The excellent film on Massimo Vignelli’s approach to book design by Pentagram for Mohawk, just had to feature on Typetoken — Enjoy!

Info

“The grid is an integral part of book design. It’s not something that you see. It’s just like underwear: you wear it, but it’s not to be exposed. The grid is the underwear of the book.” — Massimo Vignelli

Vignelli’s approach to book design is the subject of a new video created by Pentagram’s Michael Bierut and Aron Fay for “What Will You Make Today?” campaign from Mohawk. In the video, Vignelli discusses his use of the grid as the basis for the layout of a book’s pages, using one of his classic book designs for the architect Richard Meier as an example. Working with an audio interview edited by Hilary Frank, Bierut and Fay animated Vignelli’s sketches for the clip, taking them from skeletal grid to finished publication.

Bierut knew Vignelli’s painstaking step-by-step process well. “Because I worked with Massimo for ten years before joining Pentagram, I was very familiar with his unique way of designing books. He sits with all the ingredients—text and images—and draws each page with a pencil, including every photograph, using a grid as a layout guide,” he says.

The video is accompanied by a small limited edition journal that reproduces Vignelli’s grid from the film. The journal is available from Mohawk’s website, while supplies last.

Vimeo Link

The changing faces of Bowie (2013) by Blam and contributors.

A limited release print has been created exclusively for the V&A and will only be available during the David Bowie is exhibition.

Screen-printed matt white onto rainbow holographic, 240gsm Mirri paper.

To create The Changing Faces of Bowie, designer Blam approached over 100 artists and designers and invited them to produce the word ‘Bowie’ in a favourite or bespoke typeface of their choice or creation. The response to the project was overwhelming, a demonstration of the widespread love, respect and admiration that exists for Bowie. Blam has combined 101 Bowies – a dazzling array of typographic styles, logos and symbols representing the constantly changing and ever evolving style of the artist David Bowie. Including contributions from Build, The Chase, Spin, Nom de Strip, Studio NMO, Stockholm Design Lab, Monocle, v23, Paul Belford, Design Project, Corey Holms, Brett Wickens, Johann Zambyski, Pentagram, Crispin Finn, Wallzo, Blam, Anthony Burrill, Wallpaper, Martyn Atkins, The Designers Republic, Trevor Jackson and Jonathan Barnbrook.

The print is available to purchase here

Thanks to Mark Blamire for the images | info

More info |  Blanka |  Print-Process

In a recent two-day Gestalten workshop, participants worked closely with Jessica Hische (a letterer and illustrator) to develop a full vector alphabet and learn about drawing type in a short amount of time. Hische has been named a Forbes Magazine “30 under 30” in art and design as well as an ADC Young Gun and one of Print Magazine’s “New Visual Artists”. Gestalten.tv filmed the workshop and interviewed Jessica about some of the pros and cons of the letters B/E/R/L/I/N.

http://jessicahische.is/

Thanks to Lina Kunimoto | Gestalten

Today saw the arrival of Jurriaan Schrofer (1926-90) Restless Typographer the latest publication from Unit Editions.

This beautifully crafted book celebrates his work and preoccupation with experimental typography and letterforms.

Frederike Huygen, who has written an essay for the book, describes his work as ‘research into perception, visual effects and the optical illusion of perspective: or the interplay of letterform, pattern and meaning.’ She also refers to him as a ‘computer-designer before the computer’.

Schrofer worked at renowned design studio Total Design and was an outspoken figure within Dutch professional design organisations.

–
Jurriaan Schrofer (1926–90): Restless typographer
Paperback 
150x250mm
144 pages
ISBN 978-0-9562071-8-0
£25

Essay: Frederike Huygen
Editors: Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy
Design: Spin

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

Modular was created to be a bold, minimal and geometric typeface, primarily for headline text. The typeface was initially created for my personal branding.

Currently, I am working on the numerals and possibly a cyrillic version too.

