Filter Foundry - Ashley Evans

PAD by: Ashley Evans

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City: Downers Grove	Personal Site:
Location: USA	Work URL:
Experience: 11 years, 5 months	Facebook:
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CREATIVE COW

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Debra Kaufman's Early Review of The Hobbit in 48 fps 3D

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AE Basics 60: Export 6 Media Encoder 2 - Preset Groups

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Workflow Update: iMac, Adobe & the X Factor

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After Effects: Using & Customising the Dictionary Preset 3

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After Effects: Using & Customising the Dictionary Preset 2

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After Effects: Using & Customising the Dictionary Preset 1

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Audio Basics - Understanding Bit Depth

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Audio Basics - Understanding Sample Rate

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The Hobbit & The Dawn of High Frame Rate Cinema

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Jacob Rosenberg Directs Waiting for Lightning

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COMMUNICATION ARTS

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News - 12/13/2012

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Webpick of the Day - Lark

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FRÏS Vodka package redesign

<div><a href="http://www.commarts.com/exhibit/fr-iuml-vodka-package.html"><img border="0" hspace="0" src="http://image.commarts.com/images1/1/3/2/5/523144_71_0_NzA4NTgyNTQtMTQ4ODUyMTM0Mg.jpg" vspace="0" /></a></div>The Brand Union recently developed a new identity with standout appeal that delivers on the unique positioning, “Freeze Time. Seize Pure Moments.” The creative team worked two- and three-dimensionally to create a bottle that represents the essence of ice: The crystalline shape communicates icy purity and the dark color provides greater contrast to the memorable silhouette. The logo was developed in line with the structure and the end result is a beautifully frozen identity that corresponds with the “FRÏS the Moment” tagline. It’s an elegantly frosted, contemporary design that’s successfully led to a strong reaction from young male consumers. Credits: <a href="http://www.thebrandunion.com">www.thebrandunion.com </a> | <a href="http://frisvodka.com">frisvodka.com </a> <div><a href="http://www.commarts.com/exhibit/fr-iuml-vodka-package.html"><img border="0" src="http://image.commarts.com/images1/1/3/2/5/523146_71_0_LTE2MTYxODUyMTIxMzAzMzE0Njgz.jpg" /></a></div> <div><a href="http://www.commarts.com/exhibit/fr-iuml-vodka-package.html"><img border="0" src="http://image.commarts.com/images1/1/3/2/5/523145_71_0_LTExOTI2OTc3MDktMTYxNTgzNzQ4OA.jpg" /></a></div> <div><a href="http://www.commarts.com/exhibit/fr-iuml-vodka-package.html"><img border="0" src="http://image.commarts.com/images1/1/3/2/5/523143_71_0_NDk0MzQ1NzU3LTE3NDU0MjczNTg.jpg" /></a></div> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.commarts.com/~ff/commarts/index?a=YNtA2VN8Tv8:c5joTwjbLh8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/commarts/index?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.commarts.com/~ff/commarts/index?a=YNtA2VN8Tv8:c5joTwjbLh8:qj6IDK7rITs"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/commarts/index?d=qj6IDK7rITs" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.commarts.com/~ff/commarts/index?a=YNtA2VN8Tv8:c5joTwjbLh8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/commarts/index?i=YNtA2VN8Tv8:c5joTwjbLh8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" /></a> </div><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/commarts/index/~4/YNtA2VN8Tv8" width="1" />

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Cooperative! Part 3

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Coming Soon: 2013 Typography Annual!

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News - 12/12/2012

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VW "Smiles" spot

<div><a href="http://www.commarts.com/exhibit/smiles-spot.html"><img border="0" hspace="0" src="http://image.commarts.com/images1/6/2/2/5/522609_71_0_Mzc1Mjc5NzM1LTE2OTI1NjU1Mjg.jpg" vspace="0" /></a></div>Deutsch Inc. recently launched the new “Why VW” social media campaign for Volkswagen of America to capture and share its stories in a whole new way. The campaign officially kicked off with the airing of <a href="http://www.epochfilms.com/directors/usa/everynone/volkswagen-smiles-30" target="_blank">this commercial</a>, a showcase of beautifully simple human moments of joy. In the heartwarming spot people of all ages and nationalities embody the spirit, fun and positivity that have defined the brand and its vehicles for decades. Credits: <a href="http://www.deutschinc.com">www.deutschinc.com </a> | <a href="http://why.vw.com">why.vw.com </a> <div><a href="http://www.commarts.com/exhibit/smiles-spot.html"><img border="0" src="http://image.commarts.com/images1/6/2/2/5/522608_71_0_Mzc1Mjc5MzA0LTY5NzgyMzcxMw.jpg" /></a></div> <div><a href="http://www.commarts.com/exhibit/smiles-spot.html"><img border="0" src="http://image.commarts.com/images1/6/2/2/5/522607_71_0_Mzc1Mjc5MzA0MTU5MTY1OTYzOQ.jpg" /></a></div> <div><a href="http://www.commarts.com/exhibit/smiles-spot.html"><img border="0" src="http://image.commarts.com/images1/6/2/2/5/522606_71_0_Mzc1Mjc5MzA0MTAwNjAwMjc4NA.jpg" /></a></div> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.commarts.com/~ff/commarts/index?a=OwMv5kArrnM:Y2wDlLGA26Q:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/commarts/index?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.commarts.com/~ff/commarts/index?a=OwMv5kArrnM:Y2wDlLGA26Q:qj6IDK7rITs"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/commarts/index?d=qj6IDK7rITs" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.commarts.com/~ff/commarts/index?a=OwMv5kArrnM:Y2wDlLGA26Q:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/commarts/index?i=OwMv5kArrnM:Y2wDlLGA26Q:gIN9vFwOqvQ" /></a> </div><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/commarts/index/~4/OwMv5kArrnM" width="1" />

UPDATED: 5 MONTHS, 1 WEEK

Webpick of the Day - BOHAN Advertising

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News - 12/11/2012

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Handlebar identity

<div><a href="http://www.commarts.com/exhibit/handlebar-identity.html"><img border="0" hspace="0" src="http://image.commarts.com/images1/6/2/2/5/522604_71_0_NDI3MTQyMjU3Njk1Njk0OTIx.jpg" vspace="0" /></a></div>In summer 2012, this bicycle-themed bar opened in Toronto’s famously eccentric Kensington Market. Using a philosophy of adaptation and alteration and an eclectic mix of old and new, local creative agency Open created an identity and an an experience that resonates. The logo uses a simple sans serif font with added custom elements; it’s a playful language of authentic Victorian imagery overlaid with a half-tone pattern to create a modern feel. Communication pieces reinforce Handlebar’s spirit by referring to the history of bicycle culture of Toronto. From bathroom signage and a direct marketing card (placed in the spokes of bicycles in Toronto’s downtown core) to a special draft lager (The Handlebrew) and the bar’s signature shot (The Tandem, which comes on its very own coaster built for two) it’s an experience uniquely Toronto. Credits: <a href="http://www.openacreativecompany.com">www.openacreativecompany.com </a> | <a href="http://www.thehandlebar.ca">www.thehandlebar.ca </a> <div><a href="http://www.commarts.com/exhibit/handlebar-identity.html"><img border="0" src="http://image.commarts.com/images1/6/2/2/5/522602_71_0_NDI3MTQyMjU3Mzg4OTUwMDU4.jpg" /></a></div> <div><a href="http://www.commarts.com/exhibit/handlebar-identity.html"><img border="0" src="http://image.commarts.com/images1/6/2/2/5/522601_71_0_LTM1NzI5MzU5NDgyNTQwODc1Nw.jpg" /></a></div> <div><a href="http://www.commarts.com/exhibit/handlebar-identity.html"><img border="0" src="http://image.commarts.com/images1/6/2/2/5/522603_71_0_NDI3MTQyMjU3LTE3MDc0NDYzMg.jpg" /></a></div> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.commarts.com/~ff/commarts/index?a=B_nhRIfhFT0:GKE6QTeiPlo:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/commarts/index?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.commarts.com/~ff/commarts/index?a=B_nhRIfhFT0:GKE6QTeiPlo:qj6IDK7rITs"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/commarts/index?d=qj6IDK7rITs" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.commarts.com/~ff/commarts/index?a=B_nhRIfhFT0:GKE6QTeiPlo:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/commarts/index?i=B_nhRIfhFT0:GKE6QTeiPlo:gIN9vFwOqvQ" /></a> </div><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/commarts/index/~4/B_nhRIfhFT0" width="1" />

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COMPUTER ARTS DAILY

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The designer Christmas gift guide, part five

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Introducing Robo-Lomo

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World's first audience-edited commercial

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Morph is back

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Character design and art festival returns to Berlin

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Barking mad new music video

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Detox Fashion

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The designer Christmas gift guide, part four

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The designer Christmas gift guide, part three

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A big hand for Elijah Wood

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DIGITAL ARTS

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Interview: Founder of #includedesign campaign to save Britain from a creative education crisis

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Taschen opens shop in The Simpsons to make Springfield hip

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Flickr iOS app redesigned

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WordPress 3.5 gets a media management makeover

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Parasol Island's boys' choir singing Mad World get a million hits in two weeks

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Adobe releases Photoshop & Illustrator updates, tools for teams to Creative Cloud subscribers & a Dropbox-style app

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Pictoplasma Berlin 2013 artists revealed

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UK design industry tells Michael Gove to put design into the EBacc

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BBEdit 10.5 adds Retina display support & better navigation

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BBEdit 10.5 adds Retina display support, navigation improvements, and more

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GRAPHICS.COM

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PageZephyr Enhanced for Adobe InDesign Document Search and Content Extraction

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DxO ViewPoint Adobe Photoshop Plugin Enhanced for Restoring Photo Proportions

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Adobe Photoshop CS6 Receives a Significant Upgrade

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Snapheal Updated for Mac Image Editing, Now Claims to Equal Photoshop

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Resize Sense Mac Batch Image Resizer Updated

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Retina Support Added to Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS6

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Coloriage Adobe Photoshop Plugin Updated for Photo Colorization

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Mac Version of ColorStyler Adobe Photoshop Plugin Released

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Alien Skin Software Updates Eye Candy Filters Collection

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MAGIX Page and Layout Designer Launched for Business Document Creation

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I LOVE TYPOGRAPHY

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TDC type-design competition 2012

