As a part of his ongoing Love&Hate series, New York based freelance illustrator, designer and artist Thomas Fuchs has created a heart alphabet. Find numerous clever heart illustrations at his “A Heart A Day” blog.

"Love" font by Thomas Fuchs

Brian Miller recently was asked to design promotional material for the science fair at Horace Mann Dual Language Magnet where his son attends. Brian, as we’ve already seen, is the king of enclosures. I especially like the bunsen burners that encapsulate “potencia cerebral.” Each piece is designed with black and metallic gold ink. Brian is the Senior Art Director and Vice President of Gardner Design.

Horace Mann Science Fair

Bunsen Burner Enclosures

Final Design

Isaac Weeber is a recent communication design graduate from Parsons The New School for Design. His experimental typographic project “The Depth of Typography” challenges the assumption that type is flat and only viewed from a single vantage point. His glyphs bend and twist through space, creating abstract sculptural forms. However, when viewed from face on the traditional typographic form is maintained. Isaac currently resides in Brooklyn.

front view

side and back views

Founded over 100 years ago in Wichita, Kansas, Sheplers Western Wear holds the title of being “the world’s largest western store.” I frequently pass the flagship store when traveling along Highway 54. The blocky slab serif letters that form “SHEPLERS” have a sturdy integrity apt for a western store. I snapped this photo today and rebuilt the type in Illustrator. A number of slab serif typefaces have arrived on the scene in recent years including Soho, Stag, Neutraface Slab, Girard Slab, and Sentinel.

Sheplers Western Store sign

Sheplers type

1939 Lenthéric Vogue Ad

rendezvous with summer

Lenthéric logo

Hidden among a litany of product illustrations in this July 15, 1939 Lenthéric ad from Vogue is a rather respectable illustration and spontaneous lettering. The high contrast script with lush thicks and delicate hairlines embodies luxury and style. Lenthéric is a French manufacturer of rare perfumes still in business today. The Didot-like lettering for the Lenthéric logotype has peculiar double serifs on the lowercase n and h and a very thin hairline accent above the é. The Art Deco illustration is signed “MAC”. The monochromatic color scheme is on the verge of being somber yet manages an understated sophistication.

The Sunday edition of The New York Times newspaper is supplemented by The New York Times Magazine which features longer articles and more photography than the paper itself. T Magazine is a supplement to The New York Times Magazine exclusively dedicated to style. T Magazine is published fourteen times a year and each cover features creative interpretations of the infamous fraktur T by various artists and designers. In celebration of the fifth year of publication, T Magazine has created a retrospective online gallery highlighting some of the best covers. A behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Marc André Robinson’s T is available at the T Magazine blog “The Moment”. I find it interesting that the magazine gives the artists “as little guidance as possible”.

Currently the Times is giving away a canvas tote bag featuring the “T” by Michael Dal Vecchio to new subscribers.

Sean Capone/Thesupernature.com (Women's Fashion Spring 2008)

Michael Dal Vecchio. Photo by Robin Broadbent (Men's Fashion Fall 2006)

Kevin Van Aelst (Living Spring 2007)

Fendi. Photo by Stephen Lewis (Women's Fashion Fall 2008)

Brian Dettmer. Photo by Stephen Lewis (Travel Spring 2008)

Pierre Vanni. Photo by Mitchell Feinberg (Travel Summer 2009)

Marc André Robinson. Photo by Christopher Griffith (Men's Fashion Spring 2009)

Enquire by Antonio Cavedoni (Italy)

You are here by Gesine Todt (Germany)

Anglaise by Anette Schmidt (Denmark)

Cantarell by Dave Crossland (UK)

Capoeira by Lilith Laborey (France)

Coline by Émilie Rigaud (France)

Creon by Julia Petretta (Kaestle) (Germany)

Guillotine by Camille Boulouis (France)

Markant by Claus Eggers Sørensen (Denmark)

Okapi by Gro Janarv (Sweden)

Polydom by Amélie Bonet (France)

Quartzo by Crystian Cruz (Brazil)

Squiggly by Deema Merdad (Saudi Arabia)

Venkat by Jonny Pinhorn (UK)

The University of Reading is one of the few institutions in the world to offer a masters program in typeface design. While attending TypeCon 2009 in Atlanta I had the opportunity to meet Antonio Cavedoni and Eben Sorkin who are currently working on their MA in Typeface Design at Reading. Antonio is also interning as a type designer in the Type group (Frameworks department) at Apple in Cupertino, California. After TypeCon was over I caught the MARTA to the airport with Antonio and Brazilian designer (and TypeCon DJ) Frederico Antunes. I was impressed at Antonio’s ability to name virtually every typeface in Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

One of my favorite experiences from TypeCon was observing the infamous Type Critiques. These sessions provided type designers the opportunity to receive constructive criticism from type design masters Matthew Carter, John Downer and Akira Kobayashi. This year, Gerard Unger, the legendary Dutch type designer and visiting professor at the University of Reading, joined as a special guest. Gerard was awarded the 2009 SOTA Typography Award. Antonio Cavedoni, Eben Sorkin and Reading grad Emma Williams were among the designers having their work critiqued.