Check out Levi Bunyan’s site — thisisaekido

Baseline launches the 6th handmade, limited edition ‘Special 06: Ivan Chermayeff’

New 16pp booklet, designed and produced to stimulate and inspire!

Limited edition of only 67.

Every publication contains unique and exciting imagery and thought provoking quotes by designers/artists. The pages are overprinted sheets from the print production of Baseline magazine. For the collector there is lots to explore and discover.

Available from baselinemagazine.com — £9.00 (plus p&p)

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

Henrik Kubel | A2-Type | I Can’t Draw Animals…

Beautiful short film showing type designer Henrik Kubel hand lettering his own narration— produced for his presentation at Typo London 2012

more info here

a2-type

a2swhk

Ken Garland

Structure and Substance

— Press Info —

Ken Garland: Structure and Substance is the first comprehensive monograph on the entire career of legendary English designer Ken Garland, from student exercises in the 1950s to his self-published photography books of recent years.

The biographical essay, written by Adrian Shaughnessy and accompanied by rare personal photographs, touches on the many sides of Garland: the ethical and political designer; the writer; the teacher; the photographer. It is underpinned by interviews with his contemporaries and peers, and Garland himself co-operated with all aspects of the production of this book.

Now in his eighties, Garland is still as relevant to the (design) community today as he was when he published his famous First Things First manifesto in 1964 (see p.4). He has a strong following amongst young designers and frequently lectures to large audiences, captivating them with his highly personal approach .

Author: Adrian Shaughnessy

Editors: Tony Brook / Adrian Shaughnessy

Design: Spin

Pages: 328

Size: 168x224mm

Format: Paperback

http://www.uniteditions.com

http://www.uniteditions.com/blog/announcing-ken-garland-monograph/

Karloff explores the idea of irreconcilable differences, how two extremes could be combined into a coherent whole.

At the start we looked at the high-contrast Didone typefaces which are considered by many as some of the most beautiful in existence, and the eccentric ‘Italian’, reversed-contrast typeface was designed to deliberately attract readers’ attention by defying their expectations. No other style in the history of typography has provoked such negative reactions as the Italian.

Karloff, the result of this project, connects the high contrast Modern type of Bodoni and Didot with the monstrous Italians. The difference between the attractive and repulsive forms lies in a single design parameter, the contrast between the thick and the thin.

Having designed two diametrically opposite versions, we undertook a genetic experiment with the offspring of the beauty and the beast, interpolation of the two extremes, which produced a surprisingly neutral low contrast version.

Info | Peter Bilak | Typotheque

https://www.typotheque.com/blog/beauty_and_ugliness

https://www.typotheque.com/

In summer of 2008, a typewriter font named ‘Lettera’ quietly made it into Lineto’s library. Although unannounced, ‘Lettera’ caught the eyes of many, and been very successful. It has been in use in numerous magazines, books, websites and identities.

‘Lettera’, named after Mario Belini’s iconic typewriter for Olivetti, is based on different Olivetti typewriter font, named ‘Candia’, originally designed by Joseph Müller-Brockmann in the early seventies, and was in production for only a few months, until it was discontinued and ignored.

THE BACK STORY:

I came across an old basic specimen of that typewriter font and developed it into a four cut family, with a bolder weight and two corresponding Italics. The specimen from which I based my designs was a rather poor quality scan in a small size that left a lot of room for interpretation. When the scan was magnified to a high percentage, its poor quality suggested a detail that resembled a ‘reversed’ ink trap in many of the characters, which became a significant design detail in the development of ‘Lettera’. Later on, when a different specimen was discovered – it was realized that those details never existed in ‘Candia’, but they were kept as part of ‘Lettera’.

THE NEWCOMER:

After a long contemplation, and numerous requests by users of ‘Lettera’, I set out to test a proportional version of ‘Lettera’, but given the backwards process of developing a proportional font out of a monospaced one, this task was approached with a great deal of skepticism, concerned that the style and character of ‘Lettera’ will be lost and a proportional version will become another plain grotesque face. However, it didn’t take too long to prove quite the opposite.

