Type News: Seduce the Constellation
Thursday already? Goodness! Let’s get right to it:
New Type

Suitcase Type Foundry pays tribute to graphic design pioneer, Ladislav Sutnar with Tomáš Brousil’s eponymously named Ladislav. The slick-scrolling microsite shows off the modular geometry and segmented construction of the four weight family, expanding on — but thoroughly embracing — Sutnar’s strong and exacting visual sensibilities. Each weight includes upright, italic, and backslanted styles, along with circle-based stylistic alternates and “non-standard” ligatures. As a bonus, a special inline display version is available free until the end of the month.

Although released last year as part of his degree project at the Rhode Island School of Design, Sang Mun’s ZXX is feels fresh (as fresh as a monospaced, obfuscated OCR-ish face can feel) and unexposed enough to warrant a mention. Suitably named after the Library of Congress designation for “No linguistic content; Not applicable”, Mun created this free “disruptive typeface” as a discussion point and call to action relating to both privacy and social design. The intriguing type specimen video demostrates how the face intentionally disrupts text recognition technology.

Darío Muhafara’s beautiful Basile for the Argentine Tipo foundry is the result of blending traditional, Chancery style handwriting with undertones more suited to text settings. The spirited single weight face maintains a wider stance than historical scripts — incorporating italic, swash, and “extra swash” forms with square-nibbed calligraphic detailing. A multitude of initials, terminals, and alternates are included — along with a generous assortment of common (and unexpected) ligature pairs.

In an enjoyable departure from his normally text-focused type, Nick Shinn presents Naiad — a display face that he refers to as “a neoclassical fancy.” Based on an italic didone foundation, this whimsical display face sports a consistent set of “tightly wound” curls and swashes. A set of stylistically matched flourishes and ornaments is also available for extra accountrement’ing.
News
You know what we need? We need links:
- Shelly Gruendler and Tiffany Wardle deSousa discuss “The Comeback of Victorian Typography.”
- The inkless typography haiku project has a real bite to it.
- Cameron Moll interviews Jeff Veen about Typekit, Adobe, and all kinds of things.
- Communication Arts profiles MCKL type foundry.
- Keep an eye out for this one: Tim Ahrens is updating and re-publishing Size-Specific Adjustments to Type Designs.
- David Sudweeks guides us through wedding typography while working with non-design software.
- WebfontsCorner showcases webfonts in use.
- Make your placeholder text all, um, cyberpunky with Lorem Gibson.
- The Deletionist is a browser bookmarklet tht dlts thgs.
- David Shields shows off Catalog 36 from American Wood Type Mfg. Co.
- Veronika Burian and José Scaglione consider type selection for .net magazine.
- Dan Rhatigan shows off what could be the most compact history of type.
- Apply to be a TypeCon volunteer.
- Jessica Hische refreshed the MailChimp logo.
- Adobe Edge Web Fonts has new browsing tools.
- Speaking of Adobe: FreeType has accepted their CFF font rasterizer.
- Typekit has announced a delay for desktop font sync — scaling is hard.
- FontPrep aims to protect foundries’ intellectual property.
- Linotype offers webfonts directly, now.
- This is a pretty nifty Eric Gill poster.
- Sean Mitchell can help keep your new type list cravings in check: see “The 24 Most Beautiful Typefaces Released Last Month” and “This Week in Fonts.”
Last week we neglected to celebrate — or acknowledge — the fiftieth anniversary of ASCII. Shame on us.
Events
There’s no shame in attending any of these upcoming events, however:
- Short notice! Type Battle 41: five characters, no curves has started; entries are due June 28.
- Beginning August 13 in London: “Glory Glory,” an exhibition (and book!) of large format typographic posters based on football chants, in support of British Blind Sport.
- Registration for TypeCon2013: Portl& — which takes place August 21–25 — is now open (full disclosure: I’m one of the speakers)!
- September 6–7 in Brno: TypeTalks returns!
- Get in on the Canberra Centenary typeface design competition: entries are due September 27.
- Head to Atlanta on October 4 for Web Afternoon (full disclosure: I’m one of the speakers).
Bye!
We’d be remiss not to acknowledge the flooding that recently took place around Calgary: intrepid photographer and all-around decent fellow Andy van der Raadt has documented it well and includes some information on how you can help.
And that brings us to the end of an especially tardy Type News: see you again in less than a week!
Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for sifting the wheat from the chaff of the latest type releases!
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