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FONTSHOP 149 9th Street, Ste 302 1 888 ff fonts toll-free San Francisco 1 415 252 1003 local California 94103 USA www.FontShop.com Font 005 04 Legibility
letters are the hard-working Mayor Ed Koch called it vandalism; stiffs of our media-based economy. graffiti artists called it art, and, in one They quietly go about their business, of the strangest turns, letters became rarely complain, and almost never the lifeblood of a forgotten urban stray out of line. Organizing is what class. They tagged their way across they’re all about. After countless years all five boroughs, going “all-city” of first talking and then walking, with unconventional letter variations 08 you’d have expected them to form that meant little to the public and a brotherhood, a union, or at least everything to these new kings and a political action committee. But queens of New York. since there’s no lobbyist in sight, eager to advance their cause, we must For this issue of Font, our fifth, we remember that, in their many shapes focus on legibility. Graphic designer and sizes, letters are the unsung and writer Ian Lynam takes us heroes of the everyday. If you can read for a ride on a throwback tour of this, then they’re on the job. graffiti and graf culture. He updates the historic scene with the latest 16 But what happens when a letter innovations and cross-fertilizations, gets hammered on an all-night reminding us that graffiti artists bender, loses a descender in a freak still have the write stuff. Illustrator industrial accident, or, even worse, and jill-of-all-trades Marian Bantjes forgets to take its daily anti-alias contributes once again to Font with a pills and starts hallucinating? Words lighthearted look at the Latin alphabet collapse, meaning becomes distorted, that begs the question: should our 26 and messages fall prey to multiple industrious friends hit the showers interpretations. for a little freshening up? 8UHC That’s what went down three decades Font continues its role as an explor- 22 ago when teenagers battled it out on atory vehicle for letterforms, a superb the streets of New York City – not resource for designers, and a great with knives or guns, but with letters. hangover remedy. We hope that you Rocking to the beat, “b-boys” made will enjoy this issue – we sure had the break world famous, and graffiti fun putting it together. became the city’s cultural calling card. Things got ill – and ill-legible. Amos Klausner 30 Editor
04 swatches Fonts and images – steal our concepts or mix your own 08 feature: Ill Legible Traveling the paths of urban pioneers with Ian Lynam 16 new fonts The greatest of the latest 32 22 foundry spotlight Type-Ø-Tones, MVB Fonts, Fountain, and OurType 30 featured distractions Get lost finding new type 32 critique Marian Bantjes reviews the alphabet Graffiti artist daim concentrates on four simple letters to push personal and visual boundaries in his highly stylized three- dimensional writing. More than a name, daim is a tool for experimenting with and exploring form, identity, and space as illustrated in this piece created in Buenos Aires during a 2001 “Graffiti World Tour.” fontshop.com 03 this page 6tsp Verona shirt Subtle cotton texture. Back yoke with two pleats. Machine wash. S23445 $145 34lbs
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Graffiti is as old as history itself, evident even at Lascaux, where mystic visions of heaven and earth made their way from hand to wall. The first published accounts of graffiti – pathological studies on prisoners, their tattoos, and marks made on the walls of prison cells – appeared in the 1800s. These early inquiries linked graffiti to theo- ries on criminality and the mental state of murderers, thieves, and other lowlifes – associations that still feed larger social fears. G.H. Luquet’s seminal 1910 textbook on graffiti featured illustrated examples he found in European toilet stalls and army barracks, and focused on obscene imagery, including male and female genitalia, urinating stick figures, and the indisputably classic penis-nose caricature. Legendary provocateur Marcel Duchamp was the first artist to participate in the act of graffiti when, in 1919, he drew a pencil moustache and thin beard on a reproduction of the Mona Lisa and titled it L.H.O.O.Q. The letters, when read in French, reveal the inside joke, “She’s got a hot ass.” Duchamp’s act of defacement instantly upgraded graffiti to a viable reac- tionary activity, a critical force for commentary, and – in the case of Duchamp, whose own sexuality was rather ambivalent – an avenue for personal expression.