The result is a six cut family that is also available as OpenType with extended Latin support, including Cyrillic. ‘Lettera-Txt’ has great legibility in body text, and its rather normal and familiar appearance at first glance, does not resemble anything else as you go on reading. Round and upright, with quite unusual proportions.

In addition to the release of ‘Lettera-Txt’, I also introduced two new weights for ‘Lettera’: ‘Bold’ and ‘Bold-Italic’. That makes for quite an extensive family with six proportionals and six monospaced cuts. An additional ‘Black’ weight, with a corresponding italic, will be available in early 2013 (‘Lettera-Txt’ only).

More Information

http://www.lettera-txt.com/

http://www.kobibenezri.com

Thank you to Kobi Benezri for the images / copy / information

Counter-Print

The ninth edition of newspaper, Eight:48, is out now and has been renamed Counter-Print. It now consists of three papers and runs to 56 pages.
Paper #01 focuses on the art and design of freight and heavy goods vehicles, taking a global view on the history, symbolism and craft behind their ornamentation. Paper #02 entitled, ‘new work’, offers a snap shot of some of the best work Counter-Print have had sent to them over the past quarter, as well as inspiring pieces they have come across in galleries and online. Finally, Paper #03 is an attempt to tie up Eight:48, as they move forward with Counter-Print. Its brief montage of new and old articles, drawn from issues one to eight offers a timely look back on all eight themes that have shaped the paper so far.

Specification:

56 pages

289x400mm

4 colour throughout

£6 (with free P&P to the UK)
Counter-print Issue 09 is available to purchase from here

‘Alphabet Truck’ project photography —

Eric Tabuchi http://www.erictabuchi.fr/

Competition
Keep an eye on the Typetoken twitter feed this Friday 31st – we are starting a fresh retweet competition to win the latest issue of Counter-Print

Twitter: @typetoken

Logotype
Michael Evamy

Logotypes – wordmarks, monograms and single-letter marks – are where the verbal becomes visual; where elements that are usually designed to speed the eye across the page invite it to linger; where the choice of font is never less than meaningful; where spaces and spacing are significant; where the composition of words and characters carry weight; where letterforms and even fragments of letterforms can evoke attributes, atmospheres, emotions, events,places, personalities and periods in history.

Once it has become familiar, a logotype is registered by the brain in much the same way as a symbol: as a single, visual entity rather than a set of related verbal ones.

Featuring more than 1,300 international typographic identities, by around 250 design studios, this is an indispensable handbook for every design studio, providing a valuable resource to draw on in branding and corporate identity projects.

Examples are drawn not just from Western Europe and North America but also Australia, South Africa, the Far East, Israel, Iran, South America and Eastern Europe. 

Contributing design firms include Pentagram, Vignelli Associates, Chermayeff & Geismar, Wolff Olins, Landor, Total Identity and Six as well as dozens of highly creative, emerging studios.

Retaining the striking black-and-white aesthetic and structure of Logo (also by Michael Evamy) and Symbol, Logotype is an important and essential companion volume. Logotype will be available from September 2012.

*Competition*

Win a copy of Logotype

Typetoken are running a ‘reweet to win’ competition

Laurence King Publishing will randomly select from the retweets a winner of the book.

Keep an eye on + follow the typetoken twitter feed for details.

Follow on twitter here:  @typetoken

More Info

Laurence King

@LaurenceKingPub

Michael Evamy

@michaelevamy

Melvin Galapon: T.E.A.M Together Everyone Achieves More

16th August — 1st September 2012 Kemistry Gallery, 43 Charlotte Road London EC2A 3PD

T.E.A.M – Together Everyone Achieves More is the brainchild of graphic designer/ illustrator Melvin Galapon.

