Type News: Madness
Pandemonium! We have a load of new type and enough news to fill a bracket or two.
But it’s hard to look past the recent earthquakes in Japan and the subsequent tsunami. There are a few ways for fans of type to help out. You can donate through SOGO Japan—and if you give $30 or more, you can get a free copy of Angel Script in return. The Society of Typographic Aficionados is organizing Font Aid V to help raise funds to help in the recovery. Incentive or no, the most important thing is to help ensure that adequate aid reaches the people affected by this disaster, so please consider donating directly to a reputable charity, such as the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders. In fact, why not do that right now? We’ll still be here when you return.
… Welcome back! How about some news?
The past week marked the latest South by Southwest, which brought us two type-related sessions. Richard Rutter presented on the future of web typography, and Frank Chimero, Stephen Coles, Tiffany Wardle de Sousa, and Jason Santa Maria discussed the cure for the common font. Meanwhile, some people toured the Rob Roy Kelly collection at the University of Texas. Plenty more took part in the 2011 Found Type Photowalk.
We’ve found some new type ourselves, too!
Starting off this week’s batch of typographic freshness is Miguel Hernández’s Fiancé. Chubby, swashy, and stuffed with alternates courtesy of Alejandro Paul’s technical prowess.
The folks at TypeDepot bring us Banda. Fourteen weights of friendly, semi-serifness with no sharp corners in sight … and the regular weight is free, to boot.
The rather lofty-sounding Éditions Deux-Cent-Cinq proffers Norr, a four style family designed by Damien Gautier and Quentin Margat. Originally produced as part of the visual identity for France’s Valenciennes region, Norr’s multiple personalities include a straight-up sans, a rounded variation, a solid slab serif, and a Didot-esque display face.
The first of two recently revisited typefaces is Elena Albertoni’s Scritta Nuova, a smart update to her nearly ten-year-old upright script.
Richard Bradley’s casual Bradley Hand has been a stalwart script in the ITC arsenal for a decade and a half. Where its predecessor works much better at smaller sizes, the three weights of Bradley Type have a more refined tone befitting of a true display typeface. Of course, there’s ligatures and alternates galore for “added flair.”
Not sure how it happened, but we zoned out and missed a pair of releases from Linotype last month. The first is Sarah Lazarevic’s Rameau, a sharp looking serif with Antiqua-flavoured contrast and stylish detailing.
Lastly, we have the organic and bracketed Lucinde. Axel Bertram collaborated with calligrapher and type designer Andreas Frohloff to develop the sixteen weight family which also includes a striking engraved version.
Enough with the new new type—there’s new old type, too. P22 has made Preissig Scrape available as honest-to-goodness wood type. New analog type feels like a rarity, and Preissig Scrape looks well-suited for the medium.
From analog back to digital, web typography and screen fonts are in the news again. Jennifer Farley points out three useful CSS typography tools. Harry Roberts walks us through an approach to typography on the web for Smashing Magazine (though I’d prefer he use unitless line-height values). Lorenz Schirmer kicks off a series on type hinting for the fonts.com blog. Beat Stamm has collected his vital research on rasterization. And Richard Rutter makes webfont news in an interview with Yves Peters about the upcoming Ampersand Web Typography Conference.
Also of note this week:
- For a different kind of “fontface,” be sure to check out the work of Atipo.
- Help restore a Monotype Sorts Caster by supporting this Kickstarter project.
- Jennifer Kennard has uncovered a couple fascinating type samples as well as typewriter textiles.
- Yves Peters reviews Roger Excoffon et la fonderie Olive.
- Frank Chimero walks us through some principles of typographic hierarchy.
- CreativeRoots covers Peru’s tourism branding, which features a heavily customized version of Bree.
- ATypI has relaunched its website—and is looking for proposals for this year’s conference, September 14-18 in Reykjavik.
- Verena Gerlach asks, “Where are the women in type design?”—which has provoked a lively discussion on Typograhica.
Here are a few events for you to keep an eye on (or perhaps take part in):
- On Monday, March 21, head over to the Cooper Union to check out Sign Painting in Immigrant Communities.
- Simon Esterson will talk about type and making magazines on March 31.
- The deadline for submitting proposals for TypeCon2011: Surge is also March 31.
- It’s probably too late to fill out a bracket for this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament, but you can still admire the care that went into this one from Vanity Fair.
Finally, we are saddened to report that Paul Stiff passed away on March 8. He will be missed.
That brings us to the end of another week of news. What did we miss? What should we be looking forward to? Please let us know in the comments.
Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for another boffo job covering this week’s new type, despite his going to South by Southwest and somehow getting himself interviewed!
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