The <a href="http://tdc.org">Type Directors Club</a> in New York City has been holding an annual competition for the best in typography (that is, the use of type in graphic design) since the 1950s. In 1997, James Montalbano and Paul Shaw founded TDC2, a second competition that dealt specifically with the design of typefaces. Together, they chaired the first two TDC2 competitions, and they have remained closely involved with it ever since. As Paul wrote in his chairman’s statement for that first competition, “The genesis for the Type Directors Club Type Design Competition (TDC2) came about from my frustration, shared by the other type designers on the Board of Directors of the TDC, over the number and quality of type designs chosen in the annual competition.” Until then, type designs had been judged alongside books, brochures, annual reports, and packaging. Now they would be judged on their own merits, by judges who understood the design of type. One of the crucial factors in judging the design of a typeface is seeing it in use. For the first TDC type competition, Montalbano and Shaw devised a template that they hoped would show all of the typefaces in comparable situations, at a variety of sizes. As James said in his chairman’s statement, although they had “created a poster that most people liked,” they had also “created submission templates that most people hated.” In later years, designers were free to send in their typeface samples in any form they liked, though the organizers encouraged them to include a complete character set and to show off their work at its best. (When I chaired the type-design competition in 2001, we asked for 11&#8243×17&#8243 or A3 proof sheets, one typeface per sheet, and explained: “Each proof should show the typeface in whatever way seems appropriate for that face; proofs may include, but are not limited to, headlines, short or long passages of text, sample pages/double-page spreads of book or magazine make-up, or multiple-column text.”) But not all type designers, even the best ones, are very good graphic designers; this problem of displaying the typeface at its best for the judging has bedeviled the competition from the beginning. This year’s competition—the fifteenth, if I’m counting right—was chaired by Maxim Zhukov, who chose an all-star jury of well-known names: Matthew Carter, Roger Black, Erik Spiekermann, and Paul Shaw. The number of submissions was slightly down from the year before (173 entries from 27 countries); submissions from outside the United States outnumbered the US entries, but not by as much as they had the year before. (In 1997, that first competition had twice as many submissions – but then, it was the first, and its scope was larger, as it covered the entire decade up to then. Subsequent competitions have covered only single years.) <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/12/TDC12001_Judging_007.jpg" title="TDC12001_Judging_007" /> From the outset, the TDC type design competition has encouraged submissions of non-Latin type designs, although it is sometimes a problem making sure that there are judges who are familiar with each script. Many type designers can judge the soundness of character designs in a script that they can’t read, but to evaluate how a text typeface works in practice requires familiarity with the language it’s used for. Even when he wasn’t chairing the competition, Maxim has made heroic efforts over the years to back up the juries with expert advice on unfamiliar writing systems. The judging takes place in New York over a weekend in January. The essentials of a type-design judging are always the same: the judges walk along a series of long tables where the type specimens are laid out side by side, peering down at the designs, sometimes bending close to examine details, other times clustering together to discuss a particular question. The first cut is where the unsuccessful designs get weeded out. In some competitions, the judges choose which ones to eliminate; in others, they indicate which ones they think should stay in for the next round, and the rest are eliminated. TDC2 uses the latter method. Either way, the second round is where it gets interesting: narrowing it down to the truly best designs. This is where the judges start arguing, or at least discussing the merits of particular typefaces and what works and doesn’t work about them. As I recall from the year I chaired the competition, these discussion were the most fascinating; they really brought out the judges’ individual experiences and knowledge, as each wrestled with fundamental questions of how to evaluate quality. This year, the TDC2 jury chose only thirteen typefaces as winners – an unusually low percentage of those that were entered. The general feeling among the judges seemed to be that while there were plenty of good type designs submitted, there weren’t very many that stood out for their excellence. As Paul Shaw said afterward, “During the judging we all agreed that the level of type design has risen so much in recent years that we found ourselves looking for typefaces that had something extra. Just being a very good, very usable typeface was no longer enough to be chosen.” Many of the entries seemed to be good but not great: “We had a difficult time finding typefaces that seemed fresh and exciting.” Or, as Roger Black put it, “As we’ve seen in magazine and web site design, if the bottom is to be raised, the best design has to be more than accurate, clean and professional. It has to hit it out of the park.” <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/12/TDC12001_Judging_014.jpg" title="TDC12001_Judging_014" /> This is a constant debate in design competitions: should the winners be limited to those that are spectacular and original, or should they include those that are steady and craftsmanlike but not outstanding? It’s far from obvious which answer is preferable. In every aspect of graphic design, including the design of type, there is work that’s pyrotechnic and in your face, but that lacks real craft in how it’s put together. Then there is work that is solid and reliable, that rises to the best standards of competence, but that doesn’t break out of the box in any way. As Roger Black pointed out, “The problem here is exactly what the AIGA was trying to address [in a recent debate about its own design competitions]: how do you judge design, when all the qualities may not be on the surface? A print advertising competition, a book cover competition, or even a book design competition are easier to judge than, say, a web site, where how it works is as important a part of the design as how it looks. With typefaces, the TDC is relying on the experience of judges to assess these issues. A stylish new stencil font (which was a winner this year), is easier to vote for than a new agate font, which really must be seen in use… And as for web fonts, God spare the judges.” It’s easy to forget that during the judging process, the jury is seeing a whole host of entries all at once, which have to be judged quickly, intuitively, without any time to put them through their paces and see how they work in the real world. (The equivalent in book-design competitions is that the judges don’t have time to sit down and try to read any of the books, which is the ultimate test. It’s always easier, and tempting, to judge by the display typography or the images or the title page.) A counter to this, for the individual submitters, is to produce a specimen showing off their typefaces the way they would most like to see them used. But too many of them don’t do this very well. “Some perfectly good typefaces were probably unfairly rejected,” according to Paul Shaw, “but the fault lay with the submitters more than with the jury. Many submitters do not showcase their typefaces properly.” The designs of the typeface showings need to be “both compelling and appropriate.” Paul said that he had voted for some typefaces that he was already familiar with and thought were excellent, but that the other judges didn’t agree. “Upon reflection, I realized that the showings were a let down. I was able to see beyond that because I had previously seen what the fonts were capable of. This may seem unfair, but it is the same way that fonts are often judged in the marketplace. It is not enough to be a good typeface. It is essential that a typeface show why it is good and what it is good for.” <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/12/TDC12001_Judging_042.jpg" title="TDC12001_Judging_042" /> There is another factor, which complicates the matter of showing all the aspects of a digital font: the increasing popularity of advanced OpenType layout features, whether they be something subtle like small caps and alternate styles of numerals or something exuberant like an explosion of ligatures and alternate letter forms. Complex scripts like Arabic or Devanagari complicate the problem because there’s so much to show; similarly, Chinese and Japanese fonts contain so many characters that it would be almost impossible to showcase them all in any meaningful way. As Maxim, this year’s chairman, put it, “Evaluating and judging OpenType entries to design competitions has become more challenging for the jurors than TrueType or Type 1 fonts, partly for the same reason: their glyph sets often transcend the traditional boundaries of text, display, pi, Latin, and other design and script categories used for the submission of entries.” Not only might a single OpenType font include a plethora of alternates and special features, it might also contain what is essentially more than one typeface. Many current type releases, for instance, include Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic versions in one font. (This is what Adobe means when it calls a font “Pro,” although most of us tend to think of this as indicating the presence of small caps, old-style figures, and related typographic niceties of the Latin alphabet.) All of this needs to be displayed gracefully and compellingly in the type specimen, if the designer hopes to have the jury adequately judge his or her work. It’s also possible, as Maxim points out in his chairman’s statement, for one part of a large OpenType font to work better than another. Does the display version work as well as the text? Does the Greek match the quality of the Cyrillic? In past TDC competitions, sometimes the judges have decided to give an award to just one part of a type family, even though the whole family was submitted as one entry. Paul Shaw sums up the perennial problem of judging a design competition: “I am looking for excellence more than innovation, but innovation always gets one’s attention.” But let’s give Roger Black the last word: “When the TDC judges went over to a Pratt Institute building that weekend to look at the type design submissions, we saw a variety of designs, representing a wide range of styles from informal cursives to fresh takes on classic Romans. Nothing knocked us dead. But there were no howlers, either. We agreed that the bottom has been raised a great deal. There is better type design education (at Reading, RISD, and now Cooper), and better training of junior designers at dozens of foundries (following the example of David Berlow and the Font Bureau). This is encouraging, but we were left wistful and unsatisfied.” Video of TDC Salon: The Judges Night 2012. A panel discussion with Roger Black, Matthew Carter, Paul Shaw and Erik Spiekermann. Moderated by Maxim Zhukov. <a href="http://johndberry.com">John Berry</a> usually describes himself as an editor & typographer — reflecting his care for both the meaning of words and how they are presented. He is president of ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale) and the former editor and publisher of U&lc (Upper & lower case). He writes, speaks, and consults extensively on typography, and he has won numerous awards for his book designs. He has written and edited several books, including Language culture type: international type design in the age of Unicode (ATypI/Graphis, 2002), Contemporary newspaper design: shaping the news in the digital age (Mark Batty Publisher, 2004), and U&lc: influencing design & typography (Batty, 2005). He has been a program manager on the Fonts team at Microsoft, where he established improved typographic standards for Windows and other Microsoft products. He lives in Seattle with the writer Eileen Gunn. <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250"><img src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/idlewild-light-fonts.png" /></a> Sponsored by <a href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250">H&FJ</a>. <a href="http://ilovetypography.com/2012/12/09/tdc-type-design-competition-2012/">TDC type-design competition 2012</a> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=yeLuwPI0LuA:ZVN2bvQtX4g:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=yeLuwPI0LuA:ZVN2bvQtX4g:gIN9vFwOqvQ" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=yeLuwPI0LuA:ZVN2bvQtX4g:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=yeLuwPI0LuA:ZVN2bvQtX4g:F7zBnMyn0Lo" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=yeLuwPI0LuA:ZVN2bvQtX4g:qj6IDK7rITs"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=qj6IDK7rITs" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=yeLuwPI0LuA:ZVN2bvQtX4g:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=yeLuwPI0LuA:ZVN2bvQtX4g:V_sGLiPBpWU" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=yeLuwPI0LuA:ZVN2bvQtX4g:D7DqB2pKExk"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=yeLuwPI0LuA:ZVN2bvQtX4g:D7DqB2pKExk" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=yeLuwPI0LuA:ZVN2bvQtX4g:TzevzKxY174"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=TzevzKxY174" /></a> </div><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ILoveTypography/~4/yeLuwPI0LuA" width="1" />

UPDATED: 5 MONTHS, 2 WEEKS

The Voice of all the Gods

Today I’ve released two limited edition prints along with some originals. The prints are based on words penned by William Shakespeare and Dylan Thomas. ‘The Voice of all the Gods’ is a quote from Shakespeare’s ‘Loves Labours Lost.’ The first time I read the passage in which this phrase occurs I couldn’t get it out of my head for weeks. The words are extraordinarily rich, and I wanted my visual interpretation to reflect this. The main source of inspiration for the letterforms comes from the 18th century, but I’ve tried to rework or re-imagine them in the spirit of our time. Above all, I wanted my interpretation of Shakespeare’s words to capture their shimmering beauty and harmony. <a href="http://seblester.co.uk"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13558" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/11/VoiceOfAllTheGods_4_LR.jpg" title="VoiceOfAllTheGods_4_LR" /></a> ‘The Voice of all the Gods’ Signed edition of 100, 594 X 420 mm. Metallic Gold ink on black Plike art paper. Dylan Thomas’s ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ is one of the most powerful and compelling poems I know. I have always found the words incredibly moving. Dramatic, fiery, beautiful and poignant — I wanted my interpretation to capture that. I developed a modern, sharpened italic style which I felt suited the tone of the piece, with what might be described as sharpened flourishes carefully integrated into the design. The forms are based on my cursive italic calligraphy which you can see demonstrated in the video below. I tried to do something unconventional and progressive with this piece. I wanted all the forms to be extremely graceful but also have a tension about them in keeping with the words. I wanted to evoke flames, lightning, and stars blazing in a night sky. <a href="http://seblester.co.uk"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13565" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/11/DoNot_Detail2_LR.jpg" title="DoNot_Detail2_LR" /></a> ‘Do Not Go Gentle’ Signed edition of 200, 594 X 420 mm. Gold foil blocked on Midnight blue Plike art paper. © The Trustees for the Copyright of Dylan Thomas I have also released several original pieces of art today. Here are two of them, the rest are on my website. <a href="http://seblester.co.uk"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13570" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/11/Arse_Bollocks_sebLester.jpg" title="Arse_Bollocks_sebLester" /></a> I designed bespoke Roman monumental capital letters. I then commissioned a very talented and respected letter carver to carve rude words into the finest Welsh slate using them. <a href="http://seblester.co.uk"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13569" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/11/Bollocks_Slate1_LR.jpg" title="Bollocks_Slate1_LR" /></a> ‘Slate 1’ Bespoke Roman monumental capitals carved in Welsh slate. 50cm X 12.5cm X 7.5cm. Signed by the artist. One of a series of three. <a href="http://seblester.co.uk"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13566" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/11/Slate_2_LR.jpg" title="Slate_2_LR" /></a> ‘Slate 2’ Bespoke Roman monumental capitals carved in Welsh slate. 25cm X 12.5cm X 7.5cm. Signed by the artist. One of a series of three. It has become apparent to me that doing calligraphy makes you a better type designer, and doing type design makes you a better calligrapher. That was a beautiful revelation to me and one that I hope I will continue to benefit from. <a href="http://seblester.co.uk">Seb Lester</a> is a designer and artist whose clients include Apple, Nike, Intel, Absolut Vodka, Levi’s & The New York Times. You can find him on <a href="https://twitter.com/seblester">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Seb-Lester/143768095661303">Facebook</a>. <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250"><img src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/idlewild-light-fonts.png" /></a> Sponsored by <a href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250">H&FJ</a>. <a href="http://ilovetypography.com/2012/11/01/new-prints-from-seb-leste/">The Voice of all the Gods</a> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=CNQE-Ih7y5s:vhX0SwLP_eo:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=CNQE-Ih7y5s:vhX0SwLP_eo:gIN9vFwOqvQ" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=CNQE-Ih7y5s:vhX0SwLP_eo:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=CNQE-Ih7y5s:vhX0SwLP_eo:F7zBnMyn0Lo" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=CNQE-Ih7y5s:vhX0SwLP_eo:qj6IDK7rITs"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=qj6IDK7rITs" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=CNQE-Ih7y5s:vhX0SwLP_eo:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=CNQE-Ih7y5s:vhX0SwLP_eo:V_sGLiPBpWU" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=CNQE-Ih7y5s:vhX0SwLP_eo:D7DqB2pKExk"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=CNQE-Ih7y5s:vhX0SwLP_eo:D7DqB2pKExk" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=CNQE-Ih7y5s:vhX0SwLP_eo:TzevzKxY174"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=TzevzKxY174" /></a> </div><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ILoveTypography/~4/CNQE-Ih7y5s" width="1" />

UPDATED: 6 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS

Hipster Hummingbirds

The week in type Let’s start with some fantastic news: Issue #2 of <a href="http://codexmag.com/" title="codex journal of typography">Codex magazine</a> is now available for pre-order. What’s more, you can now purchase a subscription. The second issue is rather special — A new Editor in Chief (Paul Shaw), a complete redesign (Linda Florio), more pages, more of the very, very best content. Spread the word. <a href="http://codexmag.com"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13533" height="288" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/codex-ilt.png" title="codex-ilt" width="500" /></a> <h3>Inspiration</h3> More <a href="http://vimeo.com/13124405">Luca Barcellona</a> in action in Firenze: Erik Spiekermann talks about Type on Screens at <a href="http://www.creativemornings.com">Creative Mornings</a> Berlin: I posted this Ampersand Balloon project by <a href="http://www.conoranddavid.com/project/ampersand-poster/">Conor & David</a> months ago. Have just discovered the making of video: <a href="http://uppercasemagazine.com/beautifulbitmaps">Beautiful Bitmaps</a>, a project from Uppercase mag. Here are a couple of my favorites: <a class="noborder" href="http://uppercasemagazine.com/beautifulbitmaps"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13458" height="311" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/beautiful-bitmaps.jpg" title="beautiful-bitmaps" width="500" /></a> Each letter of the alphabet is available as a print from the <a href="http://uppercasemagazine.com/beautifulbitmaps">Uppercase</a> store. Great idea from Tim Brown: <a href="http://nicewebtype.com/notes/2012/10/05/type-set-match/">Type Set Match</a> hosted on Dribbble. <a class="noborder" href="http://nicewebtype.com/notes/2012/10/05/type-set-match/"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13523" height="188" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/type-set-match.jpg" title="type-set-match" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://50watts.com/20-Swedish-Posters-for-1930s-Hollywood">Twenty Swedish Posters</a> for 1930s Hollywood: <a class="noborder" href="http://50watts.com/20-Swedish-Posters-for-1930s-Hollywood"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13522" height="715" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/01-Eric-Rohman-poster-for-Sky-Hawk-1929.jpg" title="01-Eric-Rohman--poster-for-Sky-Hawk-1929" width="500" /></a> HT: @<a href="http://twitter.com/tealtan">tealtan</a> <h3>Books</h3> I’ve ordered mine, and can’t wait to get my hands on it. <a href="https://www.uniteditions.com/shop/herb-lubalin" title="Herb Lubalin">Herb Lubalin</a> from Unit Editions: <a href="https://www.uniteditions.com/shop/herb-lubalin"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13326" height="252" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/HL_banner_3_page-header-500x252.jpg" title="Herb Lubalin" width="500" /></a> <blockquote>This meticulously researched book offers a complete career overview of Herb Lubalin, beginning with his early days as one of the original Mad Men in the New York advertising world of the 50s and 60s, and continuing into the years of his greatest achievements as one of the world’s most influential typographers and graphic designers.</blockquote> <h3>Process</h3> An interesting short read on a logo(type) <a href="http://www.typejockeys.com/blog/Cleaning-Up">redesign</a> by Typejockeys: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typejockeys.com/blog/Cleaning-Up"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13330" height="274" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/Saubermacher-logo-old-new-500x274.gif" title="Saubermacher logo old and new" width="500" /></a> The <a href="http://klim.co.nz/blog/airnz/">Air New Zealand Logotype</a> Design Process from Kris Sowersby: <a class="noborder" href="http://klim.co.nz/blog/airnz/"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13333" height="300" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/AirNZ-Sketches-Composite-500x300.jpg" title="AirNZ Sketches Composite" width="500" /></a> <h3>New fonts</h3> <a href="http://www.fountaintype.com/typefaces/taca" title="Taca fonts from fountain type">Taca</a> designed by Rúben Dias, and released through Fountain Type — a kind of Jean Claude Van Damme meets Eurostile: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.fountaintype.com/typefaces/taca"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13469" height="832" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/Taca_spec.png" title="Taca fonts" width="500" /></a> The really lovely <a href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/laura-worthington/hummingbird/">Hummingbird</a> from Laura Worthington. Replete with a bucket-load of contextual alternates: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/laura-worthington/hummingbird/"><img alt="" class="noborder" height="491" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/hummingbird.png" title="hummingbird font" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://www.fountaintype.com/typefaces/gira-sans" title="Gira Sans fonts">Gira Sans</a> by Rui Abreu of Fountain Type: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.fountaintype.com/typefaces/gira-sans"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13337" height="766" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/GiraSans.png" title="Gira Sans fonts" width="500" /></a> And a lovely promo <a href="http://vimeo.com/48936929" title="Gira sans fonts promotional video">video</a>: Another script from the maestro Ale Paul. <a href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/sudtipos/hipster-script-pro/" title="hipster script font">Hipster Script</a>: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/sudtipos/hipster-script-pro/"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13319" height="500" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/ILTdiscount-500x500.jpg" title="Hipster Script Pro font from Ale Paul of Sudtipos" width="500" /></a> New from Typotheque, <a href="http://www.typotheque.com/blog/beauty_and_ugliness" title="karloff fonts">Karloff</a>: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typotheque.com/blog/beauty_and_ugliness"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13452" height="800" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/karloff-fonts.png" title="karloff-fonts" width="500" /></a> Read more about the design process and inspiration in <a href="http://ilovetypography.com/2012/09/25/beauty-and-ugliness-in-type-font-design/" title="beauty and ugliness in font design">Beauty & Ugliness in Type Design</a>. A large family from Adobe, <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/sourcesans.adobe/">Source Sans Pro</a>. And free to download, including the source files (open source): <a href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/cultivated-mind/luella/">Luela</a> from Cindy Kinash is fun. Combine it with Luela Frames for Etsy-esque feel: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/cultivated-mind/luella/"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13462" height="250" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/luella-500x250.jpg" title="luella fonts" width="500" /></a> From Font Bureau, <a href="http://www.fontbureau.com/ReadingEdge/">The Reading Edge</a>™ Series of fonts for small sizes on screens: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.fontbureau.com/ReadingEdge/"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13322" height="386" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/Screen-Shot-2012-09-13-at-6.53.52-PM-500x386.png" title="reading edge series of fonts for small sizes on screens" width="500" /></a> The site itself is testament to what can be achieved typographically on screen. Great stuff. A fun way for kids or adults to learn Korean: <a href="http://vimeo.com/25892113">Korable Block</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user5164213">Allied Operations</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>. <h3>Type-related book marks</h3> <a href="https://github.com/daneden/Baseline.js">Baseline.js</a>, a jQuery plugin for fixing vertical baselines. <a href="http://observatory.designobserver.com/michaelbierut/feature/the-typeface-of-truth/35428/" title="The Typeface of Truth">The Typeface of Truth</a>. <a href="http://www.kerning.it">Kerning</a> — the Italian typography conference. <a href="http://fontsinuse.com/uses/2181/paris-vs-new-york-a-tally-of-two-cities">Paris vs New York</a> — Fonts in Use. <a href="http://blog.typekit.com/2012/09/24/introducing-adobe-edge-web-fonts/">Abobe Edge Webfonts</a>. <a href="http://webfonts.info/using-font-face-resolution-independent-graphics">Using @font-face for resolution independent graphics</a>. <a href="http://craigmod.com/satellite/publishing_startups/">Publishing startups and great fuzziness</a>. <h3>Finally</h3> Don’t forget to order your copy of <a href="http://codexmag.com">Codex journal of typography</a>! You’ll love it. <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250"><img src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/idlewild-light-fonts.png" /></a> Sponsored by <a href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250">H&FJ</a>. <a href="http://ilovetypography.com/2012/10/16/hipster-hummingbird-type-font-news-ilt/">Hipster Hummingbirds</a> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=CnED0fPdQo4:bNl3mFQrRRs:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=CnED0fPdQo4:bNl3mFQrRRs:gIN9vFwOqvQ" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=CnED0fPdQo4:bNl3mFQrRRs:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=CnED0fPdQo4:bNl3mFQrRRs:F7zBnMyn0Lo" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=CnED0fPdQo4:bNl3mFQrRRs:qj6IDK7rITs"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=qj6IDK7rITs" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=CnED0fPdQo4:bNl3mFQrRRs:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=CnED0fPdQo4:bNl3mFQrRRs:V_sGLiPBpWU" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=CnED0fPdQo4:bNl3mFQrRRs:D7DqB2pKExk"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=CnED0fPdQo4:bNl3mFQrRRs:D7DqB2pKExk" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=CnED0fPdQo4:bNl3mFQrRRs:TzevzKxY174"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=TzevzKxY174" /></a> </div><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ILoveTypography/~4/CnED0fPdQo4" width="1" />

