Ace Jet 170

15 years of type for independent minds

This is exciting:

FSI FontShop International is very pleased to have the opportunity to host the FiFFteen exhibition at the University of Ulster in cooperation with the International Society of Typographic Designers* .

Opening speech by Erik Spiekermann
Friday, 8 February, 6.30 pm

Exhibiion:
8 Feb–6 March 2008
10am–7pm Monday–Friday
10am–4pm Saturdays

An exhibition to celebrate 15 years of the FontFont type library and the relationships and inspirations which have made it possible. The exhibition will also feature FUSE, a seminal publication on experimental typography published by FSI between 1991 and 2000, which was instigated and edited by London designer Neville Brody. FiFFteen reveals some of the tricks of the type trade and shows how type is used in ways never imagined by its creators. Currently over 4000 fonts and growing, FontFonts have had a profound influence on type design since their debut in 1990 with classics like FF Meta, FF Scala, FF DIN, FF Blur, FF Trixie etc.

The 352-page hardcover treasury Made with FontFont commemorating our fifteen-year anniversary is now available.

* The ISTD seriously need a new website.

Better than mine

Damn them! Just look at it. Superb!

Extra special thanks to David for the link.

Loft and Found, too

More amusing, poor quality and downright dull photos from our loft.

If you didn't catch the first lot, here's the post that explains everything.

And here's a whole pile of them on Flickr.

Found Type Friday #45

I found this copy of Modèles de lettres at a book fair years ago. Printed in 1960, this Swiss publication is a kind of primer for students of type design.

Loose leaf sheets present the five main type family classifications - Sans Serif, Egyptian (or Slab Serif), Old Face, Modern and Script - and there's a nifty gridded film overlay to help you analyze character shapes.

If you'd like to contribute to FTF, please send stuff here.

The (Book)Shelf Preservation Society

OK, it's an aside but if you're not humming that tune by now, there must be something wrong with you.

Regardless of that, the real purpose for this post is, as Ace Jet's back in Penguin mode, to repeat that if you're in any way interested in those modest little paperbacks, you could do a lot worse than join the club. A years membership will cost you just sixteen of the Queen's pounds and you'll get two issues of the Society's excellent magazine (pictured above) and, this year, a copy of Penguin by Illustrators, sister publication to the ace Penguin by Designers.

The next issue of The Penguin Collector promises, "a major piece by Colin Forbes on the revolution in graphic design in London in the early 1960s with the formation of the Design and Art Direction Association (D&AD). He talks of his association with other designers, such as Derek Birdsall, George Mayhew, Dennis Bailey, Romek Marber, and of Alan Fletcher and Bob Gill with whom he later went into partnership. Penguin, in the form of Germano Facetti and others, played no small part in their development by commissioning many cover designs from the firm."

Much Ado About Penguins

 

Fuelled by the bitter disappointment of being outbid on ebay for a copy of The Penguin Shakespeare King John with the superb David Gentleman cover, I made a trip to my dodgy paperback supplier and was compensated three-fold with Much Ado, Henry V and A Midsummer Night's Dream. And so my Othella-found-in-a-charity-bookshop initiated new Penguin collection has begun. This is what Penguin by Design says about this series, "Gentleman produced a series of woodcuts suggestive of medieval illustrations but with simple coloured areas to give them variety. Each cover is printed black and up to four other colours."

Bernard might be Shaw but I'm not

 

Last week Antonio who writes AisleOne asked me to recommend a good source of vintage Penguin books, ebay lacking suitable examples. I'm afraid I couldn't help much. There are a few serious Penguin dealers around but they tend to be more interested in first editions than cover design. For me, best is the accidental find in a charity bookshop where there's the thrill of discovery and, usually, a super-low price tag. Now that's not very helpful if you're in New York where secondhand Penguins are thin on the ground. But Antonio's given me an idea (which I now wish I'd thought of years ago). You see, as you might have realised by now, my Penguin interests are pretty focused: Marber Grid-era mainly, Patterned Penguin Poets, Penguin Education and Specials. So I do find myself occasionally looking at either covers I already have or series' I don't collect, like these Penguin Plays. Perhap I should buy any I come across that you lot might be interested in and pass them on to you. Not quite sure how to set that up yet. Could use ebay but I'm not sure that I can be bothered and I don't want to exploit anyone's weakness for the little fellas by provoking bidding wars. And perhaps I'm not best placed to do this anyway. If I still lived on the mainland I'd have considerably greater access to supplies. So as much as anything, I'm putting the idea out there for anyone to run with. Perhaps someone's doing it already. What do you think?

Found Type Friday #44

Look! Russell's been to Eastbourne's Museum of Shops and Social History. It looks brilliant (if a little spooky at times). He's got lots more on Flickr.

Special thanks go to Russell for going, taking such nice photos and for sharing.

Got interesting type stuff? Send it here.

Vote Ace Jet!

Well, here's my entry. If you feel the urge, you can vote here. Or, have a go yourself!

That beautiful image comes courtesy of Getty, with special thanks to Kate.

