Artist / Designer Levi Bunyan (Aekido) has been experimenting with Lego and letterpress.

‘During experimenting with different forms of printing, initially letterpress and wood block, I began to experiment by introducing new elements into my printing process, and the Lego letterpress was born.’

A film documenting the publishing (ad)venture of Baseline Magazine. It is a brief, yet in depth summary about how the International TypoGraphics Magazine is produced and shows it’s associated activities. The film is a collaboration between Marta Patlewicz, film maker based in Rochester, the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) and Baseline Magazine.

baselinemagazine.com

—
Thanks to John Hunt | HDR

Spanish design studio, Lo Siento, have recently completed a new project for Wired Magazine UK.

It’s an unusual take on a halftone, creating letters from bubble wrap that has been individually injected with coloured inks.  And, not only is it a tricky process (I had a go myself) but it must take the patience of a saint to build each letter, dot-by-dot.

There’s more experimental work on — their site

Renowned type design studio Fontsmith has today launched FS Emeric, a new typeface that represents the culmination of over two years’ work by Fontsmith’s type design director, Phil Garnham.

The original brief that Phil set himself carried a bold ambition — a sans serif typeface that was capable of adding a fresh new voice to the classic modernist fonts.

As Phil explains:
“The timeless alphabets of the fifties have a deliberate neutrality, born out of an unfaltering mechanical solidity in each line and curve. FS Emeric has been designed to share this sense of structure and universality but it also introduces a new approach, intuitively informed by a sense of today, one of progress and optimism.” As a result, FS Emeric enjoys a connection to the familiar typefaces that have shaped the world of graphic design for so many decades, while also exhibiting a characteristic humanity that adds energy and personality.

It is available to purchase from fontsmith.com in 11 weights with italics, which together form a ‘Superfamily’.

The launch campaign for FS Emeric was developed by Exeter-based brand design studio Believe in®, whose Founder and creative director Blair Thomson said: “Our goals with the campaign were twofold — to demonstrate FS Emeric’s potential and to show off its extraordinary range and versatility. We’ve tried to capture a sense of possibility, so it feels expressive while preserving a pure typographic approach.”

The campaign consists of a striking type specimen booklet, an ambitious series of limited edition screen – printed posters and a campaign microsite at www.fsemeric.com.

The specimen booklet tells the story of the typeface through a range of brand applications, including packaging, signage and screen-based design. The finished booklet is beautifully crafted with a wraparound cover, printed in 4 spot colours with2 foils on GF Smith papers.

For the poster series, 11 leading design studios from around the globe were invited to create a limited edition A1 poster using one weight of FS Emeric. Believe in® designed an additional campaign poster, and all 12 have been screen-printed onto 175gsm Colorplan and hand numbered by Dan Mather in London.

Participating studios included Pentagram, Build and Bibliothèque in London, Manual in San Francisco, Studio Dumbar in Rotterdam and Lundgren+Lindqvist in Gothenburg.

Revolution or evolution? Fall or rise? Whorehouse or paradise? Cola or guarapo? Marlboro or Cohiba? Beans or lobster? Freedom or Guantanamo? Track suit or tie? Internet or carrier pigeon? Salsa or rap? Old-timer or Turbo? Museum or future-lab? Work or none? Hope or exile? Or a mix of all of these queries? It’s different than we think – much more complicated, deep and full of surprises. Reason enough to dedicate the 21st issue of Slanted Magazine to a young generation of Cuban designers and artists.

“Slanted #21: CUBA – The New Generation” illuminates contemporary design, photography, illustration and typography from Cuba with a special focus on Cuban poster art – most projects and artworks have never been shown outside Cuba