UPDATED: 7 MONTHS, 1 WEEK

Beauty and Ugliness in Type design

<a href="http://www.typotheque.com/authors/peter_bilak" title="Peter Bi?ak">Peter Bi?ak</a> on the process of designing his newly released <a href="http://www.typotheque.com/blog/beauty_and_ugliness" title="Karloff fonts">Karloff</a> typeface, demonstrating just how closely related beauty and ugliness are. Karloff explores the idea of irreconcilable differences — how two extremes could be combined into a coherent whole. In 2010 I was invited to a design conference in Copenhagen to speak on the subject of conceptual type. The organisers were interested in examples of typefaces whose principal design feature was not related to aesthetic considerations or legibility, but rather some underlying non-typographical idea. In my address I argued that there is no such thing as conceptual type, since type design is a discipline defined by its ability to execute an outcome; the process that transforms the pure idea into a functional font is a critical part of the discipline. Having rejected the topic of the conference, I nevertheless went on to speculate on what a true example of a <a href="http://www.typotheque.com/articles/conceptual_type">conceptual typeface</a> might be like. <img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13374" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/Karloff-sketch1080.jpg" title="Karloff-sketch1080" /> At the time I was also interested in the idea of irreconcilable differences and how two extremes could be combined into a coherent whole. As an example, I looked for the most beautiful typeface in the history of typography — as well as the ugliest one — and for a way to meld them. The Beauty While any choice representing beauty is bound to be very personal and subjective, many agree that the high-contrast typefaces created by Giambattista Bodoni and the Didot clan are some of the most beautiful in existence. Bodoni was one of the most widely-admired printers of his time and considered amongst the finest in the history of the craft. Thomas Curson Hansard wrote in 1825 that Bodoni’s types had “that beautiful and perfect appearance, which we find it difficult and highly expensive to equal.”<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ILoveTypography?format=xml#_ftn1" id="_ftnref1" name="_ftnref1">¹</a> In his Manuale Tipografico of 1818, Bodoni laid down the four principles of type design “from which all beauty would seem to proceed”, namely: regularity, clarity, good taste, and charm. <img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13426" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/Manuale-Tipografico1.jpg" title="Manuale Tipografico, Bodoni" /> His close competitors in France were the Didots. Not only did François-Ambroise Didot invent many of the machines used in printing, but his foundry endeavoured to render the types more beautifully than his rivals Baskerville and (later) Bodoni. Some considered Didot’s works the most beautiful types that had ever been used in France (up to that period),<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ILoveTypography?format=xml#_ftn2" id="_ftnref2" name="_ftnref2">²</a> though others found them delicate but lifeless.<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ILoveTypography?format=xml#_ftn3" id="_ftnref3" name="_ftnref3">³</a> <img alt="Didot, Impremirie Nationale, 36pt" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13407" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/IN-didot-36pt.jpg" title="Didot, Impremirie Nationale, 36pt" /> The Ugliness I have to admit that dealing with ugliness was a lot more interesting than revisiting the beauty contests of the classicist printers. The search for ugliness triggers a certain primal, voyeuristic curiosity, and from the designer’s perspective there is simply a lot more space to explore. Capturing beauty has always been considered the primary responsibility of the traditional artist, and even now it is rare to find examples of skilled and deliberate ugliness in type design, (although examples of inexperience and naïveté abound). The eccentric ‘Italian’ from the middle of the Industrial Revolution was a clear choice. This reversed-contrast typeface was designed to deliberately attract readers’ attention by defying their expectations. Strokes that were thick in classical models were thin, and vice versa — a dirty trick to create freakish letterforms that stood out in the increasingly saturated world of commercial messages. <img alt="Five-Line Pica Italian" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13413" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/5-line-pica-italian.jpg" title="Five-Line Pica Italian" /> No other style in the history of typography has provoked such negative reactions as the Italian. It was first presented in Caslon & Catherwood’s 1821 type specimen, and as early as 1825, in his Typographia Thomas Hansard called the type a “typographic monstrosity”. Nicolete Gray called it “a crude expression of the idea of perversity”<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ILoveTypography?format=xml#_ftn4" id="_ftnref4" name="_ftnref4">?</a>, while others labeled it as “degenerate”.<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ILoveTypography?format=xml#_ftn5" id="_ftnref5" name="_ftnref5">?</a> <img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13429" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/FourLinePica.jpg" title="FourLinePica" /> The goal of my project was to show just how closely related beauty and ugliness are. Donald Knuth, an American computer scientist with a special interest in typography identified over 60 visual parameters that control the appearance of a typeface. I was interested in designing typeface variations that shared most of these parameters, yet included both the ugliest and most beautiful letterforms. <a href="http://www.typotheque.com/fonts/karloff_positive">Karloff</a>, the result of this project, connects the high contrast Modern type of Bodoni and Didot with the monstrous Italians. The difference between the attractive and repulsive forms lies in a single design parameter, the contrast between the thick and the thin. <div class="img-caption-overlay"> <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typotheque.com/fonts/karloff_positive"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13415" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/Positive.png" title="Karloff Positive" /></a> <div class="caption-overlay">Karloff Positive</div> </div> <div class="img-caption-overlay"> <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typotheque.com/fonts/karloff_positive"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13417" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/PositiveItalic-new.png" title="Karloff Positive Italic" /></a> <div class="caption-overlay">Karloff Positive Italic</div> </div> <div class="img-caption-overlay"> <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typotheque.com/fonts/karloff_negative"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13419" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/Karloff-Negative-Bold.png" title="Karloff Negative Bold" /></a> <div class="caption-overlay">Karloff Negative Bold</div> </div> <div class="img-caption-overlay"> <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typotheque.com/fonts/karloff_negative"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13420" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/Karloff-Negative-Bold-Italic.png" title="Karloff Negative Bold Italic" /></a> <div class="caption-overlay">Karloff Negative Bold Italic</div> </div> I asked Pieter van Rosmalen for help, and both of us worked on both versions. While at the beginning I looked at the Didot from Imprimerie Nationale as a reference, Pieter departed from this model and made the project more personal. We worked on both models at the same time, trying to be very strict about mathematically reversing the contrast between two weights. The advantage of working on both versions together was that we could adjust both of them to achieve the best forms, rather than creating one as an afterthought of the other. <img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13422" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/AAA.png" title="AAA" /> <img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13423" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/BeautyUgliness_orange.png" title="BeautyUgliness_orange" /> Towards the end of the project, I worked with Nikola Djurek, our frequent collaborator, who helped with interpolation and fine-tuning of the fonts. Having designed two diametrically opposite versions, we undertook a genetic experiment with the offspring of the beauty and the beast, interpolation of the two extremes, which produced a surprisingly neutral low contrast version. Karloff Neutral required only minimal intervention, because the master weights from which it was interpolated were well defined. About the name Karloff was the artistic name of the British actor William Henry Pratt. He chose this pseudonym to prevent embarrassment to his dignified family, who considered him the black sheep of the family. Although he played mainly sinister characters, in real life, Karloff was known as a very kind gentleman who gave generously, especially to children’s charities. <img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13424" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/boris_karloff.jpg" title="boris karloff" /> Thanks to Paul Shaw, James Clough, and David Shields. <a id="_ftn1" name="_ftn1">1.</a> Hansard, Thomas C. Typographia: an Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Printing, 1825. <a id="_ftn2" name="_ftn2">2.</a> Encyclopædia Americana, 1832. <a id="_ftn3" name="_ftn3">3.</a> Updike, Daniel B. Printing Types: Their History, Forms, and Use, 2001. <a id="_ftn5" name="_ftn4">4.</a> Gray, Nicolete. Nineteenth Century Ornamented Typefaces, 1938 <a id="_ftn5" name="_ftn5">5.</a> Benson, John H and Carey, Arthur J. The Elements of Lettering, 1940 <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250"><img src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/idlewild-light-fonts.png" /></a> Sponsored by <a href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250">H&FJ</a>. <a href="http://ilovetypography.com/2012/09/25/beauty-and-ugliness-in-type-font-design/">Beauty and Ugliness in Type design</a> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=Oeh9NVfwBLY:JhyOWNg7qT8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=Oeh9NVfwBLY:JhyOWNg7qT8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=Oeh9NVfwBLY:JhyOWNg7qT8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=Oeh9NVfwBLY:JhyOWNg7qT8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=Oeh9NVfwBLY:JhyOWNg7qT8:qj6IDK7rITs"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=qj6IDK7rITs" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=Oeh9NVfwBLY:JhyOWNg7qT8:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=Oeh9NVfwBLY:JhyOWNg7qT8:V_sGLiPBpWU" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=Oeh9NVfwBLY:JhyOWNg7qT8:D7DqB2pKExk"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=Oeh9NVfwBLY:JhyOWNg7qT8:D7DqB2pKExk" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=Oeh9NVfwBLY:JhyOWNg7qT8:TzevzKxY174"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=TzevzKxY174" /></a> </div><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ILoveTypography/~4/Oeh9NVfwBLY" width="1" />

