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We’re still shaking off the effects of a post-TypeCon hangover — nothing that a monumental pile of type and news won’t cure!

New Type

Revivals are tricky beasties. Much of a typeface’s functional vernacular can get sanded off or smoothed over during the transition to a modern format. Monotype designer Terrance Weinzierl was commissioned to develop Feldman Engraver and JMC Engraver — preserving the proportions, rhythm, and “visual ethos” of the original engraving masterplates. Meant to accompany Nancy Sharon Collins’ new book — the nomenclatively immense The Complete Engraver: A Guide to Monograms, Crests, Ciphers, Seals, and the Etiquette and History of Social Stationery — this pair of elegant monoline faces maintain a vintage vibe, while containing a nice set of OpenType features beneath the surface. As an added bonus, both are currently available for free from Fonts.com.

Not only did Typegroup — a fresh faced foundry and “type production facility” — launch their site last week, but they also released a pair of new type families. The unassuming Orga is an extensive, eight weight sans with a narrow stance, minimal contrast, and postured italics.

When the pot called the kettle black, he wasn’t kidding. Neither was Typegroup when they named Kettle — their heavy duty, Egyptian-inspired slab. A single, robust roman weight gets italic and stencil treatments, along with plenty of OpenType add-ons.

Tim Ahrens’ new typeface for his Just Another Foundry is a skillful take on multiple personalities. Bernini Sans is built on two separate humanist subfamilies — the straight-forward Bernino and the more playful, alternate-infused Bernina. Five weights and four widths cover each of the two “sister” collections, providing fifty styles worth of mixing and matching — without sacrificing balance or readability.

Gert Wiescher’s delightfully festooned Fiorentina treads the not-so-fine line between engraved elegance and superfluous decoration. With multiple swash variants, upper and lowercase alternates, and extravagant “understrokes” at your disposal — try not to get too overwhelmed by the ornamentation.

Based on Austrian designer Viktor Solt-Bittner’s “reimagination” of handwriting styles from the 1800s, Leander Script is the first non-text Adobe Originals family to appear in years. The regular and bold weights of this casual, connected script feature a large x-height and subdued slope for readability, swash and stylistic alternates, as well as a set of flourishes — allowing you to “choose the amount of flamboyance.”

Finishing off this week’s selection of new type is a pair of angular cousins from Sudtipos. Designed by Angel Koziupa and Alejandro Paul, the energetic Bayoneta bridges the aesthetic gap between “knife-wielding kitsch and studied display lettering.” The smooth, hewn characters provide a primitive spontaneity and some lively headline action.

Also from Koziupa and Paul, Machete is more than just an “overfed” version of Bayoneta. It definitely sports a similar hand-cut style — but with chunkier, closed letterforms and a more significant footprint. This is a beefy, no-nonsense display face that works extremely well in both all caps and mixed case.

TypeCon Round-up

Apparently something happened in Milwaukee last week. Enjoy round one of TypeCon-related items:

• A huge congratulations to Mike Parker, who received the 2012 SOTA Typography Award.
• Dave Crossland live-blogged his experience.
• David Sudweeks shares some of his favorite moments.
• Jude Stewart shows how a color fan experienced TypeCon.
• Yves Peters interviews Corey Holms on the TypeCon2012: MKE SHIFT identity. (See the variety of looks that TypeCon has donned.)
• The conference screened Linotype: The Film. My fourteen-word review: see it as soon as you can; it’s hilarious and heartbreaking, informative and wonderful.
• Eventifier collected a bunch of photos, tweets, and other conference-related items.
• And if that’s not enough, there’s also the TypeCon photo pool on Flickr.

There were speakers and presenters, too:

• Scott Boms spoke on “McLuhan, Fuller, Agel and Fiore: An Inventory of Electric Information.”
• Beth Koch shared research on the “Perception of Typefaces.”
• I talked about “Press Checks in the Age of Web Type.”
• James Fritz ran a workshop on beautiful typography with Adobe InDesign.
• Craig Eliason discussed one of his labors of love, The Daily Pangram. (Quite often his hijinks are cryptic and vexing but always fun and amazing.)

Rumor has it that someone made audio recordings of the presentations. I assume the quality was high enough that we’ll eventually get to hear it for ourselves!

Linky-Poos

There were enough TypeCon-related links that we could stop there. But wait, there’s more:

• John Boardley reviews Cyrus Highsmith’s Inside Paragraphs.
• Michael Bierut writes about type, truth, and an experiment by Errol Morris.
• Hannes Famira writes about the Type@Cooper Condensed Program.
• Steven Heller writes about The Püterschein Fund. Tiffany Wardle de Sousa has a bit more on W.A. Dwiggins’ Püterschein pitcher.
• Ever wondered about what an atomic typo is? Wonder no more.
• Field Notes just published a book: A Drive into the Gap, by Kevin Guilfoile. Learn about the type it uses.
• César Puertas introduces us to the Legitima typeface.
• Check out this Farsi manual typewriter.
• Smashing Magazine shares some free fonts that might be worth a look.
• Dalton Maag is looking for a program manager.
• The type design for the Rio 2016 Olympics is a radical departure from London’s.
• Did I write Olympics? I meant Fontlympics.
• I Love Ligatures is a new site dedicated to the love of ligatures. [Insert reference to “Let’s Stay Together” here, with apologies to Al Green.]
• Oops!
• Meet the new & improved Typekit embed code.
• Are some type designers afraid of the internet?
• TypeSnitch might be able to help you protect your typefaces. Help get it off the ground!
• Enjoy these photos of mechanicals for American Wood Type: 1828–1900.
• Grain Edit reports on the updated portfolio of Non-Format.
• Meet Type Worship, the official blog of 8 Faces magazine.
• Read John Berry on “Garamond after Garamond.”
• Yves Peters is a busy guy! His third link in this week’s column points to the latest installment of ScreenFonts.
• You can back Nancy Sharon Collins’ book tour for her just-published Complete Engraver.
• For your reference needs: the periodic table of typefaces notebook cover.

Events!

Grab your calendars and maybe book travel:

• September 7 is the deadline for the Communication Arts Typography Competition.
• At the Tokyo National Museum until September 9 is “The Vision and Calligraphy of Aoyama San’u: The 100th Anniversary of His Birth.”
• Hear Nikki Villagomez discuss how culture affects typography, September 13 in Cleveland.
• The latest Mota Italic Gallery exhibit is “Mastering Type 12,” through September 15.
• Make your way to the Type Directors Club for an evening with Ray Cruz, September 20 in New York City.
• The library of the St. Bride Foundation reopens on September 26.
• October 12 13: the Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago hosts “At the Crossroads: Living Letterform Traditions,” the 37th annual conference of the American Printing History Association.
• If you loved TypeCon in Milwaukee (or missed out), be sure to head back for Print: MKE 2013, March 20–23.

And finally …

Thanks for hanging with us this far. With the sheer volume this week, we decided to tweak the format a little. Does it work? Who knows! Feel free to gripe or celebrate in the comments — and we’ll see you on Saturday.

Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for powering through this week’s backlog of new type!

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