Galapon has collaborated with three of the UK’s most exciting illustrators/ artists of today, Hellovon, Pomme Chan & James Dawe, aiming to combine his own fascination of geometric shapes and patterns with his collaborators individual style and creative vision.

“Each collaboration is a separate project with that artist, although having said that, from what we’ve done so far there seems to be a visual theme of hard-edged lines mixed with organic flowing forms, which I guess is a reflection of my thinking and each of theirs.”

T.E.A.M showcases and explores the idea of working together to produce something more than what can be achieved alone. Exploring and collaborating with others has resulted in a range of different outcomes, producing an exciting collection of work on show.

—

“My fascination with working with type came while studying on my MA and trying to work out what I was interested in beyond just pixels. Once I’d researched deeper into the technology behind pixels and the history behind them I was opened up to a whole new world that really helped me to push my work to where it is today. Although with my earlier work it was all based on simplified pixelated type and has developed over the years into being more geometric and distorted. I have an absolute fascination with type that is borderline illegible to the point where you can just make out what it says from a certain angle or distance, which you either love or hate me for”

Melvin Galapon

—

Melvin Galapon lives and works in London creating an eclectic mix of Portraits/Typography/Installations & Pattern work all taking inspiration from his interest in analogue Technology/Pixels & TV Screen Signal Distortions. His work has adorned the pages of Wired US/UK, Wallpaper*, Creative Review and he has worked with brands such as Nike & Nokia. He’s been featured in numerous magazines around the world and has also exhibited in London, Singapore & Tokyo.

INFO

http://togethereveryoneachievesmore.tumblr.com/

http://kemistrygallery.co.uk/about

www.mynameismelvin.co.uk

hellomynameismelvin.tumblr.com/

https://twitter.com/_mynameismelvin

Architype Ingenieur  & Architype Vierkant

Foundry Types launches two new Crouwel typefaces Building on its longstanding collaboration with Wim Crouwel, The Foundry – the London based independent type foundry set up by Freda Sack and David Quay – has launched two new typefaces by the Dutch design legend. Architype Ingenieur is a four weight family inspired by Crouwel’s late 1950s exhibition catalogues and posters.

Available in light, bold, regular and dot, the typeface was inspired by the simplified geometric letterforms Crouwel created for various exhibition catalogues and posters during the late 1950s. Influenced by his boyhood fascination with naval lettering, Crouwel designed grid-based type with 45-degree angles for the Olanda poster for the Dutch entry to the 1960 Venice Biennale.

A subtle variation on this appeared in the 1960 Stedelijk Museum catalogue for painter Jean Brusselmans; and several dot matrix versions followed. Architype Vierkant has been developed from the letterforms that Crouwel created on the theme ‘typo vision international’ for a 1972 Drupa catalogue. This references many of the experimental ideas which underpin his controversial New Alphabet and Fodor typefaces. This single weight typeface forms part of the Architype Crouwel Collection.

Both typefaces are part of Foundry Types’ newly expanded Architype Collections. The other collections in the series – Architype Konstrukt and Architype Universal – feature typefaces created from the experimental typographic work of artists and designers including Josef Albers, Jan Tschichold, Herbert Bayer, Kurt Schwitters and Theo Ballmer. All fonts are available to licence direct from the new website www.foundrytypes.co.uk which now offers Opentype versions of all of the Foundry’s typefaces. Designers are invited to submit examples of their work which use the Foundry’s typefaces for inclusion on its new blog.

All fonts are available to licence direct from the new website www.foundrytypes.co.uk

Munich ’72 Design Legacy Exhibition and Symposium

29 June – 31 July 2012
Herbert Read Gallery
University for the Creative Arts,
UCA Canterbury CT1 3AN

http://www.munich72.org/
https://www.facebook.com/M72DesignLegacy

Information

This exhibition at the UCA Canterbury campus presents the design heritage of the Munich Olympiad during 1972. The project draws upon Ian McLaren’s collection of relevant material (some of which can be seen on this website) obtained as a result of his having been a senior member of the design team. The exhibition provides a first hand account of the evolution of the designs and subsequent commercialisation of aspects of the work produced for Munich’72. An accompanying symposium will combine contributions from figures who worked with Aicher alongside respected practicing designers. The exhibition coincides with the passage of the Olympic flame through Kent.

