Oh well done GF Smith. And SEA of course. Yet again, an annoyingly magnificent, audacious, paper selector that basically blows every other paper merchant out of the design studio. There's probably loads of bloggage about it; the September Industry post, for example.
These are from a year or so back. By Ogilvy's Paris office, they were on Fonts In Use today, accompanying a post by FIU's editor and cat lover Stephen Coles. The post is a typographic analysis of IBM's identity for Watson. If you don't already know, and to cut a long story short for you, Watson is the company's new super-computer that will one day take over the world and probably rule over us. That's really all you need to know. Well, that and they're using Herb's Lubalin Graph all over it. If, one day in the near future, Watson comes knocking, you'd better do what it says. Or even, if you get a threatening message, typeset in Lubalin Graph, be afraid, be very afraid.
Nice ads though.
Update: Andrew's just identified the illustrator as Noma Bar. There was an interview with Bar on Grain Edit last year.
It's, I think, a little known fact that while a near legendary type designer, artist and pervert, Eric Gill was a woeful failure as a stamp designer. It's not that he didn't try. He tried quite a few times. Was invited to try on a number of occasions. But for some reason, his attempts at philatelic composition were met with rejection, rejection, rejection.
His stroppy attitude probably didn't help. Not one to hide his opinions, Eric made sure the powers that be knew his feelings on the subject. Them being that the humble, utilitarian postage stamp was just that, and no more. That it should be free from ornamentation, whimsy and sentimentality. And that anyone who felt otherwise, like the fiddly-fingered stamp collectors, were horribly misguided in both their thoughts on the matter and their chosen leisure-time pursuit.
Hardly surprising then that the decision makers at HM Post Office booted out the cantankerous old beard's designs, time after time. In fact, I suspect they had a right laugh doing it. Of course, Gill has unlucky too. His Edward VIII coronation issues were all ready to roll when the idiot king dropped his crown in favour of that floozy Simpson. In 1940 Gill drew the British crown for inclusion on a special Anglo-French issue only to have the work well and truly buggered by the Nazis when they forced France to surrender making the stamp design somewhat inappropriate. And then there was that confounded fool Harold Nelson. Obviously the PO's favourite his designs were forever pipping EG to the post.
Michael Russem at the Kat Ran Press, in Cambridge Massachusetts, very kindly sent me the booklet they've published on the subject, along with a postcard and a stamp that featured, in the end, a bit of Gill's lettering. Which is how I know this stuff now. Short but well illustrated, I really enjoyed the booklet, it's even laugh out loud funny at times. Included is Gill's own "Notes on Postage Stamps with Reference to a Lecture of Mr B Guy Harrison" from the Eric Gill Archive at the Clark Memorial Library at UCLA. Which is how you get such a good insight into the great man's crotchety mind.
You can get hold of your own copy here.
After six years in my last post my desk drawers had accumulated all sorts of ephemeral bits and bobs: print samples, direct mail, promo pieces, clippings and whatnot. So, with an amount of enthusiasm, I set about clearing them out. Print samples were piled up for filing, leaflets and flyers were either dispatched to the bin or my bag for home. Some bin-bound stuff was trashed with enormous pleasure but with an equal amount of joy, unearthed loveliness was entrusted to an envelope, to come away with me.
I can't remember where I got this Incline Press printed celebratory keepsake. At first I thought it must have been way back in 1990 at Type90 in Oxford but although that year has relevance, this wasn't letterpressed until some years later. 2005 doesn't ring any bells, although I have a vague recollection of receiving a couple of things through the post from St Bride's. Anyway, none of that really matters. Needless to say, this came with me.
It cost a fiver in a car boot sale. In perfect condition and complete with instructions and accessories. I knew that one day, who knows when, I would be glad to have made such a wise purchase. Fast forward (rather slowly) around eight years later and the Mapvua 22 Portable Typewriter got a long overdue dusting down so that Sam Irwin could tap out some memories of and reflections on changing times for what may prove to be a fantastic and powerful piece of work.
Talking of ITC: The fonts.com blog is doing a sterling job at making early editions of the ITC journal U&lc available online. Fascinating stuff, we used to get the newspaper style mag during the late 80s/early 90s but lacked the long sight to keep hold of them. Think I've a special edition stashed in the loft (must dig it out).
It's still published electronically although it has to be said, ITC's heyday really was the 70s, when they released all those landmark fonts.
It's all change over here with me jumping ship after six years with hamillBosket (now Hamill Bosket Dempsey). Six years of brilliant work and some lovely people. I've learned a pile of stuff and my work has moved on massively. It wasn't so long ago that it was 99% print, now it's practically that percentage of digital…I'm flippin' loving it. I still treasure print but I'm at an age when the challenges that digital brings are timely and welcome.
