! Let’s jump right in:

Under the direction of Commercial Type’s Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz, the voluminous Guardian has been significantly expanded by the hand of Berton Hasebe. Three new space-saving widths have been added to the humanist headline sans — specifically narrow, condensed, and extra condensed flavours. Each fresh subset comes fully furnished in nine weights with italics. Also provided is an impressive overview specimen, providing a thoroughly comprehensive abstract of the entire Guardian Sans Headline range.

While we’re on the topic of typeface updates, Type Together has just pushed the “go” button on Adelle Sans — a stylistic counterpart to Veronika Burian’s award-winning Adelle. This seven weight family provides a “cleaner and more spirited take” on the grotesque sans category, including coordinating italics and proportions appropriate when paired with its slab serif’d sister. There’s even a set of super clean icons supplied as stylistic alternates.

Also from Type Together comes Alisa Nowak’s Eskapade Fraktur — an experimental blackletter consisting of rigidly formatted angles and strokes, while still maintaining a energetic lightness. The upright roman and Sütterlin-influenced script italic both include an additional set of decorative capitals.

Originally released in 1930, Amsterdam Type Foundry’s quirkily geometric Indépendant typeface forms the basis for Terry Wudenbachs’ 2012 revival. P22 CoDependent is an accurate recreation, featuring solid and shadow styles that can be set separately, or combined for graphically two-tone, Art Deco effects.

Göran Söderström’s second release through Letters from Sweden is the oblongated and “interrupted” Trim. Directly influenced by the truncated diagonals found in the letterforms of Knud V. Engelhardt — most notably in faces such as Skilt Gothic — Söderström trimmed things further by slicing bits and pieces off nearly every single character in this seven-weight family.

The expressive Selva is what the designer Gunnar Link calls his “contemporary interpretation of the textura style.” Four weights of ultra-compact and display-savvy blackletter, with subtle calligraphic nods to Chinese-flavoured scripts.

Update your schedules with these upcoming events:

Finally, our thoughts and well-wishes go out to Bill Jones of Virgin Wood Type, who has been diagnosed with cancer. Get well soon!

See you next week!

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for braving a bunch of Nadsat-speakers to bring us this week’s new type!

 

]]> 2012-04-28T16:45:04+00:00 Type News: El Cuervo Vuela http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-el-cuervo-vuela/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-el-cuervo-vuela/ It’s a winding line to this week’s news, beginning with all this new type:

The uniquely independent typographic flavour of the No Bodoni foundry is evident in George Everet Thompson’s latest effort. Crowbird Pro is a singularly bold display face with “assertive serifs” and intriguingly pinched transitions, giving it a pseudo-stencil feel. One weight, as the crow flies.

A2-Type’s Regular is a new sans family inspired by classic, hot metal fonts — with a modern nudge. There are structural inklings in the tradition of Stempel’s Memphis and Renner’s Futura throughout the seven weights — but keep an eye on the details. There are more than a few not so “regular” inktraps, gaspipes, and teardrops tossed into the mix.

Dave Rowland’s Schizotype has released Vulpa, a comfortably tidy serif “informed by the proportions” of Plantin. Lively “foxtail” terminals in the roman, bold, and italic styles take some cues from Rowland’s own Gelato Script. Additional features include italic swash capitals, a smart assortment of ligatures, multiple figure sets, engraved display caps, plus historically appropriate ornaments and fleurons.

Once you get past the charming name-play of Emily Lime Design’s Jacques & Gilles you’ll find an equally charming handwritten face. There are two contrasting — yet utterly compatible — “personas” evident in this casual display script. A bouncy lowercase and stoically upright capitals are mixed together with plenty of alternates, optional unconnected forms, and two sets of layerable ornaments.

While we’re on the topic of split personalities, let’s take a peek at the typographic three-way of YWFT Clairemy. Starting off several years ago as a set of original drawings by Blake E. Marquis, YouWorkForThem’s OpenType-pimped display face boasts a triple treat of glyphs in one trim package. The burly uppercase characters, spindly lowercase forms, and an unexpected set of hairline alternates all share a loose, hand-set style.

East London design studio Oscar & Ewan reached deep into their analogue arts toolbox for Leroy, the latest release from Colophon. Based on the infamous Keuffel & Esser technical lettering kits, the regular and “backslant” styles evoke the precise, monoline sans of their template-based namesake.

Typonine’s Balkan Sans provides a clever solution for representing and transliterating Latin and Cyrillic languages. Four double-decker character styles — in regular and stencil variations — “attempt to identify the features” which are commonly shared between South Slavic languages and alphabets.

OurType’s brand-spanking new “Stencil Fonts Series” was released to accompany the Between Writing & Type: The Stencil Letter exhibition at Antwerp’s Catapult Gallery. The series of three designs includes Maurice Göldner’s calligraphic and “modestly decorative” Standing Type, the minimalist geometry of Pierre Pané-Farré’s Orly Stencil, and Fred Smeijers’ Puncho — packed with slabby goodness. This trio of crafty cutouts is also available as a free download from the OurType site — but only for a limited time.

You might want to download those stencils now: the rest of your weekend may be consumed by all of these type-related links and news items:

Tempus fugit! Maybe you can clip its wings by keeping track of the following time-sensitive events:

Finally, we are saddened to note that Hillman Curtis has died. Liz Danzico and Brendan Dawes have shared beautiful remembrances.

See you next week.

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for having all of this week’s new type flown in, express.

]]> Type News It’s a winding line to this week’s news, beginning with all this new type:

The uniquely independent typographic flavour of the No Bodoni foundry is evident in George Everet Thompson’s latest effort. Crowbird Pro is a singularly bold display face with “assertive serifs” and intriguingly pinched transitions, giving it a pseudo-stencil feel. One weight, as the crow flies.

A2-Type’s Regular is a new sans family inspired by classic, hot metal fonts — with a modern nudge. There are structural inklings in the tradition of Stempel’s Memphis and Renner’s Futura throughout the seven weights — but keep an eye on the details. There are more than a few not so “regular” inktraps, gaspipes, and teardrops tossed into the mix.

Dave Rowland’s Schizotype has released Vulpa, a comfortably tidy serif “informed by the proportions” of Plantin. Lively “foxtail” terminals in the roman, bold, and italic styles take some cues from Rowland’s own Gelato Script. Additional features include italic swash capitals, a smart assortment of ligatures, multiple figure sets, engraved display caps, plus historically appropriate ornaments and fleurons.

Once you get past the charming name-play of Emily Lime Design’s Jacques & Gilles you’ll find an equally charming handwritten face. There are two contrasting — yet utterly compatible — “personas” evident in this casual display script. A bouncy lowercase and stoically upright capitals are mixed together with plenty of alternates, optional unconnected forms, and two sets of layerable ornaments.

While we’re on the topic of split personalities, let’s take a peek at the typographic three-way of YWFT Clairemy. Starting off several years ago as a set of original drawings by Blake E. Marquis, YouWorkForThem’s OpenType-pimped display face boasts a triple treat of glyphs in one trim package. The burly uppercase characters, spindly lowercase forms, and an unexpected set of hairline alternates all share a loose, hand-set style.

East London design studio Oscar & Ewan reached deep into their analogue arts toolbox for Leroy, the latest release from Colophon. Based on the infamous Keuffel & Esser technical lettering kits, the regular and “backslant” styles evoke the precise, monoline sans of their template-based namesake.

Typonine’s Balkan Sans provides a clever solution for representing and transliterating Latin and Cyrillic languages. Four double-decker character styles — in regular and stencil variations — “attempt to identify the features” which are commonly shared between South Slavic languages and alphabets.

OurType’s brand-spanking new “Stencil Fonts Series” was released to accompany the Between Writing & Type: The Stencil Letter exhibition at Antwerp’s Catapult Gallery. The series of three designs includes Maurice Göldner’s calligraphic and “modestly decorative” Standing Type, the minimalist geometry of Pierre Pané-Farré’s Orly Stencil, and Fred Smeijers’ Puncho — packed with slabby goodness. This trio of crafty cutouts is also available as a free download from the OurType site — but only for a limited time.

You might want to download those stencils now: the rest of your weekend may be consumed by all of these type-related links and news items:

Tempus fugit! Maybe you can clip its wings by keeping track of the following time-sensitive events:

Finally, we are saddened to note that Hillman Curtis has died. Liz Danzico and Brendan Dawes have shared beautiful remembrances.

See you next week.

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for having all of this week’s new type flown in, express.

]]> 2012-04-21T15:30:44+00:00 Type News: Systemic http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-systemic/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-systemic/ Type and method are in store. Let’s align our horizon of expectations with this week’s news — but only after this week’s new type.

