Ace Jet 170

Plot Watch: Beet Boys

  

Roots plucked from the boy's sub-patch ready for a roasting.

Wood on Paper

 

Last week our rep from Robert Horne Paper came in. A nice chap, he did his best to sell their products to us, some of which we specify anyway. Mostly he was showing us Munken papers, Robert Horne now being the main agent for them. Munken papers are nice. During the chat, he asked if we ever use GF Smith paper and I laughed. "Well, yes, of course", I said. "A lot of our papers are very similar", said he and I laughed again. "But GF Smith swatches are so good and your's, forgive me for saying, are sooooo bad". They are really awful: on the whole we've found them to be inconsistently designed, missing fundamental information and (these are things aimed at designers, so it's almost criminal that they) are distinctly unattractive.

GF Smith swatches are, on the other had (I was compelled to point out); beautiful, informative, comprehensive and easy-to-use.

He skirted the issue and I might have been more persistent had I not spotted something tucked at the bottom of his pile of samples. "That's lovely", I said pointing. Wood on Wood came out about 5 or 6 years ago and was mailed out directly from Arctic Papers, when Howard Smith were representing them in the UK. I remember it distinctly because it was a stand-out piece. 

    

Designed in Sweden by Happy Forsman & Bodenfors (who do lovely work), the book is amazingly simple. Each sheet of paper has a particular wood grain image printed either side and is incredibly convincing, giving the impression that the book is made from super-thin slices of wood. On their website, F&B explain:

"The Wood on Wood book makes us realize anew that paper is thinly-sliced wood and uncoated paper retains a hint of wood's rough properties to give printed images a deeper dimension. In designing Wood on Wood Happy went the additional step of using pencil lettering to add an authentic whiff of the woodshop to the book design."

That last point was one of the details that really did it for me, With the exception of the brand on the back cover, the book is devoid of typesetting; featuring only hand/pencil rendered lettering. And even that brand is treated nicely, printed dark brown and embossed into the sheet, it feels like it's been burnt into wood.

Overall, it's a beautiful piece which, importantly, works; showing the characteristics of the paper with exceptional simplicity and clarity. Perhaps you've got a copy, I don't remember it being particularly rare or precious, but if you've not seen it, you never know, it may well be sitting on a shelf in your studio somewhere, covered in dust. Go and have a look.

 

Troopers

(This link flagrantly and unashamedly copied from Binky - sorry Daniel)

Stéfan Le Dû has an inspired Stormtrooper Flickr set.

Plot Watch: They must die

Death to the very hungry bastards!

Future Futura

Work-in-progress on Typophile: Randy's tinkering with Futura.

Help

 

Does anyone recognize these images? They were pulled off a website or blog ages ago and came my way recently. The one on the dark background is especially lovely. I'd really like to know where they came from. Who do they belong to?

Thanks Yotam. Thanks Guy. Andy Gilmore it is. Beautiful work.

Stroudley

    

Is it just me or can you count the number of really useful condensed Sans Serifs on one hand and have fingers left over to add the number of readable scripts?* Unfair? Let's try it...so there's, er...Frutiger Condensed, Univers Condensed (of course)...(Helvetica Condensed doesn't count, why would you want to use Helvetica Condensed? Helvetica, yes, but Helvetica Condensed?) So back to the count...Franklin Gothic Condensed is good but it is a bit, well, "last century". I rather like Amplitude Condensed but, conversely, it's a bit "now" really. And although I really like Myriad, it's condensed version looks a tad squashed to me. Of course now, thanks to DaMa there's Stroudley, which fell through the door along with their latest batch of excellent type specimens.

* Feel free to put me right. In fact, I wish you would. Prove me wrong.

Astro-vehicularities

    

More images from the New Illustrated Library of Science and Invention on Flickr. 

This time: Astronomy and Land Transportation.

Plot Watch: Deploy the Nemotodes

  

We've unleashed a microscopic army of mollusc killing organisms to wage war on our slimiest enemy.

Found Type Friday #75

  

More of the other kind of wood type.

Writemaster

Now I love a pencil as much as the next man...unless, that is, the next man is the editor of Pencil Talk, which is where I first saw these beauties, inspired by the classic, now defunct Routemaster bus. Boy, that man loves pencils.

    

With thanks to Thomas for pointing me in the right direction.

Plot Watch: Peas Keeping Force

 

The troops are nearly ready.

Block Head

I couldn't explain the unsettling feeling that I was being watched.

Totally Clips

  

In a seemingly off-the-cuff remark last week, Daniel-binkythedoormat-Gray mentioned that "You can never have enough bulldog clips..." Damn right I thought. I've got 83, so far. Although strictly speaking mine are actually Boston Clips, the Bulldog being it's slightly duller father.

Light Work

 

Via today and tomorrow, Picasso's light drawings from Life Magazine.

Hopeless drunk will work to stay that way!!!!?

  

Oh how I love it when an unexpected package arrives. And when it's got a Pentagram address in the corner the pulse rate quickens. I feel very privileged. Signs is the 39th edition of the Pentagram Papers, this time conceived and designed by DJ Stout. You can read all about it on the Pentablog.

         

Go Give (again)

If you didn't know already, David's going to walk about a bit for charity. And all you need 

to do is pop over here and make a small donation. I mean, he's doing all the hard work, 

you don't even have to leave your seat.

OK, so there appears to have been a technical problem over on David's donation mechanism so if you've already tried - of course you have! - and been unsuccessful, please try again. Actually, try right now - I've just been over there to check and it seems to be fixed now but if it still doesn't work, don't give up. You can guarantee David won't be giving, he's got 20km to do and all the blisters and arse chaffing that goes with that. Put it in your diary, "Must give lots of money to David" and mark it as "Most extremely urgent".

Plot Watch: Lush

 

Warm and wet = Flourishing crop

Found Type Friday #74

Christian "Mozzling" Morris has some superb...no sorry, I mean loads of superb images on Flickr. There's this superb image of garages and I love this dilapidated tiling. Then, of course, there's "Shetland". Thanks for getting in touch Christian.

TypeHype

A year in development, Alex from Thinkdust has just launched HypeForType, a new independent type foundry set up to champion "original and completely new typefaces". And what's more, he lives in Beeston, where me'old mate Pete used to live...whatever happended to Pete?...

...anyway, new fonts. Find out more here.