Thought Collective represents the amalgamation of Belfast's best kept design secret, Fishbone (don't bother looking, you won't find anything, it was that secret) and (justifiably) self-titled web alchemists RT Networks. It's a marriage made you know where.
A major bonus of the launch process has been the opportunity to work with ace copywriter Mike Reed. Mike helped us pull together the positioning text for TC. Writing about yourself, objectively, is a challenge but with Mike's help it was a pleasure and we really hope that it proves to be the first of many collaborations.
If you feel inclined, you can follow Thought Collective on The Twitter (@thoughtco). Our blog is hardly formed so I'll give that a plug once it's gathered some momentum.
Just in case you were wondering, me, Sam Irwin and Janine were pushing 350pt Gotham Bold, made out of cardboard and correx, through red lycra on Friday for what turned out to be a superb poster idea. Too early to give any more away right now.
It might only be a token but for the meagre contribution I made, towards the enormously successful Kickstarter fundraising campaign, this little thank you from the Linotype Film chaps is a delight. Letterpressed on pulpy, beer mat board, it dropped through the door on Friday. You must be up-to-speed with the project but just in case you're not, it's all here.
The fundraising campaign is a pretty amazing thing in itself. They set out to raise $8,000 but made nearly $25,000 - from, it would seem, just 279 backers. My bit really was paltry and that's not modesty talking; I was as tight as the proverbial gnat's chuff but thankfully they clearly have had some much, much more generous support.
I don't know about you but I'm forever on the lookout for an elegant, chunky sans. If it comes with a whole family in tow, then all the better. Enter Blake from Fontsmith.
Ace Jet goes through peaks and troughs. Lately, it's been in a bit of a dip for the usual reason, details of which will emerge in the new year. But it relates to me finishing off in my current post at hamillBosket. It's been six years with loads of great work under my belt, but all good whatsits etc (you know). 2011 sees me starting in a new roll in a new (and I mean brand new) agency. Exciting and challenging time.
Meanwhile, blog fodder has stacked up. Including this Aye-May-Zing poster from the Reverting to Type exhibition still running in the Standpoint Gallery. I have Alistair at We Made This to thank for picking this up for me, along with the exhibition's newspaper-style catalogue. It'll be framed over Christmas for our living room wall.
Thanks again (and again) Alistair!
To everyone else, I wish a stonking Christmas and New Year!
If you're in London during December or January you'd be a damned fool to miss Reverting to Type, at the Standpoint Gallery, an exhibition of work by contemporary letterpress practitioners. You can even get to hand print a personalised card on the Adana in residence.
Loads more details in this pdf including the dates and directions.
This is pretty exciting: Frédérique Duboscq has been in touch. To mark the centenary of the birth of ace French type designer Roger Excoffon, Ypsilon Editeur have just announced the release of the first monograph on the great man, Roger Excoffon and the Olive foundry. Written by Sandra Chamaret, Julien Gineste and Sébastien Morlighem (and designed by Chamaret and Gineste). It looks amazing. You can find out more here and see more here.
Quatro/Quatro Slab designers p.s.type have just release new font family Runda.
Read all about it here.
The Hischemeister was over here last week. Speaking as one of the Build fringe events and generally hanging around for the main event. I was sat a couple of rows back during the conference and watched her do the Build "X" drop cap while Frank Chimero was on stage. That was interesting. Jessica also brought a load of her beautifully printed drop caps to show and sell. Alice bought, well obviously, an "A".
She also beat me to the post by minutes and omitted the photo credit.
The LEDA Numbering Machine, circa 1960. As seen here.
Mike and Kate Hyde are Bespoke Editions. Here's their idea: We've reached tipping point with ebooks; the physical book is, clearly, no longer the most appropriate medium for the delivery of everyday texts. But for important, classic and treasured texts, it is highly likely that the physical book will grow in popularity as a prized and precious artefact. The evidence is all around us.
Bespoke Editions is a one-off edition press; offering beautiful custom-made classic books, printed on demand and hand-finished to order. Personalised and unique, each edition will be made using specially selected cover papers and finishes. Personally, I think it's a great and timely idea. It's spot on; imagine being able to buy someone their favourite, classic novel, made to your unique specification. The idea totally works for me. Which is why I'm working for them.
It's been a while since I did any book work but over the last few weeks I've been helping Kate and Mike develop the layout and style sheets for the internal pages. Drawing on Hochuli's seminal book on book design and Tschichold's timeless book work, I've really enjoyed the understated discipline of book design again.
The editions will be in a Demy format and the page layouts will be based on the Van de Graaf Canon. After a set of tests, we've settled on the beautiful Hoefler Text for the typesetting and each title page will feature a carefully chosen typographic ornament that has some relevance to the particular book.