Graffiti proliferated both in the United States and Europe, but it wasn’t until the late 1960s and early 1970s that it developed into a distinct, self-aware sub- culture with roots in the urban centers of New York and Philadelphia. Faced with a political and social dynamic that exploited family, friends, and entire communities, restless teenagers turned to graffiti as a way of bringing attention back to a forgotten class. Not trained as artists, or even highly educated, they forced their messages into the public consciousness using the only tool they could
Photographer Martha Cooper captured the evolution of New York City’s graffiti and hip-hop subcultures through the lens of her camera. Her iconic images portray the youth, vitality, and curiosity of pioneering artists in a rapidly expanding and complex society. comfortably exploit – the alphabet. of self-definition in cities that The earliest activists in this renais- were impersonal and undefined. sance called themselves writers. Initially, quantity and having Unlike the obvious political slogan- your work seen (or “getting up”) eering or gang-related proto-graffiti, was the driving engine for the graf these writers communicated with community. But ubiquity became a tags – simple, highly personalized problem – subway cars were filling messages born out of a need for up with tags so fast that space was some measure of recognition. at a premium. Conversely, this was One of the earliest writers, lee 163, an important boost. With limited remembers, “Shit was deep. You opportunity, graffiti artists began had Vietnam and all types of pro- thinking about the best use for tests, the Black Panthers, the Young the uncompromised surfaces they Lords, racism and hatred at a peak, found. Writers learned to modify and brothers and others fighting their tags, creating idiosyncratic inequality and dying trying to put marks infused with creativity and a stop to it. The odds were against character that stood out among you. You can’t be unaffected by all the growing visual clutter. of that.” Unknowingly, the work of lee 163 and others bridged a Regardless of its underlying social widening gap between the haves message, the public continued to and the have-nots, and redefined see graffiti not as an effect, but as our understanding of letterforms as the cause of social ills, and it was to a tool for mass communication. be fought at every turn. Penalties for offenders were quickly increased Tags began appearing in crowded and barbed wire fences erected urban projects and throughout around train yards. For pioneering high-traffic public transit systems. writers, the act of vandalism and Hand lettered with permanent its inherent rush were not enough markers, they became omnipresent, to sustain their enthusiasm and filling the inside walls of subway participation. Older now, they had cars in a dense tapestry of ink. On the responsibilities that come with the outside, spray paint covered age. Within a few years, many of the cars from top to bottom. It was rebirth writers dropped out of the authentic and expressive; an act scene. It was – and remained – a
These tags, both historic (dondi and taki 183) and contemporary (twist, cope, and rime), show how calligraphic variation allows writers to create personal identities that are shared 10 Font 005 throughout the urban landscape. kids’ game, and there was no dearth of young talent. that, in only 30 years, original styles have morphed and New blood only increased tensions in the graffiti commu- multiplied into a global kaleidoscope. That speed, along nity, pitting speed against style; the first was necessary with the anonymity that must go hand in hand with for completing the more elaborate throw-ups and pieces vandalizing private property, has left us with a rather (short for masterpieces) without getting caught, with the undefined history of modern graffiti. While there may latter becoming increasingly important as innovators still be disagreement about who was the first to “bomb” continued to manipulate letters as a vehicle for peer rec- a New York City subway train or the first to burn a wild ognition and self-aggrandizement. With no commercial style piece (where letters are linked in a complicated application for their craft, writers, either as individuals and hypnotic network of decorative, experimental or as part of a writing crew, established and participated calligraphy), the power of image, the need for identity, june 19, 2005 – aim, scrag, aluma, prize in non-violent competition more akin to professional and the lure of the street continue to feed a robust writing sports than knife fights, where getting up was the culture. As we collectively ease into a new millennium, perfect mix of artistry and bravado. graffiti artists can be grouped into one of three categories. Purists (or “archaists”) uphold the traditions of graffiti This became the motivating force for stylistic innova- by perpetuating styles at the foundation of the move- tion, spilling over into the related street cultures of ment. Pragmatists search out opportunities to extend hip-hop and, eventually, rap music, which featured dj, their art and craft into mainstream consumer culture, b-boy dance, and freestyle battles. The original emotions and the avant-garde looks for new ways to bend letters of dispossession that fueled the graf culture were the and the rules. As expected, the avant-garde has done same ones that launched these additional art-based the most to propel graffiti beyond writing to include subsets. That the language and visual cues of graffiti influences from advertising, graphic design, architec- were adopted, maybe even co-opted, by hip-hop is no ture, and illustration. This, in turn, has opened new surprise. But unlike writers, who had no way to make a doors for pragmatists and given justification to purists. july 10, 2005 – aider, drama, pues, stak living from their work, hip-hop artists, with a vocation rooted in music and dance, found ample opportunity to Letters are still at the core of writing, but as information- merchandise and export their product. Entertainment saturated societies merge and homogenize, graf culture companies mined resource-rich inner cities, repackaged has been forced to widen its self-defined boundaries. what they found, and promoted their product from coast The rise of technology, mass marketing, and global to coast. Before anyone knew what had happened, thou- consumerism in the 1990s obliged writers and other artists sands of b-boy and b-girl clones were doing windmills, interested in the street to begin culture jamming – freezes, and six steps. The widespread acceptance and reflecting and reacting against a constant barrage of success of hip-hop reversed a hundred years of negative advertising images. Using posters, stickers, and stencils, attitudes toward sidewalk and subway delinquents. they reformulated their messages for ever more modern Artists like Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, and, to some cities whose continued visual and constructed gentrifi- extent, Jean Michel Basquiat, adopted stylistic in- cation assaulted the remaining pockets of viable urban july 16, 2005 – zeros, awake novations made fashionable by graffiti and their work wilderness. swoon, the master of cut-paper posters,