UPDATED: 8 MONTHS

The Complete Engraver

A review by James Puckett When it comes to the Gilded Age, the canon of design history teaches of broadside posters and the Kelmscott press. Wood type and artistic printing have attracted a following and are fighting their way in. Further outside the canon lies a neglected facet of design woven into society, personal lives and business — engraved stationery. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616890673/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1616890673&linkCode=as2&tag=japanagocom-20">The Complete Engraver</a> introduces engraving as a subject worthy of the canon, and is an approachable, interesting, and compelling read. Designer, teacher, and historian Nancy Sharon Collins is a leader in the preservation and revival of engraved stationery. She collects engraved ephemera, restores vintage presses, and designs stationery that has drawn praise from the likes of Martha Stewart and Vogue. Collins is erudite, formerly of the elite New York design establishment, and now works in New Orleans. She is eminently qualified to tackle the challenge of broadening our view of design history. <a class="noborder" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616890673/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1616890673&linkCode=as2&tag=japanagocom-20"><img alt="The Complete Engraver cover image" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13353" height="700" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/CompleteEngraver_cover_41.jpg" title="The Complete Engraver cover image" width="500" /></a> <h3>Writing</h3> Like letterpress and lettering, engraving is attracting renewed interest from artists and designers who want to express themselves via analog processes. Collins writes for them, and for those who aspire to be them, persuading readers to engage with a tradition that is not dead, but merely in slumber. Collins reminds us that engraving is an integral part of the bigger picture of printing and design history. She makes this case by weaving an elaborate history from threads about paper, department stores, and postal mail. These connections are critical to bringing engraving into the canon of design history rather than treating it as an aside. Of course Collins explores the intersection of type design and engraving. Around the turn of the twentieth century type designers blatantly lifted designs from the work of engravers. Engravers later used popular typefaces in modern business stationery. We see stark evidence of this mutual expropriation in a specimen of engraved lettering styles that includes Franklin Gothic Extended, Helvetica, and Eurostile’s predecessor, <a href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/urw/microgramma/">Microgramma</a>. What makes engraving an especially compelling aspect of design history is the personal significance of engraved stationery. Stationery was inextricably linked to Gilded Age high-society, with young people demanding impeccable calling cards that spoke to their status. Personal monograms were common among the upper classes. Mourning required special stationery that changed to express the stages of grief. <a class="noborder" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616890673/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1616890673&linkCode=as2&tag=japanagocom-20"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13358" height="405" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/SteelDie.jpg" title="Steel Die" width="500" /></a> Collins does not limit herself to engraving’s past. The Complete Engraver introduces engraving and printing techniques. Logo designers will find her examination of monograms and ciphers relevant. And Collins makes a case for reviving the calling card as a sort of business card without static contact details. The practice of serious letter writing is explained and advocated, although it may be a lost cause in this age of poor penmanship. <a class="noborder" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616890673/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1616890673&linkCode=as2&tag=japanagocom-20"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13359" height="511" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/steel_Die.jpg" title="steel Die" width="500" /></a> <h3>Format</h3> Designers Paul Wagner and Elena Schlenker created an appropriate vehicle for this content and subject. Formal script juxtaposed with all-caps sans type has never looked so good in a book. Similar to Marian Bantjes’ digestibly small <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1580932967/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1580932967&linkCode=as2&tag=japanagocom-20">I Wonder</a>, Collins’s The Complete Engraver is an octavo that one can sit down and read comfortably. Books this size are welcome in design, a field overrun with bloated, oversized tomes best suited to <a href="http://www.subtraction.com/2012/09/12/are-design-books-meant-to-be-read">winning awards and collecting dust</a>. <a class="noborder" href="http://www.fonts.com/browse/promotions/the-complete-engraver"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13355" height="731" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/09/jmc-engraver.png" title="jmc engraver" width="500" /></a> Two companion fonts, both revivals of engraving alphabets, were created by Steve Matteson and Terrance Weinzierl of Monotype. A short study of their process is presented as an appendix. Both fonts can be <a href="http://www.fonts.com/browse/promotions/the-complete-engraver" title="free fonts">downloaded for free</a> from fonts.com. <h3>Conclusion</h3> Covering so much in 216 richly illustrated pages makes The Complete Engraver more of a complete introduction than a comprehensive encyclopedia. But The Complete Engraver is a grand introduction that should ignite further explorations of engraving. Collins herself will no doubt follow with years more writing and speaking. And young designers with a passion for elegance will find plenty of historical inspiration and justification for their work. The Complete Engraver succeeds as a welcome addition to the canon of design history. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616890673/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1616890673&linkCode=as2&tag=japanagocom-20">The Complete Engraver: A Guide to Monograms, Crests, Ciphers, Seals, and the Etiquette and History of Social Stationery</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=japanagocom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1616890673" style="border: none !important; padding: 0; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> ISBN: 978-1-61689-067-4 <a href="http://www.nancysharoncollinsstationer.com/">Nancy Sharon Collins</a> Foreword by Ellen Lupton James studied graphic design at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, DC. He developed a love of typography at the Corcoran and wrote a thesis about the development of versatile typefaces as branding devices. After graduating with honors James decided to pursue type design full-time. In 2009 he started <a href="http://www.dunwichtype.com/">Dunwich Type Founders</a> in New York City.< <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250"><img src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/idlewild-light-fonts.png" /></a> Sponsored by <a href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250">H&FJ</a>. <a href="http://ilovetypography.com/2012/09/24/free-fonts-and-book-review-the-complete-engraver/">The Complete Engraver</a> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=tF-Pm7Rxxbg:ZPXuwZkh6Yc:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=tF-Pm7Rxxbg:ZPXuwZkh6Yc:gIN9vFwOqvQ" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=tF-Pm7Rxxbg:ZPXuwZkh6Yc:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=tF-Pm7Rxxbg:ZPXuwZkh6Yc:F7zBnMyn0Lo" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=tF-Pm7Rxxbg:ZPXuwZkh6Yc:qj6IDK7rITs"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=qj6IDK7rITs" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=tF-Pm7Rxxbg:ZPXuwZkh6Yc:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=tF-Pm7Rxxbg:ZPXuwZkh6Yc:V_sGLiPBpWU" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=tF-Pm7Rxxbg:ZPXuwZkh6Yc:D7DqB2pKExk"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=tF-Pm7Rxxbg:ZPXuwZkh6Yc:D7DqB2pKExk" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=tF-Pm7Rxxbg:ZPXuwZkh6Yc:TzevzKxY174"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=TzevzKxY174" /></a> </div><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ILoveTypography/~4/tF-Pm7Rxxbg" width="1" />

UPDATED: 8 MONTHS

Condensed Typeface Design Program

The <a href="http://coopertype.org/condensed">Condensed Typeface Design Program</a> at the Cooper Union is a five-week-long studio course that at first glance, simply teaches the basics and traditions of typeface design. In reality, it was an amazing and intense summer spent with passionate people immersed in the world of type. During the 12-hour days (with breaks!) we studied type history, calligraphy, different drawing techniques, and learned the process of designing and digitizing a font. Most of the program time was spent on a final project in which each of us created an industry-standard OpenType font. <div id="theDeck-1"></div> This year we were split into two groups, each taught by renowned typeface designers. Group 1 was with Just van Rossum and Hannes Famira; group 2 with <a href="http://typofonderie.com/about/foundry-team/">Jean François Porchez</a> and <a href="http://www.stephaneelbaz.com">Stéphane Elbaz</a>. <a href="http://stonetypefoundry.com/aboutsumnerstone.html">Sumner Stone</a> was on hand with his expertise and knowledge of design history, as were other visiting designers and lecturers who rounded off the course. As a student it was incredibly enriching to be around these luminaries, and the diversity of our peers only enhanced the experience. The 29 students represented 16 different countries; most being graphic designers, and all sharing a passion for typography. Some of us came with the intention of becoming typeface designers, while others wanted to better understand type to become better designers. Experience levels were across the board: some had never drawn letters before, while others had published multi-weight typefaces. <div class="img-caption-overlay"><a href="http://ilovetypography.com/"><img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/08/cooper-type-condensed.jpg" title="cooper-type-condensed" /></a> <div class="caption-overlay">Left: Critique session with Erik Van Blokland. Right: Class with Just Van Rossum.</div> </div> The Final Project At our final presentations on the last day, we each introduced our completed typeface and talked about the journey we took to get there. Despite everyone beginning the course the same way, we all were pleasantly surprised to see the variety of work. Projects ranged from revivals based on tombstone lettering, to traditional Baskerville-inspired faces, to beautifully ornate display type, to text families with 7 weights geared towards publications. Some had created a bold version to accompany their font, while others created a sans accompaniment. Knowing how much time and effort we put into our work, each and every one of us was proud of the results. <div class="img-caption-overlay"><a href="http://ilovetypography.com"><img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/08/condensed-type-design-sample1.png" title="condensed-type-design-sample" /></a> <div class="caption-overlay">Just five of the many typefaces. Clockwise from top left: Barapa by Etienne Aubert Bonn; Moriarty by Kevin Paolozzi; Cancellarecta by Lara Captan; Cumulus by Laura Coombs; Robin by Sian Binder.</div> </div> How We Got There Before we started on our final font design, the instructors put us through the following course of exercises aimed at teaching us the ins and outs of letterforms, their traditions and history, the rules of construction (and how to modify them), and how to critique our works in progress. Calligraphy During the first days we did not touch a computer, but instead kicked things off with an introduction to calligraphy. We began with the broad-nib pen, focusing on correct construction of the letterforms, a process that helped us understand the proportions of each letter and why they look the way they do. Group 1 also worked on italics and how they differ from roman shapes, while Group 2 worked on Carolingian and Renaissance models before moving on to tracing the letters, then modifying the outlines and creating new forms. <div class="img-caption-overlay"><a href="http://ilovetypography.com/"><img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/08/calligraphy.jpg" title="calligraphy" /></a> <div class="caption-overlay">Left: Chalk Calligraphy. Right: Chavelli’s Calligraphy.</div> </div> Understanding Serifs Using selected letters to base our alphabet on, we worked on refining them by hand (again, based on broad-nib pen strokes) and adding serifs. After focusing on medium contrast forms, we moved on to low contrast then high contrast forms which taught us the relationship between serifs and letter strokes. Sketching & Exploring When it came time to consider our final project, some people had ideas for the direction they wanted to go in, but others were open to ideas and were encouraged to sketch and seek inspiration for their final project (or use TypeCooker!). For some that meant looking at found letters and developing a full font based on those forms; and for others it meant applying a strict set of rules and a concept to drawing new letters. There were a variety of approaches and sources of inspiration. <div class="img-caption-overlay"><a href="http://ilovetypography.com"><img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/08/draw-trace.jpg" title="draw-trace" /></a> <div class="caption-overlay">Left: Ron’s Carolingian Calligraphy. Right: Ron’s tracing.</div> </div> We were taught to approach a typeface design by first experimenting, drawing by hand, searching for the right forms, and only then, when the design is cohesive and consistent, go to the computer. Instructors showed us Gerrit Noordzij’s approach to sketching letters, a method more efficient than drawing outlines first, as the focus is more on form and contrast from the outset. Digitizing After a quick FontLab tutorial we were expected to dive straight in, scan our precise sketches and move to drawing bezier curves instead of pencil lines. We had wonderful TA’s to help and answer questions, they themselves having gone through the same learning process as they were students in the <a href="http://coopertype.org/extended/" title="typeface font design education">Extended Type@Cooper program</a>. The fonts were all digitized and perfected using the program of our choice. We learned how to use <a href="http://www.fontlab.com" title="fontlab font editor">Fontlab</a>, but <a href="http://doc.robofont.com" title="robofont font editor">RoboFont</a> and <a href="http://glyphsapp.com" title="Glyphs app font editor software">Glyphs</a> were other options too. <div class="img-caption-overlay"><a href="http://ilovetypography.com/" name="SumChez"><img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/08/fontlab-stone-porchez.jpg" title="fontlab-stone-porchez" /></a> <div class="caption-overlay">Left: Ron’s proofs & comments. Right: Sumner Stone & Jean François Porchez. (best caption wins a copy of <a href="http://ilovetypography.com/2012/08/05/inside-paragraphs-book-review-cyrus-highsmith/" title="Inside paragraphs by cyrus highsmith">Inside Paragraphs</a> — seriously.)</div> </div> Critiques & Lectures Our daily studio sessions were supplemented with guest critiques and lectures. The first night featured a type design panel moderated by <a href="http://elupton.com">Ellen Lupton</a>; <a href="http://coopertype.org/faculty/allanhaley">Allan Haley</a> and <a href="http://www.letterror.com">Erik van Blokland</a> lectured in later weeks, along with Valerie Lester, who spoke in depth about Bodoni (the person, not the typeface) and really brought him to life. There were also intimate group critique sessions with Erik in week four, as he evaluated the progress of our typefaces and gave us tips on spacing. <a href="http://occupant.org">Cyrus Highsmith</a> critiqued our work in the final week as our typefaces were coming together for the final presentation. <div class="img-caption-overlay"><a href="http://ilovetypography.com/"><img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/08/19_Hannes-plus-wall.jpg" title="19_Hannes-plus-wall" /></a> <div class="caption-overlay">Left: Class with Hannes Famira. Right: Zeynep’s Wall.</div> </div> Library Visits & Type History Talks Every Friday gave us a little break from studio time with field trips to rare books libraries. Sumner Stone shared his invaluable knowledge of typographic history from the Gutenberg Bible through to the present in our visits to the New York Public Library, Columbia University’s Butler Library, as well as the Grolier Club. During the week, 45 minutes were dedicated to learning about the evolution of letters all the way back from cuneiform, further bolstering our type education. Conclusion All in all the program was fantastic. We won’t lie and say it was easy, as it required a huge amount of focus and dedication. Sleep and socializing took second place as we devoted our attention to perfecting curves and tweaking serifs. Most of us would come home from 12-hour days of class only to spend a few more hours working on our typefaces. We did the same on weekends. It was a fun experience though, and at the final presentation, the fruits of our hard labor were clear and most certainly worth it. The energy and dynamic of the people involved (students as well as instructors) was really inspiring, and we were all incredibly sad to see the course come to a close. While five weeks is not enough time to learn everything about type design, this course makes the most of that time and does a great job of jumpstarting things. Anyone looking to enhance their graphic design knowledge or get into the world of typeface design would definitely benefit from this course. The program is now in its second year and is still evolving, so we guess it will only get even better. Special Thanks We’d like to thank Cara Di Edwardo, the coordinator of the program; our teachers Just van Rossum, Hannes Famira, Jean François Porchez, Stéphane Elbaz and Sumner Stone; and all the great students that we got to meet and work with during the program. Text & images by <a href="http://kishkoosh.com/">Ron Gilad</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/chavellitsui">Chavelli Tsui</a>. <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250"><img src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/idlewild-light-fonts.png" /></a> Sponsored by <a href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250">H&FJ</a>. <a href="http://ilovetypography.com/2012/08/24/condensed-typeface-design-program/">Condensed Typeface Design Program</a> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=B63tLx0T19Y:O_eUNgaXMJg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=B63tLx0T19Y:O_eUNgaXMJg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=B63tLx0T19Y:O_eUNgaXMJg:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=B63tLx0T19Y:O_eUNgaXMJg:F7zBnMyn0Lo" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=B63tLx0T19Y:O_eUNgaXMJg:qj6IDK7rITs"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=qj6IDK7rITs" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=B63tLx0T19Y:O_eUNgaXMJg:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=B63tLx0T19Y:O_eUNgaXMJg:V_sGLiPBpWU" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=B63tLx0T19Y:O_eUNgaXMJg:D7DqB2pKExk"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=B63tLx0T19Y:O_eUNgaXMJg:D7DqB2pKExk" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=B63tLx0T19Y:O_eUNgaXMJg:TzevzKxY174"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=TzevzKxY174" /></a> </div><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ILoveTypography/~4/B63tLx0T19Y" width="1" />