Svet Simov’s Intro family for Fontfabric takes a slightly fanciful approach to the geometric sans genre. Swoopy tails, unexpected curviness, teardrop’d alternates, and a solid set of headlining caps — plenty of features that push this approachable text face over the display fence. Take advantage of Fontfabric’s renowned generosity by downloading the free demo version of Intro, which includes nearly complete versions of the Black Caps and Black Inline Caps weights.

Elegant. Hairline. Sans. Mike Jarboe’s Memoire is all that. Sinuous monolinear forms were based on the stripped down structure from Vanitas, Mike’s popular serifless didone. An optically-tuned, non-cursive italic accompanies the regular weight — along with an extended set of ligatures, numeric sets, and case-sensitive punctuation.

Typotheque’s voluminous Greta Sans is definitely not just another large type family. It’s a “continuous optical size system” covering ten weights and four widths. Designed by Peter Biľak in partnership with Typonine’s Nikola Djurek, this sans companion to the existing Greta Text (and its other serif’d variations) provides a huge range of typographic tools for text and displays settings. Using Greta as a talking point, Biľak’s Designing type systems article for I Love Typography goes into even more detail on the process and consideration of building a large family. And don’t miss the introductory promotional video, featuring animation by Amsterdam’s Addikt and namesake Greta Fischer’s adorable voiceover.

Not only did Typotheque produce one massive type system, they also delivered ten weights worth of Greta Symbol. This complementary collection of pictographic fonts features a whopping 1,200 glyphs per style — including all the requisite arrows, icons, geometrics, and alphanumeric shapes you’d expect. Typotheque has also prepared an instructional video showing some of the clever OpenType substitution features built into these faces.

It’s getting kinda slab in here. Foro is a humanistic serif fresh from the Hoftype hopper. Dieter Hofrichter has provided sixteen subdued styles with even colour and subtle detailing — managing to remove much of the chunk and abruptness found in many slab families.

More slab? We’ve got it. Stepping up to the plate is Regan Slab, a ten weight family from The Northern Block. UK-based Jonathan Hill has created a deliberately graphic face with a headline-friendly and somewhat photoset feel.

From slab serifs to a pile of news that despite its quantity shouldn’t land like a brick:

Looking for something to do? We’ve got you covered:

And with those enticements, we bid you farewell until next week. Thanks for riding along!

And thanks to Grant Hutchinson for collecting this week’s new type!

 

]]> Type News Type and method are in store. Let’s align our horizon of expectations with this week’s news — but only after this week’s new type.

Svet Simov’s Intro family for Fontfabric takes a slightly fanciful approach to the geometric sans genre. Swoopy tails, unexpected curviness, teardrop’d alternates, and a solid set of headlining caps — plenty of features that push this approachable text face over the display fence. Take advantage of Fontfabric’s renowned generosity by downloading the free demo version of Intro, which includes nearly complete versions of the Black Caps and Black Inline Caps weights.

Elegant. Hairline. Sans. Mike Jarboe’s Memoire is all that. Sinuous monolinear forms were based on the stripped down structure from Vanitas, Mike’s popular serifless didone. An optically-tuned, non-cursive italic accompanies the regular weight — along with an extended set of ligatures, numeric sets, and case-sensitive punctuation.

Typotheque’s voluminous Greta Sans is definitely not just another large type family. It’s a “continuous optical size system” covering ten weights and four widths. Designed by Peter Biľak in partnership with Typonine’s Nikola Djurek, this sans companion to the existing Greta Text (and its other serif’d variations) provides a huge range of typographic tools for text and displays settings. Using Greta as a talking point, Biľak’s Designing type systems article for I Love Typography goes into even more detail on the process and consideration of building a large family. And don’t miss the introductory promotional video, featuring animation by Amsterdam’s Addikt and namesake Greta Fischer’s adorable voiceover.

Not only did Typotheque produce one massive type system, they also delivered ten weights worth of Greta Symbol. This complementary collection of pictographic fonts features a whopping 1,200 glyphs per style — including all the requisite arrows, icons, geometrics, and alphanumeric shapes you’d expect. Typotheque has also prepared an instructional video showing some of the clever OpenType substitution features built into these faces.

It’s getting kinda slab in here. Foro is a humanistic serif fresh from the Hoftype hopper. Dieter Hofrichter has provided sixteen subdued styles with even colour and subtle detailing — managing to remove much of the chunk and abruptness found in many slab families.

More slab? We’ve got it. Stepping up to the plate is Regan Slab, a ten weight family from The Northern Block. UK-based Jonathan Hill has created a deliberately graphic face with a headline-friendly and somewhat photoset feel.

From slab serifs to a pile of news that despite its quantity shouldn’t land like a brick:

Looking for something to do? We’ve got you covered:

And with those enticements, we bid you farewell until next week. Thanks for riding along!

And thanks to Grant Hutchinson for collecting this week’s new type!

 

]]> 2012-04-14T15:00:24+00:00 Type News: Baywatch http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-baywatch/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-baywatch/ Hurry! Trudgen your way to this week’s news and new type:

What the heck is Hades? On one hand, it’s a slick, modernized blackletter — built with beefy, incised forms and dynamic angles. On the other hand, it’s one helluva nice historically-flavoured freebie from designer Dino dos Santos and his eponymous DSType foundry.

Photo-Lettering’s Sodachrome pulls off the concept of “chromatic overlap” with a pair of original serif faces by Ian Moore and Dan Rhatigan of the The Colour Grey. The unusual feat (and visual treat) of combining the two serif designs creates a third “ghostly” sans alphabet amidst the existing glyphs.

Channeling the pure mechanical functionality — as well as the romantic “warmth of Remington” — Kris Sowersby’s Pitch is a near perfect “love letter to the typewriter.” Sharing dimensions similar to the Howard “Bud” Kettler’s ubiquitous Courier, the five monospaced weights (and lovingly prepared italics) feature serious slabs, sharp angled brackets, playful ball terminals, and the inclusion of clever “split-bar” fractions. Be sure to absorb Kris’ extensive design information that accompanies the release — it’s both illuminating and fascinatingly exhaustive.

Named for his grandmother, Pedro Arilla’s Valentina is a lightly condensed didone with a Spanish influence. Angular (and often unexpected) stroke transitions are scattered throughout character set, which includes a large number of alternates and ligature pairs.

Levato is the inaugural typeface design from Hamburg-based Felix Bonge. Developed under the tutelage of master calligrapher Jovica Veljović, this dynamic five weight Antiqua offers just a hint of Bodoni through its fine serifs. Compared with the upright Romans, the italics are narrower, more delicate, and most definitely inspired by the cursive hand. A multitude of swashes, ligatures, and other ornamental characters provide an immense amount of titling flexibility.

Argentina’s Maximiliano Sproviero is known for his decorative (and often flamboyant) display faces such as last year’s Reina. The latest release from his Lián Types foundry is no exception. In fact, the delicate and wispy Aire manages a minimalist elegance, while still providing an extracurricular array of showy swashes and terminal forms. The light, roman, and bold weights of this didonesque family are accompanied by a set of equally fresh italics, full Cyrillic language support, plus a set of fleurons.

The prolific Jeremy Dooley took inspiration for Boncaire Titling from typographic elements (and their inherent idiosyncrasies) found in 17th century Dutch cartography. He took to “embracing the character of the engravings” by including details such as generously long serifs and quirky alternate cuts. The six weights — ranging from thin to black — include intriguing ligatures, “Deco” titling alternates, tastefully prepared swashes, and decorative stylistic minuscules.

One of this week’s new faces, Levato, is also available as a temporary tattoo. If you’re into that kind of thing, consider scoring the rest of this week’s news more permanently.

While we covered the release of Neue Haas Grotesk back in June, it’s still noteworthy this week. To mark its availability from The Font Bureau, Nick Sherman and Indra Kupferschmid created an impressive microsite. For a quick look at how Neue Haas Grotesk differs from digital versions of Helvetica and Helvetica Neue, be sure to check out this screenshot from FontBook 2.

Now: break out your calendars!

That’s it for this week. Who knows what next week will bring!

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for carving out time to bring us this week’s new type.

 

]]> Type News Hurry! Trudgen your way to this week’s news and new type:

What the heck is Hades? On one hand, it’s a slick, modernized blackletter — built with beefy, incised forms and dynamic angles. On the other hand, it’s one helluva nice historically-flavoured freebie from designer Dino dos Santos and his eponymous DSType foundry.

Photo-Lettering’s Sodachrome pulls off the concept of “chromatic overlap” with a pair of original serif faces by Ian Moore and Dan Rhatigan of the The Colour Grey. The unusual feat (and visual treat) of combining the two serif designs creates a third “ghostly” sans alphabet amidst the existing glyphs.