Historian and photographer Cassidy Curtis became immensely popular. Films like Wild Style hit the commented on this loss. “We are thirsting for wilderness. documents the effect time has on popular big screen, featuring crossover artists like Grandmaster I believe that in seeking it, our generation creates graffiti surfaces at Graffiti Archaeology, an interactive website dedicated to capturing Flash and the Rock Steady Crew, while the graffiti docu- wilderness for itself. Our walls become screeching constant change. These images show the transformation of a single wall in a San mentary Style Wars connected with pbs viewers as the jungles; rapacious conversations, life, death, birth and Francisco neighborhood. definitive chronicle of the emergent hip-hop culture. decay are written aloud all around us.” In fulfilling her role as a street artist, swoon, along with hundreds like For writers, the built-in rivalries, which still exist today, her, continues to challenge and change long accepted accelerated graffiti growth patterns to such an extent views on advertising, art in public places, and the use
12 Font 005 fontshop.com 13 and reuse of urban space. Marketing executives and cool hunters, in an ironic twist, are taking advantage of the popular acceptance of culture jamming and street art as illustrated by Sony’s recent psp advertising campaign – a campaign that was publicly ridiculed by the graffiti com- munity and, perhaps, secretly appreciated by the public.
Today, the new frontier for writers still convinced that letters make words, that words are symbols, and that symbols carry meaning, is the open space made possible in the electrosphere, the indeterminate landscape of computer-generated possibility. Odd for a culture built on something as antediluvian as letters, but building (and the inverse act of destroying) is exactly what’s happening. With computer-aided drafting software,
writers have started shaping letters in the same way Together with the Dutch architecture firm Maurer United Architects, writer zedz rethinks street that architects create form. The term “deconstruction,” furniture with this unconventional design. coined by French philosopher and literary critic Jacques Derrida in the 1960s, postulated that writing, text, and architecture and typography when they commissioned few years later, bombing subway cars would come to language could move beyond the single layer of meaning Maurer United Architects and Dutch graffiti artist zedz an abrupt end with the introduction of graffiti-proof imbued by its author to represent multiple layers that to connect their stark, functional campus to Eindhoven’s Teflon® coatings. With that, the meteoric rise of graffiti are constantly shifting. Deconstructive architecture is urban core. Agreeing that cultural authenticity was key, slowed (some would even argue that it reversed course), similar, defined by its unpredictability, fragmentation, architect and writer transformed the tag zedz from di- but the subculture never stopped. Bought and sold, it and dislocation. As controlled chaos, deconstructive mensional typography into large-scale street furniture. has moved away from urban centers, further evolving architecture questions, contradicts, and even under- If the Eindhoven project seems devoid of personality and beyond the white-hot spotlight of vandalism and assimi- mines tradition, rationality, and, more importantly, craft (considered crucial by some), then a Swiss engineer lating ascendant cultures like skate- and snowboarding. authority. By deconstructing typography and lettering, and designer working in Zurich have created a scary The word itself, graffiti, conjures up new meaning, just Printed, cut, and pasted: an emotional piece by New York City-based graffiti artist swoon. today’s tech-savvy writers such as joker, delta, and daim hybrid of technology and graffiti in Hektor, a portable as Derrida might have prophesied. As social experience, are in an exciting position. They straddle the deconstruc- wall-mounted graffiti printer. With no writer required, it remains authentic, visible, and tangible in the messag- tive world of Derrida, who questioned meaning, and motors and cables holding a spray can follow precise es left for us throughout the city, suburbs, and exburbs. that of architects like Lebbeus Woods, Thom Mayne, and vector graphics paths provided by remote from a nearby As global culture, it is computer-generated and virtual – Zaha Hadid, who question form. The result is a hybrid laptop computer. Pipslab, an art collective in Amsterdam, the grist of video games and marketeers. Washed of all its “typogritecture,” where letters are organized, reorganized, has done away with spray paint altogether. Attaching historic and contemporary associations, both good and and sculpted in three-dimensional space without the light bulbs to spray cans, the collective uses multiple bad, we are reminded that graffiti has always been, and surface constraints forced upon writers who rely on cameras and long exposures to photograph the physical remains, a means for insurgent voices to speak and the city and street. This isn’t to say that writers are no act of tagging. The results are colorful and energetic, yet a way for letters to do all the talking. longer dependent on traditional letterforms – they are. completely ethereal. By revealing the elemental core of letter formation, artists obsessed with breaking them apart pay reverence to When Style Wars was released back in 1982, no one could WEB EXTRA What is your experience with graffiti? Join the online time-tested forms while simultaneously keeping them have foreseen the changes in store for graffiti. Old school discussion and read an extended interview with style master fresh and lively. writers like seen, case, and iz the wiz were confident rime at FontShop.com/Font005 that writing would thrive despite the best efforts of the Recently, the Eindhoven University of Technology in Metropolitan Transit Authority. At the time, they had delta shows off his tag using Pipslab’s Lumasol The Netherlands explored the relationship between reason to be optimistic. No one imagined that only a graffiti process.
