MetaFilter posts tagged with type

Simple rules for good typography

Dr Dracator — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:51:29 -0800

Most of what a non-expert needs to know about typography, all in one easy to digest page. (via)

I thought I was the only one

The Whelk — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:02:38 -0800

“I think sometimes that being overly type-sensitive is like an allergy,” : The New York Times on the perils of being a font nerd.

Vintage Graphics Resource

netbros — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:53:39 -0800

Grain Edit is focused on classic design work from the 1950s-1970s and contemporary designers that draw inspiration from that time period. Site content includes interviews, articles, designers’ libraries, as well as examples of rare design annuals, type specimens, ephemera, posters and vintage kids books from their bookshelves.

Design Do's and Don'ts

netbros — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:16:27 -0800

The Design Cubicle articles focus on design tips and resources on all subjects of design; ranging from print, web, logo, branding, advertising and marketing. Popular articles include 10 Common Typography Mistakes and understanding the importance of good type skills; and 12 Common Photoshop Mistakes and Malpractice. The strategies behind designing a successful and memorable logo involve a process which progresses through various stages of listening, research, development, feedback and changes. 11 Steps of a Successful Logo Design Process.

A shapely galaxy

twoleftfeet — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:42:38 -0800

There are many galaxies. The Sombrero Galaxy. The Whirlpool Galaxy. Lenticular galaxies. The occasional irregular galaxy. What types of galaxies do we find in the universe?

The London 7/7 Memorial

joeclark — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:23:57 -0800

Stelae for 7/7. The London 7/7 Memorial consists of “52 pillars (or ‘stelae’), cast in rough textured stainless steel, each representing one of the victims” of the 2005 terrorist bombing attack. Typographer Phil Baines (profile) explains the development of the rough-hewn yet “British” typeface, based on “the 19th-century, untutored signmakers’ sansserif you see on buildings around the city,” that is moulded into the living steel.

Type Tart Cards

carsonb — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:32:02 -0800

Tart cards [NSFW] are the means by which many London prostitutes advertise their services. Step into almost any central London phone box and you can contemplate up to 80 cards inviting you to be tied, teased, spanked or massaged.... [Wallpaper Magazine] asked designers – from students to superstars – to find the tart hiding in every typeface and create their own graphic numbers.... all 450 cards can be viewed here. [NSFW]

In among this plethora of brilliant, witty graphic designs we would like to highlight the serious issue that lies at the heart of the world of tart cards – the plight of trafficked women in the sex industry. It is a subject touched eloquently on by Mike Dempsey of Studio Dempsey, who is a volunteer at the Helen Bamber Foundation which helps rebuild lives broken by human rights violations. While our exhibition is an ode to the graphic qualities of the tart card phenomena, Dempsey's design is a pertinent reminder of the sinister world that lies beneath every card.

Read Mike Dempsey's letter and design.

Stereotypes -- "chop suey" and other "ethnic type"

cog_nate — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:33:52 -0800

Stereotypes -- Derided by typophiles as crass, "ethnic type" has a revealing taxonomy and, surprisingly, serves a purpose.

Typographic Mobiles

netbros — Sat, 30 May 2009 10:55:09 -0800

"I want our type to jump, scream, whisper and dance..." Ebon Heath and His Visual Poetry. "When I close my eyes I can see the words of great poets like Rakem or Tupac flying thru the air and dancing with the same physicality my body instinctually feels. My mobiles attempt to create a visual sense of rhythm and flow that is alive, not contained." This interview with Heath breaks down his Stereo.type and Purge projects. From the folks at Yatzer.com.

You Are My Type

netbros — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:23:09 -0800

The Ministry of Type is a weblog about type, typography, lettering, calligraphy and other related things. The FontFeed, from the folks at FontShop, is a daily dispatch of recommended fonts, typography techniques, and inspirational examples of digital type at work in the real world. Articles of interest in the archives include: Passenger and pedestrian symbols created in the early 20th Century; as part of the Isotype project set up by Otto Neurath to provide information to the often-illiterate proletariat. Central to banknote designs are Guilloche patterns, which can be created mechanically with a geometric lathe, or more likely these days, mathematically. Travel posters promoting travel to exotic eras and destinations, such as the Crimson Canyons of Mars, Tranquil Miranda, or the Winter Wonderland of the Ice Age. It’s not just the latest font technology, but also the most advanced, poised to replace the old TrueType and PostScript formats. Embrace the open type hype. The best contemporary handwriting typefaces in various writing styles — from print to cursive, simple to swashy. Sometimes, flat just doesn’t cut it, and we need to find other, more attractive ways to present designs. Tutorial: Photorealistic Perspective

In case your system's fonts don't support the snowman.