I had a chance to speak with several Reading alums, including Dan Reynolds, Emma Williams, Paul Hunt and Shelley Gruendler. Programme Director Gerry Leonidas gave a presentation entitled “A Few Things I Have Learned About Typeface Design” with advice to aspiring type designers.

So I was excited to see that the work from the MA Typeface Design at the University of Reading was posted to typefacedesign.org today. In addition to PDF specimens of each of the typefaces, the Reflection on Practice essays are publicly available for the first time. These documents are an insightful look at the process behind the project and represent a significant portion of the degree fulfillment. I highly recommend visiting typefacedesign.org and downloading the specimens and essays. The images above highlight a portion of what you will find.

Alda by Berton Hasebe

TypeCon 2009 was a great experience. The week was filled with many highlights including a sign painting workshop with John Downer, a letterpress workshop with Jim Sherraden of Hatch Show Print, the premier of the film Typeface by Justine Nagan and numerous thought-provoking presentations. And I met a lot of friendly, engaging and typographical astute people along the way.

Throughout the week I observed that many designers have found creative ways to challenge the traditional definition of font weight. The standard conventions of bold, roman, light and so on have been cast aside in favor of new inventive definitions.

Throughout the week, the TypeCon Gallery showcased an array of type-related design projects from posters, to books, to original typefaces. The Type Directors Club collaborated with TypeCon to exhibit the TDC2 2009 Winners. One of the winning typefaces, Alda by Berton Hasebe, represents a weight by emphasizing “each weight’s inherent characteristics, where the bold is robust and sturdy, and the light is delicate and soft.” Rather than simply developing the roman and interpolating to produce the bold and light weights, Hasebe drafted an entirely unique design for each weight. The greater variation in weight that is achieved helps to expand the definition of a font family.

Alda by Berton Hasebe

Alda by Berton Hasebe

Designer Andrew Byrom uses various materials such as steel tubing, bent neon, kites and corrugated plastic to construct custom lettering. During his presentation entitled “Prototypes: New Forms in Type Design”, he described the development of “Venetian”, a typeface composed of venetian blinds. Traditionally, font weight is a factor of the thickness of the stroke. However Venetian maintains a consistent line thickness while the varying density of the letterforms determines the weight. Venetian has three weights: Closed, Regular and Open. By simply opening and closing the blinds, the various weights are achieved. Andrew Byrom serves as Associate Professor and Graphic Design Area Head at California State University Long Beach.

Venetian by Andrew Byrom

Venetian by Andrew Byrom

Professor Sharon Oiga’s presentation, “Three-Dimensional Letterform Objects” presented the physical letterforms produced by her students at the University of Illinois Chicago. In order to help her students grasp the concept of the assignment, she uses her own “Ice Type” project as an example. “Ice Type” uses ice and egg dye to create letterforms on watercolor paper. Elapsed exposure to room temperature conditions determines the weight of the letterforms. The weight names are recorded in seconds, such as 30 seconds, 60 seconds and 120 seconds. A weight of 120 seconds would result in a more melted and fluid letterform.

Ice Type by Sharon Oiga

Seeing weight represented in unusual ways is refreshing and challenges the normal constraints of type design. If you’ve spotted other interesting ways designers have represented weight, please leave a comment.

If you weren’t able to make it to TypeCon this year, mark your calenders for August 17-22 for TypeCon 2010 Los Angeles.

Few publications present their content in a more contemporary and compelling manner than Wired Magazine. Brimming with smart spot illustrations, unexpected custom typography and an overall fresh design aesthetic, Wired is intrinsically relevant to designers. Since the arrival of Scott Dadich as creative director in 2006, the list of freelance designers and illustrators has grown to include many of the most innovative creative minds practicing today. Recent issues have featured the work of Marian Bantjes, House Industries, Felix Sockwell, Christoph Niemann and Office.