14 Font 005 fontshop.com 15 Last night ☾ I was (= to my new ♫ when it started to O)". John Hampsey: Paranoidic In Conversation with Dean Lee That’s when I saw a wee ;D=I sitting out on the ledge. I ♥ birds and I could ff Megano™ by xavier dupré tell it needed [+]. After I brought the bird inside to dry off, I 6-6 that there was twine wrapped around its feet. “Oh, no!” I ..(_). I quickly grabbed ✂ and set the wee bird free. It looked at me and 8-) and then flew away. Prime ☠ Rent Although I was quite :`-( to see the bird leave, I still have my THE NEW FONTFONTS SILENT VOICES 8 U8 8UH 8UHC When asked if the world wouldn’t be a better place if everyone 9 9u 9ug 9ugv 2 2r 2rf 2rfb spoke the same language, anthropologist Wade Davis replied, “Terrific idea. Let’s make that universal language Yoruba, or Lakota, or Cantonese.” 6ihn 3tdc 0IDV 4Rn 5EfN 7ugx ff Kievit™ 3 by michael abbink ff Headz™ by florian zietz WEB EXTRA Read more about how to use ff Headz at FontShop.com/Font005 UNLEASH TYPOGRAPHIC POWER WITH OPENTYPE® ct ► ct H20 ► h2O k ► k Type designers and type users worldwide have embraced the cross-platform OpenType® format, which offers advanced discretionary ligatures scientific inferiors swashes typographic features and extended language support. Four of the most well-known FontFont® designs are now available in OpenType: ff Dax,® ff DIN,® ff Meta,® and ff Scala.® Other OpenType FontFonts in this release include ff Eddie,™ 1/8 ► ⅛ abc ► ••• 832 ► 832 ff Nexus,™ and the newly published designs, ff Karo,™ ff Megano,™ ff Headz,™ and ff PicLig.™ fractions ornaments lining figures fontshop.com 17 fontshop.com Neue Fonts FontShop’s latest batch includes Gábor Kóthay’s s top 116.043 eye-grabbing Incognito, two unique sans serifs in ƒ Bryant and Vista, and Frieze – a set of four dotted alphabets destined to play a starring role in projects both retro and ultramodern. See more from these faces online, and keep abreast of new releases by ® joining our email list at [email protected]. Emigre Sans ™ Vista incognito™ terra incognita™ Asking for a Kind Favor Years ago, Hungarian designer Gábor Kóthay discovered a rare book I J P P containing historic maps n the une etticoat arade and various cartographic ƒ s top 059.027 ƒ s top 054.016 symbols. Inspired by the meticulous lettering and t Hog ® BewilderedIncognito™ Meridies, Occidens, Oriens, With Septentrio he Dubious its elegant frills, he set upon a typographic – and topographic – journey to create Incognito and Terra Filling the Bowl with Green Soup ® Incognita (“unknown land”). This full set of fonts includes mind-boggling brilliance persuaded me Foundry Type Process Club-21 regular and small caps styles, and five italics with varying Incognito™ Small Caps 2 ™ swash caps for recreating ™ the handmade feel of Bryant antique documents. fontshop.com 19 Hughes, Barnbrook, Spiekermann in London Say Hello to FontShop The FontFeed: Nourish Your Creativity We don’t just sell type, we live for it. The outlet for this best in typographic design, pick up helpful hints most font resellers are little more than bits obsession is The FontFeed – a frequent update of what’s on working with fonts, and discover some of our and bytes. not us. here, we present the flesh and new at FontShop and around the world of design and favorite underrated typefaces. The FontFeed is blood of fontshop san francisco. meet more typography. Visit several times a week to ogle the web’s food for your creative brain. members of the family in future issues of font. In Use: FF DIN for The Onion, In Use: Neo jeff sinclair Do phone trees tick you off? When you call or email FontShop, you won’t get a mindless robot – you’ll get Sans for Intel, The FontShop 2006 Calendar, Jeff. While he can’t shoot lasers or talk in a mechanical voice, he can help get your fonts in working order. Mac,® Windows,® ps, tt, or ot – Jeff knows ’em all like the back Tip: The Worn/Weathered/Stamped Look The of his very human hand. In his off time, this Scottish lad dons a kilt and samples from every sandwich shop in the Bay Area. Faces Behind the Faces, New FontFonts and http://www.fontshop.com/fontfeed larry li Larry, our resident sys admin, is the guy we call when our computers aren’t behaving (usually the Windows boxes, Free FF Meta Pro, In Use: FF Liant for Wele- of course). He’s also deemed the office Coupon Boy. Want 50% off Epson® printer cartridges? A free lunch? Larry’s your man. He shoots a mean turnaround jumpshot, too. da, FontHunt2005 NY Winners, I AMsterdam mike schawel Did you get the roi tbl from the tbs organics? Neither did we. But that’s cool – Mike’s on top of it. in Avenir, PingMag Interviews Erik Spieker- Not only can he complete full sentences using only articles and acronyms, our website visionary is also proficient in gourmet cooking, Zen breathing, and