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.
- Indra Kupferschmid wrote a tour de force on type classification that is more than worth your time.
- Todd Macfie shares his experience at Type Camp India.
- During An Event Apart Seattle, Jon Tan gave a well-received talk, “Big Type, Little Type.” Luke Wroblewski took copious notes.
- Nadine Roßa shares her thoughts on the lowercase Sharp S.
- Alyson Kuhn interviews Rick Cusick, Hallmark’s manager of font development.
- The inaugural edition of TYPO San Francisco just ended. Be sure to check out the blog, even if you missed it.
- In other “in case you missed (or want to relive) it” news, Dan Reynolds recaps Robothon 2012 for Typographica. Frank Grießhammer covers Adobe’s involvement. And for the completists among you, Yves Peters has collected all the videos from the conference for The FontFeed.
- Be sure to read Erik Spiekermann on digital kitsch and appropriate metaphors.
- Tim Carmody credulously reports that iPad publications are running into trouble because of font licensing. (Be sure to read the comments.)
- Speaking of licensing, Jackson Cavanaugh has a great approach to handling would-be pirates.
- Apparently, it’s hard to remain hidden when you care about type.
- Check out these photos of the Dwiggins grave site.
- The creators of Simple as Milk share their experience using Typecast.
- Take a sneak peek at a typeface by Rui Abreu.
- Get some towels from House for your house.
- So you’re kerning. Ale Paul has the perfect soundtrack for you.
- Typophile is on Pinterest.
- Yves Peters covers the SXSW 2012 Film Design Awards.
- “Watch Bigwig Designers Explain the Art and Craft of Typography.”
Now: break out your calendars!
- Head to Istanbul June 15–18 for Transmit 2012, this year’s edition of the Istanbul Type Seminars.
- June 29 – July 1 marks the Fifth Annual Typography Congress at the Art and Design School of València (Spain).
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.
Comments are closed on this entry.
1.
Stephen Coles Apr 08, 2012
That’s actually not the best comparison because most of these glyphs don’t differ much. The improvements are most obvious in the bold weights and especially the italics . But check Font Bureau’s site for the most thorough comparisons.
2.
Erik Vorhes Apr 08, 2012
I agree, Stephen, that screenshot isn’t the best comparison. The microsite is far superior. (Hence “quick,” but that doesn’t excuse my lack of doing justice to Nick & Indra’s work.)