Channeling the pure mechanical functionality — as well as the romantic “warmth of Remington” — Kris Sowersby’s Pitch is a near perfect “love letter to the typewriter.” Sharing dimensions similar to the Howard “Bud” Kettler’s ubiquitous Courier, the five monospaced weights (and lovingly prepared italics) feature serious slabs, sharp angled brackets, playful ball terminals, and the inclusion of clever “split-bar” fractions. Be sure to absorb Kris’ extensive design information that accompanies the release — it’s both illuminating and fascinatingly exhaustive.

Named for his grandmother, Pedro Arilla’s Valentina is a lightly condensed didone with a Spanish influence. Angular (and often unexpected) stroke transitions are scattered throughout character set, which includes a large number of alternates and ligature pairs.

Levato is the inaugural typeface design from Hamburg-based Felix Bonge. Developed under the tutelage of master calligrapher Jovica Veljović, this dynamic five weight Antiqua offers just a hint of Bodoni through its fine serifs. Compared with the upright Romans, the italics are narrower, more delicate, and most definitely inspired by the cursive hand. A multitude of swashes, ligatures, and other ornamental characters provide an immense amount of titling flexibility.

Argentina’s Maximiliano Sproviero is known for his decorative (and often flamboyant) display faces such as last year’s Reina. The latest release from his Lián Types foundry is no exception. In fact, the delicate and wispy Aire manages a minimalist elegance, while still providing an extracurricular array of showy swashes and terminal forms. The light, roman, and bold weights of this didonesque family are accompanied by a set of equally fresh italics, full Cyrillic language support, plus a set of fleurons.

The prolific Jeremy Dooley took inspiration for Boncaire Titling from typographic elements (and their inherent idiosyncrasies) found in 17th century Dutch cartography. He took to “embracing the character of the engravings” by including details such as generously long serifs and quirky alternate cuts. The six weights — ranging from thin to black — include intriguing ligatures, “Deco” titling alternates, tastefully prepared swashes, and decorative stylistic minuscules.

One of this week’s new faces, Levato, is also available as a temporary tattoo. If you’re into that kind of thing, consider scoring the rest of this week’s news more permanently.

While we covered the release of Neue Haas Grotesk back in June, it’s still noteworthy this week. To mark its availability from The Font Bureau, Nick Sherman and Indra Kupferschmid created an impressive microsite. For a quick look at how Neue Haas Grotesk differs from digital versions of Helvetica and Helvetica Neue, be sure to check out this screenshot from FontBook 2.

Now: break out your calendars!

That’s it for this week. Who knows what next week will bring!

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for carving out time to bring us this week’s new type.

 

]]> 2012-04-08T01:42:45+00:00 Type News: Capital Sharp http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-capital-sharp/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-capital-sharp/ This week: a crisp, well-dressed trio of typefaces and an unruly amount of news — it’s a sans sans sans sans world.

Sofia Pro is Olivier Gourvat’s redesign and expansion of his rigidly geometric sans family, originally released in 2008. This year’s overhaul included a general sprucing up, the addition of case sensitive forms, proper small caps, alternates, and extended numerics, plus two more weights — added to the ends of the range.

According to Emigre, Zuzana Licko’s Mr Eaves XL Sans Narrow & Modern Narrow are the “final installments” in what was already an extensive (and intricately named) Eaves superfamily. These moderately slenderized versions of the humanist Sans and more geometric Modern both set tighter, while maintaining the comfortable readability of the x-heighten’d “XL” series.

Ralf Herrmann’s Wayfinding Sans has finally come to fruition after years of exhaustive field study and documentation. Much of Herrmann’s research process is chronicled in his article Designing the Ultimate Wayfinding Typeface — where it’s noted that he even developed his own Legibility Test Tool for the task. Although designed specifically for visual clarity in less than optimal circumstances, this twenty style family is also an impressive (and tidy) modern sans that can hold its own in situations well beyond signage.

If you’d kindly make your way over to the holding area — no, it’s this way, not that way — we have a number of news items that may interest you:

A few calendar items:

And that brings us to the end of another dapper and obstreperous week — and month! — of type news. Remember to back up your computers.

Thanks to the master of backing-up, Grant Hutchinson, for procuring this week’s new type!

]]> Type News This week: a crisp, well-dressed trio of typefaces and an unruly amount of news — it’s a sans sans sans sans world.

Sofia Pro is Olivier Gourvat’s redesign and expansion of his rigidly geometric sans family, originally released in 2008. This year’s overhaul included a general sprucing up, the addition of case sensitive forms, proper small caps, alternates, and extended numerics, plus two more weights — added to the ends of the range.

According to Emigre, Zuzana Licko’s Mr Eaves XL Sans Narrow & Modern Narrow are the “final installments” in what was already an extensive (and intricately named) Eaves superfamily. These moderately slenderized versions of the humanist Sans and more geometric Modern both set tighter, while maintaining the comfortable readability of the x-heighten’d “XL” series.

Ralf Herrmann’s Wayfinding Sans has finally come to fruition after years of exhaustive field study and documentation. Much of Herrmann’s research process is chronicled in his article Designing the Ultimate Wayfinding Typeface — where it’s noted that he even developed his own Legibility Test Tool for the task. Although designed specifically for visual clarity in less than optimal circumstances, this twenty style family is also an impressive (and tidy) modern sans that can hold its own in situations well beyond signage.

If you’d kindly make your way over to the holding area — no, it’s this way, not that way — we have a number of news items that may interest you:

A few calendar items:

And that brings us to the end of another dapper and obstreperous week — and month! — of type news. Remember to back up your computers.

Thanks to the master of backing-up, Grant Hutchinson, for procuring this week’s new type!

]]> 2012-03-31T13:00:35+00:00 Type News: Knäckebröd! http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-knaeckebroed/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-knaeckebroed/ A hearty and crunchy morning to you! This week’s news and new type are a part of any complete meal, so dig in!

Spring is in the air and Canada Type has been busy freshening up a fair number of their more popular families. Included in their latest font crop is an emboldened Orpheus Pro, a condensed version of Hans van Maanen’s “Dutch Garamond” known as Aragon, as well as “gentler” variations of two space-saving sans faces — Wagner Round and Soft Press.

But there’s more in the land of Canadia than just new flavours of erstwhile fonts — there’s also a display face by the name of King Wood. Three solid weights of “gothic wood type with a Tuscan flair” — each sporting a optional unicase variation. A separate cut of simple, appropriate ornaments comes along for the ride in the form of King Wood Extras.

Piercing the clouds like one of the very first skyscrapers, Josip Kelava’s Metropolis 1920 echoes the streamlined, industrial vernacular of the Art Deco era. The condensed, twin-beam chassis is both airy and strong, providing this snappy-looking display face with a intriguing, intertwined look and a brash attitude. All that, and it’s free to boot.

New from the typographic team of José Scaglione and Veronika Burian comes Tablet Gothic — a comprehensive headline family. Building on traditional 19th century utility, this grotesque sans still manages to ooze personality and charm across its 42 styles, seven weights, and six widths.

Somehow, we missed last month’s announcement from HypeForType regarding their fifth collection of exclusive display faces. Let’s make up for that, shall we? Included in this font pentafecta are Steven Bonner’s Muirside — a slick, linear stencil; Anthony Burrill’s tile-like Kit Form the playfully patterned geometry of Alexander Wright’s Alicia Luis Torres and Diego Rodriguez’s beautifully Byzantine Alquimia and the bold, grid-based repetition of Colher — the inaugural release from Portugal’s Eurico Sá Fernandes.

Jeremy Tankard’s calligraphically influenced Fenland is packed with fascinating, angular shapes. Initially crafted from the brush, each weight has been pruned and tuned into contemporary sans forms that are both familiar and unexpected. Eye Magazine’s article Birth of a typeface offers a peek at Tankard’s preliminary sketches of Fenland and his development process.


Starting out as a versatile commissioned design for Men’s Health, Font Bureau’s Heron Sans and Heron Serif balance a draftsman-like, industrial framework with the buffed and polished detailing expected from the likes of Cyrus Highsmith. A robust twenty styles are included in each of these new families.

The sultry Ragazza Script is the latest lovely to swing into town from Chile’s Latinotype. Guille Vizzari’s “ornamental copperplate” style is modern and fluid — plus, there’s enough alternates, initials, fly-away swashes, and scenery-chewing contrast to keep everyone interested.

Finally, we have a solid serif companion to the Gaslight Type Foundry’s recently released ultra black display face. Quadratish Serif offers a similar cut of beef, this time with a side order of slab.

