Lubalin Now
I visited the Lubalin Now exhibition at the brand new Herb Lubalin Study Center at Cooper Union. It was a good mix of old and new in a new exhibition space. Here’s some photos:
Craft
Here are a couple videos that demonstrate the level of craft once (and sometimes still) required to design and print a book. It’s rare that a designer is very involved in the physical process of printing and binding of a book. There’s something fulfilling about turning a bunch of flat sketches, specs and measurements into a three-dimensional object. There’s a sense of authorship you don’t feel from an InDesign file or website.
This first video follows John Carrera’s tedious recreation of an 1898 pictorial dictionary. From discovery to recovery to printing and binding, the project took him over 10 years to complete.
The next video is a short documentary on letterpress, by the man behind Firefly Press.
Laika Dynamic Type
This bachelor thesis by Michael Flückiger und Nicolas Kunz assigns font styles (such as boldness, serif-width, italic slant, etc.) to various inputs that dynamically change the text. Watch the demo above, or try it out for yourself. Dynamic graphics from body movement/input have been popular in digital signage, it’s interesting to see this applied to type.
Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles
I love the handmade words and letters in this playful video for the Typophile Film Festival. Well filmed, too.
Photo-Lettering
Learn more and sign up for a beta account at photolettering.com.
There’s been an unintentional pattern of posts about vintage typography here lately, but I just keep making some great finds (nor is it a bad thing!). Here’s a peek at some type catalogs that I rescued from the trash at my old university a few years ago. I had been holding on to them until I have a scanner, so stay tuned for some scans of the type samples.
Gabriel Martinez/Kimera Type Foundry
Brooklyn Check Typography
Lately, I’ve been appreciating the craft of handmade letterforms (or even the mechanical reproduction of it). I found a stash of these 19th century checks that are filled with engraved type and illustration from corner to corner. It’s rare to find something today as carefully considered as these checks. I bought 3 of them and scanned the most interesting parts for your typographic enjoyment! Click the images for a larger view.
CONTINUE READING →
I love looking through old things at flea markets. Especially old books. Especially old medical books. The basic form of a book has changed very little in the past hundred years, so it’s interesting to see what is different — illustrations instead of photographs, abandoned vernacular, early printing and binding techniques and how they held up over time. I’m most interested in the the attention to typography, though, and I thought this book had some interesting history inside.
CONTINUE READING →
We Love Typography
I Love Typography brings you We Love Typography — another bookmarking site, but one dedicated to typography and lettering and sortable by tags and color. I like the idea of a focused bookmarking site, especially one for type-related imagery. RSS feeds available now and a Mac OS widget and screensaver coming soon.
keep looking »