From Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style
‘But the academic habit of relegating notes to the foot of the page or the end of the book is a mirror of Victorian social and domestic practice, in which the kitchen was kept out of sight and the servants were kept below stairs. If the notes are permitted to move around in the margin – as they were in Renaissance books – they can be present where needed and at the same time enrich the life of the page.’
—pg 62, version 3.2
‘Apostrophes are needed for some plurals, but not for others and inconsistency is better than a profusion of unnecessary marks. Thus: do’s and don’ts; the ayes have it but the I’s don’t; the ewes are coming but the you’s are staying home.’
—pg 88, version 3.2
New Unicode Emoticons
Finally! (via The Atlantic)
There’s a pretty complete “cat faces” category, except there’s no kissing cat with open eyes. That’s the one I’d use most.
Five Fonts from the Emigre Library in MoMA
In early January 2011, The Museum of Modern Art in New York made curatorial history when it acquired 23 digital typefaces for their Design and Architecture Collection. Besides such classics as Erik Spiekermann’s FF Meta and Matthew Carter’s Verdana, the acquisition also included five font families from the Emigre Type Library: Keedy Sans by Mr. Keedy; Mason Serif by Jonathan Barnbrook; Template Gothic by Barry Deck; Oakland by Zuzana Licko; and Dead History by P. Scott Makela.
The book commemorating the acquisition is here. For a limited time, you can buy all five fonts and the book for $160.
question
If a guy wanted to read the Strunk & White of Typography, then what would he read?
Gary Hustwit’s Urbanized on Kickstarter
Gary Hustwit, director of the documentaries Helvetica and Objectified, is financing the final production phase of his third film, Urbanized, on Kickstarter.
We’ve already spent over a year and some substantial production costs making Urbanized, with over 100 people involved in the film thus far. We’re knee-deep in the editing process now with Helvetica editor Shelby Siegel, but we still have several more filming trips to make this spring, and then we tackle post-production tasks like sound editing, color correction, and other tech work before completing the film this summer.
Live the Language
A series of videos combining travel and typography, which captures “the sheer joy of deciphering a new language in an unfamiliar city.” More here.
Readability
It’s no longer just a bookmarklet.
[iframe http://player.vimeo.com/video/19267888?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ffffff 640 360]
tweet of the day
Matthew Carter’s Carter Sans
MacArthur Fellowship recipient Matthew Carter’s new sans serif:
When designing, Carter views capitals as initials for lower case letters, routinely spending most of his time focused on the lower-case character sets. But for this new type he became “hooked on capitals” and “very attentive to how they looked together.” There is an elegant, chiseled, inscriptional quality to the caps that at once suggests the past but telegraphs the present. This was demonstrated at the 2010 Art Directors Club Hall of Fame ceremony, at which Carter was an inductee. Michael Bierut and Joe Marianek of Pentagram New York designed the gala’s graphic identity, which included a series of postcards with clever quotations from design legends like Seymour Chwast (shown here), using Carter Sans all caps in a kind of sneak preview. The type was so stunningly set that designers wondered whether there was a lower case. (Designers worth their salt become uncontrollably ecstatic when they see stunning type.)
(via design observer)
quote out of context
Using Cooper Black, like human cannibalism or having sex with your sister, simply wasn’t done.
Did they just put in their credit card info and voila?
Jason interviewed Jonathan Hoefler about four of his fonts being acquired for MoMA’s Architecture and Design collection.
Hoefler: I should start by stating that you can never actually “buy fonts” online: what one can buy are licenses, and the End-User License that surrounds a typeface does not extend the kinds of rights that are necessary to enshrine a typeface in a museum’s permanent collection. The good news is that H&FJ has become as good at crafting licenses as we have at creating typefaces, an unavoidable reality in a world where fonts can be deployed in unimaginable ways. This was a fun project for our legal department.
Dear Clusterflock
How many spaces do you use after a period (or other end punctuation)? I just realized I use two. And that it’s wrong, very wrong.
bait for a scuba diver + typography geek
Most type designers are understandably proud of their work. But Cobden-Sanderson, the maker of the beautiful Doves type, was so taken by it, and so keen that his former business partner shouldn’t use it after his death, that he resolved to drown every letter in the Thames. In 1916 he began loading up his bicycle under cover of darkness and throwing his font under Hammersmith bridge. He made more than 100 separate trips, a large undertaking for a man of 76. And much of it still remains in its watery grave, forming itself into such words as the tide dictates.
I’m Comic Sans, Asshole
Listen up. I know the shit you’ve been saying behind my back. You think I’m stupid. You think I’m immature. You think I’m a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font. Well think again, nerdhole, because I’m Comic Sans, and I’m the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes fucking Gutenberg.
The problem affects about 200 people in a village in Shandong province who share the surname Shan
An entire village in China must change their surname because no character exists for it in word processing programs.
Most Chinese share about 100 family names — including Wang, Chen, Li and Liu — but there are several unusual ones, like Tong and Cun.
The government altered strict rules on the written language last year to recognise such names, but Shan is apparently so rare it was left off the list.
dear clusterflock
What is this a symbol of?
“.”
Tor Weeks’ typographic mustaches
Original post here. Typstache poster here.
(via kottke)
not a lemonade stand
Sweet Georgia Brown
Amy and I were driving home from the Trinity River Audubon Center a few months ago and noticed a line out the door, post church, of people in full Sunday attire, on a hot, pre-summer afternoon.
The name of the restaurant was Sweet Georgia Brown.
If you see this combination, you know, instantly, the food will be good. It took too long to return to find out, but when Kelsey was here last weekend, we finally went. There was a line inside, from the door to the serving area, at 3:30 in the afternoon.
Again, when this happens, you know it will be good.
After we decided on our entrees, we spent a good deal of time figuring out what our “vegetables” would be. I knew one of mine would be Macaroni & Cheese, the other BBQ Beans, but for the third? After scanning the large, yellow menu (it spanned the entire wall above the serving area; every possible item spelled out in 148 pt. type) I decided on fried okra.
When finally, we made our way to where the food was served, I saw stewed okra in the steam tray. I asked for my other items, then finally: “I’ll have the fried okra.”
“We don’t have fried okra,” the man said. Then, “But some people like it though.”
I got the stewed okra and couldn’t have been happier.
I’m Comic Sans, Asshole
From McSweeney’s.
(thanks, Teresa!)
I Made a Monkey
Dave’s recent post set me to playing around in the Insert Symbol bin. I know nothing about Arabic writing, so I wonder if my monkey is saying anything? Also, I wonder how many animals are roaming about in texts out there, unnoticed.
under the guise of manhole genes
The Language of Nosferatu
In case you are as curious as I am to read what exactly it is Nosferatu (& his co-conspirator Knock) are reading, I took some screengrabs. Towards the beginning of the film, Knock (before we know he is a vampire) gets this message delivered from Nosferatu.
Why so cryptic when all it essentially says is that Nosferatu is looking for a house to rent? Is this what we did before craigslist? Or are vampires a subsect of our friends the freemasons (or vice-versa)? Here’s a look at the text up close:
@
The French and Italians have nicknamed it the “snail.” The Norwegians have plumped for “pig’s tail,” the Germans “monkey’s tail,” and the Chinese “little mouse.” The Russians think of it as a dog, and the Finns as a slumbering cat.
Dogs as Typefaces
I feel like the combination of these two things constitute a perfect storm for Deron and Amy.