Call for entries

Random House and Creative Review invite designers, creatives and doodlers alike to submit their own designs for the book jacket. You can vote on your favourites, and the winning design will be printed on the UK edition of Crowdsourcing.

Shortlisted entrants will be taken forward to a panel vote to decide the final jacket. The panel consisting of Jeff Howe (author of Crowdsourcing and WIRED Editor), Richard Ogle (Random House Art Director) Patrick Burgoyne (Creative Review Editor) and Angus Hyland (Pentagram Partner)

The winning entrant will be presented with a signed first edition of the title and framed artwork along with a cash prize of £500.

Not long to go! Entries must be in by midnight GMT 10th February 2008
Find out more here.

Mr Simon's book

Somebody out there once emailed me about this book (see earlier post) and expressed how much they'd like to get hold of a copy. If that's you, drop me an email/leave a comment.

Sparkle and Spin

Bought my wife this Rand Classic for Christmas. We have quite a few lovely children's books that we won't let the kids get their sticky little mits on until they're too old to read them anyway and this one is going on that high shelf along with all the others. If they're lucky, we might read it to them at arms length if they promise to sit on their hands.

Re-published last year for (I think) the first time since the original 1957 edition, it stands up really well when compared to more contemporary books. It's inexpensive and lovely.

The return of the Nonist

One thing I will highlight (thanks to the Ministry) is the welcome return of the afore mentioned and with it this piece of brilliance.

Who is the man at the ministry?

Just discovered the slightly mysterious and very interesting Ministry of Type. I was going to indicate highlights (see Constructing the Marber Grid over in my "Elsewhere" list) but, to be honest, there are so many great things there you might as well just work your way through the Ministry's archive.

Found Type Friday #43

Well, it's the first FTF of 2008, brought to you by Loïc and Callum:

Loïc (as you might know) likes a label and sent me these weeks ago.

And Callum's been to the National Railway Museum in York, which is (probably) a brilliant place and, because it's a national museum is free to get into.

As ever, all contributions accepted with thanks here.

Twenty-five years of designing for industry

A few posts back I featured Jonathan's copy of the Crouwel designed de grote bosatlas and referenced his Flickred copy of The Practical Idealists, which I subsequently bought via AbeBooks.

I'm indebted to Jonathan for bringing it to my attention; until it arrived I really had no idea quite how significant this book is. Designed by Herbert Spencer and Hansje Oorthuys, and published in 1969, it first sets out to describe the circumstances in which the early design consultancies were established, specifically focusing on the work of the first of these consultancies; the perfectly named Design Research Unit.

With skills crossing pretty much the full gamut of design: the obvious graphic type, product, interior, townscape and architectural; DRU set the standard high for all the others to follow.

Amongst their many high profile activities were significant contributions to the Festival of Britain (1951), interior design work for BP's headquarters in London and what was, in its time (1956-66), Britain's largest design programme for British Rail that included locomotive design, signage and livery, staff uniforms and a comprehensive corporate ID manual, collaborating with Kinneir Calvert and Associates who designed the corporate typeface: Rail Alphabet.

A strong point for DRU's reason-for-being was to "design for industry" coming from Britain's post-war need to get back its feet, and emphasises the vital role that design played.

It's fascinating stuff. DRU did some fantastic work; like this beautiful symbol for the Royal Garden Hotel (1965); and pioneered corporate identity sytems, inline with the growing complexity of national industries. The photography is incredibly evocative of a ground-breaking era of optimistic modernism and the principles that DRU introduced resonate with so many things we take for granted today.

The Crown and Shuttle

Just the other side of Christmas we took that early flight out of Belfast City to Stansted with Ryan Air - the company that put the "shit" into "budshit airlines": shit systems, shit service, surly staff (clearly pissed off by the shit systems they have to use so probably struggle to deliver anything more than that shit service).

Without the focus we had the previous year, this year's trip proved more random so, whether you like it or not, here are the disconnected hightlights:

Reading The Times on the train into town I thought this low energy lightbulb from Hulger looked cool and further investigations revealed their Plumen Project.

Breakfast (again) at Smiths. We love it there.

Fortified, we took a hike over to the Kemistry Gallery to see Eatock's stuff

Now I (at least) really enjoyed this tiny exhibition. I guess there's not much point me pontificating, cleverer people than me have probably said what needs to be said but stand-out pieces included his hand drawn graph paper and those stones that David mentioned.

Then there's that Olympics symbol and his packing tape sculpture. The Converse trainers, slung over a telephone wire made me laugh because I see a pair of trainers slung up every day on my way into work. Daniel's, if you haven't seen them, are hilariously fitted with laces so long they still (almost) reach the ground.

It's Eatock's love of the mundane that I enjoy most, reminds me of Shrigley. Couldn't help wonder if this Post-it note was just a note or actually an exhibit.

On the way back, we passed this brilliant bit of graffiti.

And I really liked these signs.

Then we went shopping and fiddled about in the Apple store, bookmarking Ace Jet on as many iPhones as I could get my hands on.

Finally, this is the fabulous Barbara Hepworth's Winged Figure fixed to the side of John Lewis, which kind of links vaguely with my next post.