Our friends over at The Art of the Title Sequence created a short video called “A Brief History of Title Design” for a presentation at this year’s SXSW Festival. Click through to watch their sweeping compilation (which is set to RJD2′s “Ghostwriter), and for a full list of the more than 70 films and TV shows from which the opening title sequences were pulled. Let us know in the comments: Did they miss any of your favorites? … Read More
Typography
Wanted: Scrabble for Typography Geeks
If there’s one thing that could inspired to abandon our addiction to virtual Scrabble, then it’s Andrew Capener’s A-1 Scrabble designer edition, which he created as a student project. “The idea was to excite people about typography by giving them the ability to choose what font their Scrabble set would come in,” he explains. “The set would come in the font of your choice or with an assorted font pack.” The board itself and the interior box is made out of solid walnut, while the exterior box is made from birch. Click through to get a better look at the set. … Read More
Pic of the Day: Type the Sky
Berlin-based photographer and illustrator Lisa Rienermann created this unique font out of buildings and blue skies while studying at the University of Duisburg-Essen; it was awarded a certificate of typographic excellence by the Type Directors Club New York back in 2007. “It began with the ‘Q,’” she has explained. “I was in a kind of courtyard in Barcelona. I looked upward and saw houses, the blue sky and clouds. The more I looked, I saw that the houses formed a letter Q.” Click through for a better look at some of the letters. … Read More
Awesome Infographic: The 50 Most Popular Typefaces in the World
Seattle-based designer Shelby White has created a rather nice looking guide to 50 of the most commonly used typefaces in the world that includes fun trivia like the fonts’ designers, born-on dates, and cities of origin. Added bonus: It’s conveniently available for purchase as a print for less than 30 bones.… Read More
Wanted: The Dark Side of Typography
So, this is rather clever: Evan Travelstead — who we’re assuming must be a die-hard Star Wars fan — created a poster of Darth Vader using typography and a selection of the character’s most famous quotes. From the looks of it, this was just a personal project for the Orlando-based designer, but we want it on a t-shirt, stat. Click through to get a better look. … Read More
Get to Know MoMA’s New Digital Font Collection
Some exciting news for typography geeks: Following hot on the heels of last year’s acquisition of the “@” symbol, MoMA has acquired 23 digital fonts for their Architecture and Design collection. “Some are of everyday use, like Verdana; others are familiar characters in our world, like Gotham, which was used in President Obama’s election campaign, or OCR-A, which we can find at the bottom of any product’s bar code; and others are still less common, but exquisitely resonant, like Walker or Template Gothic,” explains Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of the Department of Architecture and Design. “We paid particular attention to the synthesis of goals, means, and elegance that we always seek in modern design.”
While Max Miedinger’s 36-point Helvetica Bold (1956) was previously the only typeface in MoMA’s collection, the museum plans to grow their offerings to document the past century. Click through to view the 23 newly-acquired typefaces, which will be on view starting March 2 in MoMA’s Architecture and Design galleries, as part of a collection show entitled Standard Deviations; Prototypes, Archetypes, and Families in Contemporary Design. … Read More
Five Fonts We Never Want to Read Again
If a new study by Princeton psychologists is any indication, we’ll be seeing a surge in ugly typefaces within the near future. After switching out straightforward text book fonts for “disfluent” ones like Comic Sans and Haettenschweiler, the team of researchers found that students’ reading retention “significantly improved in naturalistic settings by presenting reading material in a format that is slightly harder to read.” Given the potential educational application of this evidence — as well as its inevitably misapplied implications — here’s a preemptive field guide to five of the most reviled typefaces we’ll regrettably be seeing more of soon. … Read More
Daily Dose Pick: Alphabets: A Miscellany of Letters
The new book from preeminent alphabet historian David Sacks combines eye candy, font fetishism, and sociological etymology in a lavishly illustrated love letter to the modern A-to-Z.
Sacks examines the development of written language from the ancient to the digital world, from Medieval illuminations to advertisements, and from fine art to boxcar tagging. The result is an engaging, encyclopedic romp through our collective visual history that celebrates human creativity and cultural expression not only in the use of the written word, but in its very invention. … Read More
Daily Dose Pick: Retrofonts
Taking the form of an antique type-specimen book, Retrofonts is a chronicle of the best type designs from last 150 years, with an accompanying CD containing 222 copyright-free fonts.
Munich-based graphic designer Gregor Stawinski compiled and categorized more than 360 fonts into nine chronological sections for the book, ranging from “Art Nouveau and Japonism” to “Postmodern and Punk.” The resulting 560-page volume is a compendium of the best examples of modern typeface, presented within a historical context that uses each font to visually represent a different zeitgeist. … Read More
Design Porn: Impressive Typographical Tattoos
Perhaps because they’re an easy way of ensuring that something that’s permanent looks good, typographical tattoos aren’t just popular with design geeks. In fact, the trend has become so widespread that Ina Saltz has published two photographic books on the topic: Body Type and Body Type 2. Click through for ten of our favorite examples of typographical tattoos, from an ode to the ampersand to some beautifully-rendered fonts. … Read More
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