The Geometry of Type

The Anatomy of 100 Essential Typefaces
Stephen Coles Foreword by Erik Spiekermann
Thames & Hudson
Publication date: 21 January 2013

The Geometry of Type explores 100 traditional and modern typefaces in loving detail, with a full spread devoted to each entry. Characters from each typeface are enlarged and annotated to reveal key features, anatomical details, and the finer, often-overlooked elements of type design, which shows how these attributes affect mood and readability. Sidebar information lists the designer and foundry, the year of release and the different weights and styles available, while feature boxes explain the origins and best uses for each typeface, such as whether it is suitable for running text or as a display font for headlines. To help the reader spot each typeface in the wider world, the full character set is shown, and the best letters for identification are highlighted. This beautiful and highly practical work of reference for font spotters, designers and users is a close-up celebration of typefaces and great type design.

• A beautiful and highly practical work of reference for for font spotters, designers and users that celebrates typefaces and great type design inclose-up.

• Features 100 popular typefaces, grouped according to 17 primary type classifications.

• Feature boxes explain origins and chief attributes of each typeface, as well as its best uses, such as whether it is suitable for running text or as a display font for headlines.

Author

Stephen Coles is a writer and typographer. After six years as creative director at FontShop in San Francisco, he now edits the websites Typographica, Fonts In Use and The Mid-Century Modernist. Stephen is a regular contributor to Print and Codex magazines, a TypeCamp instructor and a member of the FontFont TypeBoard. He also contributed editorial content to the most recent edition of FontBook:Digital Typeface Compendium.

Erik Spiekermann founded MetaDesign, Germany’s largest design firm, in 1979 and FontShop in 1988; he now runs the design agency Edenspiekermann.

Further Information

http://typeanatomy.com/

The updated edition of ‘Grids’ published by Ava academia – is well worth checking out. Something for everyone (from students to seasoned pros) in this well designed book, explanations / theories behind grid systems and illustrated with some beautiful ‘real life’ grid based work.

Ava information

A comprehensive guide to the use of grids in graphic design.

Argues for an informed and flexible approach to using grids, to allow for effective and creative designs.

Contemporary case studies are supported by concise descriptions, technical expansions and diagrammatic visualizations, enabling the reader to fully understand the work being discussed.

An in-depth guide, supported by interviews, exercises and resources, all presented in a visually stimulating style designed to appeal to students and practitioners of the creative arts.

avabooks.com

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

‘TYPE MATTERS!’ BY JIM WILLIAMS (MERRELL PUBLISHERS)

The following text is (Jim Williams own words) taken from the book and explains how the book originated and how it came to be published

Preface

My passion for type was born while I was studying for my A level in Technical Drawing. The teacher, Mr Dykes, ran a small letterpress workshop at the school and would leave on his desk proofs for small bits of jobbing printing. Unsurprisingly, I found the contents of his desk far more interesting than my struggle with the mathematics of designing gears and ratios. Thank you, Mr Dykes!

I went on to study graphics and typography at what is now the University of Central Lancashire, but was at that time Preston Polytechnic, and had the good fortune to be taught typography by Alan Livingston and Ben Casey.

After graduating, I immediately went to work for one of London’s most respected advertising typographers, the late Maggie Lewis, who was known as ‘the queen of type’. This feisty lady had a fearsome reputation for typographic excellence but, on occasion, would bake apple crumbles for me. I think she was concerned that this shy young lad from Liverpool wasn’t eating properly.

My grounding in classic 1980s advertising typography was completed with spells at Steve Legate’s studio and working under Len Cheeseman at Collett Dickenson Pearce. Perhaps my time in advertising is one of the reasons I love big type so much, and it has informed my approach to typography ever since.

Type Matters! came about when I was asked by a design company in Manchester to give a series of talks, one of which was about tips that could help its designers with day-to-day typography. The presentation sat on my desktop for several months afterwards, and when I returned to Staffordshire University (where I lecture part-time) after the summer break, I spoke to the awards manager, Barbara Ridley, about the presentation and the merits of it being printed for use by our students. With her usual enthusiasm and friendly encouragement, Barbara managed to find the funds for its production.

It was then featured by Creative Review, and that was when I discovered the amount of interest in this subject. I began receiving requests for copies from all over the world. Many of the people who subsequently sent me feedback said they found it easy to understand and encouraged me to think about developing it into a book.

Many things have informed the content of Type Matters!, including what I have learned from the people with whom I’ve worked, the glaring mistakes I’ve seen and the questions I’ve most commonly been asked by students. I hope you find it useful.