Don’t fill up on beef just yet! There’s also plenty of bread and butter to go around — a variety basket, even — in the shape of the news:

Stuffed? Go out, exercise, lounge around, just come back next week with the same kind of appetite!

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for tenderizing this week’s new type!

]]> Type News A hearty and crunchy morning to you! This week’s news and new type are a part of any complete meal, so dig in!

Spring is in the air and Canada Type has been busy freshening up a fair number of their more popular families. Included in their latest font crop is an emboldened Orpheus Pro, a condensed version of Hans van Maanen’s “Dutch Garamond” known as Aragon, as well as “gentler” variations of two space-saving sans faces — Wagner Round and Soft Press.

But there’s more in the land of Canadia than just new flavours of erstwhile fonts — there’s also a display face by the name of King Wood. Three solid weights of “gothic wood type with a Tuscan flair” — each sporting a optional unicase variation. A separate cut of simple, appropriate ornaments comes along for the ride in the form of King Wood Extras.

Piercing the clouds like one of the very first skyscrapers, Josip Kelava’s Metropolis 1920 echoes the streamlined, industrial vernacular of the Art Deco era. The condensed, twin-beam chassis is both airy and strong, providing this snappy-looking display face with a intriguing, intertwined look and a brash attitude. All that, and it’s free to boot.

New from the typographic team of José Scaglione and Veronika Burian comes Tablet Gothic — a comprehensive headline family. Building on traditional 19th century utility, this grotesque sans still manages to ooze personality and charm across its 42 styles, seven weights, and six widths.

Somehow, we missed last month’s announcement from HypeForType regarding their fifth collection of exclusive display faces. Let’s make up for that, shall we? Included in this font pentafecta are Steven Bonner’s Muirside — a slick, linear stencil; Anthony Burrill’s tile-like Kit Form the playfully patterned geometry of Alexander Wright’s Alicia Luis Torres and Diego Rodriguez’s beautifully Byzantine Alquimia and the bold, grid-based repetition of Colher — the inaugural release from Portugal’s Eurico Sá Fernandes.

Jeremy Tankard’s calligraphically influenced Fenland is packed with fascinating, angular shapes. Initially crafted from the brush, each weight has been pruned and tuned into contemporary sans forms that are both familiar and unexpected. Eye Magazine’s article Birth of a typeface offers a peek at Tankard’s preliminary sketches of Fenland and his development process.


Starting out as a versatile commissioned design for Men’s Health, Font Bureau’s Heron Sans and Heron Serif balance a draftsman-like, industrial framework with the buffed and polished detailing expected from the likes of Cyrus Highsmith. A robust twenty styles are included in each of these new families.

The sultry Ragazza Script is the latest lovely to swing into town from Chile’s Latinotype. Guille Vizzari’s “ornamental copperplate” style is modern and fluid — plus, there’s enough alternates, initials, fly-away swashes, and scenery-chewing contrast to keep everyone interested.

Finally, we have a solid serif companion to the Gaslight Type Foundry’s recently released ultra black display face. Quadratish Serif offers a similar cut of beef, this time with a side order of slab.

Don’t fill up on beef just yet! There’s also plenty of bread and butter to go around — a variety basket, even — in the shape of the news:

Stuffed? Go out, exercise, lounge around, just come back next week with the same kind of appetite!

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for tenderizing this week’s new type!

]]> 2012-03-24T14:25:54+00:00 Type News: Soft-Serve with Bacon http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-soft-serve-with-bacon/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-soft-serve-with-bacon/ What a week! We have some lip-smacking type and equally scrumptious news for you.

Let’s begin with our pal Unicode. “Canadian Syllabics sh” and “Rightwards Arrow with Loop” received new definitions in the “Curator’s Code.” It remains to be seen whether screen-readers, etc., will be able to tell the different meanings that these characters apparently now signify. (Whether you think the “Curator’s Code” is useful is another thing entirely.) Meanwhile, every character is undergoing re-definition by the Fake Unicode Consortium. Enjoy such instant classics as “Unimpressed Rabbit,” “Monocle of Disapproval,” and “Soft-Serve Ice Cream.”

With that fun out of the way, let’s serve up this week’s new type. Color us impressed — there’s no scratching words in the dirt here:

Swiss art director Juri Zaech starts off another week of new type with the charmingly decorative Frontage. A multitude of dimensional and textural effects can be created by layering and colorifying the five distinct styles — including a unique cast shadow variation. This all-caps “façade signage” sans is built to be mixed, matched, and stacked to your signmaking heart’s content. An additional sixth weight — not included in the retail collection — is also available. Frontage Outline is “free for a tweet.”

Madelinette provides a lovely, unstuffy take on early 1900s handwriting. In a style that’s considered to be “a modern alternative” to Spencerian scripts, this face is lightweight and natural — maintaining the subtle roughness produced by a steel-nibbed pen on paper. Designed by illustrator and lettering artist Crystal Kluge and brought up to OpenType speed by Stuart Sandler, Madelinette contains plenty of ligatures, beginning and ending forms, swashes, and stylistic alternates.

Peter Mohr’s second release for OurType provides a refined display counterpart to his didone-esque Fayon family. Fayon Grande is a condensed headliner of ample contrast and x-height, with uniquely leafy terminals, softened hairline serifs, and an impressive range of nineteen weights — from thin through extra black.

Max Phillips describes the inaugural release from his very own Signal foundry as “an ice cream headache of a typeface”. We can’t possibly disagree. Vibro combines strict geometry with concentric repetition to the visual extreme. Phillips has also taken pains to provide cleverly “mortised” diacritics — allowing Vibro to “trample basic standards of legibility in over 130 languages.” Following up on the award-winning ways of his FF Spinoza, Max’s stripy wonder recently nabbed a 2012 Certificate of Excellence from the Type Director Club.

Wood Type Revival’s latest typographic resuscitation is a gruff little number in an wide slab style. Trent Walton took design cues from an 8-line cut of 19th century wood type — originally part of the David Knox & Co. foundry — and digitized two styles of Grecian Light Face. Available in distressed and “clean, precise redraw” varieties.

And now: watch the water roll down from the new type to the type news. (Yes I am listening to Soul Coughing while I’m writing this, why do you ask?)

Mark your calendars!

We leave you this week with some incredible and mesmirizing Handmade Type. Have a happy St. Patrick’s Day and a great week!

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for getting on the bus and delivering this week’s new type.

 

]]> Type News What a week! We have some lip-smacking type and equally scrumptious news for you.

Let’s begin with our pal Unicode. “Canadian Syllabics sh” and “Rightwards Arrow with Loop” received new definitions in the “Curator’s Code.” It remains to be seen whether screen-readers, etc., will be able to tell the different meanings that these characters apparently now signify. (Whether you think the “Curator’s Code” is useful is another thing entirely.) Meanwhile, every character is undergoing re-definition by the Fake Unicode Consortium. Enjoy such instant classics as “Unimpressed Rabbit,” “Monocle of Disapproval,” and “Soft-Serve Ice Cream.”

With that fun out of the way, let’s serve up this week’s new type. Color us impressed — there’s no scratching words in the dirt here:

Swiss art director Juri Zaech starts off another week of new type with the charmingly decorative Frontage. A multitude of dimensional and textural effects can be created by layering and colorifying the five distinct styles — including a unique cast shadow variation. This all-caps “façade signage” sans is built to be mixed, matched, and stacked to your signmaking heart’s content. An additional sixth weight — not included in the retail collection — is also available. Frontage Outline is “free for a tweet.”

Madelinette provides a lovely, unstuffy take on early 1900s handwriting. In a style that’s considered to be “a modern alternative” to Spencerian scripts, this face is lightweight and natural — maintaining the subtle roughness produced by a steel-nibbed pen on paper. Designed by illustrator and lettering artist Crystal Kluge and brought up to OpenType speed by Stuart Sandler, Madelinette contains plenty of ligatures, beginning and ending forms, swashes, and stylistic alternates.

Peter Mohr’s second release for OurType provides a refined display counterpart to his didone-esque Fayon family. Fayon Grande is a condensed headliner of ample contrast and x-height, with uniquely leafy terminals, softened hairline serifs, and an impressive range of nineteen weights — from thin through extra black.

Max Phillips describes the inaugural release from his very own Signal foundry as “an ice cream headache of a typeface”. We can’t possibly disagree. Vibro combines strict geometry with concentric repetition to the visual extreme. Phillips has also taken pains to provide cleverly “mortised” diacritics — allowing Vibro to “trample basic standards of legibility in over 130 languages.” Following up on the award-winning ways of his FF Spinoza, Max’s stripy wonder recently nabbed a 2012 Certificate of Excellence from the Type Director Club.

