Type News: Semicolonoscopy
It’s a veritable bonanza of new type and news. Never mind the slight pinching sensation — let’s get right to it, shall we?
New Type
The modified majuscules of Esmeralda came from a project instigated during Guillermo Vizzari’s studies at the University of Buenos Aires. With guidance from illustrator Ana Sanfelippo and Sudtipos’ own Alejandro Paul, aspects of both “capitalis monumentalis” stonecarving and humanistic brushwork are blended into a cohensive, calligraphic titling style. Sturdy, sensual uppercase and lowercase characters are accompanied by a multitude of ligatures, alternates, inital caps, and miscellaneous “connector” glyphs.
Nearly ten years after Veer acquired his Jukebox collection, California’s Jason Walcott has launched the retro-flavoured CounterPoint Type Studio. Still focused on updating energetic display faces with a hand-lettered or phototypeset past, Jason kicks things off with a tidy threesome. First up is the bouncy, flare-serif’d Califunkia — straight out of the 1960s, sporting dozens of interlocking ligatures and Saturday morning cartoon style.
The swoopy Profiterole is an airy, handwritten script scribed with a decidedly feminine nib. Lightweight and casual, with a touch of extra ligature class.
The final CounterPoint newcomer is Raspberry Jam — a whimsical jarful of scratchy pen and inklings. Angular joints, sporadic strokes, and informal spacing combine together in what Walcott refers to as a “scrapbooking style”.
Adding more heft to his already impressive FF Signa superfamily, Ole Søndergaard serves up a solid serving of FF Signa Slab. The minimalist shapes and “concise” letterforms found in the previous sans and stencil variations echo their Danish architectural roots across all seven weights — and the “oblique-ish” italics — in this new slab collection.
Also fresh from the FontFont factory is Slávka Pauliková’s FF Dora — a “strong-willed” text family with charactistics stemming from a background in editorial and book design. Consisting of five styles, including a beefy display version, Dora balances curvaceous and sharp elements without being overtly angular, although details such as inktraps and hairpin transitions become more evident in the heavier weights.
Warit Chaiyakul’s mysterious Mist is an unconventional upright script from the Bankok based Typomancer foundry. A trio of calligraphic qualities — ink, dry, and rough — provide a textural progression through the swashy, staccato script and its uninhibited, colliding forms.
Marcus Sterz’s latest for FaceType is the deceivingly subtle Substance. Covering an ample eight weight range, this slightly stocky grotesque sans features a variety of OpenType treats including voluminous currency symbols, figural sets, and uncommon arrow glyphs — well suited for signage and wayfinding.
News
Find your way to this week’s news, made with fresh ingredients from our organic free-range link farm:
- Jessica Hische shows us how to up our type game.
- These examples of semicolon usage are highly improper, but we’ll allow them; who are we to judge?
- Get your punctuation straight with help from David Sudweeks.
- Jan Constantin revisits Smashing Magazine’s survey of typographic design patterns and current practices, three years after the original.
- Alex Jay examines the evolution of the Star Wars logo.
- Rui Abreu provides a sneak peek at Aria Text.
- Elliot Jay Stocks is joining Typekit! (Read the official announcement, too.)
- Erik Spiekermann eloquently calls bullshit on the question, “What is the future of typography?”
- See the new location of the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum — before the painting and unpacking begin in earnest.
- John D. Berry reviews The Briem Report.
- The FontFont blog has published an interview with Travis Kochel, the designer of FF Chartwell.
- Robbie Manson reveals a process for choosing a typeface.
- Yves Peters’ latest installment of ScreenFonts is thoroughly enjoyable (as usual).
- Now, this is a poster.
- If you know Czech, you’ll get a lot out of David Březina’s “Type on the Web.”
- Make color bitmap fonts for use with Mac OS X 10.7 and 10.8.
- Find out what you missed at TYPO Berlin.
Finally, we’re saddened to report that Bo Berndal has passed away. Witness some of his legacy in this profile from Creative Characters.
Events
Grab your lanyard and your paperwork — it’s time to go conferencing and adventuring:
- The Typographic Circle presents an evening with the founders of Unit Editions in London on May 30.
- June 3–15: travel to Nicosia, Cyprus, for the fifth International Conference on Typography and Visual Communication.
- Join the latest FontStruct competition; entries are due June 14.
- It’s not too late to register for Ampersand, June 28 in Brighton and November 2 in New York City.
- On July 16 in New York, attend the opening reception and exhibition of the winners of the 59th Annual Type Directors Club Competitions.
- The education forum program and list of conference speakers have been announced for TypeCon2013: Portl& (which takes place August 21–25).
- Have passport, will travel? Register for Typism, September 4 on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Farewell
The Type News is moving to Mondays! See you next week.
Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for thoroughly examining this week’s new type!
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