UPDATED: 9 MONTHS

Space: The Initial Frontier

Book review — Inside Paragraphs I have long admired <a href="http://www.fontbureau.com/people/CyrusHighsmith/" title="cyrus highsmith biography font bureau">Cyrus Highsmith</a>, both for his type design (Benton Sans, Prensa, Zócalo, & many besides) and his wonderfully unique style of illustration and lettering. In his debut book, <a href="http://insideparagraphs.com">Inside Paragraphs: typographic fundamentals</a>, he brings both of these talents to bear on a single topic, the paragraph. The book might alternatively have been titled ‘Space: the initial frontier’ for its principal focus is what goes on inside — not a book, not a page, but — a single paragraph of text — and as what goes on inside is mostly space, white space, or negative space, it is the ideal starting point for an introduction to the craft of setting type, to typography. <a class="noborder" href="http://insideparagraphs.com"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13195" height="375" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/08/12_13-500x375.jpg" title="Inside paragraphs cyrus highsmith" width="500" /></a> Usually I dislike books that are wider than they are tall. I find them uncomfortable to hold for extended periods of reading. However, Inside Paragraphs works despite its backwards proportions: it is light and perfect bound, happily folding back on itself for single-handed reading. The typography is simple and precise: Ibis Text plus Scout (both by Highsmith), generous margins, white space aplenty, beautiful and practical illustrations. The writing is informal, incisive, and fluid; the tone never condescending. Inside Paragraphs is a TARDIS of a book, its 100 pages peppered with gems like, <blockquote>‘Setting type can be thought of as a collaboration between the typographer and the typeface.’</blockquote> phrases like ‘hierarchy of white space’, plus practical advice about everything from optimal and optimum parameters for H&J, and why all-caps settings require more space. <a class="noborder" href="http://insideparagraphs.com"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13196" height="375" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/08/18_19-500x375.jpg" title="inside paragraphs by cyrus highsmith" width="500" /></a> Too often introductory texts fail the reader by trying to cover too many topics superficially — like a whistle-stop tour of some great city, where you’ll be sure to see all the sites, but learn little of any substance about them. Highsmith might easily have expanded each section by tens of pages, but the book is all the better for its brevity and his abstemiousness. To write more about this book would demand spoiler alerts, so I will wrap it up here in, appropriately enough, a single paragraph: Inside Paragraphs should be required reading for everyone who studies typography and graphic design. It will also be of interest to anyone else wondering why typography matters. It costs about three Venti Iced Peppermint White Chocolate Mochas ($15). Buy it. <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250"><img src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/idlewild-light-fonts.png" /></a> Sponsored by <a href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250">H&FJ</a>. <a href="http://ilovetypography.com/2012/08/05/inside-paragraphs-book-review-cyrus-highsmith/">Space: The Initial Frontier</a> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=i1OqLSMC1X4:_NjhYGt7XxM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=i1OqLSMC1X4:_NjhYGt7XxM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=i1OqLSMC1X4:_NjhYGt7XxM:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=i1OqLSMC1X4:_NjhYGt7XxM:F7zBnMyn0Lo" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=i1OqLSMC1X4:_NjhYGt7XxM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=qj6IDK7rITs" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=i1OqLSMC1X4:_NjhYGt7XxM:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=i1OqLSMC1X4:_NjhYGt7XxM:V_sGLiPBpWU" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=i1OqLSMC1X4:_NjhYGt7XxM:D7DqB2pKExk"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=i1OqLSMC1X4:_NjhYGt7XxM:D7DqB2pKExk" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=i1OqLSMC1X4:_NjhYGt7XxM:TzevzKxY174"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=TzevzKxY174" /></a> </div><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ILoveTypography/~4/i1OqLSMC1X4" width="1" />

UPDATED: 9 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS

The Week in Type

Closing your eyes to see, covering your ears to hear It has been a while since my last roundup, so buckle up. For those interested, I recently moved 4322.8 km (2686.06 miles) from my home in Japan to my new home in Vietnam. After nine wonderful years in Japan, it was time to move on. The other day I read an interview with my friend and too-infrequent chess partner, <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/24/3177332/ia-oliver-reichenstein-writer-interview-good-design-is-invisible">Oliver Reichenstein</a>, who pretty much describes my own feelings on reaching Japan. <blockquote>Arriving in Japan without any knowledge of the language, I lived in a world without words, where, almost like a baby, I had to learn everything from scratch. I think the experience of being illiterate and then slowly growing back into society has made me a better designer. When you can’t read or write and you need to interpret everything you encounter by deciphering visual clues, you begin to understand how things and people function behind the words…it was a magnificent training in basic interface phenomenology.</blockquote> I felt the very same way coming to Japan, and feel the same kind of naive wonder as an ‘illiterate’ newcomer to Vietnam. That’s quite enough about me; let’s move on to more important matters: Rather than wear your heart on your sleeve, why not wear some of <a href="http://tattly.com/">these</a> — wherever: <a class="noborder" href="http://tattly.com/collections/all/typographic"><img alt="" class="noborder" height="257" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/tattly-typographic-lettering.png" title="tattly-typographic-lettering" width="500" /></a> See all of the <a href="http://tattly.com/collections/all/typographic">‘typographic’ Tattly.</a> An enormous and beautiful collection of <a href="http://www.markerstage.at/fensterzeichen/index.html">Viennese Façades</a>: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.markerstage.at/fensterzeichen/index.html"><img alt="" class="padb" height="345" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/vienese-storefronts.jpg" title="vienese-storefronts" width="481" /></a> Via @<a href="http://twitter.com/swissmiss">swissmiss</a> <h3>New fonts</h3> <a href="http://www.typonine.com/fonts/font-library/thema/" title="Thema fonts">Thema</a> from Typonine, the beautiful un-stenciled version of <a href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/typonine/ty-stencil/" title="Typonine Stencil fonts">Typonine Stencil</a>. I can see these two teaming up particularly well for editorial design. <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typonine.com/fonts/font-library/thema/"><img alt="" class="noborder" height="500" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/thema-specimen.png" title="thema fonts specimen" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://www.typography.com/fonts/font_overview.php?productLineID=100043" title="idlewild fonts">Idlewild</a>, a new all-caps sans from H&FJ: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typography.com/fonts/font_overview.php?productLineID=100043"><img alt="" class="noborder" height="500" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/idlewild1.png" title="idlewild fonts from h and fj" width="500" /></a> TypeManufactur’s wonderful revival of Georg Salden’s <a href="http://www.typemanufactur.com/eng/index.html" title="daphne fonts">Daphne</a> typeface of the same name: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typemanufactur.com/eng/index.html"><img alt="" class="noborder" height="253" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/daphne-fonts.jpg" title="daphne-fonts" width="500" /></a> <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typemanufactur.com/eng/index.html"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13155" height="200" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/Daphne.gif" title="Daphne" width="500" /></a> Replete with numerous alternate glyphs and calligraphic swashes. Related: An interview with Georg Salden over at <a href="http://www.typeradio.org/loudblog/index.php?cat=Salden,Georg">Typeradio</a>. Following up on the huge success of <a href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/hvdfonts/pluto/" title="pluto font family">Pluto</a>, <a href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/hvdfonts/pluto-sans/" title="pluto sans fonts">Pluto Sans</a>: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/hvdfonts/pluto-sans/"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13136" height="209" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/pluto-sans1.png" title="pluto-sans fonts" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://commercialtype.com/typefaces/atlas/grotesk" title="atlas grotesk fonts from commercial type">Atlas Grotesk</a> by Kai Bernau, Susana Carvalho, and Christian Schwartz of Commercial Type: <a class="noborder" href="http://commercialtype.com/typefaces/atlas/grotesk"><img alt="" class="noborder" height="554" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/atlas-grotesk-fonts1.png" title="atlas-grotesk-fonts" width="500" /></a> The delicious <a href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/filmotype/zephyr/" title="filmotype zephyr fonts from ale paul">Filmotype Zephyr</a> from Ale Paul: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/filmotype/zephyr/"><img alt="" class="noborder" height="234" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/Screen-Shot-2012-07-28-at-5.56.23-PM-500x234.png" title="Screen Shot 2012-07-28 at 5.56.23 PM" width="500" /></a> <h3>Inspired</h3> Really enjoyed Stephen Coles’s <a href="https://vimeo.com/42992621">Chromeography talk</a> for Creative Mornings: <a href="http://vimeo.com/42992621">Creative Morning Berlin #10: Stephen Coles</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/berlincm">CreativeMornings/Berlin</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>. And be sure to visit <a href="http://chromeography.com">chromeography.com</a> <a class="noborder" href="http://chromeography.com"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13133" height="370" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/Screen-Shot-2012-07-28-at-5.27.26-PM-500x370.png" title="chromeography.com" width="500" /></a> Celebrating <a href="http://new.pentagram.com/2012/05/the-forty-story/" title="40 years of Pentagram">40 years of Pentagram</a>. Beautifully done: <a href="http://vimeo.com/42562659">The Forty Story</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user3163512">Pentagram</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>. Support <a href="http://www.uppercasemagazine.com/typewriter/">Uppercase</a> Magazine’s crowd-funded homage to the typewriter, <a href="http://www.uppercasemagazine.com/typewriter/">The Typewriter: a Graphic History of the Beloved Machine.</a> <a href="https://vimeo.com/43023483">Spirograph</a>, the animated typeface: <a href="http://vimeo.com/43023483">Spirograph Promo</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/animography">Animography</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>. More about the project at <a href="http://www.animography.net/">animography.net</a> <a href="http://www.erikmarinovich.com">Erik Marinovich</a>’s work is brilliant: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.erikmarinovich.com"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13128" height="370" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/Screen-Shot-2012-07-28-at-5.11.55-PM-500x370.png" title="erik marinovich letterer and designer" width="500" /></a> Nice use of Kris Sowersby’s <a href="http://klim.co.nz/blog/leaf-on-bold-street/">Karbon Slab Stencil</a> for bar and tea shop, Leaf on Bold St. <a class="noborder" href="http://klim.co.nz/blog/leaf-on-bold-street/"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13124" height="309" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/Karbon-Slab-Stencil-Leaf-03.jpg" title="Karbon-Slab-Stencil-Leaf" width="500" /></a> Still some of Seb Lester’s <a href="http://www.keepcalmgallery.com/new/slbedblue.htm">So Much To Do</a> prints available: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.keepcalmgallery.com/new/slbedblue.htm"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13148" height="336" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/so-much-to-do.jpg" title="so-much-to-do" width="500" /></a> Thoroughly enjoying Nina Stössinger’s <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninastoessinger/sets/72157629933739982/with/7286487070/">type sketches</a> — a number of them based on <a href="http://typecooker.com/">TypeCooker</a> recipes: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninastoessinger/sets/72157629933739982/with/7286487070/"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13141" height="358" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/nina-type-sketches.jpg" title="nina-type-sketches" width="500" /></a> <h3>Type sites</h3> The brilliant resource that is <a href="http://fontsinuse.com/">Fonts in Use</a> is now open to the public. Now anyone can now add to the archives. What are you waiting for you? <a class="noborder" href="http://fontsinuse.com/"><img alt="" height="295" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/Screen-Shot-2012-07-26-at-3.33.09-PM-500x295.png" title="new fonts in use" width="500" /></a> Lovely redesigned portfolio site of <a href="http://www.jblt.co/v2/">Jean-Baptiste Levée</a>: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.jblt.co/v2/"><img alt="" class="noborder" height="326" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/Screen-Shot-2012-07-25-at-3.51.41-PM-500x326.png" title="JBL" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://www.gridsetapp.com">Gridset</a> app is looking very good. Be sure to sign up for the beta. <a class="noborder" href="http://www.gridsetapp.com"><img alt="" height="370" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/Screen-Shot-2012-07-28-at-4.16.37-PM-500x370.png" title="gridset app" width="500" /></a> Some good work from the <a href="http://typemedia2012.com">Type & Media</a> Masters students, class of 2012: <a class="noborder" href="http://typemedia2012.com"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13126" height="370" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/Screen-Shot-2012-07-28-at-5.09.11-PM-500x370.png" title="type and media 2012" width="500" /></a> Experiment with and combine over 23,000 web fonts with the <a href="http://beta.typecastapp.com">Typecast</a> app. <a class="noborder" href="http://beta.typecastapp.com"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13168" height="381" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/Screen-Shot-2012-07-29-at-12.42.30-PM-500x381.png" title="typecast app" width="500" /></a> Frank Blokland’s <a href="http://www.lettermodel.org">blog</a> accompanying his PhD research at Leiden University. Harmonics, Patterns, and Dynamics in Formal Typographic Representations of the Latin Script: <a class="noborder" href="http://www.lettermodel.org"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13180" height="381" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/Screen-Shot-2012-07-29-at-2.04.59-PM-500x381.png" title="Screen Shot 2012-07-29 at 2.04.59 PM" width="500" /></a> <h3>Type books</h3> I have high hopes for this book, and have ordered two: <a href="http://insideparagraphs.com/">Inside Paragraphs: Typographic Fundamentals</a>, a new title from Cyrus Highsmith. <a class="noborder" href="http://insideparagraphs.com/"><img alt="" height="375" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/22_23-500x375.jpg" title="Inside Paragraphs by Cyrus Highsmith" width="500" /></a> Perhaps it could become the typography primer. Read <a href="http://imprint.printmag.com/paul-shaw/inside-cyrus-highsmiths-new-book-a-typographic-classic-in-the-making/" title="paul shaw’s review of inside paragraphs book by cyrus highsmith">Paul Shaw’s review</a> over at Print Mag. <blockquote>In roughly 100 spreads, Highsmith explains the fundamentals of typography by focusing exclusively on one thing: white space. — Paul Shaw</blockquote> A new book from a brand new publisher: Lazy Dog offers Luca Barcellona’s <a href="http://lazydog.eu">Take Your Pleasure Seriously</a> for pre-order. Books ships in October. <a href="http://lazydog.eu"><img alt="" height="365" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/luca-barcellona-book.jpg" title="luca-barcellona-book" width="500" /></a> And it looks as though <a href="http://codexmag.com">Codex magazine</a> had a small part to play: <blockquote>I had been following Luca Barcellona for a couple of years, ever since I’d discovered him, almost by chance, online; I was struck by his hand and its expressive, determined naturalness. Each new work fascinated me more and more. And then, late in the spring of 2011, I bought the first issue of Codex, a new American [sic] typography magazine that featured an interview with him as well as a piece of his on the cover. When his interviewer asked if he’d ever thought about publishing a book of his work he replied that, to date, he hadn’t received any good offers… That’s when lightening struck, and I realized that was the road I had to take.</blockquote> <a class="noborder" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592537669/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=japanagocom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1592537669">Stop, Think, Go, Do: How Typography and Graphic Design Influence Behavior</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=japanagocom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1592537669" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by Steven Heller and Mirko Ili?: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592537669/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=japanagocom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1592537669"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13113" height="503" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/typography-and-graphic-design.jpg" title="typography-and-graphic-design" width="500" /></a> <h3>Bookmarks</h3> <ul style="margin-bottom: 1.5em;"> <li>New and <a href="http://blog.typekit.com/2012/07/19/new-improved-embed-code/">improved embedding code</a> for Typekit.</li> <li>An <a href="https://www.fontfont.com/news/interview-with-nick-shinn" title="interview with nick shinn">interview</a> with Nick Shinn.</li> <li>A new design podcast from Matt McInerney (Pentagram) and friends: <a href="http://onthegrid.co">On the Grid</a>. Also available on <a href="">iTunes</a>.</li> <li><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/nadine-chahine/cern-comic-sans-a-time-and-a-place-for-ty_b_1650339.html" title="Nadine Chahine typography">A Time and a Place for Typography?</a></li> <li><a href="http://opentype.info/blog/2012/06/27/logo-font-indesign/">Generating a logo font</a> in InDesign.</li> <li><a href="http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/responsive-typography/">How To Maintain Readable Type</a> In Responsive Design.</li> <li>Monotype Imaging: <a href="http://monotypeimaging.com/ProductsServices/TypeEnhancementsAndroid.aspx">Type Enhancements for Android.</a></li> <li>Ministry of Type: <a href="http://ministryoftype.co.uk/words/article/typographic_rhythm/">Typographic Rhythm.</a></li> <li>A new <a href="http://blog.fontdeck.com/post/23601339698/body-text-tester">body text tester</a> from Fontdeck.</li> <li>Event: two-day <a href="http://www.typographichub.org/diary/entry/industry-and-genius-in-the-printing-trade/">printing history conference</a>, 4-5 September 2012.</li> <li>Benefits of <a href="http://blog.webink.com/benefits-of-using-import-and-tags-for-web-fonts/">using @import and tags for web fonts.</a></li> <li>An interview with type designer, <a href="http://www.camcreative.net/2012/05/31/qa-with-jeremy-tankard-talking-typefaces-follow-up/">Jeremy Tankard</a>.</li> <li>How to Explain <a href="http://www.commarts.com/Columns.aspx?pub=5566&pageid=1595">Why Typography Matters.</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.roughtype.com/?p=1615">Reading with Oprah.</a></li> <li>H&FJ: <a href="http://www.typography.com/ask/showBlog.php?kwID=142&blogID=25">Books as furniture.</a></li> <li>Kindle: <a href="http://dailyexhaust.com/2012/06/improved-reading-experience-no.html">Improved reading experience?</a> No.</li> <li>Trent Walton: <a href="http://trentwalton.com/2012/06/19/fluid-type/">Fluid Type.</a></li> <li>Typedia: <a href="http://typedia.com/blog/post/type-news-tall-bold-slugger-set-vivid/" title="typedia type news">Tall Bold Slugger Set Vivid.</a></li> </ul> Issue #2 of <a href="http://codexmag.com">Codex magazine</a> is coming next month (August). We have settled on a twice a year publishing schedule. Issue #3 will be available in March 2013. <a href="http://codexmag.com"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13119" height="647" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/codex-magazine-issue-2.png" title="codex-magazine-issue-2" width="500" /></a> Sign up to the infrequent <a href="http://codexmag.com">newsletter</a> to learn more. ILT will be five years old come August 8. How shall we celebrate? Any favorite or memorable moments? Hope you enjoyed this edition of <a href="http://ilovetypography.com/category/the-week-in-type/" title="typography and font news from i love typography">the week in type</a>. Have a stupendously great weekend. <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250"><img src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/idlewild-light-fonts.png" /></a> Sponsored by <a href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250">H&FJ</a>. <a href="http://ilovetypography.com/2012/07/29/the-week-in-type/">The Week in Type</a> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=c8yoV5JcGx0:GX-socir2Mo:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=c8yoV5JcGx0:GX-socir2Mo:gIN9vFwOqvQ" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=c8yoV5JcGx0:GX-socir2Mo:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=c8yoV5JcGx0:GX-socir2Mo:F7zBnMyn0Lo" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=c8yoV5JcGx0:GX-socir2Mo:qj6IDK7rITs"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=qj6IDK7rITs" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=c8yoV5JcGx0:GX-socir2Mo:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=c8yoV5JcGx0:GX-socir2Mo:V_sGLiPBpWU" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=c8yoV5JcGx0:GX-socir2Mo:D7DqB2pKExk"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=c8yoV5JcGx0:GX-socir2Mo:D7DqB2pKExk" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=c8yoV5JcGx0:GX-socir2Mo:TzevzKxY174"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=TzevzKxY174" /></a> </div><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ILoveTypography/~4/c8yoV5JcGx0" width="1" />

