Type News: Double Helix
’Round and ’round we go, where we start we already know: this week’s new typefaces!
Exceedingly busy Commercial Type has expanded yet another pair of their existing families. The smaller update of the two sees Christian Schwartz’s stylishly condensed Giorgio Sans gaining some weight with the addition of heavy and black styles — lovingly prepared by Vincent Chan.
The foundry’s second (and much larger) release is Publico Banner — a sharper, higher contrast companion to the Publico Headline and Publico Text families. Designers Paul Barnes, Christian Schwartz, and Ross Milne have tipped their collective toppers to 1970s display type with this ode to the “tight but not touching” set — a seven weight progression from light to ultra.
Hoefler & Frere-Jones have unleashed Idlewild — an all-caps extended sans with a five weight range and an adaptable personality. Billed as “a distinctive typeface that’s at home everywhere it goes,” Idlewild complements and embraces an astonishing number of other type styles. Find that hard to believe? Peruse the examples of the family in use — this is definitely a typeface of many faces.
Taking a whiff of inspiration (and a spritz of glyphs) from vintage French toiletries, illustrator and lettering artist Daniel Pelavin extrapolated a complete typeface. Mimosa is an unfussy, Deco-flavoured monoline script with decorative capitals and a casual, constructed charm.
The neighbourly Chank Diesel has fired up his font grill and tossed on some tasty Tenderloin. Based on the “San Francisco” lettering style of UK street artist Ben Eine, this bi-layer Tuscan is unquestionably charming, ever so slightly sinister, and absolutely free.
Wrapping up the list of new type this week is a family pack of chewy Photo-Lettering goodness. West Bubble Gum is a delightfully distended display face featuring regular and “blockshadow” weights — ready to blow up and bust out some flavourful headlines.
And now, let’s chew on some news:
- Paul Shaw previews the forthcoming Inside Paragraphs And interviews Cyrus Highsmith, its author.
- Also on the book front is Denise Bosler’s just-released Mastering Type.
- Sean Mitchell has started a monthly column covering many of the past month’s notable type releases.
- Ralph Herrmann interviews Sofie Beier about her new book, Reading Letters: Designing for Legibility, and legibility in general.
- Michael Doret documents the design of the title treatment for Wreck-It Ralph.
- Dan Cederholm interviews Claire Coullon.
- Pen & Ink is a site dedicated to “tattoos and the stories behind them.”
- Calligraphica celebrates calligraphy and hand-drawn type.
- While we’re on the subject of lettering, be sure to check out day two of LetterCult’s best custom letters from 2011.
- Mary Kate McDevitt makes some beautiful things.
- Do you like type and basketball? Stephen Coles’s latest feature for Fonts in Use is just what you’ve been looking for.
- Learn how to set type using an IBM Selectric Composer.
- Simon Esterson and John L. Walters interview Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz for Eye magazine.
- Trent Walton writes about valuing the craft of creating webfonts.
- Thomas Phinney has a follow-up to his commentary on type design and dyslexia.
- The US Presidential campaign will grow in intensity through the summer. Prepare for the onslaught by checking out Presidential Campaign Posters: 200 Years of Election Art.
- This Wolf-Musterbox is stunning.
- Chelsea of Go Forth showcases the Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection.
- Keep track of what’s going on with TypeCon by joining the TypeCon Facebook group.
- Don’t worry, it’s only the Letterpress Monster, home of Ian Gabb.
- A group of designers from the Lost Type Co-op are spending four days together to create a typeface inspired by San Francisco.
- The FontShop Plugin now supports Adobe Illustrator.
- The Ministry of Type highlights a project by Jonathan Puckey and some beautiful calligraphic work by Greg Papagrigoriou.
- Typography is in these scientists’ DNA.
- Sing along with “The Font Song.”
Ahem. Now let’s find out what’s happening, maybe even near you:
- Friday, June 15, is the second annual Ampersand conference. It’s sold out, but if you don’t have a ticket you can at least find out what you’ll be missing.
- Also on June 15, you could go to hear Jack Stauffacher in San Francisco.
- Head to Dortmund on June 28 for the free typography symposium 33pt. Yves Peters has a preview.
- Typoweek takes place in Barcelona, July 2–6. Check out this promotional video, and you’ll probably want to go, too.
And that brings us to the end of another week of the Type News. Thanks for riding along!
Thanks, too, to Grant Hutchinson for sifting through the tangled cobs of the interwebs for this week’s new type.
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