— Jim Williams

Publishing Information

Merrell Publishers

Soft flexi binding

160 pages  22 x 17 cm (8.75 x 6.75 in)

ISBN: 978-1-8589-4567-5

Published April 2012

Typography / Computer Arts Collection Issue 2

The latest ‘Typography’ focused Computer Arts Collection looks to be of special interest to Typetoken readers.

The 224 page issue includes a 48-page special project, guest-edited by Shoreditch-based studio Sawdust. Co-founders Rob Gonzalez and Jonathan Quainton walk through the entire creation process behind a striking display font, produced exclusively for Computer Arts Collection, including video diaries and behind-the-scenes footage of the studio at work (available for secure download).

Other features include:

Deep behind the scenes of leading type-focussed projects, including Fontsmith for San Miguel, Dalton Maag for Nokia and Frost* for Typographic magazine

Extended interview with Jonathan Barnbrook, creator of the fonts Bastard, Sarcastic and Exocet

The enduring influence of Germany, Switzerland and The Netherlands on global typography

Further Information

Preview

Over the past 10 or so years at Fontsmith, we have been quietly drawing and thinking about these letters, we’ve been thinking about how they fit into a specific picture. How can we create the tone of a letter-shape to fit into the context of a graphic designers brief. Legibility is fundamental, it is the omnipresent requirement, but the tone and texture of the letter shape is ever changing. As a species of brand aware individuals, we have become alphabet savvy. No matter how small, organisations want to communicate in a distinguished and personal manner, tailoring their words carefully to help them speak with a voice that is fitting to their offering. They also want to have ownership and control over their graphic assets and a font is a very powerful asset indeed. When used effectively a font can be the glue that binds all of the other graphic elements together.

The type industry has never felt more fertile than it does today and in this climate, interest in type design has piqued at feverish levels. So to continue Fontsmith’s superb relationship with the good folk here at TypeToken, Mike Sullivan (aka design tweeter @studiomr) has asked me to write a few words about the Fontsmith bespoke type design process. Obviously every type design project is different. There is no set formula or right way to design a bespoke typeface. Here I have attempted to break things down, to simplify and pigeon hole the process in order to give a little insight into how a bespoke type project may play out at Fontsmith.

Stage 1 – The Brief – context, words, colours and type mood-boards…

When we are approached by an agency, designer or client, we have a quick conversation in order to define the fundamental parameters of the brief. A conversation that revolves quite simply around the question – “How and where are these fonts going to be used?”. We can then wade into the exciting bit, the creative undertones of the proposed type. Typical questions are: “What are the values of this font?”, “How does it want to speak?”, “Is it direct, at a distanced or is it understated and approachable?”, “What other design elements are going to sit with it?”, “What is the photographic style”, “What colours are being considered?” etc…

Listen and understand your brief. Make notes, think, doodle and see where those doodles take you. Designing type isn’t rocket science but it does require a huge amount of skill and understanding that can only be gained through years of experience. It requires a fine eye for detail and craft, a visual sensibility for type styles and formal relationships within letter shapes. It requires an understanding of what has gone before and how that can help you to explore new creative possibilities.

Sometimes we create typographic mood-boards like the one above. Mood-boards allow you to gather a range of stylistic influences to pitch your own ideas into. They can help a client to define a typographic area that they feel comfortable with, a style that tonally resonates with them.

Sometimes mood-boards are very focused. For the UEFA Champions league typeface we felt that we had a good idea about where things should go. We gathered a mixed bag of typographic influences – a blend of sturdy sans types and classical forms implying a heritage and weightiness that felt right for the brand. (See above)

Stage 2 – Initial Ideas – sketchbooks, blackboards & beziers…

We begin to draw, craft and experiment with letters in our sketchbooks and on-screen…

The freeness of the sketchbook, can really aid the discovery for new ideas. More often than not, the confines of the computer and mouse can act as a straight jacket. We like to mix the process up, sometimes all sketch book, sometimes all on-screen, sometimes both in varying amounts.

Stage 3 – Developing and exploring a theme…

Our initial client presentation will include mood-boards, sketches and vector based ideas. This variety of ideas helps to define what aspects of the brief are important to the client and in-turn form a clearer direction for the project. Wh we have clarity, the next phase involves digging deeper. We begin to look at introducing subtle features into the letters and evolving alternative characters for the concept in order to work out which letterforms best suit the design in both it’s uniqueness and functionality. We use a standard font test word – ‘hamburgefontsiv’ to get a good overall picture for all shapes and the DNA within the alphabet. We also often accompany this test word with project specific words, sometimes juxtaposed with project colours and photography.