We are very happy to present numerous essays and reports: “Chico & Rita – A film by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal” as well as “Malecón Buena Vista” by Wolfgang Wick (DE), “Happiness” by Frank Wiedemann (DE), “Havana Today, Havana Cultura” by Randall Koral (FR), “Necessary Things” byå Ernesto Oroza (US), “Posters as Bridges” by Carlos Zamora (US), “Design on an Island” by Pedro Contreras Suárez (CU), “Give Guantanamo Back to Cuba” by Jonathan M. Hansen (US), “Equal among equals – The Emporer’s New Clothes” by Michael Schmidt (DE), “The Human Memory Machine” by Ian Lynam (JP) as well as “Cuba, mi amor” by Anna Berkenbusch (DE). Furthermore we talked to Hartwig Runge (Ingo Graf, DE), Javier Mariscal (ES), Mario MC (CU), Sachie Hernández Machín (CU), Sara Vega Miche (CU), Nelson Ponce Sánchez (CU), Raúl Valdés González (Raupa, CU), Michele Miyares Hollands (CU), Giselle Monzón Calero (CU), Roberto Ramos Mori (CU), Edel Rodríguez Molano (Mola, CU), Pepe Menéndez (CU), Eduardo Sarmiento (US), Daniel Díaz Milán (CU), Carlos Segura (US), Pablo A. Medina (US), Claudio Sotolongo (CU), Jorge González (DE) and Yoan Pablo Hernández (DE). In our interview format (10 x 10) 10 international designers gave answers to 10 questions about poster design – Andrew Lewis (CA), Anette Lenz (FR), Götz Gramlich (DE), Gunter Rambow (DE), Harmen Liemburg (NL), Jeff Kleinsmith (US), Kiko Farkas (GR), Niklaus Troxler (CH), Takashi Akiyama (JP) und Yossi Lemel (IL).

There are also some innovations to go along with the new issue:

a) The first issue of 2013 appears in a new format (16 x 24 cm) and bigger volume (320 (!) pages) and will be released 2 times a year in spring and autumn from now on.

b) Thanks to the preceded crowdfunding, this issue is completely bilingual (English/Spanish).

c) Slanted is now interactive: With the free Augmented Reality app Junaio you can experience lots of extras.

d) The additional booklet “Contemporary Typefaces” presents the most interesting typefaces from the last six months: Agmena (Linotype Originals), Aleksei (Fatype), Classic Grotesque (Monotype), Conspired Lovers (HaraldGeisler.com), Daphne (TypeManufactur), Gemma (Mota Italic), Irma Text Narrow (Typotheque), Lettera-Txt (Lineto.com), Lupa Sans Pro (Volcano Type/MyFonts), Macula (Bold Monday), MeM (26+), Paris Pro (Moshik Nadav Typography), Publico Banner (Commercial Type) and Worthe Numerals (House Industries).

e) Slanted #21 is the bachelor thesis of Falko Gerlinghoff and Markus Lange, students at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design.

Slanted Magazine #21: CUBA – The New Generation

Spring/Summer
320 pages
16 x 24 cm
English/Spanish

http://cuba.slanted.de/

http://www.slanted.de/

D8 are a Glasgow and Birmingham based design consultancy. Set up in 1999 their clients include The BBC, The Glasgow School of Art, Spalding and Greenpeace.

As you’d imagine their current site only contains a limited selection of recent work. If you’d like to see more, their Creative Director, Adrian Carroll has been tweeting a project from the archives every morning.

Check out the morning archive here:
Great work from an inspirational agency.

Sign Painter Documentary

Directors: Faythe Levine & Sam Macon

There was a time, as recently as the 1980s, when storefronts, murals, banners, barn signs, billboards, and even street signs were all hand-lettered with brush and paint. But, like many skilled trades, the sign industry has been overrun by the techno-fueled promise of quicker and cheaper. The resulting proliferation of computer-designed, die-cut vinyl lettering and inkjet printers has ushered a creeping sameness into our landscape. Fortunately, there is a growing trend to seek out traditional sign painters and a renaissance in the trade.

In 2010 filmmakers Faythe Levine and Sam Macon began documenting these dedicated practitioners, their time-honored methods, and their appreciation for quality and craftsmanship. Sign Painters, the first anecdotal history of the craft, features the stories of more than two dozen sign painters working in cities throughout the United States. The documentary and book profiles sign painters young and old, from the new vanguard working solo to collaborative shops such as San Francisco’s New Bohemia Signs and New York’s Colossal Media’s Sky High Murals.

The book published by Princeton Architectural Press in November 2012 features a foreword by legendary artist (and former sign painter) Ed Ruscha.