Otl Aicher
The design work was led by Otl Aicher who sought to project the lightness of the Bavarian landscape and the character of southern Germany. Aicher’s team developed a range of material which is probably best remembered for the innovative and exemplary series of posters; and a range of pictorial symbols which subsequently has been adopted and extended worldwide with considerable commercial success, thanks to Aicher’s close collaboration with the German lighting manufacturer ERCO.The story of Aicher’s work with ERCO and his influence on later designers will provide the theme for a symposium accompanying the exhibition.

Identity
The colour palette was one of the most significant aspects of the identity. It was based upon the heraldic colours of Bavaria, light blue and white (as used by BMW and the Hofbräuhaus brewery). Aicher chose these, together with the light green of the Bavarian alpine landscape, as the principal elements to provide a light palette (which required bespoke ink formulations). The lightness of colour was reflected in the adoption of a light typeface (Univers 55). The colours in the German national flag were expressly excluded.

Sunburst
Each Olympiad produces it’s own distinguishing symbol, used in association with the Olympic rings. The original proposal in the case of Munich a simple radiating ‘sunburst’ was felt by the legal department to be unenforceable when licensing official products. A competition was held for the symbol, which Graphicteam Köln won with a more complex design combining the ‘sunburst’ with a dynamic radiating spiral.

Gymnastics poster
The sport posters were designed by a team led by Gerhard Joksch. In the case of ‘Gymnastics’ note the inversion from left to right; removal of the curtains; introduction of two horizontal bands; and the retouching of the Japanese insignia on the costume, to remove identification with a particular nationality.

Munich ’72 (first graphic poster)
The first graphic poster to be produced was required to act as an intital ‘banner’; and frequently was used in conjunction with the photographic posters at promotional events. Because it was used internationally in unspecified language zones, to avoid verbal translations no text was included other than the headline “Munich ’72”. As no buildings were yet completed it used a graphic treatment of part of a photograph of the architectural model (which used a woman’s stocking to simulate the stadium roof). It set the graphic style for the later sport posters.

Cultural programme posters
The posters for the associated cultural events combined horizontal colour bands in the official colours with graphic imagery. Ian McLaren chose to use a consistent single horizontal line running throughout each. The poster for Folklore was the sole occasion where Aicher permitted black to be used within a graphic device.

Copy by Ian McLaren

AVA Academia publish some excellent books covering applied visual arts and design subjects, there recent Typography focused titles are well researched and illustrated with some great typographic work

The Fundamentals of Typography (second edition) is an updated version of the popular first edition of this book, in which Ambrose and Harris introduce the fundamental principles of typographic theory and practice. It covers a wide range of subjects, including the history of typography, typographic detailing and the use of creative typography across a range of media. Packed with clear explanations, expanded illustrations and historical and contemporary examples from leading practitioners around the world, this book offers an essential guide to the subject of typography and its role within graphic design. The second edition includes considerable new and revised content from the authors, including new case studies and student exercises.

more

Basics Typography 02: Using Type is a wide ranging and practical guide to typography. The book starts with an exploration of how to define type, where it is found and its many different uses. It goes on to examine layout and practice within a graphic design context, teaching designers how to work with type through specific projects and student exercises. Highly illustrated, this title contains images of historically important work alongside many examples from contemporary design studios. A helpful running glossary and examples of successful student and professional work make this an esential handbook for students of graphic design and visual communication.

more

Euclid BP | Emmanuel Rey | swisstypefaces.com

It is not easy to bring a new design into the well-known field of Futura.
I would not like people to consider Euclid BP as a revival.

