I am enjoying everything about the work of Everything Type Company.
A Curated Collection of Thought on Design
Alphabet V.2
Take a look at The Alphabet 2 from n9ve. It’s a great Edward Gorey-esque look at the alphabet, through the lens of a great creative.
TCHO
The Edenspiekermann web site has been updated with big juicy images of their design work, including images from the TCHO chocolate project. TCHO has a unique flavor wheel that you can use to select a chocolate that is right for you. It’s a beautiful example of everything that can be done within great packaging design.
I Love Dust
I Love Dust created an illustrative alphabet for the Nike Running Club. They have some beautiful type work displayed on their site if you haven’t visited it. It’s worth a visit. From Quipsologies.
Art of the Title
If you are looking for type inspiration, look no further than the collected wisdom of Hollywood. (Well, that might be a little strong.) But, every film is a brand, and in many cases, studios have invested heavily in the creation of unique typefaces and treatments for films. Historically, it amounts to one of the largest collections of type, and because screens have evolved, like the presses on which we print, the historical record of these faces is also a historical record of technical advancement. Christian Annyas has amassed a large gallery of these works, which includes trailer titles and end titles. Steven Hill also has a nice collection of title screens. Finally, I would also recommend The Art of the Title Sequence, which looks at the art and design of title sequences.
The KDU
I was looking around the world wide web for inspiration and discovered The Keystone Design Union, The KDU for short. In addition to beautiful design work, they publish an amazing collection of artwork, titled the Solstice: Aesthetic Journal. The journal is available as a PDF and is packed with inspirational illustration and typography. They also have a blog, which features work from members of The KDU.
SPD
If you aren’t a fan of the Society of Publication Designer’s web site, you should be. Beyond sporting some magnificent work, the web site hosts a number of blogs and conversations, which focus on the art of laying out pages. Grids, the official blog, is a great point of reference for emerging work, like the recent redesign of Bloomberg Businessweek. And, there are great galleries, which showcase award winning work.
Stencil Made Modern
Glaser Stencil, which was designed by Milton Glaser during 1970, has been revived by URW and is available for purchase through We Work for Them. At the low, low price of $35 for the family, you might as well get a license for your Mom.
U&lc for You
High resolution copies of U&lc, the legendary typography publication, are now available for download. Apparently, the folks at fonts.com couldn’t resist the urge to create some high-resolution scans of the publication. There comments follow:
Every month, we will make one volume (a year’s worth of publications) available through the Fonts.com blog. There are, however, a couple of caveats. First, the files are big – as in “way big.” The low-resolution files can be as big as 18 MB and the high-resolution files are downright huge at over 85 MB in some cases. Second, they are not perfect. The original documents were sometimes faded, cracked or torn. That combined with a semi-automated scanning process (over 9,000 pages scaned) resulted in some unavoidable “character” traits. The final caveat is that the above plan could change depending on audience interest level (or lack thereof). So, if you love it, let us know.
Download the first three today and feast your eyes on some beautiful design.
Alphabet Relief
Alphabet Relief is a beautiful type exploration that was created by Tim Fishlock. The alphabet features a series of three-dimensional letters that were made by hand and photographed. Make sure that you buy a poster. Tip courtesy of AisleOne.
Commercial Type
There is a wonderful entry on I Love Typography about the logic and launch of Commercial Type, a new type foundry. Right now, they have a small number of beautifully designed typefaces, which reflect the attention of the foundry’s founders. The Commercial Type web site is also a beautiful example of design.
I love to see the aesthetic of people directly reflected in their work. Follow Commercial Type on Twitter to learn about the latest releases.
Letterpress Daily
Get your letterpress on daily. This is a great resource for typographers, students of type, and people who cherish the letterpress.
Fraktur Mon Amour
Have you ever wondered about the story behind Blackletter? No? Well, this bold and ornate script was used for about 650 years throughout Western Europe, and in Germany, it was used well into the 20th century. No doubt, when Hegel published his thoughts on freedom, society, and religion, blackletter was used to convey those thoughts.
So, when Judith Schalansky developed a love of blackletter during school, she was disappointed by the paltry selection of typography and design books on the topic. Absence breeds discontent and Judith decided to create a book to fill the void. The beautiful result is Fraktur Mon Amour, an ode to Blackletter in all of its forms.
There is a wonderful review of the book on Typographica, if you need a second opinion before making your purchase.
CitID
I am sure that you have already seen it, but CitID is blowing up. I don’t see anything for San Francisco yet, but I am sure that it is in the works.
Eames + House Industries
I am sure that I am late to this party, but House Industries is selling a series of fonts called Eames Century Modern. In there words . . . “Eames Century Modern is a typographic workhorse that honors the Eames aesthetic while offering unprecedented functionality. An eighteen-style serif typeface family strikes an unprecedented balance between distinctive idiosyncrasies, readability and space economy. Its 18 styles include gracefully complementary italics and a virtually endless supply of deep text handling features. Carefully-weighted small caps, nine different figure styles, ligatures, contextual alternate forms and thousands of lines of computer code give Eames Century Modern a significant edge in contemporary design environments. A stencil font on the heaviest weight of Eames Century Modern takes the curvature of bent plywood and abstracts the shapes into type.”
Beautifully Banal
The Type Directors Club launched a project with Carbon Copy, called the Beautifully Banal. They asked a group of designers to find a classified/personal newspaper ad from their local community and do a little typographical hijacking. The result is an interesting series of posters that push the typographical boundary. Gail Anderson’s poster is one of my favorites.