I'm pretty excited to be involved and will be reporting on progress as things move along but you can also hear from Kate and Mike on the Bespoke Editions blog.
I think Alice is doing OK. Seems fairly happy. She sings a bit and eats nuts. She did a really nice job this week on a branding project. It looked superb. This is her final degree project - her response to the ISTD brief. And a lovely piece of work it is too. You can read all about it here. (Forgive her blogs brokenness, she's working on it).
The lovely elmwood box was made to Alice's spec by Fruitvale Woodcraft.
Helvetica on Mad Men. Via Nick Sherman via Gary Hustwit.
New work from Hat-trick and Nick Asbury.
Alice McKee has come to work with us. This is good on a number of levels. For example, it gives me the opportunity to pilfer her book collection, which she's stashed in the studio now that she's homeless. Well OK, not exactly homeless, she's back with her family, but she's between houses so, homeless.
Anyway, this is the stand-out book so far: Letterrijk tells the story of Rijksoverheid Serif and Sans Serif; the font family that Peter Verheul designed for the Dutch Government and introduced in 2008. Studio Dumbar approached Verheul to develop the font and, later, designed this book, which is a beautiful piece of work. Unfortunately, although not surprisingly, it's all in Dutch. Fortunately, Sander Baumann wrote about it on designworkplan. Alice bought the book in Amsterdam at Nijhof & Lee and it looks like it's still available if you're interested.
Yes, it's a fine book. And her, soon to appear here, final project really is superb. But, and I hate going on about it, she just can't get my coffee right.
Does everyone know about FS Me? I didn't until the promo booklet was bundled in with Fontsmith's specimen book. FS Me was designed with Mencap and was specially developed to be more legible for anyone with learning difficulties. Creative Review covered it in detail a couple of years ago (in case, like me, you missed it. For every font licence sold Mencap get a cut (pardon the fontpun).
Rebecca at Birmingham's International Project Space (which can be found in my old college in Bournville) very kindly sent me a couple of copies of the booklet produced in conjunction with their current exhibition: Formats for books: Hyphen Press and design publishing. It's a small, but actually very nice, consolation for not being able to get to the show. A show made all the more interesting by the opportunity to hear Robin Kinross talk about the Press on Wednesday 5 May. The booklet is excellent: basically untrimmed, it's kind of delicate to handle; any false move, when you unfold it to read, and you're likely to separate perforations. Perforations, ironically, there to hold the pages together while it is being prepared for trimming. Eye mentioned this recently.
Talking of films: I was gutted I couldn't make it to see Typeface a couple of weeks back. Gutted. Big job on/had to work. Thankfully, ace reporter and very soon to be ex-desk-buddy Jodie rose to the occasion with this full and in-depth review:
A thought-provoking exploration of the 'real shift in the way we are printing', Typeface focuses on the Hamilton Woodtype and Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin where James Hamilton began printing type in 1880 and after 20 years was the largest producer in the United States.
Beautifully shot and complimented by the wonderful clunky-whirly sounds of the presses in action, as a 'computer-age' graphic designer, it was inspiring to watch. Endearing, sometimes heartbreaking, stories are told. Of why and how individuals became part of the Museum. Fifteen years of working for large agencies and design firms left Greg Corrigan (the Museum's director at the time of filming) burnt out. He was drawn to Hamilton Museum, feeling the importance of 'preserving this part of American printing history'; a theme of craving nostalgia in our modern age of speed and mass-production, runs throughout the film.
Other stories are from Norb Brylski, an 83-year-old retired pantograph operator and Bernice Schwahert, an 84-year-old former type trimmer, who was once told that a woman could never learn how to trim type. Norb explains that, 'he is as good at what he does, because he's the only one left doing it', and so, 'has nobody else to compare himself too'. Younger volunteers worry that the process will die with the last pantographers and trimmers and that nobody is documenting the process, an interesting point, since the film itself is documenting the process. In an interview, Jan Nagan explains the reason behind making a film 'about obsolete technology': "I became fascinated with exploring the changing importance of analog technologies in our digital age. There is this theory that as we as a society sit at our computers all day, in the off hours, tactile and sensual experiences become all the more important. People are craving things with texture that they can hold in their hands – whether it’s knitting or playing guitar…Then there’s the whole nostalgia factor: LPs vs. ipod, film vs. video, letterpress vs. inkjet."
Corrigan explains, to young graphic design students visiting the Museum, that Hamilton continued to produce type, commercially, until 1985. Which, not surprisingly, coincided with the arrival of the first Macintosh computer. Dennis Ichiyama, an artist and professor at Purdue University holds workshops at Hamilton and explains the benefits of allowing graphic design students to visit a working museum, where nothing is pushed back behind glass cases. Instead students can handle the individual letters, traces the edges, understand the space between the letters and within the letters. The results are unquestionably stronger, more thoughtful designs.