All Photos © Signpainter Movie

More Information

http://signpaintermovie.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/signpaintermovie/

Press inquiries: signpaintermovie@gmail.com

LetterScapes

A Global Survey of Typographic Installations

Anna Saccani

Fans of vernacular typography and ‘SuperGraphics’ will love ‘Letterscapes’ by Anna Saccani, A fantastic photographic survey – featuring some of the best large scale typographic installations from around the world

Press Release info

LetterScapes is a tribute to the power of type writ large. 
A global survey of one of the most creative areas of public art – 
large-scale typographic installations – featuring work by 
nearly forty practitioners.

Today we are bombarded with words – public spaces are saturated with a discordant mix of messages. But sometimes a sentence, a word or even a single letter can stop us in our tracks. LetterScapes features thirty-seven such works from all over the world, by artists and designers with large international followings.

Photographs, maps and diagrams explore each project in detail, and an introduction highlights the cultural importance and common themes of the works featured. Interviews with key designers provide a personal insight into why they chose words over images to transmit their message, how the locations for their work are chosen, how they selected the material and the typeface, and how they think their work connects with its particular landscape or setting.

Includes work by Ahn Sang-soo • Ashton Raggatt McDougall • BBPR • Joan Brossa 
Cardozo Kindersley Workshop • Paul Carter • Caruso St John
 Chermayeff & Geismar • Estudio SIC & Buj+Colón • FA+ • Ian Hamilton Finlay
 • Catherine Griffiths • Rudolph de Harak • Robert Indiana
 • Intégral Ruedi Baur • Ilya Kabakov • Richard Kindersley • René Knip
 Attila F. Kovács • Maya Lin • Karel Martens • Anton Parsons
 • Michael Bierut / Pentagram • Paula Scher / Pentagram • 
Roberto Behar & Rosario Marquardt • Maarten de Reus • Pierre di Sciullo
 • Smith-Miller+Hawkinson

Anna Saccani studied Visual Communications and Multimedia Design at IUAV, Venice. She has worked as a graphic designer and writes for such architecture and design magazines as Casabella.

More Info

http://www.thamesandhudson.com/LetterScapes/9780500241431

Ten is a magic number by Bunch:

It’s the perfect number for lists, collections and thoughts. A list of ten we can remember and gain adequate insight from – the Ten Commandments, the top ten, let’s count to ten, ten out of ten, ten fingers, ten toes! Any less than ten, we feel there isn’t enough substance. Any more, and we may begin to forget or become confused.

Perhaps this is why Milton Glaser chose the number ten when writing his iconic essay, Ten Things I Have Learned, which was part of the AIGA talk he gave in 2001. His list of ten insights inspired some in the following years to prepare their own lists of ten, while others (like us) were simply grateful for their enlightening honesty.

When considering the design of this book we found the experience of a stock book to be both visual and tactile. One touches and examines the texture, weight and colour of the stock. Perhaps also smelling the paper to substantiate a decision. After that the mind stores a memory of the paper, should we need touse it at another time.

To complement this, we’ve weaved the ten insights into this book. So that as you consider the paper and absorb its qualities, you also take away an insight which might come in handy some day.

The limited edition of 300 entitled “TEN” after Milton Glaser’s essay “Ten Things I Have Learned”, showcases a cross section of paper stocks available from paper merchant, HYPERLINK “http://www.igepa-plana.hr/”Igepa-Plana, with beautifully illustrated statements enveloping the pages. The ten “things” were presented typographically and illustratively via 
a wide range of media.

48 page, cloth-covered hardcover book, 4 colour with gold and silver stamp with 6 different foil covers. Produced in a limited edition of 300.

Collaborators:

OmegaTheKid! Phoenix — Illustration

Ivo Sousa — Illustration

Vanja Solin — Photography

Cerovski — Print

Links:

www.igepa-plana.hr

Milton Glasser

Bunch

Joy is a bespoke typeface for Artesian, a Brazilian manufacturer of furniture. The typeface was designed for the annual outlet campaign, called Sales Fest, and should work very well on a neon set, which was produced to be hanged on the main window of the stores in Sao Paulo and Curitiba.

Created by David Galasse

The Company You Keep worked closely with Dave Kerr on venue naming and branding, through development of collateral and signage of The Beaufort. A bespoke typeface reflecting iron dock cleats and American sporting insignia’s formed the basis of the identity.

