Archive for August, 2009

Typedia

By On August 25, 2009 In Blog With No Comments Permanent Link to TypediaPermalink

I’d be remiss if I didn’t post about this.  Typedia has just launched.  What is Typedia you ask?  Well…

In a nutshell, Typedia is a community website to classify typefaces and educate people about them. Think of it like a mix between IMDb and Wikipedia, but just for type. Anyone can join, add, and edit pages for typefaces or for the people behind the type.

We love type, and we have a burning desire to learn as much as possible about typefaces: where they come from, who made them, and why they look the way they do. We want everyone to be able to share in that rich knowledge and enjoy the art and artists of type design. Over time, we think Typedia could grow into a great educational resource for people to learn about their favorite typefaces and discover new ones.

TYPEDIA WAS CREATED BY:

Jason Santa Maria, Mark Simonson, Liz Danzico, Dan Mall, Mark Huot, Brian Warren, Ethan Marcotte, Stephen Coles, Ryan Masuga, Aaron Gustafson, Garrett Murray, and John Langdon.

With assistance from: Khoi Vinh, Shaun Inman, Kristin Dooley, Grant Hutchinson, Ryan Irelan, and Dan Cederholm.

You may notice some type heavyweights like Mark Simonson, and Stephen Coles (not to slight any of the many others who have made this happen).  In my short use of the site, I am impressed.  For the designer, it looks to be an excellent tool for speccing type.  It still has some holes in content, but it did just launch.  Nice.

The Creation of FF Unit Slab

By On August 18, 2009 In Blog With No Comments Permanent Link to The Creation of FF Unit SlabPermalink

FontShop has just posted a story on the FontFeed about the creation of FF Unit Slab.  For  those interested in gaining insights into developing font super-families it is a great read.  Plus, it highlights the work of some of most respected contemporary type-designers—namely Erik Spiek­ermann and Christian Schwartz with Kris Sowersby.

FF Oneleigh updated for Opentype

By On August 12, 2009 In Blog With No Comments Permanent Link to FF Oneleigh updated for OpentypePermalink

I just saw that FontFont has released an OT update to Nick Shinn‘s Oneleigh.

For those unfamiliar with Mr. Shinn’s work I definitely recommend checking out his type catalogue (via Fontshop).  Mr. Shinn’s catalogue is quite impressive and daunting to the neophyte type designer like myself.  I am particularly smitten with his Modern Suite—the Figgins Sans and Scotch Modern.  It is one of the nicest super families I’ve seen, plus Scotch Serifs are becoming trendy.

Enough bald flattery.  The point of this post is the OT update to Oneleigh.  Oneleigh’s opentype features, I believe, highlight what will eventually be the norm for font development.   Many fonts now include proper small caps, but features like discretionary ligatures, lining figures, ordinals, and proper fractions are becoming expected.  The Oneleigh OT update has all these and more. Definitely worth checking out.

The Fight Against Spec Work

By On August 11, 2009 In Blog With 1 Comment Permanent Link to The Fight Against Spec WorkPermalink

The great Daivd Airey blogged about spec work and included some quotes by the newly-appointed AIGA President, Debbie Millman,

I am personally vigorously, passionately and fundamentally AGAINST designers being asked to do work on spec and neither I nor my firm will ever participate in speculative work. I have said it before and I will say it again: Speculative work denigrates both the agencies and the designers that participate. If we give away our work for free, if we give away our talent and our expertise, we give away more than the work. We give away our souls.

Full interview over at NO!SPEC here.

Mr. Airey points to a great list of no-spec articles:

Don’t design on spec, by Jeffrey Zeldman
Spec Work Arithmetic, from the Speak Up Archive
Spec Work Is Evil / Why I Hate CrowdSpring, by Andrew Hyde
Spec Watch on design contests, on Logo Design Love
More logo design contest nonsense, on The Logo Factor
An interview with SpecWatch, on Web Designer Depot
Pay the Designer, on 8164
The Personal Cost of Designing on Spec, by Mark Boulton

AIGA President Debbie Millman on spec work.

Via Swiss-Miss & David Airey.

Letraset fonts now available for download and license from Ascender

By On August 6, 2009 In Blog With No Comments Permanent Link to Letraset fonts now available for download and license from AscenderPermalink

From Chicagaoland’s  own Ascender

Ascender Corp announced a license agreement with Letraset to distribute the renowned Fontek Digital Typeface collection. There are over 350 Letraset fonts in the Fontek range, which are renowned for their innovative style and popularity among graphic designers. Ascender Corp can license the Letraset fonts to software developers, hardware manufacturers and digital content publishers looking for attractive script and display and text fonts. In addition, the Letraset fonts are available for purchase and instant download from www.AscenderFonts.com.

Letraset press-type is wondrous and maddening thing for anal-retentive types like me.  It’s nice to see these faces available digitally.

New FontFonts at FontShop

By On August 6, 2009 In Blog With No Comments Permanent Link to New FontFonts at FontShopPermalink

It goes without saying that I am a huge fan of FontFont’s type catalogue. So I was rather pleased to see this fontfeed from Fontshop. The FF Unit super family has gotten an new member, FF Unit Slab. I’ve comment before about the resurgence of slabs recently. It nice to see such a high quality slab.  I’m always impressed with the work of  Christian Schwartz, Erik Spiekermann, and Kris Sowersby.  FF Meta serif was nice.

FF Unit Slab - nice!

FF Unit Slab - nice!

Another Slab worth mentioning is Mitja Miklavic’s FF Tisa. Thin and Light weights have been added to regular, med, and bold.

FF Tisa 2

FF Tisa 2

Health Care Reform Info-Graphic

By On August 3, 2009 In Blog With 1 Comment Permanent Link to Health Care Reform Info-GraphicPermalink

Having at one point in my career worked for the non-partisan GAO (Gov’t Accountability Office), it is rare for me to post about politics.  Nonetheless, this was too good to pass up.  Many of us have seen the info-graphic developed by House Republicans to illustrate the organization of the House Democrats’ health plan.

Republican Health Care Info-Graphic

Republican Health Care Info Graphic

Say what you may about the vagaries of the current reform plans, the info-graphics deliberately obfuscated the plan—plus it had some inaccuracies such as incorrectly naming the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.  When if first saw the info-graphic I was just waiting for an intrepid graphic designer to do better.  My wait is over.  Robert Palmer of California has done an admirable job of simplifying the information.  Affectionately entitled Do not fuck with graphic designers, he posted the new chart on Flickr.

Robert Palmer's Version

Robert Palmer's Version

A full sized version of the graphic, plus other comments can be found here. Link