UPDATED: 9 MONTHS, 4 WEEKS

An Interview with Stéphane Elbaz

Stéphane Elbaz is graphic and type designer working in New York and Paris. In 2009 he was awarded the Certificate of Excellence in Type Design from the Type Directors Club of New York for his type family <a href="http://typofonderie.com/fonts/geneo-family/">Geneo</a>, recently published by Typofonderie. He is the first typeface designer from outside the foundry to be published by Typofonderie. <div id="theDeck-1"></div> <h3>How do you define yourself?</h3> I am a designer. I intend to solve problems with aesthetic solutions, but at the same time develop a personal expression. It’s this gap that I find interesting. My taste for letters appeared really early in my life, during my teenage years. At that time it wasn’t properly an interest in type, but certainly a taste for letters as plastic shapes. Going to the Arts Décoratifs school in Paris led me to discover classic typography. How could one not to be nostalgic when contemplating those school years? It’s very important for me because of how much I learned during these years. Classes with <a href="http://www.rudi-meyer.com/">Rudi Meyer</a> and Jean François Porchez gave me the context and the latitude to look at the subject with a more experimental way of thinking. <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/StephaneElbazInterview_Stephane_and_JeanFrancois_BW1.jpg" title="Stephane Elbaz and Jean Francois" /> It was during the type design courses lead by Jean François Porchez that I was involved in the creation of the <a href="http://porchez.com/ateliertypo/155">Caffeine</a> and <a href="http://porchez.com/ateliertypo/119/CookerBlacksemaine8finale">Cooker Black</a> typefaces. This was clearly an important starting point for me; I don’t know if I would have been brave enough to involve myself in rigorous typographic projects without this first step. Thus letters for me became the dominant element of my graphic design. Type design is a discipline that requires a taste for abstraction plus a systematic mind — two things that fit well with my professional mindset. <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/StephaneElbazInterview_caffeine_cookerblack.jpg" title="StephaneElbazInterview_caffeine_cookerblack" /> <h3>You do both web design and type design, which is pretty rare. How does this affect how you work?</h3> Concerning my web design skills, it’s a question I should ask of my colleagues. I don’t know if working with headlines devoid of kerning, or the inability to set a nicely ragged left paragraph is more difficult for me to live with than it is for others. I do, however, have good reasons to be optimistic. Things are evolving more quickly and always improving. The future will bring with it more and more screens and resolutions, and it is important that the typographic quality on these devices improves accordingly. I think what has occurred on the Internet for some years is a perfect illustration of the importance of typography in graphic design. The capacity to use a large font palette, in comparison to the three or four standards that were used for dynamic texts, changes everything, and permits designers to express different identities. <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/4fb2767e47d321.14862674.png" title="Geneo fonts" /> Beyond the technical constraints of various screens, I don’t think there is any fundamental difference between the content presented on a screen or on paper — in much the same way as I don’t think that twitter or text messages radically changes our language. After all, it’s the graphic designer that has to choose the typefaces appropriate to the subject, and deal with technical constraints with a broader focus than just the screen or the piece of paper. <h3>Why did you leave France to live and work in New York? From there, what can you say about type design in the United States and in France?</h3> I like the charm of tiny cities. Seriously though, the United States is a big country and therefore has a great diversity of expression. There is certainly a tone in American graphic design that is quite different; the references are not exactly the same as in France. It seems, for instance, that the idea of tradition and the images associated with it are not the same in Paris and New York. The shapes and the imaginative world of tradition are an important foundation upon which type designers work, thus there are going to be differences in the type aesthetic. <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/Screen-Shot-2012-07-14-at-3.37.59-PM.png" title="Geneo Bold New York" /> <h3>What is the genesis of your typeface, Geneo?</h3> Geneo was a personal project that I began without thinking of a context or a specific use. I was attracted to slab serifs and began drawing a really thin weight, a little like a typewriter character, but with some kind of Renaissance spirit. I think that I was trying to find an anachronistic mix that actually worked. I was also fond of the brush-made flourish shapes of the Art Nouveau period, and I was particularly inspired by them. All of these elements combined could feel a bit heavy, but my idea was to make a contemporary character where the shapes had to be synthetic while at the same time retaining some flesh, some of the organic. <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/StephaneElbazInterview_ensad2004_01.jpg" title="StephaneElbazInterview_ensad2004_01" /> Geneo won the <a href="http://tdc.org/">TDC</a> prize back in 2009, and today it is distributed by Typofonderie, although it’s not exactly the same typeface. Its original identity remains intact, but it had to evolve to conform with the foundry’s standards. This meant a lot of work, but I benefitted from the guidance and exceptional eye of Jean François Porchez. We worked together on both the design of each particular glyph’s details as well as the weight scale of the entire family. Time was also spent designing dingbats and alternative glyphs. <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/07/Screen-Shot-2012-07-14-at-3.49.36-PM.png" title="Geneo Thin" /> I believe that this new typeface family permits a great diversity of uses. The lighter weights used in headlines can convey both a delicatessen or a piece of literature. The intermediate weights can be used to set body text in an academic journal or in the logo of a new social network. We imagine the heavier weights being used on posters or in editorial design. The family as a whole can also be used in works needing a complex typographic hierarchy. Also, I think that in the context of a rational and minimal text layout, Geneo can add a connotative dimension, a level of contrast. For me, an even more exciting prospect is to see my typeface appear in ways that I couldn’t have envisaged. It’s from other graphic designers’ creations that I am waiting to see new and interesting interpretations. <h3>Can you share something about the new typefaces you are working on?</h3> I have a few things in progress, which I think is often the case with type designers; having several typeface ideas in the back of their minds. What determines if a typeface will one day be completed and released or not is the relevancy of its shapes and its identity. Some others will never be finished because they are shaky in their concept or just not original. I currently have a sans-serif project that I would like to finish. Unfortunately, it’s a category that already appears saturated and therefore is particularly challenging, but nonetheless stimulating. Interview by <a href="https://twitter.com/jjjlllnnn">Jérémy Landes-Nones.</a> Graphic and type designer Stephane Elbaz holds degrees in Visual Communication (2003) and Interactive Research (2004) from the <a href="http://www.ensad.fr/">École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs.</a> In 2009 he was awarded the Certificate of Excellence in Type Design from the Type Directors Club of New York for his type family Geneo (published by Typofonderie). He works in New York and Paris. <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250"><img src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/idlewild-light-fonts.png" /></a> Sponsored by <a href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250">H&FJ</a>. <a href="http://ilovetypography.com/2012/07/17/interview-with-font-designer-stephane-elbaz/">An Interview with Stéphane Elbaz</a> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=QNAIhoEdG8o:l84A2uutjnM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=QNAIhoEdG8o:l84A2uutjnM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=QNAIhoEdG8o:l84A2uutjnM:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=QNAIhoEdG8o:l84A2uutjnM:F7zBnMyn0Lo" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=QNAIhoEdG8o:l84A2uutjnM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=qj6IDK7rITs" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=QNAIhoEdG8o:l84A2uutjnM:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=QNAIhoEdG8o:l84A2uutjnM:V_sGLiPBpWU" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=QNAIhoEdG8o:l84A2uutjnM:D7DqB2pKExk"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=QNAIhoEdG8o:l84A2uutjnM:D7DqB2pKExk" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=QNAIhoEdG8o:l84A2uutjnM:TzevzKxY174"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=TzevzKxY174" /></a> </div><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ILoveTypography/~4/QNAIhoEdG8o" width="1" />

UPDATED: 10 MONTHS, 1 WEEK

Krul & the untold history of the ‘Amsterdamse Krulletter’

