The History of Typography - A video short

Enjoy this video short on The History of Typography by Ben Barrett-Forrest.

"Knowing where we come from helps to direct us forward."

Typoretum: A Letterpress Workshop

Typoretum: A Letterpress Workshop from Jamie Murphy on Vimeo.

Justin Knopp runs a small design and letterpress operation called Typoretum in Essex, England. I have been following Justin and his excellent work for sometime and this wonderfully shot video shows his operation in action. Keeping the craft of printing alive by adding the passion for letterforms and design is what Justin does so well and makes it all look so easy. Enjoy this video to show you how a craftsman creates work that inspires and sparks a love for all things type.

Justin host workshop on the art of printing and letterpress at his studio if you are in the area. To learn more and to view more of Justin's work, visit his site Typoretum.

Daily Drop Caps!!

AILY DROP CAP IS A PROJECT BY DESIGNER & ILLUSTRATOR JESSICA HISCHE. Since September of 2009, an illustrative initial cap has been posted daily (or at least regularly), to prettify the internet and beautify your blog posts. Individuals are welcome to use the drop caps on personal (non-commercial) sites within blog posts by following the instructions below each letter. The project will end after the twelfth alphabet is complete, but the site will remain up for your use and inspiration.

his project allows you to add "Drop Caps" to your stories on the web. Jessica has done a fabulous job of designing and allowing us all to experience and use her work. Each Drop Cap can be changed to the letter of your choice in the code that Jessica gives for each cap.

To see the complete line of Drop Caps, go to this link and have fun. Thank you Jessica for sharing the love on your site!!

Want Can We Say... We Love Typography

Looking for new year inspiration, look no farther than WeLoveTypography.com. With now over 800++ pages of inspiring type and design work it should be a location that you head to on a very regular basis. Go be inspired, see a new technique, and keep up on the wonderful world of type that surrounds us at WeLoveTypography.com

May The Type Force Be With You

I received information from Sabrina Di Gergorio at H-57 Creative Station in Milan who created these great type based "Star Wars" posters.

We have created 3 posters using typefaces, which is one of our greatest passions. The posters, as you can see from the pictures that the allegations, are Darth Vader, Yoda and Stormtrooper, 3 characters from Star Wars.

This is a particular interpretation of the characters obtained using different typefaces and only letters, to compose the picture.
We've made just to show our love and passion for design and typography, and, secondly, our love for the Star Wars saga.

Currently it looks like they are working out the bugs to go retail with these posters. They are sure to make a nice addition to your design studio for the upcoming year and show your love for all things type. Please check their website for information about there release.

May the Type Force be with you in the coming year.

The Royal Opera House Logo Redo

I am a lover of history and context. I truly appreciate it when both are considered in a redesign such as this branding for The Royal Opera House in England. I saw this recent post first at The Ministry of Type hosted by the wonderful Aegir Hallmundur with references to a write up over at the great Brand New by Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit.

The older version of the Royal Opera House logo used a wood cut crest along with Caslon as a typeface. The modern update has redrawn the crest to tighten up the image and Gotham has replaced Caslon as the typeface. This revision was completed by London-based SomeOne, who worked with master engraver Christopher Wormell to update the crest. I believe this update shows the modern progress of the Royal Opera House but is sensitive to its historical background. Looking at the Royal Opera House's website, you can see its rich tradition of performance arts for a modern world. Tradition is still alive in the world of performance and the Royal Opera House is leading the way.

Visiting The LA Printers Fair

Yesterday we here at aNEW designs had the pleasure to visit the 2nd Annual LA Printers Fair at the International Printing Museum in Carson. This was a wonderful day filled with all things type. The images you see where taken at the Fair. The International Printing Museum collection is one of the largest, most comprehensive collections of historic graphic arts equipment in the world. The collection alone was worth the visit but in addition where numerous vendors from the graphic arts and type world plus demos of the presses and a Linotype hot type machine. We where very impressed by the knowledgeable and friendly volunteers and staff. All that visited this event where filled with history and stories about the craft of type and left impressed with just how important type and printing have been over the years. If you where unable to visit during the Printers Fair, you should make a trip to see the museum when in the area. When you visit remember to mind your "p" and "q"s and have them show you why we call it "upper case" and "lower case". For further information on visiting the collection and future events, stop by the informative website of the International Printing Museum.

LA Printers Fair

Tomorrow, September 25th will mark the 2nd Annual LA Printers Fair. This great event will take place from 9am to 5pm at the International Printing Museum in Carson. Admission to the event is $5. Activities throughout the day include:

• Letterpress “Swap Meet:” Don’t miss your chance to buy antique letterpress equipment and everything you need for your own print shop. Type-lovers, graphic designers, artists, printers and members of the public are welcome to ogle over hundreds of cases of type and thousands of pounds of equipment and presses.

• “The First Information Revolution: The Printed Book from Gutenberg to Franklin” To honor this year’s theme, “A Celebration of Paper and Print” we will have a guest collection of rare books. Don’t miss this one-day only exhibition in the Museum’s Gallery! Works include a Book of Hours [1471], Augustine: Civitate Dei [1489], Natali: Catalogus Sanctorum [1514], Angelus de Clavasio: Summa angelica [1519], Chaucer: Canterbury Tales [1561] and much more.

• Ask machinery expert Bill Berkuta and others all your press and equipment questions. Bill is in-demand all over the state, so take advantage of his live consultation at the Fair.

• General Gallery Tours – experience 500 years of printing history as our knowledgeable docents guide you through our collection. Letterpress demonstrations on various presses will be on-going throughout the day.

• Printmaking demonstrations by Lindsay Buchman, Mary Sherwood Brock, and Cathy Weiss in our back building in the Book Arts Institute.

