Something good is happening below the equator.

Prizewinners of Morisawa 2002 include 1 Chilean (Francisco Galvez Pizarro) and 1 Argentinean (Alejandro Lo Celso).

Seems like South Americans are advancing in the type world.

Stan Chin writes about Tony Schwartz’s sound recordings at Metafilter — including his ideas of what type and lettering might sound like (scroll down to bottom of linked page). Thanks, Stan!

It’s a banner year for the architectural sans. On the heels of similar releases from Font Bureau and Hoefler, House Industries (the third foundry in a trio of premium firms) announces Neutraface.

At first glance of its charming decoish caps, Neutraface looks like mere novelty — the sort of type you adore, but rarely find suitable occasion to use. But, like all their types of this decade, House backs up the pretty face with real utility.

The lowercase seems inspired by Nobel. A modern melding of humanist and geometric forms, it is both cold and warm at once. The italics are incomparable, but I immediately thought of Coquette, which could be used as Neutraface’s scripty sister. Typesetting features abound. Every text weight comes with seven different sets of figures, including tabular counterparts for oldstyle, small caps, and lining numerals. There is a display family with a reduced x-height. An OpenType version contains codings that support well over two dozen languages. Yes, Iceland, you can have a thorn and eth. Two display variants are tossed in: hand-penned Drafting caps and Display Numerals. The whole package is surprisingly affordable: $199 ($249 for the OT version).

House pays much homage to Richard Neutra, the architect whose sign lettering inspired the design. (Some might find Neutra’s story reminiscent of the classic Chalet hoax. If this one’s another gag, the House boys sure went to a lot of trouble to feign reality.) There is scant mention of Christian Schwartz, the guy who actually made the stuff font-worthy, regardless of its origin. Disappointing.

As is now a House trademark, Neutraface’s release is accompanied by the standard sofa gimmickry. But they’ve outdone themselves this time: get a load of the Neutra Boomerang Chair and 4–10-inch stainless steel letters for $50–100 a piece.