the portfolio of steve mackley
Ralf Herrmann has created a webfonts wiki. In Mr. Hermann’s word it is “The website dedicated to webfonts & @font-face embedding”. With info on what webfonts are, to browser support, and demo pages, the wiki is an great resource for those try to navigate the morass that is web typography now.
The Guardian Collection by Paul Barnes &amb Christian Schwartz is now available from Commerical Type.
What is the Guardian Collection:
A large family intended for editorial design and situations requiring complex typographic hierarchy, Guardian was designed for Mark Porter’s groundbreaking 2005 redesign of The Guardian. As a text face it exhibits a rational and clear disposition, lending a serious air to the text, while the display components capture a wide range of moods with their comprehensive range of weights.
Currently made up of 4 related families – a Headline size in both Sans and Egyptian; a Text size in Egyptian; and an Agate Sans – this superfamily was designed to fulfi ll every possible typographic need throughout the daily paper: serious news headlines, expressive features, readable text, tiny financial listings, information graphics, and everything in between.
Now at $1200 for the entire collection, this is clearly intended for a larger institutional buyer. Yet without the Agate San, you have a very robust and more affordable superfamily that is easy to recommend to a client. Plus I am always taken in by well executed slabs/egyptians. In particular, I am enthralled by the alternate R in Guardian Egyptian Text.
The Society of Typographic Arts (in Chicago) has the following programs coming up:
For the past 20 years, Kathleen Judge has been blurring the line between fine art and design. While her career began in animation and as a storyboard artist, her fine art background came to the forefront over the past decade in her passion for creating scratchboard illustrated posters for Chicago’s music scene.
A limited edition souvenir print will be given to the first 50 attendees. Additional posters and prints will be on sale at the event. See more work of Kathleen’s at judgeworks.com.
Details
Thursday, February 18
7:00pm—Reception & Check-in
7:30pm—Presentation
Where
Intuit Center for Intuitive & Outsider Art
756 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL
www.art.org
Map
Costs
$20 STA Members
$30 Non-members
$10 Students
Ryan McGovern of Design Chat discusses the growing popularity of his video/Twitter informal design discussions with some of the best creatives in the field. The show’s distinguished guests have included Carlos Segura of Segura Inc., Jason Fried of37signals, Nick Campbell of Greyscale Gorilla/Digital Kitchen and design legend, Milton Glaser.
Watch previous shows by visiting Design Chat’swebsite or subscribe to the podcast.
Details
Friday, February 26
6:00pm—Reception & Check-in
6:30pm—Presentation
Where
Critical Mass Chicago
225 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2050
Chicago, IL
www.criticalmass.com
Map
Costs
$20 STA Members
$30 Non-members
$10 Students
Ellen Lupton (of MICA and Thinking with Type fame) has penned the article, The Oscars of Type for printmag.com. In her own words…
Assaulted with ceaseless buzz about the Academy Awards, I can’t help wishing that a well-wrought typeface could attract as much attention as a 90-minute film. Various type blogs and font foundries released their own best-of lists at the end of 2009. I sifted through them and cast my own votes. Each of the selections presented here comes from a published list of the year’s top typefaces. Most of these lists reflect the personal tastes of the editor, while some are based on a font company’s own sales figures.
The winners include:
Quite the impressive list. Of these I am particularly fond of Calluna and Alright Sans.
The incomparable House Industries is holding a contest to win a tour of the Eames House in Pacific Palisades. The tour will coincide with the release of the Eames Century Modern Typeface on March 11, 2010. To enter follow the guidlines posted here: Eames Tour
Eames House Tour
A little late…My (still incomplete) sans serif face Silverback won first place at the Punchcutters Exhibition held in late November. Co-sponsored by the Society of Typographic Arts and the Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago, the exhibition pulled in around a dozen submissions. Rick Valicenti and Linda Blackwell judged.
Needless to say I am quite pleased. Who doesn’t love external validation.
Please Save the Date for the STA Holiday Auction at Alhambra Palace. December 2, 6-9p.
Won’t you consider making an Auction Donation or being a part of our Vendor Spotlight at the auction? All Auction proceeds benefit the STA Scholarship: Jack Weiss Founder Award.
The Society of Typographic Arts with AIGA/Chicago presents the Chicago launch of the long-anticipated book:
UNIMARK INTERNATIONAL
Friday, December 11, 2009
Venue to be determined.
Following on the comprehensive exhibition of UNIMARK, hosted by the STA in 2004, celebrate the USA launch of UNIMARK: THE BOOK! Based on archival material collected by John Rieben and presented by Kevin Rau in his exhibition – and research and interviews by author Jan Conradi, celebrate the definitive document about Chicago’s largest and most reknown design firm, Unimark International. Welcome the author, designer, and Unimark principal, Massimo Vignelli in this one-time historic event!
Info: jw@jackweissassociates.com
Somewhat old news now but a new white paper has been posted to the Microsoft Typography website. The paper was written by Greg Hitchcock and is about the Microsoft implementation of the TrueType interpreter. As I read it (and very slowly at that), this is helpful for those interested in ensuring that you older TT fonts will be optimal when utilizing Cleartype. (I’ve probable just butchered the whole white paper). Accorindingly this is form MS themselves…
With the implementation of ClearType® in Windows XP and later versions, adjustments were needed for the interpretation of some TrueType® instructions in order to allow existing fonts to work with no updates. This white paper is targeted for font designers and describes the instruction changes and how fonts can continue to have their instructions behave as described in the current OpenType® specification.
Note that this white paper is not part of the OpenType specification, and will not be submitted for inclusion in the ISO Open Font Format. It is provided solely to explain how Windows handles hinted fonts under ClearType rendering.
The paper can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/truetypecleartype.aspx
As interseting as the white paper was, the ensuing discussion on the Typophile forums was even more interesting.
As an active member of Chicago’s own Society of Typographic Arts, I cannot recommned enough checking this out…
Archive09 Gala: An evening with Chicago’s most creative minds. 10/29. Register now. More info? www.sta-archive.com.
There has been a lot of buzz lately about webfonts. The new WOFF proposal is a step in the right direction, but getting your head around things is like herding cats. Thankfully Technology Review has published a nice article summarizing things. A Note on the Type: Font designers imagine a better-looking Web. If this article is too much I recommend H&FJ’s recent Show and Tell entry: FONTS ON THE WEB. It is distilled goodness.
My name’s Steve MacKley, and I’m a creative director & designer with leadership experience in graphic, type and interactive design—plus a solid grounding in IA, strategy and research. My industry experience includes online retail, consumer electronics, as well as pharma / healthcare. I also have a strong interest in fonts and type design. Oh and I shouldn't forget to mention my bike infatuation.
