Type News: ibid.
All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again. But let’s not let that stop us! We have an abundance of new-seeming things for you to enjoy.
New Type
Not only did Letters From Sweden pop out a “2.0” version of Siri — their inaugural release from last year — but they also introduced a new historical display face. Kumla is a idiosyncratic, single weight sans constructed from extrapolated linear forms. Initially spotted by Göran Söderström on the façade of the Kumla Skofabrik factory, he discusses the history and process behind both the face and the town that inspired it: in the footsteps of a 1920s signmaker.
Originally conceived nearly two decades ago, Franck Jalleau’s Morisawa-winning Scripto is the latest face to grace the growing Bureau des Affaires Typographiques catalogue. Gestural strokes and modulation, a semi-connected flow, and “characters with different energies” afford an incredible range of personality — clearly influenced by ancient Roman cursives.
Under his new Looseleaf Fonts banner, Nathanael Bonnell has caught and released Walleye. Designed for use in long text settings, the four styles of this crisp serif family cover a lot of ground. Calligraphically considered stokes and “airy letterforms” enhance the face’s very readable nature. As well, thoughtfully integrated Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic character sets provide extensive language support.
Making its first appearance in the Storm Type Foundry quiver almost twenty years ago, the distinctively inscriptional Mramor family included both a small set of text faces alongside the stylized titling capitals. Over time, those text weights were replaced by the expanded range of Amor Serif (and its sans cousin), leaving the display weights to be reinvigorated as Mramor Pro. This sharply cut display face now features an array of alternates, ligatures, accurate small caps, Cyrillic glyphs, and numerous sets of figures.
Schizotype’s Dave Rowland showed up this week with another casual, sign painter’s script with a vintage vibe. Ollie may be bouncy and bold on the outside, but under the hood lies some seriously sophisticated OpenType chutzpah — controlling close to 900 glyphs.
“There’s no reason Courier has to look terrible.” Taking this statement as a challenge, screenwriter John August and type designer (and professional steadyicam operator!) Alan Dague-Greene collaborated on Courier Prime — their “better” version of the ubiquitous typewriter face. Without sacrificing the bland uniformity (or fixed pitch metrics) which make Bud Kettler’s original the de facto choice of screenwriters, they tuned up the creakiest parts. For instance, the bold weight is bolder and the italics — well, now they’re actually italics.
What better way to wrap up a veritable salmagundi of new type than with a beefy bifurcate. Spencer Charles has channelled and massaged some classic American woodtype into the likes of Black Creek. This fanciful Tuscan sports a minimal — yet historically appropriate — character set, plus small caps and a handful of charming “catchwords”.
News
You got me, and baby I got news.
- Help fund the Hamilton Wood Type & Print Museum by getting yourself a set of Love Letters.
- Ivo Gabrowitsch reviews the best typefaces of 2012.
- Richard Rutter discusses techniques and tools to get the most out of web typography.
- Pascal Zoghbi interviews Camille Khattar Hedrick about “Nasri Khattar’s Typographic Journey.”
- Mandy Brown reviews Robert Bringhurst’s What Is Reading For?
- Yves Peters takes a closer look at Macula.
- Compulsive Bodoni is a project to mark the bicentenary of Giambattista Bodoni’s death and culminates in the release of Riccardo Olocco and Jonathan Pierini’s Parmigiano Typographic System.
- Check out the work of Jonathan Gray.
- Emil Karl Bertell is the latest “creative character.”
- Find out what you missed at the recent Mota Italic Japanese calligraphy workshop.
- How about that, a new typeface gallery from Veer.
- Typekit now supports BlackBerry 10. And Squarespace has partnered with Typekit.
- The new MCKL website is lovely — and with editable type specimens!
- Meet Hessian, a brand without a product.
- Creative Review has published Massimo Vignelli’s reaction to the new American Airlines branding.
- Can you write “classy” on a Jerkface Typewriter?
- Fountain is a new plain-text markup language for screenwriters to use.
- Now available from Unit Editions: Jurriaan Schrofer: Restless Typographer.
- Witness the last days of the Statesman Journal.
Events
“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.” Really? Tell that to these upcoming events:
- Head to Seattle on February 15 for an evening of hands-on wood type and documentary film. All proceeds benifit the Hamilton.
- Speaking of the Hamilton, you can help them relocate every weekend in February.
- Join Alexander Isley for a retrospective of 25 years of design, February 21, at the TDC in New York.
- Programming proposals for TypeCon2013 are now being accepted. Submissions are due March 15.
- Then get a taste of Portland by taking part in the March 16–18 Crafting Type Workshop.
No shadow here
That’s it, this time around, and rest assured: there won’t be a six-week delay for the next edition — see you next week!
Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for reporting on this week’s new type. Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for reporting on this week’s new type. Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for reporting on this week’s new type. What.
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