I recognised and related to the idea that creatives can crave for the tactile; for that which they can hold in their hands (I recently took up knitting as a 'creative outlet'). The museum's future is clearly about it's past, it's heritage; and how the letterpress pieces, with all their inherent flaws, are ideally suited for a return to 'letting the aesthetic be affected by the tools with which an item is made'.
Find out more about Typeface and the Hamilton Woodtype and Printing Museum here.
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Jodie Young is a really very good independent designer, working in Belfast.
On 25th March local heroes Andy (Build Conference etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc…) McMillan and the Web Standardistas are screening, for the first time on this ireland of ours, Typeface. It looks great. Can't wait. Have done poster. You can find out more about the film, and watch a snippet, here and over here, you can book your ticket.
The Maagster has an exhibition in Vienna. Going from the photos, it looks pretty amazing. See more and read all about it on the FontFeed.
A lovely new bundle of my very favourite Dalton Maag type specimens dropped through the door a couple of days ago and We Made This haven't blogged about it. Woo hoo! Beatcha!…ehum…er…well, er…highlights include the fantastic and robust Grueber, inspired by the lettering of Austrian architect/historian Paul Grueber. The previously seen and loved, North collaboration Co. And the rather serious and business like Cordale.
And then I got this really nice package from Veer. It's like being back in the 70s again; rub down lettering, just like the good old day. Yes, yes, We Made This got their's first but hey, my pics are better. If you're quick, you can register for your own set here (but only if you're in the UK or Germany).
I don't know about you but I love an obscure, enigmatic figure. And the very little known Desmond Jeffery (who died in 1974) was just that. Friend and protégé of Anthony Froshaug; Jobbing letterpress printer/typographer, activist, teacher and doer. Jeffery, by all accounts, kept his head down and his standards high. Championing an inky-hands-on modernist-fuelled typographic design practice, he, heroically, was one of the first London printers (circa 1960s) to stock Akzidenz Grotesk. Which is why he was hunted down by Germano Faccetti to set type for the then new (Marber Grid) Penguin Crime Series. Preferring to design/print rather design/instruct his one-man letterpress workshop in Marylebone Lane kept the local art and left-wing community in print.
Back in October/November last year, St Bride's presented an exhibition of his work. To be honest, even if I had known about that, I probably wouldn't have been able to make it there (it's not exactly down the road) but thankfully the accompanying catalogue is available to buy online. And while it's a slim volume and I would dearly love to see more of his work, it does paint an intriguing picture of an interesting and inspiring character.
I'm pretty sure it was Antonio at AisleOne who, unknowingly, pointed me towards Display; Kind Company's archive of important graphic design books. Some for sale, some not; like these amazing things. With cover designs by Yves Zimmermann, these copies of the Swiss Typo/Printing magazine Typografische Monatsblätter (or just TM for short) were published in 1958. Earlier this year Grain Edit featured some slightly earlier, equally superb cover designs for TM from 1956. And Jonathan (Insect54) Turner has copies from '68 on flickr.
I'm a bit of a fan. Ever since Jeremy Tankard released Bliss all those years ago and I rang him up and ordered it directly, over the phone, man to man, I've felt a kind of bond. A kind of out-of-kilter, stalking kind of bond perhaps, but a bond nevertheless. It's not that I've used his fonts much really. Would love to. Enigma is superb, Kingfisher beautiful, The Shire Types voluptuous. Aspect, well I tried Aspect recently and while I was extremely pleased with what I thought was an elegantly simple bit of work, our client plumped for something scriptier.
So the prospect of a Tankard Fat Face alone would fill me with excitement, but not satisfied with something so simple, instead Mr T gives us The Trilogy Collection: a massive set of Sans's, a tidy bundle of Egyptians and a complimentary side order of Fat Boys. All harmonised to work side by side, in multi-fontial bliss (pardon the pun).
It's that time again when lovely stuff appears that you should be buying for someone special in your life but the temptation to keep it for yourself is almost over powering. First up: Typotheque's Limited Edition 2010 Diary.
Woodtype Now! is Kühne’s bachelor thesis project that explores experimental production methods for letterpress printing. It is one of the more interesting efforts from a handful of contemporary wood type projects I’ve come across recently, and stands out in its decidedly theoretical approach to the idea of wood type in a modern context…
(Via Thinking for a Living™)
Is everyone keeping up with Jessica Hische's very lovely Daily Drop Caps?
Mark (pprwrkstudio) Caneso, the man that brought us the mighty Quatro, has set up dedicated type design site p.s.type.