Since it’s first use, at this time exclusive, in 2009 for the identity of a contemporary art festival in Switzerland (Les Urbaines), the aesthetic produced by Euclid BP was quickly adopted by young designers.

I have taken a radical approach to basic geometry to design a typeface with a strong impact and self-identity, which was actually the opposite of Renner’s aim for his Futura. He wanted to avoid decorative and non-essential elements: I want to show some wildness. It has to show attitude and to be immediately recognizable, to look as a 21st century font and not as another wise revival of an early 20th century geometric font.

I consider myself much more of a contemporary designer, than a nostalgic one, and think that new aesthetics of fonts are needed in order to give graphic designers the necessary and essential tools they need to build an image that fits our time.

Emmanuel Rey

www.swisstypefaces.com

Regular

Thanks to Henrik Kubel for the exclusive reference / specimen images and his insight behind the latest A2-Type release, A2 Regular

Information

Regular 7 weights + Italics

Designed by Henrik Kubel

Released April 2012 A2-TYPE

www.a2-type.co.uk

Regular:

A Geometric Sans! with its basic structure inspired by some of our favourite hot metal fonts: Memphis, Karnak, Stymie, Scarab and Paul Renner’s Futura — Regular started as a Slab Serif font in late 2011, however I soon realised that it wasn’t going to bring anything particular new to the faces already available on the market so my design was placed in a drawer.

A couple of months passed and on a visit to Antwerp in Belgium, I was reminded of the distinct lowercase ‘g’ featuring in some of the afore mentioned typefaces. High up on a wall was a shadow of a past sign, but a Sans version! This interesting discovery inspired me directly to go back to the font and my early ideas and basically work the Slab Serif font that I had already started, into a Sans! Regular is in many ways a revival but it is also a font that has contemporary references and key words like: Rational, Readable, Refined, Relevant, Reliable and Responsive was part of the check-list during my design process.

The carefully crafted range of weights; Light, Regular, Medium, SemiBold, Bold, ExtraBold & Black is ideal for books and magazines and it also lends itself very nicely to screen based projects — The family of fonts incorporates true Italics for each weight which is distinct when set in running text.

Regular suggest a Modernist approach to design — but is open for interpretation.

Prada Candy Typeface by Gareth Hague | Alias

Thanks to Gareth Hague for sharing his images / information on the development of the Prada Candy Typeface

Gareth Hague | Alias

We have been exploring the idea of making a Prada typeface, a work in progress.

Extending a brand’s logo to a typeface feels like an obvious branding solution. It extends a unique asset of a company, the way it presents its name, beyond just its name so that this uniqueness can be presented throughout its content. In fashion this has been done with great success by Burberry, with its stretched Bodoni caps.

Of course not every logo suits this treatment. For example, sticking with fashion, Cassandre’s beautiful Yves Saint Laurent logo has such a particular calligraphic style and letterforms locked together in such a specific way that its best treated as an independent and separate graphic device. The heavy Futura caps of the Jil Sander logo again suit a stand alone and separate treatment.

Branding in fashion is complicated by the larger fashion houses in particular having a myriad of product – separate fashion lines, fragrances, cosmetics, eyewear – and defining themselves differently to a different audience through this different product. This can make for a confusing array of wordmarks and supporting typography which lose any sense of a brand’s singularity of purpose, content, and direction. Burberry and Chanel for example show how a consistent graphic presence focusses a vision and clarifies a brands message to the consumer, even between different product ranges.

David James has been working with Prada since 1996. For a lot of that time we have been discussing the idea of a Prada typeface – what it might look like, whether it was an appropriate idea. Unlike the similarities between the lettering used for, say, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Marc Jacobs, and others, the Prada lettering is striking and specific to that company. In branding terms, where uniqueness and distinctness are primary concerns, a Prada typeface could be a powerful tool in presenting that message throughout its written communications.For the Candy fragrance, with its very un-Prada pink colour and illustration, the Candy word in the Prada typeface reconnected the branding to Prada. For various fashion films with very little graphic content, again the type in the Prada typeface adds an extra connection to the brand.