You can see more work at their site — TCYK

I recently had the pleasure to talk with Ale Paul, the highly talented type designer about his new typeface Bellissima, how he feels about other designers implementations of his fonts, his technique for calligraphic typefaces and his top 5 typefaces of all time.

Bellissima Script is your new typeface. Where did your inspiration for this typeface come from?

Before Bellissima I designed a few calligraphic typefaces following different schools or styles like Burgues Script, Compendium, Poem Script or Business Penmanship. Bellissima began from an entirely different thread as those fonts. It started with Alex Trochut generously showing me a gorgeous lettering book from his grandfather’s library: Bellezas de la Caligrafía, by Ramón Stirling, 1844. Stirling was one of the Latin calligraphy pioneers who introduced a refined version of English calligraphy in Spain and made it popular in the nineteenth century.

My intention was to veer away from Stirling’s exuberant ornamentation, and work within simplified forms of his ideas. As it usually is with most of my projects, Bellissima became its own bird and shaped its own flying patterns. Suddenly there were many ligatures, multiple endings and swashed connections, hundreds of alternates for both uppercase and lowercase. Bellissima has an effusive energy that appeals much beyond its sourcing. It’s intended for these modern times of appreciation for old crafty things like stationary and letterpress, where its origins help it shine brightly.

Is there are any special considerations when designing a typeface on a computer that is meant to look like it is written by a calligraphic hand?

Yes, you should be perfect in technique details as connections and space between letters. And I think is very important to understand how the hand and writing works and reflect some of the imperfections of it. It should be as much imperfect as the human is but structured by the technology.

As a designer I feel typography is the most important element of any design, it makes or breaks it for me. When designing type do you ever take in consideration how other designers may implement your fonts?

Yes, I think as a graphic designer user in every font I design. I imagine uses and play with it, every glyph I do I try words and imagine a context and its results. My typefaces are not neutral and are very focused in a concept and this concept includes the use.
About the use, at the beginning, I was very critic with some ways the designers were using my fonts but after a while I relaxed and let it be. There are some very good designers that makes your fonts looks better than I imagined them too, they play with them and sometimes they add extra elements than improve the use a lot. So its a balance. Fonts are a resource as colour is another. Some people can use cyan or magenta in a good or bad way.

A question I want to ask every type designer. What are your top 5 favorite typefaces?

Its not easy to answer this. It depends of the use and of course I will not mention my own fonts.
So, being totally unfair with many others I will select FF Tartine, Tangier, Avenir, Bickham Script and Regal Display.

I want to thank Ale for taking the time to speak with us about his work, and process. You can see more of Ale’s wonderful typefaces here. You can also stay up to date with his future type endeavors by following him on twitter & dribbble.

Fellow Typetoken contributors Tom & Phil  the dynamic duo from Mat Dolphin have been abusing poor bananas for types sake.

You can take a look at the whole collection here.

Or follow their twitter feed here.

Demian Conrad Design is a creative studio based in Lausanne, Switzerland and boasts a strong graphic style coupled with beautiful typography.

Far from visceral, their approach is forensic and objective, employing a level of thinking and curiosity that has quite clearly rewarded them with many great projects.

Demian has kindly agreed to answer a few questions for TypeToken.

Having studied with Edward de Bono, how much influence has he had on your work?
Edward de Bono is one of the rare brilliant minds who has improved the way we use creativity thanks to a series of techniques he developed. He has also demonstrated that creativity is not a mysterious magic gift but it is a proper skill that you can develop and improve. I’ve been implementing his great techniques for a long time and they help me to find solutions when I’m stuck with a problem. The PO ‘provocative operator’ is a simple tool to provoke new ideas. I used it, for instance, for ‘Camerata de Lausanne’ when I had to set the problem, the question being ‘Can we communicate the concept of contemporary music, without the classic visual elements like a violin, partitions and musical notes?’

Experimentation flows through your studio, but perfection is just as evident. How do you balance them both?
It is always difficult to balance it, in some way we would like to do more experimental projects, but as we are serving an industry we also have to keep an eye on objectivity. I believe my work is a kind of Swiss heritage mixed with a pinch of dadaism. One of our influences is the Fluxus Movement with its performative techniques. So when you see the last project produced for the LUFF campaign you can read there is the wish to try new ways to express a visual sign.