Here are three ideas that explore the realm of the Slab Serif. The top option is rounded, the middle is squarer and the bottom has more contrast and a slightly condensed proportion.

We also just play with individual characters to find the right energy. This collection shows a selection of experiments from our work on the Channel 4 typeface.

Stage 4 – Fontlab Refinenents – glyphs, spacing, kerning and coding…

We then push on and create a “Beta” test font for design agencies to start dropping into their design work.

We begin by crafting a more comprehensive character set within Fontlab. We refine the relationships between letters and we letter space each glyph to achieve a harmonious balance and grey tonal colour in text.

We then move onto kerning. The above image show kerning pairs for the Sheffield City typeface.

Engineering the functionality of the new typeface.

We print out large versions of characters and stick them to the studio walls to check over the curves.

We explore the possibility of complimentary weights and styles. For instance we can develop a re-weighted and simplified text font from a headline font like the tests above. Bespoke typeface design creates a very strong and unique synergy throughout a brand. It communicates through a plethora of varying situations and mediums, using different words to subtly convey a consistent tone. Branded type is a subtle and powerful device.

Stage 5 – Project launch…

The big launch and inevitable blog critique… always an exciting yet nervy time for all concerned ;) Here are a few of the bespoke projects that I have been involved in over the past few years…

The team – See above.
From Left to Right – Jason Smith, Me (Phil Garnham) , Emanuella Conidi, Helen Buckhurst and Fernando Mello.

Slanted #16 – Bold/Light

Slanted.de and it’s associated magazine — Slanted are well worth checking out — Slanted is a award-winning typography and design magazine, which is published four times a year and focuses on the areas of experimental typography, layout, illustration and photography links.

Information

Slanted #16 – Bold/Light is contrast. The new issue deals with the loud and the silent, the eye-catching and the inconspicuous.

BOLD is the opposite of despondent. In typography it is a popular method of accentuation. LIGHT is the opposite of noisy and bigmouthed. For this theme of contrasts we initially had more loud and bold fonts, works and pictures in mind than quiet, restrained ones. We are impressed of a time – striking and epic in its occurrences – which rushes past and carries us off. The soft overtones only get little attention at this rapid speed.

So, how can we pause, set the LIGHT against the BOLD? The fluid, cinematic moment of presentation has an exceptional meaning for us also in this issue. We are bothered about a linear concept of narration. The rhythmic comparison encourages to stay and immerse. Creative decisions and the use of typography for this compilation were stretched far to specific borders, to underline the topic and to work out the character of the two extremes. This precipitates also in the production: By the use of different, metallic Chromolux papers and a two-colored finishing, issue #16 appears with six different covers. Furthermore a haptic surprise awaitsthe reader in the inner part.

We are glad having the chance to present two photo series, which interpret the terms BOLD and LIGHT on a special, distinctive way: The historical photography of the propably most significant heavyweight champion of all times, Muhammad Ali (UPI/Bettmann/Corbis), as well as a critical photographical counterdraft to the “soft-washed” and alleged airy aesthetics of David Hamilton, created by Mareike Foecking (Düsseldorf).

We feature type essays by Jean Francois Porchez (Clarmart), Horst WoÅNhrle (Esslingen), Reinhard Albers (Constanz) and Nanna Funke (Münster), furthermore interviews with Ian Party (Lausanne), Ludwig UÅNbele (Berlin), Eric Gill, Michael Horsham (London), Doug Wilson (Springfield), Raffinerie AG für Gestaltung (Zurich), Jost Hochuli (St. Gall), Thomas Lupo (Weissach) and Mareike Foecking (Düsseldorf), as well as reports by Michael Schmidt (Munich), Ian Lynam (Tokyo) and a musical travel report by Frank Wiedemann (Berlin).

http://www.slanted.de/

The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design establishes a LETTERPRESS STUDIO. This video shows a few Visual Communication Master students on their first journey into the world of Letterpress.

For more information check out www.kadk.dk or visit the typo blog www.dkdspluskarch.blogspot.com

Kris Sowersby of Klim Type Foundry has designed Metric & Calibre a pair of typefaces that share a fundamental geometry yet differ in the finish of key letterforms. Metric is a geometric humanist, sired by West Berlin street signs. Calibre is a geometric neo-grotesque, inspired by the rationality of Aldo Novarese’s seldom seen Recta. They were conceived as a pair but function independently of each other.