mann, Tip: The Worn/Weathered/Stamped choraked faad haang. the bathroom wall This haiku is just one example of the brilliant writing that Look, An Interview with Zuzana Licko, Jef- graces FontShop’s Office Literacy Project. Should you ever visit our hq in the heart of San Francisco’s soma district, you, too, can share in the pleasure of poetry. fery Keedy: Thoughts on Designing Type, Da- large photo, top: Mike. large photo, bottom: words of wisdom at FontShop SF. small photos, clockwise, from top left: Stephen, Jeff, Alex, Ivan, Ana, Larry, and Michael. contact fontshop vid Berlow: The Making of California, Peter- Call 1 888 ff fonts toll-free within the usa 1 415 252 1003 local 1 415 252 1331 fax [email protected] paul Kloosterman, Tip: GIF Your Type Right, www.FontShop.com The Typotheque Gallery of Fonts in Use, Bold Formal Scripts, Is Not Magazine Loves Un- 20 Font 005 fonts used: ff Nexus Sans,™ ff Atma™ derware, Celebrating Evert Bloemsma, Avant monumental declaration Type-Ø-Tones wilma™ Based on the simple geometry of old wood type, Wilma con- sists of 19 layerable fonts. Use a suitcase full of inlines, out- giant whale lines, shadows, and patterns to giantleaving us to wonder just what kind of things it was saying whale create multifaceted headlines with depth and charm. wilma™ memimas™ The designers of Martha ( ) Stewart Baby found this gentle 3 74² × script perfect for the maga- Black-Caped Matadors zine’s logo. The caps work well memimas™ on their own, too, lending a handwritten items may be subject quality to any line of copy. dance & matricia™ Three technostalgic mono- spaced fonts (dotted, square, and double-row) take us back to the days of noisy printers and gridded electric displays. 6409 7238 EXPRESS lounge matricia™ frankie™ Solid ink can be boring. Simu- late distressed or stamped type with Frankie (wide) or the archetypal villAIn Frankie Dos (condensed), two heavy headliners eroded ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ Maximum Capacity to perfection. frankie™ mayayo™ Enric Jardí must have had a blast using paper and scissors to create this bouncy typeface; Mayayo has “festive” written all over it. Celebrate with solid, in- jelly-roll blues dancer line, and polka-dotted variants. mayayo™ tschicholina™ Jan Tschichold’s 1929 experi- mentation with unicase inspired this namesake typeface. There’s no upper- or lowercase – just the cavalier adventures townsend court basic, beautiful geometric forms. Pavilion tschicholina™ of max & his lucky stick on legibility “Why don’t we call for a worldwide agreement about type? Let’s choose one (at least for the next 20 years). We read best what we read most – stop designing new typefaces.” – Laura Meseguer TYOHOSHGH09WHNJESGJ4I0SMF00DF3K AWJFI9RUTIJKFJ[3O55KSKOJEOTI4HSKE FLIP3U968BNSNVAURPWU609IHIQHHTJJ YUOIPSETI03JPJOJG9TUAPOX[MRGPQ[4I fontshop.com 23 \\\\\BMAKPI0RTMQKP120VNLASKJJPRO0K[SM mvb fonts leon MVB verdigris® Exposed & Weathered Van Bronkhorst’s goal was to C create a legible text face in the Garamond tradition with good typographic color (density). Mission accomplished! MVB The Shipman’s Tale Verdigris is sturdy and appealing – it’s the ultimate the association of foreign titleholders workhorse serif. MVB verdigris® gets MVB magnesium® grime H Need to emulate grubby industrial signage? Throw in some Grime. You’ve got instant muck, and you didn’t bletchly even have to break a sweat. MVB magnesium® grime MVB sirenne® We’re huge fans of the serifed hand lettering found on A map antique maps. MVB Sirenne brings that feeling to the on legibility “One can draw letters that can be readily digital world with a full set of weights, small caps, and identified, but they might be awful, ugly-but-identifiable swashy italics, with separate letters, and not readable when combined as text.” cuts for small and large settings. Visit FontShop.com to see its – mark van Bronkhorst antiquarian elegance. MVB grenadine® R A geometric sans gets a shot nce upon a time, in a of jolly. There’s just enough spring in its step to transform persephone ho-hum to ha-ha! Osmall cubicle far away Semantic Progression T there worked a man named Jed. Now, this Jed was not Two-Penny® Act MVB sirenne your ordinary run-of-the-mill E reclusive cube guy. He was Punica Granatum more of your Chatty Kathy Mollusks and Crustaceans variety, inviting any and all MVB grenadine® co-workers into the most min- tightrope walker seeks sad clown sad walker seeks tightrope R ute details of his, well, sordid fontshop.com 25 networkinlifestyle. This then meant that he had a father that drank heavily from his jug of redh wine that was his companion at any dinner. Regardless of when he finished his meal, or anyone for that matter, it was the unspokenNear the Harbor rule that one never left the table until excused. This system worked