At what point during a project do you introduce typography?
I would say that typography is the starting point of the visual project, having analysed the problems and set the questions of the project. I decided to avoid the use of illustration and figurativism within my studio’s process, and so I give more emphasis to typography and geometry. It is always an exiting and empowering process to communicate within typography constraints.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Do not listen to other people’s opinion when you think you have the right answer.

If you had to favour one typeface, what would it be?
It’s not possible to choose the best one because every typeface has it own purpose and set of values. But recently, I re-discovered Univers by Adrian Frutiger and I have to say that is seems so perfectly objective.

You can view more of Demian Conrad’s work on his site.

Designed by acclaimed graphic designer Kit Hinrichs and his team at Studio Hinrichs, the 365 Typography Calendar features twelve unique typefaces, with descriptions of the type and a biography of each designer. Now in its 12th year, the newest edition includes favorite typefaces chosen by several US members of Alliance Graphique Internationale, including Ivan Chermayeff, Bart Crosby, Louise Fili, Tom Geismar, Carin Goldberg, Jennifer Morla, Eddie Opara, Stefan Sagmeister, Rick Valicenti, Michael Vanderbyl, Massimo Vignelli and Kit Hinrichs.

You can purchase the calendar at Studio Hinrichs site.

01.
Manfred Mohr ‘one and zero’ book, Carroll / Fletcher, 2012
Typeface: LL Brown

02 – 03.
SMS, Studio Project, 2012
SMS messages sent to me by my 6 month old daughter
Typeface: GT Haptik

04 – 06.
Void ( ), Studio Project, published by Catalogue Library, 2012
Typeface: Fugue

07.
John Akomfrah ‘Hauntologies’ book, Carroll / Fletcher, 2012
Typeface: Aperçu

Lovely typographic design work by: Qubik

Smith explains:“The project makes use of anamorphosis, or distorted projection to create the forms. This is a technique which dates back to the Renaissance and found one of its first uses in photography with an image called ‘The Human U.S. Shield’ made in 1913, which shows a staggering 30,000 officers and men of Camp Cluster forming an enormous U.S. Shield.”

If the final images themselves aren’t impressive enough, seeing photographs of the work in progress — from a variety of angles and at a number of stages throughout — emphasises the sheer amount of effort that has gone into this expanding project. Beginning as a commission for the letter A by Creative Review for their Annual, Smith continued to create letters of the alphabet using different methods and materials — all unified through the use of Helvetica as their basis. Thus, despite such a range of approaches, the series (still ongoing).

Thank you to Dan and his team for helping with this post.

Keep an eye out for ongoing updates.
The alphabetical website can be found here:
www.alphabetical.org

Dan Tobin Smith’s main site is here:
www.dantobinsmith.com

You can find out more about the agency and other work on their site, or follow their musings on Twitter.

Enjoy.

Córdova — Canillas is an agency specialising in Art Direction and Graphic Design based in Barcelona, Spain. Founding partners, Diego Córdova and Martí Canillas have forged a partnership whilst working at Folch Studio between 2010 and 2012.

Working in art-direction, photography, graphic and communication design, the studio places emphasis on collaborative projects for commercial and institutional clients in contemporary culture.

Les Habilitats by Andrea Gomez is a 3 part publication expressing the abilities beyond human power.

Sony Music Timeline

The Sony Music Timeline celebrates 125 years of musical history covering almost 150 square meters of wall space in Sony’s Derry Street headquarters. Using just CNC cut vinyl as the sole medium, 54 columns measuring over 2 meters tall cover feature nearly 1000 of Sony Music’s signed artists from 1887 to the present day.

Emma Pike, VP Industry Relations, who commissioned the piece said, “The brief was to bring the inspiration of our music into the heart of our building and make our office space live and breathe our incredible musical legacy. Alex’s beautiful graphics and illustrations do exactly that.”

You can see more and video of the project: Alex Fowkes

Sometimes a surprise, sometimes as expected – MeM is an interactive type system with a wide range of individual personalities.