TheOnlyCoolTim — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:15:23 -0800

Decodeunicode.org has a useful and full-featured search for the names and glyphs for those Unicode characters that display as a plain box full of despair. It is presented by the Department of Design at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz. Roll the dice ⚅⚄ and try it out. I hear if you know the secret hexadecimal number you can find an Obama glyph. Comment with the funniest candidate wins the internet.

Fridge magnets in seven scripts

joeclark — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:47:26 -0800

Fridge magnets in seven scripts – Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Cyrillic, Korean, Arabic, Devanagari. “Memo: Pick up bread at store”

Cartype - gives a whole new meaning to E-type

1f2frfbf — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:51:30 -0800

Cartype has a huge repository of vehicle logos and other related typography. In addition, you can see collections such as shield and crest emblems, emblems with animals, and hand-painted type on cars. They cover European automotive history from the near mythic to the exotic. They also cover American iron from the old to the malaise years to the cutting edge of new.

The wrong fonts in ‘Mad Men’ (and sometimes the right ones)

joeclark — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:18:48 -0800

Definitive guide to fonts on Mad Men. Mostly the fonts that didn’t exist during the time of the show. Not every single thing is “historically accurate,” apparently. Improves on the various blog posts (and Flickr photos, like mine) on the topic, as you’d expect from Mark Simonson, ace spotter of typographic ahistoricism.

Type is Art

signal — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:01:40 -0800

Type is art. Take little pieces of letterforms and make something new.

the quick brown fox

oneirodynia — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:19:11 -0800

The handwriting of typographers.

419 spam received; put down, flipped, reversed.

heeeraldo — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:31:19 -0800

Marian Bantjes, typographer, designer, and Layer Tennis competitor, received a 419 spam email and turned it into this print. She's also written a number of interesting pieces for Speak Up; my favorites are the ones on design clichés, posters from the War Effort, the design language of heraldry and a (satirical) critique of the alphabet.

¿How do you design a year?

signal — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:16:39 -0800

The 2007 Feltron Annual Report . via

Second Life Twitter Typewriter

brownpau — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:36:53 -0800

Giant Twittering Typewriter in Second Life. Type here (SLURL) and press the carriage return and it posts to here. Yay. [via]

Typography posters and videos

Kattullus — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:04:57 -0800

Two blogposts from Smashing Magazine: Breathtaking Typographic Posters and Typography in Motion. Some notables: Retro Artist Feature, Linocut Print of London, It's the Outsideness Flavour of It, Zeitgeist, Hier Vorne, 80 of 500 Handdrawn Posters and music video for Ya no sé qué hacer conmigo by Uruguayan band Cuarteto de Nos.

FontStruct is a free online truetype font-building tool.

Dave Faris — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:43:36 -0800

FontStruct lets you quickly and easily create fonts constructed out of geometrical shapes, which are arranged in a grid pattern, like tiles or bricks. Once you're done building, FontStruct generates high-quality TrueType fonts, ready to use in any Mac or Windows application.

Intercut wood typeface project

Armitage Shanks — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:28:52 -0800

The product of an entire semester's work: one single type block. An essay on letterpress printing with wood. [via]

Belles Lettres

youarenothere — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:19:52 -0800

Israeli designer Oded Ezer produces stunning works of experimental typography. He has been lauded for creating [PDF link]"...Hebrew characters that melt," but it is his more unconventional work that is truly breathtaking - made up of letters with vivacity and personality. He calls his gorgeously abstracted work "typo art," existing wholly neither in the space of art or typography, with hope that it might transcend language altogether. See his flickr stream for more sketches, works, and arresting typescapes.

Fonts at the movies

Terminal Verbosity — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 07:59:40 -0800

Fonts at the movies. Previously.

Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.

tepidmonkey — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 19:54:47 -0800

The printing press lives on—in Akron, Alabama, at least, where computer programmer-turned-letterpress printer Amos Kennedy uses metal type to create lots and lots of posters. [Found here.]