1989 Magazine Marks Birth of LettError Wit and Wisdom

Digital type wizard Erik van Blokland just posted a facsimile of LettError Magazine, published on MetaDesign’s color copier in 1989. It’s packed with dawn-of-digital nostalgia and the Dutch twins’ playful humor. There's even a nice quick critique of the Bezier curve. The cover of FontShop’s recently published Font 007 has an uncanny, but unintentional similarity.

In other LettError news, Erik has revived a FontFont classic, FF Trixie, with enhanced detail, new features, and a dramatic trailer accompanied by Just’s guitar.

Posted by Typographica on Dec 04, 2008 | LINK | Comments (0)

Taking Your Fonts to Market: Foundry, Reseller, or Go Solo?

My sincere apologies for our extended hiatus. Perhaps it’s appropriate to break the six-month silence with an answer to a type question that I hear more than almost any other: “I am a new type designer. What’s the best way to get my fonts on the market?”

Here is the best answer I can muster, drawn from over 10 years of examining the retail font industry (in what some might call disturbing detail). This advice is intended to be as unbiased as possible, but my perspective is inevitably shaped by four years as a type director at FontShop.

Posted by Typographica on Nov 20, 2008 | LINK | Comments (8)

Review: "Dangerous Curves" by Doyald Young

Hermann Zapf introduces Doyald Young’s “Dangerous Curves”, not by discussing Young, but instead by singing praise to the pencil. Zapf then goes on to describe the typical height at which he drew letters, the difference between drawing for a punchcutter and a scanner, and a desire to show his own hand in his typefaces. While it’s odd not to mention the author in the introduction to a retrospective of his work, Zapf’s comments encompass the sensibility of Young’s book. An ode to intense scrutiny, “Curves” demonstrates Young's dedication to type, nuance, and the human hand in design.

Posted by Chris Hamamoto on May 19, 2008 | LINK | Comments (17)

An Interview with Cyrus Highsmith

Cyrus Highsmith is a Senior Designer at the Font Bureau in Boston and faculty member at Rhode Island School of Design. He has been called "one of the truly original new voices in American type design" on account of his vast range of new typefaces, alongside numerous revivalist projects. I met Cyrus while at RISD and he has since left a lasting impression on my approach to typography and type design. Cyrus was kind enough to answer a few questions for us, sharing some insight into his type filled world.

Posted by Christian Palino on Apr 10, 2008 | LINK | Comments (3)