- – - – intro

MeM is an eccentric experimental type system created by Elena Schädel and Jakob Runge in 2012. It produces many personalities, each individual and emotive. You will never know which of the alternating letters is going to occur next. Basically, at the heart of it all is MeM: four different weights and letter shapes melded together into one powerful font and shuffled with the sleek usability of OpenType.

- – - – promo

The experimental uppercase font MeM blurs the boundaries between graphic and type design and prioritises style and creative flair over blatant legibility.

The many alternative letters of the typeface and the extremely different styles of the individual glyphs generate a vivid tension of geometric appearance and calligraphic shapes, as well as a contrasting mixture of highly expressive and highly delicate elements – Each letter is a small work of art itself.

It might look like an unique handset type but it is actually a rationalized font system! An automatic shuffle principle rotates the four alternate letters in all common design software to make sure no letter will repeat too soon. OpenType is the kicker, it not only shuffles the letters; it makes them easy to handle via the Stylistic Alternates: bolder and lighter letters can be used separately, or you can even strip down MeM to the four single weights. This gives you a powerful command over the artistic qualities of this unique font. From a complete random shuffle to careful selection of every character, the choice is all yours.

The font supports over 300 characters. Latin character sets from Western, Central and Southeast Europe and with the additional alternates, around 630 glyphs are rotating in the OpenType carousel.

The font is available at YouWorkForThem, HypeForType and MyFonts for $ 40. Further information about design and features on www.mem.26plus zeichen.de.

- – - – docu

The concept of MeM emerged at the end of 2011. At this time Elena Schädel was researching the subject of social trends. She experimented with capturing the essence of a particular trend through the language of lettershapes. One of these trends is the “selfness” movement, which is expressed through extremely different, sometimes even spontaneous characters.

The development of these expressive vector graphics into a complete font may be questionable, however, the visual power of the letters and the wealth of character variants was an exciting incentive for Jakob Runge to embark on a daring type-collaboration: The planning of an experimental font with programmed random mechanism.

During the transfer of the design idea into a functional font and the attempt to achieve it through programming a natural variance, it was imperative that the artistic style of Elena Schädel should stay – just with a few necessary augmentations.

The different disciplines of the two designers was a good foundation for the creative and technical implementation: Despite the experimental design, it took many hours Skype conferencing to select variants, adjust shapes, add symbols, and space the letters.

- – - – web

www.mem.26plus-zeichen.de

- – - – video

http://vimeo.com/memfont/how-to-use

- – - – pdf

http://www.mem.26plus-zeichen.de/MeM_manual_and_specimen.pdf

- – - – shop

http://www.youworkforthem.com/product.php?sku=T3676&affId=136315

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/26plus/mem/?refby=26plus

http://www.hypefortype.com/mem.html/?acc=17e62166fc8586dfa4d1bc0e1742c08b

Karim Zariffa was commissioned by SpaFax and AirCanada to do two small promotional video to showcase in their airplanes.

This year is their 75th birthday, so he was ask to show case air hostess costume over their life and also another spot to showcase the planes.

Credits:
DIRECTOR: Karim Zariffa
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR : Francis Dakin-Côté
D.P.: SPG
ART DIRECTION : Karim Zariffa
MUSIC & SOUND: Catherine Coutu
POST-PRODUCTION : Ottoblix
AGENCY : SpaFax (en route)
PRODUCTION : Karim Zariffa inc
PROPS BUILDING : Francis Dakin Côté, Will Vincent, Karim Zariffa, Fredéric Blouin, Kyosuke Nishida, Brian Lee.
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT : Sarah Pellerin
MANNEQUIN : Marie-Eve Warren (Montage)
CAMERA : Keven Verreault
LIGHT TEAM : Jean-Simon Laflamme, Mathieu Lefrançois-Gauvreau, Mathieu Cloutier
HAIR AND MAKE UP : Léonie Lévesque
STYLIST : Marie-Kim Mercier (Gloss)
MAKING OF : Cedric Laurenty
MUSIC MAKING OF : Kitty, Daisy and Lewis
CONCEPT AND DESIGN : Karim Zariffa

Via Karim Zariffa

To find out more about Corey, read this interview by Veer, look at his site, or follow him on Twitter too.