<div id="theDeck-1"></div> In a way, my research into the ‘Amsterdamse Krulletter’ (Amsterdam’s Curly Letter) began eight years ago as I was walking down the streets of what is possibly the city’s most beautiful district, the Jordaan. As every local knows, this area hosts quite a few of the old, traditional pubs that the locals call ‘bruin cafés’ (brown cafés). In urban environments, type designers are always looking at letters, and especially at hand-painted ones. It didn’t take me very long to notice that many of the pubs in the area had their windows painted in a very interesting and beautifully executed script. Later I discovered they had been painted throughout other parts of Amsterdam too, notably also in the De Pijp area. <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/05/image-01.jpg" title="image-01" /> Upon closer inspection of the letters painted on the windows and wooden panels, it was obvious that the style was very consistent. Leaving aside the natural variations you would expect from work done by hand, each letter had a defined design that had been strictly followed every time. Interestingly, this mysterious script was unknown to me. I could tell it had influences from seventeenth-century Dutch penmanship, but it also differed in many ways from the handwriting that Jan van den Velde, Felix van Sambix, and Cornelis Boissens — among others — had published in their writing manuals. <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/05/image-02.jpg" title="image-02" /> I started asking Dutch colleagues about this pub lettering tradition, but no one had much information about its authors or origins. It is true that almost without exception every ‘connoisseur’ of good lettering who took a look at them immediately expressed admiration, but the specialized press and Dutch design authors had never seriously taken this tradition into consideration. <a href="http://www.pietschreuders.com/">Piet Schreuders</a>’s groundbreaking essay ‘Lay in - Lay out’, first published in 1977, had dedicated two separate chapters to two of the most representative and original of Amsterdams’s vernacular letters: the ‘Bruggenletter’ and the almost extinct ‘Spiegelglas’ letter. However, there is not a single mention in the book of pub lettering, which at that time would have been omnipresent. In a more recent example, the 2008 photography book ‘<a href="http://www.mimoa.eu/blog/?p=416">Amsterdam in letters</a>’ by Marteen Helle, features numerous examples of fine Amsterdam lettering, but, again, the ‘Krulletter’ is absent. It was only in 1983 that the trade magazine, ‘Grafisch Nederland’ published an issue including an article entitled ‘Kijk! Letters!’ (Look! Letters!), with pictures of several pub facades bearing the style along with an interview with Leo Beukeboom, one of the two people responsible for painting it. Nevertheless, the article focused more on the most general and everyday aspects of Mr. Beukeboom’s work, and it failed to delve any deeper into the origins of his most celebrated letters and what may have influenced them. The fact that such gorgeous and original letters have largely been ignored in a country with such a rich type- and letter-making tradition reminds me of the plot of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous story “The Purloined Letter”. In the story, an important document cannot be found because it is lying in plain sight. Sometimes things can become invisible to us because of their very familiarity. I have mentioned the name of Leo Beukeboom. This talented and prolific sign painter, responsible for many of the best ‘Krulletter’ that still can be found in Amsterdam and neighbouring cities, began painting them in 1967 when he was hired by the Heineken Brewery to be its in-house letter painter and to provide services to the pubs sponsored by the firm. But the history of the style goes back further than that. It was created by the sign painter Jan Willem Visser (Amsterdam, 1911-1987) who from the early 50s to 1968 worked for the Amstel Brewery (the company was sold to Heineken that same year, almost at the same time as Leo Beukeboom began painting the style for Heineken). <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/06/image-04.jpg" title="image-04" /></a> Jan Willem Visser was the son of Johannes Visser, another letter painter, and he was very gifted and highly respected by his colleagues, but his story has never been properly told. He learned the trade from his father, and in 1941 he opened his own workshop in Da Costakade street. At its peak it was one of the biggest in Amsterdam, with 24 employees. <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/06/image-05.jpg" title="image-05" /> Numerous images kept in the Amsterdam Photographic Archives show that by the early 50s Mr. Visser had already painted the ‘Krulletter’ in many bars in a manner almost identical to the one that still can be found today. For a long time I wondered what exactly had influenced him. His capital letters were undoubtedly inspired by one particular plate published in the second volume of “Spieghel der Schrijfkonste” (1605), Jan van den Velde’s most important work, but some of the details of the lowercase letters were too original to have come from that source, and were unlike anything published in the works of the famous calligrapher. Thanks to a visit to his daughter, Annick Visser, who kindly allowed me to inspect her father’s belongings and documents, I was able to solve this little palaeographic mystery. Jan Willem Visser owned a book published in 1885 entitled ‘Letters en hare grondvormen naar de beste bronnen bewerkt voor schilders, steenhouwers, graveurs en voor het onderwijs aan Ambachts en Kunstnijverheidsteekenscholen’ by the engraver P. van Looy Jr. The book was a catalogue of different alphabets ‘from the best sources’, designed to serve as a guide for craftsmen in the rendering of letters. This volume featured three plates that had undoubtedly served as models for Visser’s pub lettering. In hand-written captions, the book’s author P. van Looy Jr. gives credit for the images, indicating that these models were taken from J. Heuvelman’s work. <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/05/image-06.jpg" title="image-06" /> Johannes Heuvelman was a Dutch writing master from Haarlem, and his only known published book is: ‘Stichtich ABC tot Nut der Jeucht geschreven’ from 1659. A comparison of the script models of J. Heuvelman, P. van Looy Jr., and J. W. Visser is particularly interesting. Although each of them could have made an exact copy of his predecessor’s lettering, none of them chose to do so. Each of them introduced variations and diverse influences that made their versions richer and more remarkable. Realizing this fact had important consequences for the development of my revival. I had worked for a long time on a model that was an attempt to reproduce the Kruletter design as accurately as possible. I was very concerned that Amsterdam might be about to lose one of the most distinctive and beautiful elements of its graphic identity. Many of the window displays with the painted letters had been lost forever due to renovations of bars or changes in ownership, and there are no letter painters left in the area with the skills to paint the style properly. <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/06/image-07.png" title="image-07" /> But at the end of 2011 I suddenly came to the conclusion that I was on the wrong track. These letters had been painted to meet needs different from those that my letters would serve. The letters’ finishing required the use of a fine-pointed brush, and their contrast had been planned to work in really big sizes. I was seeking something with a wider range of possible uses, and the letters as they were written were of limited use in the contemporary graphic industry. Even more, I felt just as Visser had, that instead of simply creating an accurate copy, as a designer my role should be to offer my own interpretation, changing things I considered undesirable or incorrect while enshrining the attributes in new letters of my own. In this way I would be preserving the tradition and making my discreet contribution. Therefore I redrew my version and made ‘<a href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/jazzfonts/krul/">Krul</a>’ more ‘typographic’: a disconnected script, a bit more ‘rationalistic’ and less sloped. Some problematic characters were altered or downgraded to the category of ‘alternates’, while new letter shapes which were not present in Visser’s model but were part of the Dutch formal penmanship tradition were included. The style owes both its name and much of the appreciation it has earned from Amsterdam’s people to the abundance and exuberance of its plentiful swashes. Naturally, ‘Krul’ includes many of these typographic decorative elements like different swashy ascenders, ending forms, numerous fleurons and ornaments. <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/06/image-08.png" title="image-08" /> <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/06/image-09.png" title="image-09" /> <img alt="" src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/06/image-10.png" title="image-10" /> For the moment it is too early to tell what the fate of this attempt to revive a endangered fine lettering tradition will be, but there is something I know for sure: I have done all I possibly could to recover a forgotten chapter of Amsterdam’s popular culture and to give its protagonist the credit he deserves. <a href="http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/jazzfonts/krul/" title="Krul fonts">Krul</a> fonts on MyFonts. <div style="width: 100%; margin-top: 3em; background-color: #25120d;"> Author: <a href="http://www.re-type.com/">Ramiro Espinoza</a>. Acknowledgements: I would like to thank the following people and institutions for helping me in different parts of my research: Tom Croiset van Uchelen, James Mosley, Mathieu Lommen, Annick Visser, Leo Beukeboom, Library of the University of Amsterdam, & Noord-Holland Archives. </div> <a class="noborder" href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250"><img src="http://cdn.ilovetypography.com/img/2012/10/idlewild-light-fonts.png" /></a> Sponsored by <a href="http://www.typography.com/index.php?affiliateID=250">H&FJ</a>. <a href="http://ilovetypography.com/2012/06/18/krul-the-untold-historyof-the-amsterdamse-krulletter/">Krul & the untold history of the ‘Amsterdamse Krulletter’</a> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=nW5oXhmbqGs:TbG7HAjxXUQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=nW5oXhmbqGs:TbG7HAjxXUQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=nW5oXhmbqGs:TbG7HAjxXUQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=nW5oXhmbqGs:TbG7HAjxXUQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=nW5oXhmbqGs:TbG7HAjxXUQ:qj6IDK7rITs"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=qj6IDK7rITs" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=nW5oXhmbqGs:TbG7HAjxXUQ:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=nW5oXhmbqGs:TbG7HAjxXUQ:V_sGLiPBpWU" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=nW5oXhmbqGs:TbG7HAjxXUQ:D7DqB2pKExk"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?i=nW5oXhmbqGs:TbG7HAjxXUQ:D7DqB2pKExk" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?a=nW5oXhmbqGs:TbG7HAjxXUQ:TzevzKxY174"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ILoveTypography?d=TzevzKxY174" /></a> </div><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ILoveTypography/~4/nW5oXhmbqGs" width="1" />

UPDATED: 11 MONTHS, 1 WEEK

MOTIONOGRAPHER

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Syndrome Studio gets radioactive

UPDATED: 5 MONTHS, 1 WEEK

The Sound of LUX, OBEN

Amazing student work continues to pour out of French animation schools – this time from <a href="http://www.angouleme-emca.fr/fr/index.asp">EMCA</a>. (Above) Juliette Oberndorfer creates an entrancing, enigmatic story in her grad film, <a href="https://vimeo.com/52179662">LUX</a> (check out her <a href="http://julietteoberndorfer.blogspot.fr/">blog</a> and <a href="http://book-julietteoberndorfer.blogspot.fr/">portfolio</a> for more imagery) – but this otherwordly, cyclical transit is really heightened by the clever sound design of N’gouda Prince Ba, who previously composed the ethereal setting for <a href="https://vimeo.com/45203970">OBEN</a> earlier this year (below).   Aside from the fact that these stand alone as impressive visual and conceptual works, my real interest here was the emotional gravity created in both by this sole sound designer. N’gouda Prince was kind enough to elaborate on his contributions to these works, his background, and expanding portfolio: <blockquote>“I began my education in mathematics, but then transferred to a film school near EMCA, so I know a lot of students there – especially Thierno Ba, who asked me to work on OBEN. For OBEN, I tried to create a tension to reflect the storm. It wasn’t easy. I wanted to compose a simple soundtrack, but the emphasis was the transitions between scenes. It’s a bit difficult to keep a musical coherence between the great outdoors and the hospital. For LUX… Juliette wanted ambiance without music, with a climactic ending. In general, it’s simple for me: I just try to tell a story with the sound paralleling the film visuals. At the moment, I’m working as an interaction and scenic designer for a museum (dance, exhibitions, theater). I’m also writing a new documentary film, and am developing the sound for animated film called “Sillage”. I hope I will succeed in telling the right story with the sound!”</blockquote> No doubt it will be a success! We look forward to future work from N’Gouda Prince Ba and the students/grads of EMCA. Credits LUX Created by <a href="http://book-julietteoberndorfer.blogspot.fr/">Juliette Oberndorfer</a> | <a href="http://www.angouleme-emca.fr/fr/index.asp">EMCA</a> Sound Design by N’gouda Prince Ba OBEN Created by <a href="http://motionographer.com/feed/bahthierno.blogspot.fr/">Thierno Bah</a>, <a href="http://motionographer.com/feed/coprolitre.blogspot.fr/">Noé Giuliani</a>, <a href="http://motionographer.com/feed/lamaingauche.blogspot.fr/">Pierre Ledain</a> & <a href="http://motionographer.com/feed/martinsdasilvadavid.blogspot.fr/">David Martins da Silva</a> | <a href="http://www.angouleme-emca.fr/fr/index.asp">EMCA</a> Sound Design by N’gouda Prince Ba <a href="http://motionographer.com" target="_blank">Posted on Motionographer</a>

UPDATED: 5 MONTHS, 1 WEEK

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BassAwards call for entries deadline approaches

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One Day on Earth / 12.12.12

By the time this post goes live, <a href="http://www.onedayonearth.org/">One Day on Earth’s third installment</a> will have begun somewhere on this crazy planet of ours. <blockquote>On December 12th, 12.12.12, across the planet, documentary filmmakers, students, and other inspired citizens will record the human experience over a 24-hour period and contribute their voice to the third annual global day of media creation called One Day on Earth. Together, we will create a shared archive and a film.</blockquote> Brandon Litman, EP of motion design studio <a href="http://www.alienkungfu.com/">Alien Kung Fu</a>, has been leading the program for a while, forging partnerships with organizations around the world, including Oxfam, UNESCO, World Wildlife Fund, Humans Rights Watch and the United Nations. In our interview with Brandon, he talks about how One Day on Earth began, where it’s headed and how he manages to keep it afloat. <h3>Interview with Brandon Litman</h3> Can you sum up One Day on Earth in three sentences or less? A long overdue fusion between the creative world and the cause based world on a truly global level. The ultimate shared archive and opportunity to explore every corner of our planet. Where did the idea behind ODOE come from? It was inspired by watching a group of musicians who never collaborated before come together on stage and, after a few minutes, naturally harmonized. My good friend and partner Kyle Ruddick started ODOE back in 2008 asking hundreds of filmmakers through Vimeo if they would be interested in collaborating. We turbo charged it by launching a social network and forging a one-of-a-kind partnership with the United Nations. As the first film took shape, we realized that the project evolved into much more than a single collaboration. It is now an ongoing effort with incredible production opportunities worldwide. Are you running this by yourself? If not, who helps you out? If so, how the hell do you manage it? We have a small team who love the project as much as Kyle and I and are critical in keeping it on the rails. We work with several producers, editors, coordinators, programmers, consultants and local representatives. We are also lucky to be able to engage with the amazing One Day on Earth community members who totally get the bigger vision. On top of the individuals help, we have 100-plus non-profit partners and hundreds of United Nations field offices helping navigate local logistics. Keeping this organized is pretty daunting at times, but we are pretty diligent on contact management and dividing and conquering. We are always asking ourselves if we can improve workflow. Just doing some back-of-the-napkin math, you must get a ton of submissions totaling hundreds, possibly thousands of hours of footage. Can you share some of the numbers with us? Our 2010 and 2011 collaboration yielded 7,000 hours of combined footage, representing every country in the world. There were 192 sovereign nations recognized by the UN in 2010 and we had collaborators in all of them. We also worked with media creators in deputed nations as well, such as Palestine and Taiwan. NASA participated, so we have outer space, and we have great underwater footage as well. We translated 240 hours of straight dialogue from what turned out to be 90 languages in over 40 different video formats. We saw a lot of growth in 2011 and we hope the shared archive size will pass 11,000 hours by the end of our third collaboration. How do you sort through all that? We collaborate closely with Vimeo, and we built some custom aggregation technology on our end. The initially uploaded footage is navigable via a map interface with a backend that allows us to organize the videos. After someone uploads video, we usually follow-up by asking to see the raw files. We establish contact with everyone individually. So five minutes of footage sometimes turns into hours. Someone on our team watches every clip, so it takes a very long time. We also work with our partners on the ground to try and understanding the facts related to the issues shared with us. We have a unique relationship with the UN to retrieve footage from around the world, so we also sort through lots of packages that come in from places that seldom have the opportunity to share their perspective. What’s the editing process like? It is certainly a discovery process. Kyle leads the charge with a small team. There is so much experimentation. I know the team stays open to being inspired, and sometimes we see something and we know that it will make it into an edit, but it is a very untraditional process. It seems 10/10/10 and 11/11/11 were hugely successful, at least in terms of involvement. How do you measure success of each program? It can be measured a lot of ways, just getting it done is a huge reward, but we always challenge ourselves to go bigger and deeper in coverage. The success is also apparent when we have screening events and actually bring people together to watch and discuss the topics covered. We have shown the film to audiences in 160 counties. Each project enables relationships to develop. And the best measuring stick is to gauge the depth of those relationships and how they maintain through the year. We started the One Day on Earth Foundation to help filmmakers connect to one another and to issues around the world. Having these opportunities to apply the One Day on Earth community model through the year is the true success. What have been some of your favorite experiences while producing the last two projects? Screening the film inside the General Assembly of the United Nations to an audience of 1,700 was an incredible experience. After years of planning and work, it was a real moment to pause and celebrate. But, the best experience is knowing that someone on the other side of the global is having an experience exploring their local city in order to document it and share it. Being part of that shared experience keeps the whole team going. <a href="http://motionographer.com" target="_blank">Posted on Motionographer</a>