Wood Type Revival’s latest typographic resuscitation is a gruff little number in an wide slab style. Trent Walton took design cues from an 8-line cut of 19th century wood type — originally part of the David Knox & Co. foundry — and digitized two styles of Grecian Light Face. Available in distressed and “clean, precise redraw” varieties.

And now: watch the water roll down from the new type to the type news. (Yes I am listening to Soul Coughing while I’m writing this, why do you ask?)

Mark your calendars!

We leave you this week with some incredible and mesmirizing Handmade Type. Have a happy St. Patrick’s Day and a great week!

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for getting on the bus and delivering this week’s new type.

 

]]> 2012-03-17T13:00:34+00:00 Type News: Typeswimming http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-typeswimming/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-typeswimming/ It’s almost spring! Time to get ready for sweet showers and all that. But first, a preemptive pilgrimage to some astounding new type!

In the 1930s and 1940s, masterful sign painter Alf Becker produced dozens of handcrafted type styles. Alejandro Paul used one of Becker’s incomplete sample alphabets as the basis for Storefront. True to form, Alejandro’s “overdose of alternates and swashes” is evident in this energetic script — balancing historical forms with the lettering artist’s improvised brushwork. Be sure to peruse the PDF specimen featuring some stunning dimensional work by Dado Queiroz.

Some people might refer to this face as having an oval structure, but Eric Olson prefers to call his Chrono a “nearly geometric” sans serif. This minimalist, six weight family has a subtly-played geometry that pairs well with the “adjusted oblique” italics. A single alternate ‘J’ and a series of directional arrows accompany each and every style.

The digital version of Vojtěch Preissig’s iconic Czech typeface began in the summer of 1998. After nearly fifteen years, František Štorm (along with Otakar Karlas) have finally released the revised and extended Preissig Antikva Pro. Previous interations of Antikva mistakenly construct the glyphs using nothing but straight lines. The accuracy of this revivial takes that into account, basing the design on a very specific version of the 1925 original and developing a set of custom-tuned italics. The entire family consists of twelve styles, partnered with a lovingly prepared set of Preissig’s original ornaments.

Sascha Timplan’s Florence for Stereotypes is loose, fluid, and — in his own words — “not perfect.” This condensed sans family was inspired by the designer’s poster lettering for the villaWuller dance club in Trier, Germany. With a casual softness, expressive swashes, and loads of OpenType options, Florence provides a lot of flexibility — perfect or not. And if you need yet another nudge, the regular weight can be nabbed for free at MyFonts.

Gestalten is on the scene again with Lektura — a modernized blackletter by Berlin-based Martin Guder. Two weights of organically grown, handcrafted flavour — straddling the line between interpretive antiqua and stripped-down textura.

The Lost Type Co-op released a pair of condensed, vintage serif faces this past week. Frances Macleod’s Abraham Lincoln is a tall drink of water — like its presidential namesake. Echoes of 19th century playbills are evident in this bracketed headliner of moderate contrast, friendly demeanor, and quirky woodtypish consistency.

Also from the “name your price” co-operative comes Ben Dalrymple’s four speed Geared — a compact, no-nonsense face with an industrial attitude. Although pitched as a “slab” design, the substantial serifs have a oddly attractive bracketed-hybrid vibe.

User is DSType’s take on a clean, squarish monospaced sans. This extensive family consists of regular, stencil, and “upright” styles across five weights — thin through bold — all with rather clever “cameo” variations. Despite being a monospaced design, it’s both versatile and extremely comfortable to read.

And now, feel free to get comfortable and read the rest of this week’s news:

It’s been another huge week in the world of type — see you next week for another!

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for helping this week’s new type look its best!

]]> Type News It’s almost spring! Time to get ready for sweet showers and all that. But first, a preemptive pilgrimage to some astounding new type!

In the 1930s and 1940s, masterful sign painter Alf Becker produced dozens of handcrafted type styles. Alejandro Paul used one of Becker’s incomplete sample alphabets as the basis for Storefront. True to form, Alejandro’s “overdose of alternates and swashes” is evident in this energetic script — balancing historical forms with the lettering artist’s improvised brushwork. Be sure to peruse the PDF specimen featuring some stunning dimensional work by Dado Queiroz.

Some people might refer to this face as having an oval structure, but Eric Olson prefers to call his Chrono a “nearly geometric” sans serif. This minimalist, six weight family has a subtly-played geometry that pairs well with the “adjusted oblique” italics. A single alternate ‘J’ and a series of directional arrows accompany each and every style.

The digital version of Vojtěch Preissig’s iconic Czech typeface began in the summer of 1998. After nearly fifteen years, František Štorm (along with Otakar Karlas) have finally released the revised and extended Preissig Antikva Pro. Previous interations of Antikva mistakenly construct the glyphs using nothing but straight lines. The accuracy of this revivial takes that into account, basing the design on a very specific version of the 1925 original and developing a set of custom-tuned italics. The entire family consists of twelve styles, partnered with a lovingly prepared set of Preissig’s original ornaments.

Sascha Timplan’s Florence for Stereotypes is loose, fluid, and — in his own words — “not perfect.” This condensed sans family was inspired by the designer’s poster lettering for the villaWuller dance club in Trier, Germany. With a casual softness, expressive swashes, and loads of OpenType options, Florence provides a lot of flexibility — perfect or not. And if you need yet another nudge, the regular weight can be nabbed for free at MyFonts.

Gestalten is on the scene again with Lektura — a modernized blackletter by Berlin-based Martin Guder. Two weights of organically grown, handcrafted flavour — straddling the line between interpretive antiqua and stripped-down textura.

The Lost Type Co-op released a pair of condensed, vintage serif faces this past week. Frances Macleod’s Abraham Lincoln is a tall drink of water — like its presidential namesake. Echoes of 19th century playbills are evident in this bracketed headliner of moderate contrast, friendly demeanor, and quirky woodtypish consistency.

Also from the “name your price” co-operative comes Ben Dalrymple’s four speed Geared — a compact, no-nonsense face with an industrial attitude. Although pitched as a “slab” design, the substantial serifs have a oddly attractive bracketed-hybrid vibe.

User is DSType’s take on a clean, squarish monospaced sans. This extensive family consists of regular, stencil, and “upright” styles across five weights — thin through bold — all with rather clever “cameo” variations. Despite being a monospaced design, it’s both versatile and extremely comfortable to read.

And now, feel free to get comfortable and read the rest of this week’s news:

It’s been another huge week in the world of type — see you next week for another!

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for helping this week’s new type look its best!

]]> 2012-03-10T14:00:51+00:00 Type News: Disparately Seeking http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-disparately-seeking/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-disparately-seeking/ It’s another week of glorious new type and news. Will you find what you’re looking for?

In creating Garçon Grotesque, Thomas Jockin asked himself how Goudy’s stalwart Copperplate Gothic might look in contemporary clothing. Unbracketed serifs and consistently aligned terminals replace the rather awkward versions we’ve become used to in the classic engraver’s face. A sophisticated range of five weights includes visually appropriate lowercase, small caps, tabular figures, a trio of stylistic sets, and eastern European language support. More behind the scenes tales can be found in Thomas’ article for I Love Typography on the making of Garçon Grotesque.

The latest refurbished face to roll out of the Filmotype garage is a “high-style” mid-century brush by the name of Kitten. It’s contrasty, connected, and decked out with a nice set of alternates — tweaked and twiddled by none other than master scriptmeister Alejandro Paul.

Beefyish. Ultrablackish. Quadratish. Roman Shchyukin and Valery Zaveryaev’s squarely geometric face comes equipped with squinty solid and “thin” styles for straight-up or combined settings. Given the designers’ Russian whereabouts, it’s no surprise that there’s a complete Cyrillic character set included under the hood.

Wilton Foundry’s Marcus was named after the Roman emperor Marcus Ulpius Traianus (of “Trajan” column fame), but echoes the brush of a signpainter as much as the chisel of a stonecutter. The calligraphic influence is evident in the poetic curves and softened strokes. Setting it further part from other Trajanic titling types are the finessed lowercase glyphs, subtle endings, and a plethora of discretionary ligatures.

And now for the elusive news:

Oh, hi, web typography and friends:

Break out the calendar:

Short. To the point. That’s this week for you. (OK, not short, but far from marathonic.) See you next week, when we might just slow down. Until then, keep on running — and singing!

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for letting us just catch our breath with this week’s new type!

 

]]> Type News It’s another week of glorious new type and news. Will you find what you’re looking for?

