Ace Jet 170

Found Type Friday #77

   

Christian in The Netherlands has built a really nice Film Titles depository with loads of superb examples.

Cover Versions

 

Erik has turned two of his favourite songs by OJ and the 80s most influential unknown band Felt into 2' x 3' Penguin/Pelican covers. 

Frutiger Extended (again)

Sorry everyone, I've just realised I'd messed up my links before. If you didn't find it, you can read about the new FrutiFont here.

Dog Days

  

Ben at Bark Design has very kindly sent me a copy of their self-promo-experimentalism Fig.It Out. Printed in a run of 1000 by Sharman and Co a specialist newspaper printer. It's really great and reminded me how, when I started Ace Jet, it never occurred to me that I'd get stuff sent to me. Like lots of bloggist, I get my fair share of emails/comments highlighting the work of other designers or events, or where I can get cheap viagra or watches (if you want to know, drop me a line). But there's no substitute for actually being sent actual stuff. Stuff is ace. Well, the good stuff is; like Bark's thing. So, thanks Ben! All hail the stuff.

   

Frutiger Extended

Adrian and Akira at work on their new family.

(Via Web Standardistas)

Plot Watch: The Fruit Preservation Society

  

Picked, preserved and potted; no sooner had Karen picked the fruit than she'd transformed it into a jar of the most delicious raspberry jam for our tea. (All together now...).

Penguin by Illustrators

 

Here we go again: me, spouting on about why you should join the Penguin Collectors Society. It goes like this: it doesn't cost much and it's great, really great. I mean, it's Penguin, so Phil Baines' is in it, Len Deighton's kicking around, Romek Marber's grid is all over the place, Milton Glaser chips in, the list goes on. Pick up a vintage Penguin and look for the design credit...chances are, if you're a designer, it'll be by someone you've heard of. Or if not, and you dig around, you'll probably discover it's someone you should have heard of.

Even if you're not a designer, if you're reading this you're interested in books or collecting or something and that's what the PCS is all about so if you sign up and pay a very few quid you'll get stuff through your door every now and then that'll be really interesting. And perhaps once a year (or is it once every two years?) a book'll turn up and it'll be worth two, three or even four year's of membership fees.

Penguin by Illustrators, which has just been sent out to members, is the culmination of two years of work which started with the second PCS Study Day at the V&A on March 24 2007. The first took place in 2005 and was organised to coincide with Penguin's 70th Anniversary. That one was Penguin by Designers and brought together many contributors from years gone by. The book that followed was superb. This time Penguin by Illustrators and is a more lavish publication. I only got it on Saturday so haven't read much, but flicking through there's plenty to get excited about, including details on key contributors, along with some of their non-Penguin work. What's most pleasing to see is work that's bang up to date, like Victoria Sawdon's work for the Great Journeys series and the stunning work of Coralie Bickford-Smith that I'd mentioned at the end of last year.

      

The Outdoorist

If you're not from around here, you may not be aware that July 12th is a special day in the NI calendar. Special because we get the day off, or as was the case this year, the next day off, in lieu. Some people like to spend the day dressing up and marching up and down a bit but many of us don't understand what that's all about and do other things. We went to our nearest National Trust property, Mount Stewart. 

It's my age. I'm at that point, with two growing boys, where certain things appeal, when once they didn't. I've been to plenty of NT properties over the years but I feel that it's only really now that I'm appreciating them. They're exceptional. Beautiful. The gardens and grounds are thrilling adventure playgrounds for the boys: with trees grown, it would seem, especially to be climbed, woods grown especially to be scrambled through and lakes designed especially to be fallen into – Seth (3) fell in.

So, blessed by super-fine weather, we had a splendid day outside with the trees and ducks etc. My photos can't capture the real beauty or strength of colour found...out there...but a few things stood out that I wanted to show: There's the pea soup-like pond with it's vivid green (good enough to eat); the leafy magenta carpet (again, the photos don't capture just how vibrant that colour was) and lastly the illuminated canopy.

Next week we're camping at Castle Ward so armed with camera, boots and beard I'm sure I'll be bringing back more crusty outdoorisms.

  

Plot Watch: Pea Minus Ten Seconds

  

It doesn't take long for the boys to make short work of the small, green near-spheres. Pod to pearly-whites in less time than it takes to fill a pocket with potatoes.

.webfont Proposal

Also on Web Standardistas: a summary of Tal Lemming's and Erik van Blokland's .webfont Proposal. It appears we're on the verge of a serious step forward for web typography and this proposal has significant support: FontFont, Emigre, H&FJ, House, Process.

We Choose The Moon

(Via Web Standardistas)

Does everyone know about this? A real-time online simulation of the Apollo 11 Mission, launched yesterday, exactly 40 years, to the second, since the real thing went up.

Found Type Friday #76

 

Philadelphian designer Jesse Southerland has been in touch with superb found type images taken around Indiana. See more here.

 

Flights of the Castelao

Argentinian illustrator Leandro Castelao has some lovely work.

(Via butdoesitfloat)

Traffic

Every morning that I go to work I pass the same stretch of water. Belfast Lough leads in from the North Channel of the Irish Sea and brings commercial shipping in to the City's harbour. On a very few special days, early on, when the water is very still and there's a slight haze; when the sun is trying to burn through the low hanging cloud, the view can be astounding, often forcing me to stop. Some days it's hard to tell where the sky meets the sea and there's just a cool blanket of ethereal mist. These days are the best: when the sun pushes through the white curtain to highlight the corporate colours of a shipping company's livery as the freighter cuts through the glassy water.

Having spent most of my life in largely land-locked locations, a daily dose of salt water, I find, nourishes the soul. It's been five years now since we moved here and while there are aspects of English life that I miss, our coastal location goes a large way to compensate me. Working near the harbour means we get to see all sorts of things coming in and going out again and I think I'm unlikely to tire of it.

(There's better pics on Flickr).

Polygot

Well this has taken me weeks to get right. I've been trying to photograph Andy Babb's superb poster for his Polygon typeface since it arrived but whatever I did, wherever I took them the resulting photos just didn't do the piece justice; in the flesh it's lovely: silver and red inks on pink board. You can find out much more here and see what other things Andy's been up to here.

And I must say many thanks to Andy for sending it over!

  

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.

 

The Nether Region

  

Has everyone got their excellent review of operations from Typotheque?

   

   

Beautiful work, superbly presented. Typotheque are on Flickr now.

 

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.