Pay What You Want Type

May 17, 2011 11:21 AM

The Lost Type Co-op is a collaboration between Tyler Galpin and Riley Cran. It was founded with the intention of providing unique and quality fonts based on a pay-what-you-want model. All designers get 100% of the donations their font receives.
posted by netbros (13 comments total)

Nice! I totally just paid some cash for Demming, that's a cool font.
posted by mathowie at 11:26 AM on May 17, 2011

Are those faux JPEG artifacts? I feel really old all of a sudden.
posted by enn at 11:28 AM on May 17, 2011

And presumably the more a designer makes on his creation, the more likely he/she will be able to create more... For example I'd really like to see Pigeon get fleshed out with a true italic and some additional weights.

But these are all lovely, especially considering the business model.
posted by jnrussell at 12:06 PM on May 17, 2011

Are those faux JPEG artifacts?

You mean on their website background? I think that's real JPEG artifacts on top of the blended noisy texture they went with. And that Grand Opening sign - looks like hand-done noise/dithering around the edges. Reminds of me of the MS Paint 'airbrush'.

Anyway, I'm totally buying a couple of these fonts. I love pay-what-you-want.
posted by MrFTBN at 12:33 PM on May 17, 2011

You mean on their website background? I think that's real JPEG artifacts on top of the blended noisy texture they went with.

But it's a PNG. Seems like they are imitating late-90s overcompressed JPEGs for aesthetic effect.
posted by enn at 12:40 PM on May 17, 2011

But it's a PNG. Seems like they are imitating late-90s overcompressed JPEGs for aesthetic effect.

Huh. Maybe you're right. Let's hope that doesn't catch on.

Also, what is the "Grand Opening" design supposed to be? Is it a typesetting/font tool in-joke?
posted by MrFTBN at 12:51 PM on May 17, 2011

In a recent thread about the hipstamatic filter user hellojed said this:

As an aside, I really hope in the future that generating .jpg artifacts for the sake of making pictures look like they're from the early 2000's isn't one of these "nostalgia filters".

Future keeps getting here faster and faster.
posted by Babblesort at 1:01 PM on May 17, 2011

OOf I'm loving liberator.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 1:39 PM on May 17, 2011

love the idea of new retro fonts. Canaveral is my favorite. might be interesting to track the site and see if Kelly's 1,000 customer theory works.
posted by TMezz at 1:50 PM on May 17, 2011

Some of these are quite awesome.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 2:21 PM on May 17, 2011

Some nice fonts here, I will keep these in mind if/when I have an excuse to do some more retro design work. Love the 'pay what you want' model, I hope they do well.

Also, what is the "Grand Opening" design supposed to be? Is it a typesetting/font tool in-joke?

It sort of looks like the molded plastic that comes in model kits, with the pieces still attached to their sprues, waiting to be satisfyingly snapped off before painting and assembly. But I'm not sure what's with the rough edges and artifacts... seems a shame to do that to a nice crisp design like that.
posted by usonian at 3:53 PM on May 17, 2011

That site has more Futura on it than a Frankie Goes To Hollywood 12".
posted by Lazlo at 10:31 PM on May 17, 2011

I like it – who doesn’t enjoy being able to test something extensively before spending money on it? It also helps that some of the fonts look fantastic.
posted by wachhundfisch at 3:29 AM on May 18, 2011