Type News: Sandblasted
Before we get started this week: our thoughts go out to all the people affected by Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath. If you can, please donate to the American Red Cross.
And now, to help us all through life’s hubbub and hullabaloo: our usual type-related news and tomfoolery.
New type
Helsinki-based Mika Melvas has been producing tidy typefaces with a hand-painted vibe for the past couple of years. There’s a noticeable sophistication in his recent releases and Signalist is no exception. This condensed brush script is trim, spirited, and contemporary — but still hits all the right vintage notes.
Commissioned by the Google Web Fonts team to add a traditional titling face to their growing open source quiver, Portugal’s Natanael Gama decided to update a Roman inscriptional type. Cinzel maintains the classic proportions of the square capital style, but kicks in some modern details throughout the regular, bold, and black weights. Two case sizes, old style and lining figures, and an alternate set of decorative swash capitals add just enough flavour without overwhelming the user with options.
Is it possible to design a “distinctively Ukrainian” typeface? That was the challenge issued by the Mystetsky Arsenal Foundation and StairforsDesign during the Ukrainsky Shryft project. Andriy Shevchenko’s aptly named Arsenal was declared the top typeface out of more than twenty designs entered in the 2011 competition. Finally released under an open source license, this four style “semi-grotesque” sans is neutral and narrow — with a crisp, linear nod to traditional Ukrainian calligraphy.
News
We begin with the news that Monotype has acquired Typecast. Read the press release on Typophile and the Typecast team’s own thoughts on their blog. Then peruse some of the reactions floating around the internet: start with Elliot Jay Stocks’ take, then join the din over at Hacker News. After that, you’re on your own — what is this, some kind of link blog? Oh.
Naturally, there’s more going on in our part of the world:
- Bloomberg Businessweek tells it like it is.
- Learn about the expressive syntax and inflection of American Sign Language.
- Yves Peters interviews Henrik Kubel about his “I can’t draw animals…” video.
- Isabel Urbina shares her experience attending John Downer’s introduction to sign painting workshop.
- Sign painters also grace the (digital) pages of Wired.
- Debbie Millman interviews Chris Ware.
- Underware is using Findery to track fonts in use.
- Joseph Alessio is hand-lettering names.
- Seb Lester has released some beautiful new pieces.
- This is how chalkboards become art.
- All the videos from TYPO London 2012 are out.
- Specialty processes are the subject of David Sudweeks’ latest installment on type trends.
- Jonathan Perez has a new website.
- Tim Brown shares the aftermath of his “Type Set Match” events. Do more of them, Tim!
- While we’re on the subject of games, take a gander at these Letterpress statistics.
- Poor typography helped reveal fraud in Paul Ceglia’s lawsuit against Facebook. (Full disclosure: I work at Facebook.)
- Sony Music commissioned this amazing timeline to celebrate the company’s 125 years and 1000 musicians.
- Paul Hunt traces Source Sans Pro adoption
- Typekit now supports Windows Phone 8.
- Ben Franklin owned these type matrices.
- Here’s a handy chart of English units of length.
- Ken Lunde shares his love for ASCII and Unicode.
- Check out this Flickr set of images from Aldo Novarese’s Alfa–beta.
- Help support the Hollywood Theatre historic marquee revival on Kickstarter.
- Get yourself a copy of Non-Latin Scripts, £15 cheap!
Pencil this in
Looking for an event? Here are a few that might fit the bill.
- Celebrate the launch of the Baskerville Society at the University of Birmingham on November 7.
- Then head to London for a day-long conference on November 9: Letterpress: Something to Say, at the St. Bride Foundation.
- Hop across the Atlantic to the Type Directors Club in New York for the Vista Sans Wood Type Project discussion and exhibition on November 29.
Smell you later
That’s it for this week. Take care out there, friends.
Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for rounding up this week’s new type!
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