In creating Garçon Grotesque, Thomas Jockin asked himself how Goudy’s stalwart Copperplate Gothic might look in contemporary clothing. Unbracketed serifs and consistently aligned terminals replace the rather awkward versions we’ve become used to in the classic engraver’s face. A sophisticated range of five weights includes visually appropriate lowercase, small caps, tabular figures, a trio of stylistic sets, and eastern European language support. More behind the scenes tales can be found in Thomas’ article for I Love Typography on the making of Garçon Grotesque.

The latest refurbished face to roll out of the Filmotype garage is a “high-style” mid-century brush by the name of Kitten. It’s contrasty, connected, and decked out with a nice set of alternates — tweaked and twiddled by none other than master scriptmeister Alejandro Paul.

Beefyish. Ultrablackish. Quadratish. Roman Shchyukin and Valery Zaveryaev’s squarely geometric face comes equipped with squinty solid and “thin” styles for straight-up or combined settings. Given the designers’ Russian whereabouts, it’s no surprise that there’s a complete Cyrillic character set included under the hood.

Wilton Foundry’s Marcus was named after the Roman emperor Marcus Ulpius Traianus (of “Trajan” column fame), but echoes the brush of a signpainter as much as the chisel of a stonecutter. The calligraphic influence is evident in the poetic curves and softened strokes. Setting it further part from other Trajanic titling types are the finessed lowercase glyphs, subtle endings, and a plethora of discretionary ligatures.

And now for the elusive news:

Oh, hi, web typography and friends:

Break out the calendar:

Short. To the point. That’s this week for you. (OK, not short, but far from marathonic.) See you next week, when we might just slow down. Until then, keep on running — and singing!

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for letting us just catch our breath with this week’s new type!

 

]]> 2012-03-03T15:14:48+00:00 Type News: Three to the Four http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-three-to-the-four/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-three-to-the-four/ A happy Type News day to you! We have the usual, plus a few older things in new trappings. It’s also our eighty-first edition! All those nines will be to be hard to resist. If only there were some way to get inspired …

We begin this week’s new type with Friendly, a fanciful new typeface from Neil Summerour and an “homage to Morris Fuller Benton’s adorable Announcement typeface.” Packed with loving swashes and delightful whorls, Friendly holds up as its own face and should provide plenty of inspiration for anyone in need of a good displace face.

From delicate to blocky, we move to Quatro Slab from p.s.type. Equal parts whimsy and forcefulness, this slab serif comes prepared for multiple occasions and is available in five weights, each with matching italics.

Newly available on MyFonts, we’d surely despair if we neglected to mention G-Type’s two-headed typeface pair, Organon Sans & Organon Serif. Are these new typefaces? No, but we’ll be sure to do enough penance that we avoid entering any underworld cities any time soon.

Wait, Angie Sans isn’t exactly new, either! What gives? Before we embark on some probably-deserved self-flagellation, this isn’t just any Angie Sans. This is the “Pro” version. Learn how Jean François Porchez’ lovely flared sans became a rejuvenated typeface, with outline adjustments from Mathieu Réguer, in addtion to greater language support, new weights, and a bunch of OpenType features. And then we’ll put this scourge away, unused. Phew!

That charge you’re feeling is probably from all the energy in Soundtrack, from PintassilgoPrints. All caps, with alternate letterforms and a slew of dingbats, Soundtrack should have enough going for it to play by your rules.

New to P22’s Sherwood Type Collection is Ruffcut, whose name gets right to the point. With plain and “woody” styles, this display face will work well even when you’re not promoting your circus from the 19th Century.

From the past to the future! Or rather, the future past. Ray Larabie’s Droid hearkens from 1997 but has been updated for the current digital age — and is freely available as a webfont, too!

Maybe the “Black speech” of Mordor isn’t quite the right language to set Slobodan Jelesijevic’s Prored in. Let’s just chalk it up to my need to get back to something with a “nine” in it. [Ed.: Noted.] In any case, this sans serif typeface promises to perform well in setting real languages from Central Europe, Turkish, or a number of others too fantastical to mention here.

It’s a week of nines, so let’s wrap up with a ninth typeface. Michał Jarociński’s Dada Slab Pro is currently available only in an “extra light” weight, but don’t let that stop you. It looks great large and probably contains more OpenType features, alternate glyphs, and numerical variants than you can count on your fingers.

From those nine (okay, ten) worthies, let’s sprint into right field [Ed.: What?] for the rest of this week’s news:

If all that doesn’t keep you sated, you can go jump into a boiling lake of mud. Just kidding! Instead, check out a few new and classic type-related links compiled by John Nack.

See you next week!

Grant Hutchinson has the week off, that lucky guy!

 

]]> Type News A happy Type News day to you! We have the usual, plus a few older things in new trappings. It’s also our eighty-first edition! All those nines will be to be hard to resist. If only there were some way to get inspired …

We begin this week’s new type with Friendly, a fanciful new typeface from Neil Summerour and an “homage to Morris Fuller Benton’s adorable Announcement typeface.” Packed with loving swashes and delightful whorls, Friendly holds up as its own face and should provide plenty of inspiration for anyone in need of a good displace face.

From delicate to blocky, we move to Quatro Slab from p.s.type. Equal parts whimsy and forcefulness, this slab serif comes prepared for multiple occasions and is available in five weights, each with matching italics.

Newly available on MyFonts, we’d surely despair if we neglected to mention G-Type’s two-headed typeface pair, Organon Sans & Organon Serif. Are these new typefaces? No, but we’ll be sure to do enough penance that we avoid entering any underworld cities any time soon.

Wait, Angie Sans isn’t exactly new, either! What gives? Before we embark on some probably-deserved self-flagellation, this isn’t just any Angie Sans. This is the “Pro” version. Learn how Jean François Porchez’ lovely flared sans became a rejuvenated typeface, with outline adjustments from Mathieu Réguer, in addtion to greater language support, new weights, and a bunch of OpenType features. And then we’ll put this scourge away, unused. Phew!

That charge you’re feeling is probably from all the energy in Soundtrack, from PintassilgoPrints. All caps, with alternate letterforms and a slew of dingbats, Soundtrack should have enough going for it to play by your rules.

New to P22’s Sherwood Type Collection is Ruffcut, whose name gets right to the point. With plain and “woody” styles, this display face will work well even when you’re not promoting your circus from the 19th Century.

From the past to the future! Or rather, the future past. Ray Larabie’s Droid hearkens from 1997 but has been updated for the current digital age — and is freely available as a webfont, too!

Maybe the “Black speech” of Mordor isn’t quite the right language to set Slobodan Jelesijevic’s Prored in. Let’s just chalk it up to my need to get back to something with a “nine” in it. [Ed.: Noted.] In any case, this sans serif typeface promises to perform well in setting real languages from Central Europe, Turkish, or a number of others too fantastical to mention here.

It’s a week of nines, so let’s wrap up with a ninth typeface. Michał Jarociński’s Dada Slab Pro is currently available only in an “extra light” weight, but don’t let that stop you. It looks great large and probably contains more OpenType features, alternate glyphs, and numerical variants than you can count on your fingers.

From those nine (okay, ten) worthies, let’s sprint into right field [Ed.: What?] for the rest of this week’s news:

If all that doesn’t keep you sated, you can go jump into a boiling lake of mud. Just kidding! Instead, check out a few new and classic type-related links compiled by John Nack.

See you next week!

Grant Hutchinson has the week off, that lucky guy!

 

]]> 2012-02-25T14:00:45+00:00 Type News: Mastodon Five Thousand http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-mastodon-five-thousand/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-mastodon-five-thousand/ Classic forms meet the cutting edge in this week’s news and new type. Rather than hold you back, let’s leap — to the future! Or maybe the future perfect. Anyway, these fine typefaces will have been news to some of us:

Okay Type’s The Harriet Series is a significant release by any standard. Thirty months in the making, Jackson Cavanaugh’s contemporary “rational” serif covers an impressive range of six display and four text weights, plus true italics across the board. The bogglingly beautiful microsite and comprehensive specimens that accompany the release just amplify the amount of font lust for this family.

Hubert Jocham is pouring out some packaging love with Crema — a boldly curvaceous, yet casual, display script. Tricked out with a triple hit of styles, Crema moves from quiet italic to subtle “flare and flourish” — finishing with a truly fluid, connected script.

Free is a good thing, but often the ‘thing’ isn’t necessarily that good. The Lost Type Co-op continues to prove that theory wrong by supplying high quality (and rather tasty) display faces like Sullivan on a “name your price” basis. This solid, squarish beveled sans by Jason Mark Jones consists of three variations designed to be layered, shaded, and combined with vernacular abandon.