Title for Wired by Marian Bantjes

The current issue features a visually rich article entitled “Cutthroat Capitalism: An Economic Analysis of the Somali Pirate Business Model” illustrated by Siggi Eggertsson with lettering by Michael Dorett. A zoomable Flash version of the article can be viewed here. The synthesis of Eggertsson’s illustration with Doret’s lettering creates an unexpected and surprising result. While either artist could have easily produced both the lettering and illustration for the article, Art Director Maili Holiman chose to play to their strongest suits. Typically Doret’s work has an overt nostalgic sensibility, however within the context of this article his lettering somewhat resembles the work of Chris Ware.

Wired Design Department & Siggi Eggertsson for Wired Magazine

Michael Doret & Siggi Eggertsson for Wired Magazine

Michael Doret & Siggi Eggertsson for Wired Magazine

Wired Design Department & Siggi Eggertsson for Wired Magazine

After the assignment was completed, Wired Italia contacted Doret and asked him to recreate all of his custom titles in Italian. The titles translated astonishingly well. Michael has posted several side-by-side examples of the English and Italian lettering on his personal blog.

Michael Doret for Wired Italia

Pairing two seemingly incongruent artists on a single assignment is a very fresh approach. I am interested now at the uncharted collaborative potential of other artistic odd couples.

The wealth of visual talent on display in each issue of Wired makes it an indispensable resource. Wired has transitioned from a technology magazine to a “curator of a world that is constantly in flux.” And with a bargain subscription rate, it is a practical addition to any designer’s library. Wired was awarded the National Magazine Award for Design earlier this year.

As an anecdotal aside, both Scott Dadich and DJ Stout of Pentagram served as art director for Texas Monthly before assuming their current positions.

Brooklyn based collective GrandArmy designed the CD, 12 inch vinyl and promotional materials for Fabric. In addition to be an interesting representation of blackletter, GrandArmy used the ever popular children’s game Lite-Brite to construct the type. If you’re unfamiliar with Lite-Brite or simply nostalgic for the 80’s, be sure to check out the old school TV commercial on YouTube. Much of GrandArmy’s work is typographic in nature. I recommend checking out their online portfolio. The use of Lite-Brites to build type reminded me of a Type Workshop project from 2003 entitled “shining type“. Underware type foundry conducts type workshops at universities and conferences worldwide. Inspired by all the Lite-Brite type, I threw together a quick “Type Theory” using the addictive web version of Lite-Brite on Hasbro’s website. Thanks to Luke Bott for the link to GrandArmy.

Promotional logo for Fabric by GrandArmy

Lite-Brite F for Fabric by GrandArmy

TypeWorkshop shining type project

web-based Lite-Brite experiment

Liza Pro

Running out of ink using OpenType tehnology

Liza Pro is a stylish new font from Underware type foundry crammed full of Opentype goodness. Liza Pro embodies the energy and contemporary flare of other Underware releases like Bello and Sauna. In an effort to simulate the look and feel of actual hand lettering, Liza Pro has an “out of ink feature”, that keeps track of how much ink you theoretically have used and simulates what would happen if you started to run out. The live script feature automatically swaps ligatures on the fly as you are typing. The “Introducer” and “Finalizer” features offer calligraphic swashes for the first and last character in a word. A list of Liza Pro’s Opentype features can be found here. Liza Pro consists of 4 different fonts (Display, Text, Caps and Ornaments). Underware recently added a fun new feature to their site that enables you to set your own text with the OpenType alternatives displayed. And the “static oldskool” text is also displayed for comparison. You may recognize Liza Pro from the Typeradio logo. Be sure to sign-up for the Underware newsletter for exclusive offers – I just received an offer today for two licenses to Liza Pro for the price of one. If you buy Liza Pro, post a link in the comments and share your results.

Contextual ligatures and alternative glyphs

LetterMixer

Typeradio.org logo

Designer Alex Haigh of Nottingham, England recently launched a new type foundry entitled HypeForType. Acclaimed designers Si Scott and Alex Trochut have both released exclusive typefaces through HypeForType: Hunter and Neo Deco respectively. Alex Haigh runs the studio Thinkdust and dreamed-up the idea of HypeForType out of a desire for high quality affordable typefaces. Alex managed to bring HypeForType from concept to launch in just over a year. Though he admits that he has only been able to get 1-2 hours a sleep on average each night. I’m excited to see what the future has in store for HypeForType.

Hunter by Si Scott

Neo Deco by Alex Trochut

Lace by HelloHikimori