In terms of drawing, logos of course exist as themselves only, so the rules of their drawing are narrowed to the extent of – usually – a very few letters. From the letters supplied, there should be enough information to best-guess the rules to complete the font – size/shape of serif, character width, and so on. For the four letters in the Prada logo there are similarities with various ornamental serif fonts from the late 19th – early 20th centuries, but with more inconsistency of drawing than you would expect in a fully drawn typeface – the round inner bowl of the P and R that is straight in the D, the wide difference in thickness of line. When making an alphabet maintaining these differences of drawing, this produces inconsistent but not necessarily unworkable letter shapes. Removing these inconsistencies would make the typeface a different idea to the logo. It would normalise the typeface, removes what makes it special and surprising. Normalising also means giving an extra usability, making the Prada typeface in this work in progress version upper case only and most suitable for headline, impact use

14/41 – 14 Years, 41 Logos is the first book from Mash Creative (www.mashcreative.co.uk) founder Mark Bloom.

Produced as a limited run, the book showcases 41 of his favourite logos designed during a 14 year career. Includes five golden rules of logo design and an insight into how he approaches an identity brief.

148mm x 210mm, 100 pages, P.U.R bound with white foil debossed logo to the cover, this beautiful soft back book has been printed with an enticing mix of GF Smith Colourplan and Olin rough papers.

Available to buy from :  www.thisisourshop.com

Also available to buy from Design Museum Shop, Magma books and Artword Books.

Fenland

Fenland is the latest typeface design from Jeremy Tankard Typography

— a 14 font typeface

Thank you to Jeremy for the images, information and contribution to this feature.

Fenland information and licensing

http://typography.net/fontfamilies/view/39

Extract from ‘Footnote’

Jeremy Tankard Typography Newsletter

From the very early stages of the design the intention was to create lettershapes whose underlying structure is approached differently. Modified in some way to achieve a fresh look. For instance, take the idea of how a shape is changed over time. Picture the lettering found on gravestones and how it is weathered and eroded by nature. The wearing away of these shapes may result in some elements vanishing, lines thinning or breaking and gaps appearing. Also think of the inscriptions found on tombstones laid out on the floor of churches; how these are worn away over the years by passing footfall.

In contrast to this natural process, could a similar idea be achieved mechanically. However, repeating a process such as photographically reducing and enlarging, again and again, results in an expected soft and blurred shape. A sans serif lettershape will become more rounded and soft, whereas the details of a serif letter will shrink and fade away. The result is expected and is dependent on the structure of the shape.

If the structure of the shape is changed, then arguably a fresh rhythm could be found. If the shapes are constructed instead of written, the relationship between thick and thin strokes could be readdressed. This would go some way in creating a different structure that could be explored across a range of weights.

Structure

One of the principal ideas that underpins Fenland is the way a metal tube collapses in on itself when it is bent. This notion was applied to a letter’s structure by shifting the emphasis of the stem weight.

The sketch above (picture 1) shows how the inside curve at the top bends inwards as the outside curve is flattened. This shift of emphasis creates a thin point where it would normally be thick.

As well as a change to the modulation of the stem weight. The construction of some shapes was reconsidered. For instance, an ‘f’ is generally drawn in two strokes; the arch curving over and down with the crossbar added. To break this momentum Fenland’s ‘f’ is constructed in three strokes; a crossbar, a straight stem and a hook.

Samples and information

Individual PDF showings are available on line at http://typography.net/fontfamilies/view/39. There is also a limited edition printed sample available, please email info@typography.net if you would like a copy.

Promotional codes for the launch of Fenland

There are discount codes available
Go to the Fenland page at typography.net to use them

To receive 50% off Fenland
use promotion code Fenland50
until end of day 21 March **

To receive 25% off Fenland
use promotion code Fenland25
until end of day 30 March **