While we’re on the topic of free (and squarish), the prolific Fontfabric released a condensed, linear sans by the name of Rex. Light, bold, and inline weights feature a rigid construction, distinctive ‘notched’ capitals, and Cyrillic language support.

Building on the charming “zip-top” style of his recent Dynascript release, lettering artist Michael Doret gives us a double dose of Dynatype. An upright “cousin” of the aforementioned script, Dynatype is really “two fonts in one” — changing from aggressively retro display type to connected script with the flick of the stylistic switch. This workhorse headliner can even hold its own when faux-italicized.

How is it possible that Laura Worthington has another new typeface out? Not that we mind, of course. This time around she’s creating a buzz with HoneyBee — a slightly weathered titling face with a jaunty baseline. There’s also a hive full of hand drawn alternates and ornaments to enjoy.

Talk about putting some Type Together … Poland’s Anna Giedryś and Germany’s Elena Schneider have collaborated with Czech type designer David Březina on an extension to his popular Skolar family. The newly minted light and extra bold weights are a welcome addition to this highly readable, lightly modulated serif face.

This may be one of the best self-described headline types of late. The Infamous Foundry’s Fancy Antique Display is an uppercase-only face born from mid-century French lineage — featuring familiar geometric bones and striated dimensionality.

Also making headlines this week (or I guess making our giant list of links) — this week’s type-related news, ephemera, et cetera!

Get out your calendars! A few of these events are coming up soon:

That’s it for this week. Until next time, how about some cats?

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for bringing us yet another amazing week of new type!

]]> Type News Classic forms meet the cutting edge in this week’s news and new type. Rather than hold you back, let’s leap — to the future! Or maybe the future perfect. Anyway, these fine typefaces will have been news to some of us:

Okay Type’s The Harriet Series is a significant release by any standard. Thirty months in the making, Jackson Cavanaugh’s contemporary “rational” serif covers an impressive range of six display and four text weights, plus true italics across the board. The bogglingly beautiful microsite and comprehensive specimens that accompany the release just amplify the amount of font lust for this family.

Hubert Jocham is pouring out some packaging love with Crema — a boldly curvaceous, yet casual, display script. Tricked out with a triple hit of styles, Crema moves from quiet italic to subtle “flare and flourish” — finishing with a truly fluid, connected script.

Free is a good thing, but often the ‘thing’ isn’t necessarily that good. The Lost Type Co-op continues to prove that theory wrong by supplying high quality (and rather tasty) display faces like Sullivan on a “name your price” basis. This solid, squarish beveled sans by Jason Mark Jones consists of three variations designed to be layered, shaded, and combined with vernacular abandon.

While we’re on the topic of free (and squarish), the prolific Fontfabric released a condensed, linear sans by the name of Rex. Light, bold, and inline weights feature a rigid construction, distinctive ‘notched’ capitals, and Cyrillic language support.

Building on the charming “zip-top” style of his recent Dynascript release, lettering artist Michael Doret gives us a double dose of Dynatype. An upright “cousin” of the aforementioned script, Dynatype is really “two fonts in one” — changing from aggressively retro display type to connected script with the flick of the stylistic switch. This workhorse headliner can even hold its own when faux-italicized.

How is it possible that Laura Worthington has another new typeface out? Not that we mind, of course. This time around she’s creating a buzz with HoneyBee — a slightly weathered titling face with a jaunty baseline. There’s also a hive full of hand drawn alternates and ornaments to enjoy.

Talk about putting some Type Together … Poland’s Anna Giedryś and Germany’s Elena Schneider have collaborated with Czech type designer David Březina on an extension to his popular Skolar family. The newly minted light and extra bold weights are a welcome addition to this highly readable, lightly modulated serif face.

This may be one of the best self-described headline types of late. The Infamous Foundry’s Fancy Antique Display is an uppercase-only face born from mid-century French lineage — featuring familiar geometric bones and striated dimensionality.

Also making headlines this week (or I guess making our giant list of links) — this week’s type-related news, ephemera, et cetera!

Get out your calendars! A few of these events are coming up soon:

That’s it for this week. Until next time, how about some cats?

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for bringing us yet another amazing week of new type!

]]> 2012-02-18T23:15:03+00:00 Type News: Big Gulp http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-big-gulp/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-big-gulp/ 1.2 liters of power! It’s a type-heavy (top-heavy?) week, so let’s dive right in:

Ondrej Jób’s Remi explores the modular, monospaced sans — but through the oddly proportioned lens of a segmented digital display. As an example, the lowercase forms of this five weight family are just half the height of the capitals — with shorter, more balanced capitals available via stylistic set. Other typographic features not generally found in such a typewriter-esque face include compound glyphs of common measurement units, a whopping ten sets of numerals, and some wonderfully inventive italics.

Mr Robot is anything but mechanical. To prove this point, there are three different ways to set this condensed, angular display face. Designed by Hipopotam Studio’s Aleksandra and Daniel Mizielińscy to deliver bold, colourful headlines in their upcoming children’s book, individual weights and stylistic sets can be layered and styled for dimensionality. But that’s not all. Triple type each character in a word and turn on the contextual alternate feature — magical glyph alignment occurs before your very eyes. See the Mr Robot User Manual if you don’t believe us.

Along with G-Type’s slick, relaunched site that we mentioned last week, the equally dapper Nick Cooke also released Rollerscript. As implied by the name, this personable face is based on writing with a rollerball pen, in contrast with the more formal nib-work of Nick’s previous Olicana scripts. Like Olicana, Rollerscript features rough and smooth styles, plus dozens of natural, spontaneous ligatures. Generous amounts of OpenType-powered extras — multiple underlines, icons, arrows, and emoticons — are tossed in for added authenticity.

The first of a pair of new typefaces from the Sudtipos foundry is a fresh, monolinear sans. Ariel Di Lisio’s Uma is a deceptively simple family consisting of just light and bold weights which are soft, rounded, and airy. Subtle tails, clever alternates, and a series of ligatures reminiscent of Lubalin’s Avant Garde Gothic dispense a decent amount of function and whimsy.

Also from Sudtipos comes Avellana Pro — a straight forward, upright packaging face from the typographic tag team of Angel Koziupa and Alejandro Paul. Yet another versatile option in their seemingly endless supply of collaborative, condensed display fonts like semi-stencilled Aladin, pudgy Cupcake, and saucy Primavera.

Once again finding inspiration in the sign painter’s trade, Blue Vinyl Fonts’ Jess Latham has produced a somewhat Fancier Script. Bold, but not too bold. Casual, but not too casual. A script where contextual alternates and tasteful ligatures are both plentiful and tastefully implemented.

Every once in a while, we slide from the sublime and the ridiculous. If Fancier Script is the former, then Intellecta Design’s Bradstone-Parker Script is surely the latter. The extravagant penmanship of Charles Paxton Zaner has been channelled (and arguably amped up) in the contrasty, “voluptuous”, and seriously italic letterforms of this 19th century throwback. An absurd number of uppercase and lowercase alternates, ornaments, optional “tails”, and preset words complete the package.

Calligraphic didone? Connected italic semi-serif? The specific style of Alecko is difficult to pigeonhole. Maybe that’s the point. Heavy or low contrast? Engraved or solid? Connected or loose? All options are provided in the five variations of this flexible display face from Bulgaria’s EvolutionFonts.

Finishing off a rather voluminous week of new type is a trifecta of mid-century revivals from the Filmotype collection. First up is Filmotype Lucky — a spunky, casual script with a handwritten vibe. This smooth monoline originally sprung from the pen of Ray Baker and as with all Filmotype rereleases, it has been tuned and expanded from the original film masters. Next on the list is one of the first connected brush scripts available from the company. Charles Gibbons’s 1955 Filmotype Havana is a less nubby, more condensed version of the previously updated Filmotype Horizon. Our final face of the day is Filmotype Rose, a deco-flavoured didone. Also designed by Charles Gibbons, Rose pops out some serious period punch with a predominant footprint.

That’s a lot of lovely Latin letters! We show other scripts when we can, but dabbling here won’t give you the same level of experience you’d likely get from one of the upcoming “Non-Latin Intensive” sessions from the TDC. First is Cyrillic, from Friday, March 2, until Sunday, March 4, with Maxim Zhukov. Then: beginning on the Ides of March and running through Saturday, March 17, Nadine Chahine leads “Arabic Demystefied.” Both should be excellent — so act quickly!

Speaking of quick, the rest of the news is alive, and it shouldn’t kill your whole weekend (this time):

Thanks for reading! We’ll see you again next time, right? … Right?

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for soldiering through an immense week of new type!