just fine, and everyone went along Amsterdam Old with it from day one. But as a stranger, it was a tough lesson to learn, and an even tougher one to swallow. I found myself at Caesar’s table on my first visit to Smith River. We had arrived in the afternoon, just before sundown. Caesar came out to greet us and I was immediately taken by his kind eyes and warm embrace. He showed us to our room and made a comment about sleeping together before the wedding. With a wink, he smiled at me and shut the door behind him. George and I sat in the room unpacking a few items and removing our shoes. He looked at me and said he was thankful that I had agreed to the long trip. It meant a lot to him, and I could tell by the look on his face the truth behind this feeling. We headed out towards the kitchen only to be stopped in the living room to see the view out Caesar’s window at the beautiful redwoods on the hill. There was finally some new growth coming back in after years of lumbering in the area. He told us that Smith River was once a vibrant lumbering community and that the truffles chocolate gourmet O on legibility up. Bringinmoreair. Optimizespacingtocreateeven‘word image.” images,’ becausethat’s how wereadtext – each wordasan – Peter Bruhn “How doesonemaketypelegible?Openit J Porziuncola Momentary Lapse T improvedflavor ) second sophistic Saucy S fountain She leaned herchairback inkindof asate of thoughtful grace delicato mayo, lisboa sans, zanzibar E g Rosencrantz ™ k etchupa, ™ ™ ™ LISBOA uei u gundy in Bur Duke Sa¬ ron & Cardamom ron Sa¬ ™ mustardo ™ Alizarin Crimson ™ que ezability F and themodern. theclassic is asavory fusionof Italian for“delicious,” Delicato create afunctionaltext face. Hattenbach switchedgearsto Stefan fonts, display with experimentation After yearsof delicato borders, banners, andarrows. combo withcharming snap-on fonts andatypeface/dingbat two soft,interchangeablesans This delightfulset servesup mayo the set. dings andpatternsroundout and italics. Complementary full weights complement of does not.Eachcomeswitha endings, whileLisboaSans sula. Lisboahascurledstroke theIberianpenin warmth of Ricardo Santosreflect the Two text facesby Portugual’s LISBOA SANS ornaments. handwriting, andbotanical calligraphic flourishes, Arabic through itsbaroqueswashes, trade andhistoricaldiversity and Moorish. Encounterexotic cultures – European, African, threesents theconvergenceof Gábor Kóthay’s creationrepre zanzibar LISBOA mustardo ketchupa fontshop.com ™ ™ ™ ™ ™ ™ ™ - 27 - roses in the song titles and then lyrics, make for a good, steps out to meet but not great compilation. We ourtype were then torn about who to the mass in every see that night. Unfortunately fresco™ sans we had to miss the set about fresco™ The Fresco family is large and Thread Count versatile enough to represent Illinois,CUTTLEBONE but we did catch a any sort of writing, from Allergen Barrier Fabric Mattress white-collar corporate reports few songs about Michigan to button-down magazine Wash in a machine at the water temperature listed above. The machine should be half copy. Each typeface (sans, serif, and condensed versions) last month. The picks for this case an awkward filled. Spin for one minute. Avoid tumble drying garments that you particularly cherish comes in four weights with all the figs, itals, and caps you fresco sans,™ fresco™ week follow in the eighties need to set well-dressed text. tradition so prevalent right his read as in to versa™ now, leaving us to wonder if a on legibility “The circumstances in which people can and Peter Verheul likens his Versa to other strong humanist do read nowadays can be so diverse that I have hardly any designs like Optima and new sound will emerge in the Albertus, but it’s so much hope for the general legibility tests and their conclusions as fresher than those old months ahead. You have to standbys. Like Fresco, the – Fred Smeijers we knew them from a few decades ago.” family includes sans, serif, wonder if the sound is similar, and condensed variations. if not identical to that of Jack sansa™ Fred Smeijers set out to simplify Jackson, or even The Tender- the basic sans form without sacrificing its character, and loins. As a Kentucky band, they Public Service Sansa was born. Its three Storm warnings rang out early Sunday morning weights come in two widths, with italics to boot. know the foundation of strong versa™ sounds and continue to tap the monitor™ l o n g -l a s t i n g b r i l l i a n c e in f i v e c o l o r s Set clean legible type, onscreen beat on the high hats. But the or off. Weights range from a delicate thin to a commanding real strength is in the produc(- ) extra black. amaryllis ™ fresco script 890 sansa™ The OurType fellows are known for their serious text Featuring the unique tastes of Brazilian cuisine faces, but this