• “The 40’s Shop” - Travel back in time to experience a 40’s era working print shop. See Windmills, Ludlows, Linotypes, platen presses, proofing presses, a Miehle Vertical and our vast collection of wood and lead type. See slugs cast on our working Linotype operated by Luis Garcia.

• Sit down and enjoy reading in our Library with holdings on printing, papermaking, printmaking, typography and so much more.

• Purchase beautiful letterpress-printed pieces, artist books, gorgeous handmade and commercial paper/envelopes and more from one of our Vendors at the Fair.

I hope to see you there tomorrow. For further information on the location of the International Printing Museum and the LA Printers Fair, please go to their website at this link.

Fall Type Fashion Needs

Summer is coming to an end and you maybe saying to yourself, mmm...what should I wear this Fall Fashion Season? Well look no further with this great line of t-shirts and sweatshirts for those designer flag football games from the good folks at Typography Shop. The Typography Shop has a full line of designer type shirts in both men and women styles. Check it out and show the world how well kerned you are.

TypeFace - Film Showing OC

Next Friday, August 13th, will be a FREE showing of the design film Typeface by Justine Nagan at the Art Institute of California - Orange County. The evening will start at 6:30 pm with Live Demos from the International Printing Museum mobile metal and woodblock letterpress. After the demos, the film Typeface will be shown at 8 pm. The event is sponsored by the student AIGA chapter of AICA-OC and the Orange County chapter of AIGA. Come out, network with friends and make a few new ones at the FREE event. Please RSVP at the Facebook link of the AIGA student chapter. I hope to see you next Friday.

Typeface - The Film

First there was a film about Helvetica, now we have a film about Wood Type and Printing called Typeface. Typeface revolves around the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum located in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Hamilton Printing was in full operation until the mid 80s and now the type and presses are being preserved and used to train a new generation on letterpress operations. The trailer above give a great preview of the film. The Hamilton Museum has over 1.5 million wooden letterforms that can viewed and used during classes. The film explores this craft of letterpress that is being lost to time, its history and how today's designers are trying to preserve this skill. The film is being shown around the world in limited releases so be sure to check the Typeface site for dates. I am looking forward to seeing this film when it shows in the LA area or its DVD release, whatever comes first.

To learn more about the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum, you can go directly to their website and you can support this effort by visiting their Etsy shop.

New Type York

James Patrick Gibson has started a new photo type blog called New Type York. James snaps images of found type on the streets of New York City and makes daily post of these images. You will find great images for inspiration and happening in NYC. Great job on the blog James. I am looking forward to many more images to come in the future.

What Type Are You? - Pentagram

Pentagram has produced a nifty little web site to determine "what type are you?". The site leads you through a series of short questions by a noted psychologist who keeps his identity secret. Once you have completed the questions he determines which font best describes who you are. So if you are designer who loves type and has thought that this passion is getting out of hand and even contemplated mental help for it, this may just be the solution for you. Try it out at this link on the Pentagram site.

Project Team: John Rushworth, partner-in-charge and designer; Kirsty Whittaker, designer. Written by Naresh Ramchandani. Produced by The Brown Studio. Web development by Nerv Interactive.

Typographic Ads

Who does not love a great use of type? Check out this posting over at the GraphicDesign blog of 30 examples of typographic print ads. Some interesting work and concepts are presented. The Australia Post ad is my favorite.

For more great type, don't forget to check out the We Love Typography site daily for inspiration.

Marketing Your Font - HypeForType

NEUFORMA FONT #HFT002 IDENT from HypeForType on Vimeo.

With all the new fonts coming to the market how do you break through and stand out? HypeForType has come up with a creative way to showcase new fonts through small videos like above. I think it is a creative way to show off your new font and put it in an environment that many fonts are going into, interactive. The video is short and upbeat and let you see possibilities of what you can create. To view more of HypeForType, additional font videos and their complete line go to this link or to see their blog this link.

We Love Typography

I have post prior about We Love Typography but sometimes a good thing is worth mentioning again. Several months ago a vision was formed to start a website dedicated to visual images of typography and all the good stuff related to type. Out of this vision We Love Typography was born. The brain child of John Boardley, who was already hosting the popular and wonderful I Love Typography site, with the technical assistance of Kari Pätilä the site was started. We Love Typography has surpassed 500 pages today of visuals to inspire, that over 6,000 images. Each image can be viewed on the site or a link is provided to take you to the image source with opens up many other doors of inspiration. I have been a contributor to We Love Typography and have loved helping to support the vision and more important, loved the images that others have found to inspire and delight. Make sure you bookmark We Love Typography as a must go to spot for ideas, inspiration and pleasure.

IKEA Changes It Up

For the last 50 years, IKEA has used Futura as its typeface for everything from its catalog to signage. Now change has come to the use of Futura. IKEA has decided to switch typefaces to Verdana. I feel that Futura does give a touch more modern feel that has been the basis to the IKEA brand. The official explanation states it will allow them to use the same typeface in all the world markets they reach in both print and web use. Any thoughts on the change? See and read more at idsgn.

Sexy Type Tart Cards

If you have ever visited London, in the fabulous red phone booths you will find "tart cards" for life's pleasures. These tart cards that advertises sexual services fill the phone booths sometimes where it is hard to find the phone. In a project to designers, they where asked to design their favorite type into a "type tart card". The project is on display in London now and here is a link to what they came up with from Wallpaper magazine. You will find the tart cards full of double entendres and ambiguity. Type can be a turn on for us design geeks.

Font Conference - The Video

Watch Font Conference on CollegeHumor

Does Comic Sans save the day? Tune in and watch this classic.

Font Fight - The Video

Watch Font Fight on CollegeHumor

Will Helvetica kick Arial's but? Will Stencil use his hand grenade? Watch and find out.