UPDATED: 5 MONTHS, 1 WEEK

GoldRunner, Vivian Rosenthal and Augmented Reality

<img alt="" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-49790" height="279" src="http://motionographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/goldrunner-still-468x279.jpg" title="goldrunner-still" width="468" /> I cut my teeth on motion design at turn of the 21st century, when the desktop computer revolution was in full swing. A handful of studios were redefining what we now vaguely refer to as “motion graphics” and revolutionizing the means of production in the process. One such studio was co-founded by someone who would carve a rather unique path through the industry. With a Masters in Architecture from Columbia University under her belt, Vivian Rosenthal co-founded Tronic Studios with Jesse Seppi in 2001. Together, they worked at the intersection of art, design and architecture, creating works that were featured many times on this site and across the web. Vivian then founded <a href="http://goldrungo.com/">GoldRun</a>, an augmented reality platform that allows people to pursue virtual objects in the real world. Her latest endeavor, GoldRunner, is built on the synthesis of everything she’s done up to this point. In the following interview, we dig into GoldRunner, transmedia storytelling and the entrepreneurial path that Vivian followed out of of service work and into product development. Before we get going, check out the GoldRunner trailer. <h3>Interview with Vivian Rosenthal, Executive Producer of GoldRunner</h3> The Goldrunner trailer is pretty intriguing. And mysterious. Give us the elevator pitch: what is this project all about? GoldRunner is a reality TV show that integrates mobile gaming and augmented reality into a quest where players race against each other in a futuristic scavenger hunt to discover who is the ultimate hero, and who will win the ultimate prize. The Bourne Identity meets Mission Impossible, but in real time, in the real world, with real people. Where did the idea for Goldrunner come from? I was thinking about how incredibly siloed the multi-billion dollar entertainment industry is. There are films, reality and scripted TV shows, console games, social games, mobile games and for the most part, there is not a lot of crossover between them. Yes, sometimes a film is then made into a game, but often it’s an afterthought, and only happens if the film does well or if it’s a successful franchise that the studios can easily bet on. I voiced my frustration to my agent when I was in LA, and he reminded me, gently, that I had at one point been a live action and CG commercial director and that I should stop being frustrated with the current entertainment landscape and just do something about it. And that’s what I did. On the plane heading home, I wrote up the GoldRunner treatment and then in the dead of winter directed the trailer. I called a few friends who are all extremely talented, and we managed to shoot the whole thing in two days, wearing many layers of clothes. The name of the series is Goldrunner; you are also the creator of Goldrun Augmented Reality app. Can you explain the connection between the two? In some ways, they’re one and the same, although they’re being utilized in very different ways. I believe that the language of the future is a visually based language. This is why I created GoldRun and also GoldRunner. GoldRunner allows viewers and players to participate in a real time narrative where their actions determine how the game and TV show unfolds. The two manifestations of the property overlap and intersect, influencing the viewer or player by creating a heightened experience that transcends watching the weekly show and influences their daily lives through the mobile game. GoldRun is a photo based mobile engagement platform I founded that uses GPS-based Augmented Reality to allow brands to virtually place products inside user generated photos. It’s been called the Instagram for brands. Since I had developed and owned the IP, I realized I could use it outside of advertising if I rethought how it was to be used and what the experience was. Suddenly, it all became very clear that there was an opportunity to create a transmedia project… and GoldRunner was born. Sounds ambitious! Humans tend to create things they like, and I loved the idea of not just playing a game, but the game being the reality. My reality was a game I realized, just the way everyone’s life is really a game, and they can choose to play it however they see fit. Life is one fast moving and dramatic game, the ultimate unfolding and unknowable narrative. I didn’t want to just watch a TV show or a film, I wanted to live it. And I knew that others shared this interest in being part of something bigger than themselves that they had agency in. Transmedia projects seem incredibly difficult to manage. What have been some of the biggest challenges with Goldrunner? How have you addressed them? Transmedia is a genre that is unfolding and evolving every day, which is both exciting and challenging because technology is charging ahead so quickly that sometimes the need for storytelling or narrative becomes secondary. My goal with GoldRunner is both to incorporate the latest technology but not have it overpower the story or the gameplay. GoldRunner could be labeled as an ARG (Alternate Reality Game). This genre of gaming has been on the fringes but ARGs are beginning to enter into the popular landscape. One thing that was quite a surprise to our team was the recent launch of <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nianticproject.ingress">Google’s Ingress</a> project, which has a number of similarities to GoldRunner, in that it’s an ARG and an augmented reality mobile game. There are of course many aspects that are also quite different about the two transmedia properties, but we put the GoldRunner trailer up on Vimeo six months ago, so we all started wondering if Google had seen it and been influenced by it. If they did, we’ll take that as a compliment and if they claim they didn’t see it, then I guess I’d have to say that both GoldRunner and Ingress capture the zeitgeist. Will Goldrunner “work” as a passive experience, too? Or do viewer/users need to participate in its transmedia aspects to understand the narrative? GoldRunner works both as a passive and participatory experience. You choose. You do not need to play to follow the narrative and watch the TV show. But to play is to win, to watch is to be entertained. People want to be entertained in many different ways. Some want to be the voyeur and some want to have agency, to shape the narrative, to be the narrative. GoldRunner offers both of these opportunities. So is this a “second screen” experience, one that allows viewers to use their devices to extend the narrative? For the most part, second screen viewing is still very much a passive experience. Checking into TV shows, texting, and watching content is becoming ubiquitous, but it’s still about sitting on the couch. GoldRunner ushers in a new experience that expands the definition of a second screen to your city, not your living room, and to running, not watching. GoldRunner offers fans the choice to discover and create and play rather than simply consuming and viewing. <h3>The road behind</h3> A lot of us know you from your time at Tronic. How did your experience there help you with this project? Life is a series of experiences that build upon each other. Studying architecture and then working in design, film and animation very much shaped how I saw the world. To me, it was always an ephemeral shape-shifting entity, not a static landscape. I have always wanted to live in the future, to be a cyborg, to defy gravity. It’s hard to know when this desire first surfaced or why, but I was young, about twelve years old. Every science fiction trope captured my imagination, from the digital doppelgangers of Blade Runner to the virtual interfaces of Minority Report. When I co-founded Tronic, it was 2001 and most of these virtual experiences had to be faked… in other words, they needed to be created in post-production. On one hand, it was extremely exciting to dream up these ideas and create them digitally, but on the other hand, it felt a bit static, because they were perfectly crafted and then suddenly dated, they didn’t react to the world around us. With Tronic, GoldRun and now GoldRunner, you’ve created an interesting entrepreneurial arc for yourself. Do you think of yourself as an entrepreneur? If so, what does that mean to you? If not, why? Yes, I do think of myself as an entrepreneur. Essentially to me it feels that through obsession, creation is born. That’s my definition of what it means to be an entrepreneur. You need to be so overwhelmingly obsessed with something to the point where you actually can extract that thing from your mind and bring it into the world and make an idea a reality. An important aspect of your career (in my opinion) is the shift from service work (i.e. running a production company/studio like Tronic) to developing intellectual property and marketing products. Was that a conscious shift? If so, can you talk a little about that decision process? Yes, it was very much a conscious shift. I had spent eight years developing IP and marketing products for others and I realized I was giving away my ideas. Yes, I was being paid for them and I learned a huge amount for working for incredible brands, but I didn’t actually create anything that I owned. The idea of creating and owning IP and allowing it to grow became increasingly intoxicating. A lot of folks out there have been doing motion graphics and post-production for some time. They’re getting tired of pushing pixels and dealing with difficult clients. Do you feel that you’ve found a way “out” of the system? Do you recommend your path to others? I certainly recommend this path to those who don’t need a client to feel inspired. Some people love to have a client and deadline and restraints and there’s nothing wrong with that, in fact it’s often a good challenge. But for those of you reading this that feel that you have an idea burning in your mind, then I would say to create it. If it fails then it fails, but you’ll continue to have new ideas that you can test if the first one doesn’t work. <h3>The path ahead</h3> Do you think Goldrunner (and other transmedia series) could work in the traditional broadcast model? More generally, is there a way to shoehorn new media experiences into old media somehow? Yes, absolutely. The GoldRunner property could live in many places, from a TV network to a YouTube channel to Netflix to Hulu to XBOX Live. That’s the beauty of the digital age we’re living in — there are multiple distribution channels. Certainly, the chosen distribution platform will shape the series and the experience, but certainly having GoldRunner live on TV is viable. The mobile game would be an extension of the TV content. To orchestrate the transmedia touch points for Goldrunner, did you need to develop new technology? If so, are you planning on making that technology a licensable framework? Most of the core technology has been developed for GoldRun, but some new features certainly are being developed for GoldRunner. Currently, I don’t plan on licensing the technology, but maybe I’ll feel differently down the line. When and where does Goldrunner launch? Will it start with a pilot or has the whole series been put into production already? It will launch towards the end of 2013. It will begin as a pilot. We are talking to a few big production companies and film studios to find the right partner. If you’re reading this and work at one and this resonates with you… come find me. How do we get involved? Can we “play” the show? I would ask that everyone who reads this interview download the app and take a photo of the OMNI to enter into the journey. You can download the free app <a href="http://bit.ly/IEdKJ8">on iOS</a> and <a href="http://bit.ly/JDyikI">Android</a>. Five women and five men will be selected to be on the show. Simply enter your email address through the <a href="http://www.goldrunner2013.com">www.goldrunner2013.com</a> website to enter to be a contestant. The OMNI is the iconic symbol that connects all the GoldRunners. OMNI stands for OMNIscience, the capacity to know everything. The more you play, the more you know and the more levels of the OMNI you unlock and access and the closer you are to completing the Quest. <a href="http://motionographer.com" target="_blank">Posted on Motionographer</a>

UPDATED: 5 MONTHS, 2 WEEKS

Understand Music

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[Process] David Lewandowski pulls back the curtain on two projects

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VIDEO COPILOT

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Pro Shaders for Cinema 4D is now Available!

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After Effects Feature Requests?

<a href="http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ae_fr.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4989" height="180" src="http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ae_fr.jpg" title="ae_fr" width="612" /></a> UPDATE: Make your features come true, <a href="https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform" target="_blank">File a Feature Request with ADOBE!</a> <a href="http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ae_fr.jpg"> </a>Our buddy Todd Kopriva at Adobe just posted an <a href="http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2012/12/top-feature-requests-for-after-effects-in-2012.html" target="_blank">article</a> outlining top feature requests from the After Effects community in 2012 and while you browse the<a href="http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2012/12/top-feature-requests-for-after-effects-in-2012.html" target="_blank"> comprehensive list,</a> do you see your top features there? Here are a few of my top features that should be on that list! Improve Expressions Speed: As I outlined in <a href="http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2010/08/should-adobe-improve-expressions/" target="_blank">2010</a>, expression run-time should be much faster! This feature is still high on my list because expressions are very powerful but can weigh down a project if they get too complex. I notice major speed hits when using complex expression like those generated from using Sure Target 2! <a href="http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/sure_target_2/" target="_blank">http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/sure_target_2/</a> POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Red Bull! Duplicate Layer Instances: The option to make a copy of a layer with effects like Particular or Element 3D and have the effects sync throughout the project when edited. So if you change one instance, they will all change, but at anytime you can disconnect it from the group and customize individually. Basically when you repeat certain effects it can be cumbersome to go through the entire project and update the effects for each copy. This would save time and avoid forgetting about a rogue copy. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Copy option called “Copy as Instance” then when you paste it, the parameters have a highlight color so that you know it is connected to other parameters. Then maybe an icon next to the effect name that can be clicked to disconnect an instance and make it independent. Must we pre-compose everything!? It would be great if pre-composing wasn’t required every time you want to reference a layer from a plug-in. We all have been there, you want a plug-in to use a layer but it won’t work until you pre-compose or flatten that layers effects. So you pre-compose it even though you really don’t want to! This problem is even worse when you have 3D layers, because then you need to copy the camera into the pre-comp as well and keep updating it every time you want to change the camera. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Have a layer switch like the 3d or motion blur switch on the layer that is called “Render First” or “mimic precomposing”. This way you can mimic pre-composing when you need to. Render Output in folder: Having just completed graphics for a trailer that needed to be translated into 8 languages, it would be nice if I didn’t have to create a folder for every single output sequence. It would be nice if there was an output setting to “Place in Folder” that could be saved into a template. Then whatever you name the files will be the name of the folder. Saving precious minutes!!! POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Output option check-box ”Place in folder”. I know there are scripts for this but C’mon! Improved Light options: AE lights could use some upgrading now that 3D is becoming more common. Here are a few suggestions: - Controllable Light range. Not just falloff but cutoff. - Ambient Light with distance range. Instead of ambient light everywhere, it would be cool to have a radial range for things to illuminate objects evenly without the specularity from a point light. - Better Light icons and representation in the viewer - Exclude specific layers from Lights. Maybe. Bonus Feature: Kill shape layers! Well at least disconnect them from the mask tool. What are your top feature requests for After Effects?

UPDATED: 5 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS

Optical Flares 1.3.3 Update + New Presets!

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Tutorial: Image Based Lighting in Element 3D!

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Free Halloween 3D Model Pack!

<a href="http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/skull_fire_web.mov" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4914" height="679" src="http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/hw.jpg" title="hw" width="612" /></a> <a href="http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/coming_soon_lg.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="" height="326" src="http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/halloween_sm.jpg" title="halloween_sm" width="612" /></a> We may not be changing our name to Video Kill-Pilot but today we are releasing a free Halloween Model pack with 13 spook-tastic models! “Spook-tastic”? … What am I talking about? These models are ready to use with <a href="https://www.videocopilot.net/products/element/" target="_blank">Element 3D</a> inside of After Effects or import the OBJ files into your favorite 3D program, the texture files are universal too. UPDATED: Fixed Skull model bug and UV’s in C4D. <a href="http://videocopilot.s3.amazonaws.com/Halloween_Pack1.1.zip" target="_blank">Download Halloween Pack and Experiment now!</a> Now… why are we doing a lot of 3D stuff? Is Video Copilot Changing? Should I investigate that strange sound outside near that trail of blood? I would say that Video Copilot is evolving along with the industry to keep pace with the ambitious demands of modern advertising and film. More and more we see movies and commercials that use elaborate 3D animation that require a dedicated 3D application. So we came up with a plug-in called <a href="https://www.videocopilot.net/products/element/" target="_blank">Element 3D</a> that bridges that gap between After Effects and a full 3D program. It offers many great capabilities of a traditional 3D program and majorly expands the capability of your favorite software After Effects. This way the skills that you have learned over the past few years can continue to grow with the plug-in’s new capabilities. YES we earn money by selling our Plug-ins and that is the main source for keeping the website running and our 10+ employees. But Element 3D truly offers capabilities that were simply not available before. Like realtime 3D models in After Effects with all of the advanced features like Depth of Field and Ambient Occlusion to name a few. I can’t even count how many tutorials I’ve created in the past dedicated to making things LOOK 3D-ish… We also get people telling us that we could have charged much more for the plug-in but we wanted to make it as affordable as possible. Of course, we will continue to do traditional compositing tutorials like before but we also want to add more 3D stuff to the candy bowl. Stuff like the Airplane from the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc_yO28NHtk&feature=plcp" target="_blank">Mid-Air Emergency video</a> is actually easy to do with Element 3D but might otherwise be difficult with a dedicated 3D program. I even used Element 3D to create the recent <a href="https://vimeo.com/40926575" target="_blank">Fringe Intro</a> for FOX and the animated vegetation in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJiabcpLvJM" target="_blank">REVOLUTION</a> intro on NBC. So when you think about all the small things that are possible with Element 3D, it’s actually kinda SCARY. Happy Halloween and enjoy that Candy Corn!

UPDATED: 7 MONTHS

Coming Soon: Halloween 3D Model Pack

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Planet Matte Paintings

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Video Copilot Website Update!

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