The development of Metric & Calibre is based upon two ideas—1: “engineered geometry” and it’s application to street signage, 2: alternate letterforms in typefaces.

A more detailed explanation/information behind the design and development of Metric and Calibre can be read here.

Klim Type Foundry

Come to this year’s most exciting design event in London! Europe’s most successful annual three day design conference returns to London, featuring A-list speakers from the world of typography, information, graphic and digital design, brand experience, film, animation, publishing and education.

Speakers so far:

King Bansah – King of Hohoe, Ghana
Michael Bierut – Pentagram
Neville Brody – Research Studios
Jonathan Ellery – Browns
Tim Fendley – Applied Information Group
Dale Herigstad – Possible Worldwide
Nat Hunter – Airside
Gary Hustwit – Film Director, Helvetica, Objectified, Urbanized
Michael B Johnson – Pixar Animation Studios
Morag Myerscough – Studio Myerscough
Joachim Sauter – Art+Com
Adrian Shaughnessy – Unit Editions and Shaughnessyworks

The theme of this years TYPO London is »Places«. From information and urban planning to social networks, online communities and animated worlds, places shape our social behaviour. Design and the creative process is often the unifying factor linking people, places and things together. “The three days of the event will bring a vibrant global conversation about our surroundings, how we interact with people and how we understand the environments we pass through”, said Robin Richmond. “I am looking forward to an exciting panel of speakers discussing our sense of place, the way we live, behave, move around, communicate and interact with each other.”

More Information:

TYPO London
Twitter
Facebook

Slide your finger across the Elementar App’s intuitive controls to explore the variations from tiny to tall text, from narrow to wide. Imagine the possibilities in interactive interfaces and animations, especially on low-resolution devices.

Elementar is a parametric font system designed to bring more typographic flexibility to digital screens. Elementar embraces and explores the unique properties of digital media: the pixel, the coarse resolution grid, and the dimension of time.

The Elementar iPad App is available for free at the App Store .

Created by Yannick Mathey (byte-foundry), prototyp-0 is an application designed for the drawing of typographical characters. Created using Processing, the application automates the process allowing you to manipulate a large number of character properties in realtime, reflecting on the results and applying it to others.

Settings used on a single letter or letter sequence “type,” are instantly reflected on all the glyphs: Low-to-break, capitals, small capitals, but also numbers and common punctuation. The built in database includes all the typographic features achievable for any desired font, including fonts similar to the historical styles. Markers can alert the user of the limits and within the established rules of proportion and typography.

Seen over at Typeneu

prototyp-0

Our work is based on a love for — in no particular order — ideas, typography, colour, content, texture, materials, production techniques and imagery.

Students in introductory typography classes are asked to memorize and understand the form of historically important typefaces such as Garamond, Baskerville, Bodoni, Century and Helvetica. As a beginner, it is difficult to see the subtle differences. This is especially true in traditional media such as paper textbook, where the typeface in question is presented in linear, small sizes, virtually unable to be truly examined. This “flatness” makes it difficult to compare and  find important relationships among typefaces.

Typography Insight leverages technological evolutions in tablet devices, most notably the touch interface and high resolution display of the iPad, to visualize and manipulate typefaces. With Typography Insight, students can easily experiment and inspect the detailed shapes of historical typefaces. Consequently they can acquire a deeper understanding of the type, a virtue of any competitive designer.

http://typeinsight.org

Four Letter Words consists of four units, each capable of displaying all 26 letters of the alphabet with an arrangement of fluorescent lights.

The piece displays an algorithmically generated word sequence derived from a word association database developed by the University of South Florida between 1973 and 1998. The algorithms take into account word meaning, rhyme, letter sequencing, and association.

The algorithm’s tendency towards scatological or “dark” subject matter is influenced by a variety of language and perception studies, especially Elliot McGinnies’ 1949 study “Emotionality and Perceptual Defense.”

While the piece was conceived with idea of displaying algorithmically generated lists, it was designed with flexibility and expandability in mind. The individual units can be connected ad-infinitum, and are theoretically capable of displaying any length of text. While Four Letter Words deals with a specific range of content, the technology can be easily expanded for future textual experiments.

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View the video on robseward.com
View the blog Rob wrote about the process

Photos in exhibition: http://tdctokyo.org/eng/?p=2548
Tokyo TDC (Tokyo Type Directors Club) website: http://tdctokyo.org/eng/