]]> Type News 1.2 liters of power! It’s a type-heavy (top-heavy?) week, so let’s dive right in:

Ondrej Jób’s Remi explores the modular, monospaced sans — but through the oddly proportioned lens of a segmented digital display. As an example, the lowercase forms of this five weight family are just half the height of the capitals — with shorter, more balanced capitals available via stylistic set. Other typographic features not generally found in such a typewriter-esque face include compound glyphs of common measurement units, a whopping ten sets of numerals, and some wonderfully inventive italics.

Mr Robot is anything but mechanical. To prove this point, there are three different ways to set this condensed, angular display face. Designed by Hipopotam Studio’s Aleksandra and Daniel Mizielińscy to deliver bold, colourful headlines in their upcoming children’s book, individual weights and stylistic sets can be layered and styled for dimensionality. But that’s not all. Triple type each character in a word and turn on the contextual alternate feature — magical glyph alignment occurs before your very eyes. See the Mr Robot User Manual if you don’t believe us.

Along with G-Type’s slick, relaunched site that we mentioned last week, the equally dapper Nick Cooke also released Rollerscript. As implied by the name, this personable face is based on writing with a rollerball pen, in contrast with the more formal nib-work of Nick’s previous Olicana scripts. Like Olicana, Rollerscript features rough and smooth styles, plus dozens of natural, spontaneous ligatures. Generous amounts of OpenType-powered extras — multiple underlines, icons, arrows, and emoticons — are tossed in for added authenticity.

The first of a pair of new typefaces from the Sudtipos foundry is a fresh, monolinear sans. Ariel Di Lisio’s Uma is a deceptively simple family consisting of just light and bold weights which are soft, rounded, and airy. Subtle tails, clever alternates, and a series of ligatures reminiscent of Lubalin’s Avant Garde Gothic dispense a decent amount of function and whimsy.

Also from Sudtipos comes Avellana Pro — a straight forward, upright packaging face from the typographic tag team of Angel Koziupa and Alejandro Paul. Yet another versatile option in their seemingly endless supply of collaborative, condensed display fonts like semi-stencilled Aladin, pudgy Cupcake, and saucy Primavera.

Once again finding inspiration in the sign painter’s trade, Blue Vinyl Fonts’ Jess Latham has produced a somewhat Fancier Script. Bold, but not too bold. Casual, but not too casual. A script where contextual alternates and tasteful ligatures are both plentiful and tastefully implemented.

Every once in a while, we slide from the sublime and the ridiculous. If Fancier Script is the former, then Intellecta Design’s Bradstone-Parker Script is surely the latter. The extravagant penmanship of Charles Paxton Zaner has been channelled (and arguably amped up) in the contrasty, “voluptuous”, and seriously italic letterforms of this 19th century throwback. An absurd number of uppercase and lowercase alternates, ornaments, optional “tails”, and preset words complete the package.

Calligraphic didone? Connected italic semi-serif? The specific style of Alecko is difficult to pigeonhole. Maybe that’s the point. Heavy or low contrast? Engraved or solid? Connected or loose? All options are provided in the five variations of this flexible display face from Bulgaria’s EvolutionFonts.

Finishing off a rather voluminous week of new type is a trifecta of mid-century revivals from the Filmotype collection. First up is Filmotype Lucky — a spunky, casual script with a handwritten vibe. This smooth monoline originally sprung from the pen of Ray Baker and as with all Filmotype rereleases, it has been tuned and expanded from the original film masters. Next on the list is one of the first connected brush scripts available from the company. Charles Gibbons’s 1955 Filmotype Havana is a less nubby, more condensed version of the previously updated Filmotype Horizon. Our final face of the day is Filmotype Rose, a deco-flavoured didone. Also designed by Charles Gibbons, Rose pops out some serious period punch with a predominant footprint.

That’s a lot of lovely Latin letters! We show other scripts when we can, but dabbling here won’t give you the same level of experience you’d likely get from one of the upcoming “Non-Latin Intensive” sessions from the TDC. First is Cyrillic, from Friday, March 2, until Sunday, March 4, with Maxim Zhukov. Then: beginning on the Ides of March and running through Saturday, March 17, Nadine Chahine leads “Arabic Demystefied.” Both should be excellent — so act quickly!

Speaking of quick, the rest of the news is alive, and it shouldn’t kill your whole weekend (this time):

Thanks for reading! We’ll see you again next time, right? … Right?

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for soldiering through an immense week of new type!

]]> 2012-02-11T14:20:44+00:00 Type News: Enjoy Agricola http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-enjoy-agricola/ http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-enjoy-agricola/ Grab your favorite grain-based product, we’re in for another abundant week of news and new type.

Eduilson Wessler Coan’s Ninfa Serif builds on the subtle, calligraphic bones of his previous Ninfa family. The organic, familiar forms have been neatly meshed with the deliberate serifs and even colour of a true text face. Stroke transitions and a distinctive “inktrappiness” are accentuated, producing especially sexy italics.

Just as natural sinew provides strong anatomical connections, Jakob Runge’s Sinews Sans bridges and joins rigid geometric forms to more energetic humanist shapes. This brand new release from Gestalten provides a series of clean, compact faces that cover a range of weights from hairline to medium.

The eponymously named Kostic Serif was created by the father and son team of Zoran and Nikola Kostić, echoing the characteristics of transitional typefaces in the Baskerville and Caslon style. This three weight family started out as a simple roman and bold back in 2002 — featuring a prominent x-height, uncomplicated strokes, and fine detailing. It was put aside for nearly a decade before being revisited and expanded into its current iteration.

Fresh off the Photo-Lettering food truck comes Raymund Circus. An original by Bruce Raymund, this deft — but not daffy — display sans is soft on the corners and easy on the eyes. Inline, outline, and no-line styles are just the thing to take on a takeout menu or fine tune some fairground banners.

Until now, the majority of the “pay what you like” fonts in the Lost Type Co-op quiver have sported minimal — or at least reduced — character sets. They certainly haven’t included the advanced typographic features that are more common in higher priced, commercial offerings. Joe Prince’s ultra bold Bemio challenges that assumption, offering an carefully crafted humanist sans with broad language support, plenty of OpenType whiz, and a buckets of glyphs.

Go team! Team van Bronkhorst, that is. MVB Mascot is the latest typographic interpretation from the San Francisco-based designer. This casual, connected script is aching with vintage vernacular, including the “requisite underline swooshes” and “unvarnished spirit” of days gone by.

Teamwork leads off this week’s news, too:

Be well! See you next week.

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for braving the Picts, Celts, and other unwashed hordes to deliver this week’s new type!

]]> Type News Grab your favorite grain-based product, we’re in for another abundant week of news and new type.

Eduilson Wessler Coan’s Ninfa Serif builds on the subtle, calligraphic bones of his previous Ninfa family. The organic, familiar forms have been neatly meshed with the deliberate serifs and even colour of a true text face. Stroke transitions and a distinctive “inktrappiness” are accentuated, producing especially sexy italics.

Just as natural sinew provides strong anatomical connections, Jakob Runge’s Sinews Sans bridges and joins rigid geometric forms to more energetic humanist shapes. This brand new release from Gestalten provides a series of clean, compact faces that cover a range of weights from hairline to medium.

The eponymously named Kostic Serif was created by the father and son team of Zoran and Nikola Kostić, echoing the characteristics of transitional typefaces in the Baskerville and Caslon style. This three weight family started out as a simple roman and bold back in 2002 — featuring a prominent x-height, uncomplicated strokes, and fine detailing. It was put aside for nearly a decade before being revisited and expanded into its current iteration.

Fresh off the Photo-Lettering food truck comes Raymund Circus. An original by Bruce Raymund, this deft — but not daffy — display sans is soft on the corners and easy on the eyes. Inline, outline, and no-line styles are just the thing to take on a takeout menu or fine tune some fairground banners.

Until now, the majority of the “pay what you like” fonts in the Lost Type Co-op quiver have sported minimal — or at least reduced — character sets. They certainly haven’t included the advanced typographic features that are more common in higher priced, commercial offerings. Joe Prince’s ultra bold Bemio challenges that assumption, offering an carefully crafted humanist sans with broad language support, plenty of OpenType whiz, and a buckets of glyphs.

Go team! Team van Bronkhorst, that is. MVB Mascot is the latest typographic interpretation from the San Francisco-based designer. This casual, connected script is aching with vintage vernacular, including the “requisite underline swooshes” and “unvarnished spirit” of days gone by.

Teamwork leads off this week’s news, too:

Be well! See you next week.

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for braving the Picts, Celts, and other unwashed hordes to deliver this week’s new type!

]]> 2012-02-04T14:00:46+00:00