loose script cold cuts & soda proves they can play, too. Fresco Script recalls both the sign painter’s brush and classical italics while retaining spicy beef jerky DA TABELA a handwritten flavor. peanuts, beer, ice monitor™ Quarterly reports show a gain in overall spending in four major markets led by 100%Frederick certified organic cage-free Farms chicken eggs the boost in holiday sales. This will, no doubt, improve the economic outlook fresco script™ for the next fiscal year. Forecasts are now predicting an upswing in the small WEB EXTRA Read more of Smeijers’ thoughts on legibility at FontShop.com/Font005 fontshop.com 29 knipoog knipoog zou fontshop.com Featured Time to start work? Staring at a blank page? Every job Distractions presents an opportunity to discover type – whether it’s new or just new to you. Get sidetracked by some of our favorites from the FontShop vaults. Reap the benefits of employing useful faces that rarely get used. HawthorneSki Gothic™ monotype imaging® KindergartenKursivschrift™ linotype® BACKseatDRIVER Coptek™ itc® Industrial Gothic™ monotype imaging® Mr™ ® Bloomington Nickel™ ® Paddington elsner+flake Solaris elsner+flake Arcade Oatsff Clifford™ fontfont® & Honey greENbeanff Folk™ fontfont® Legionnaire30 Font 005 fontshop.com 31 It looks like two different people designed this Unsupervised junior designers! In my humble pair of letterforms (and they weren’t talking opinion, this is just lazy design. A curve and a to each other). The capital A has a good iconic smaller curve. What’s with that? Think outside structure: three strokes and you’re done. I like of the circle. the way they lean together to form that stable triangular shape, with both feet planted firmly on the ground and the whole structure reinforced by the crossbar. It’s very strong. The lowercase a is just, uh… kind of stupid; a graphic non sequitur. But the typographic form of the a has beautiful curves and allows for a lot of variation within the shape. It’s feminine and extremely sexy, but sometimes the bowl causes problems. It has so little space to fit into – half of Another one from the scrap yard of design: the x-height. This is inconsistent with the other the lowercase d is just a ripoff of the b, and it letters in the alphabet, and seems a bit out of really bothers me the way the cap D is flipped place. Neither is working as a partner for that horizontally. It’s like someone wanted to emulate strong capital – I simply can’t imagine what the Bb but just didn’t get it. This is not an ode, they were thinking. it’s a poor derivative. That alphabet. It’s been around a long time, and I, for one, have some complaints. Don’t you think it’s time for a redesign? I mean, the thing’s not exactly “fresh” anymore, is it? A lot of time has passed since This is a very nice pair. Whoever did this was These may look like they don’t belong together, this thing was so-called “intelligently designed” in the really thinking about the relationship between but I think they’re actually pretty good. The cap age before we even knew there was such a thing as the upper- and lowercase. I like the way the E has such good structure and balance, and, in design. But we know more now, and I think this fusty capital B can have some variation in the pro- a way, the lowercase e has that same structure, portions from top to bottom. It has muscle; only rounded. One is based on a rectangle, the old thing could use a little modern-day tinkering. it has fat. other on a circle. There’s a concept behind this. Obviously designed by a man, the ball and The eye of the lowercase e has some of the stick of the lowercase b is simple and, appro- same problems as the a, due to that half-x-height priately, half of the cap B. Talk about male and thing. Would the cap E look better with another female! The buxom, pregnant cap mated with vertical line down the right? I think that maybe the excitable lowercase. B-b-b-beautiful. it would – it’s something to think about. fontshop.com 33 Of all letterforms, the lowercase f is one of my The capital I without the crossbars at the top What the fuck is that? No two worse letterforms I don’t know about this. At least they’re not just favorites. I love the hook of the ascender, and the and bottom is either the laziest piece of design exist than these duds – I mean, come on. Two straight lines, but they are, um… just circles. crossbar gives it that extra little oomph. But the in history or an elegant stroke of modernism. With lines and a line? Who designed this, some old There is beauty and perfection in a circle, but cap F, while obviously related to the lowercase f, the crossbars, it’s just clunky and awkward. The fart completely worn out and bereft of ideas? these are so self-enclosed, so unexpansive. I is too close to the E. If the E had an extra stroke, lowercase i is kind of cute with that little dot, I The design rationale must’ve been one helluva think they need something else, like maybe then the F would stand out more. Still, it seems suppose, but I’m not really buying it. This one snow job. The capital L has that gaping, awkward a tail or something (see Q). clumsy and top-heavy. I can see what they were never should have made it out of the open space, and the lowercase… it’s a line! And trying to do with the angular version of the comp stage. it looks like a cap I or a 1, for God’s sake. This is lowercase, but I just don’t think it’s working. what happens when Modernism is allowed to run rampant. I’m so glad that I don’t have any of these in my name. The lowercase p is really nice, especially when you Here we have two really great letterforms I honestly think that a different designer saw the let the descender get really long. But this whole that just don’t match! Perhaps they were i and improved on it with the lowercase j. Where ball-and-stick thing… c’mon, guys, get over it! designed by the same people who did the Aaa? the i is boring and slightly weird, the addition Speaking of my name, check these out – these Given a choice, I prefer the p to the b, but the b Despite my problems with the C, I think the of a swooping, curved descender turns it into a are two sweet letterforms. Is it any wonder that did it first. That capP , though, is just totally not shape is expanded upon in an inventive way thing of beauty. The dot is now somehow emphatic a line of ms denotes “yummy”? Mmmmm. The working! Like a tiny girl with huge breasts, it’s in the G. Drawing an open lowercase g is one rather than silly. This one nailed it. The capital J cap M is unique and strong, and balanced and so top-heavy that it looks like it’s going to fall of the great pleasures in life (that beautiful was probably done afterward, borrowing the hook open in a way that doesn’t interfere with other over! This whole letterform needs rethinking. curved descender!). However, the typographic from the lowercase. But the top is problematic – letterforms. The lowercase echoes the sturdiness form (g), while quirky and amusing, is a baroque without the crossbar, it looks unbalanced; with it, of the cap, with a firm footing on the ground, but excess of unusual hooks and parts. It’s incredibly it looks clunky. This is a design problem worthy adds those two rolling curves. They echo and difficult to remember exactly what goes where. of more thought. embrace each other in well-deserved mutual All in all, it’s a litter of adorable mutts. admiration. Yay! My name begins with M! All that the O needed was a little something, and here it is in the capital Q. One of my all-time favorite letterforms, the Q takes all the beauty Like the A, the capital H is really strong. It has and simplicity of a circle and builds on it with the same three parts as the A, and is clearly the Someone had fun with this one, and I like the Well, it’s half the m, and only half as nice. I do the ever-variable and expressive tail – it’s surely work of the same designer. I like the balance of the results. An excellent pair, both the upper- and like the asymmetric diagonal, though – it causes the chocolate cake of any type design. Too bad open spaces at the top and bottom. The lowercase lowercase have character and – dare I say it? – some directional problems when you’re learning this letter is so seldom used. h, however, isn’t doing anything for me. It looks attitude! These letterforms are very unique and to write, but it grows on you. The lowercase n is The lowercase q, though… I’m not fooled by weak and sort of half finished. I imagine it being balanced without resorting to the cliché of curves, far less interesting. It looks lonely, missing its that extra bit at the bottom of the descender – the desperate result of a long night without ideas. and the flexibility of the joining of strokes allows other half. The Nns are amputees – fully capable this is another ball-and-stick! (The last one, I It’s the “I just gotta make this deadline” solution. for endless writing fun. It’s really excellent design. of functioning, but just a little bit sad. hope!) This is no match for its elegant capital. 34 Font 005 fontshop.com 35 After what I said about the L, you might expect me to come down hard on the T. But where the capital L lacks balance, the T has it, in spades. This is quite possibly the best pair in the alpha- With its two arms, I find it welcoming and pro- bet. Each on its own is good – the uppercase Y This is another pair in which the cap and lower- tective. Move the arms down and shorten them, The exuberance of the V translates twofold to the being based, obviously, on a tree; the lowercase, case have nothing in common and must surely and you’ve got a nice pair there! The lowercase W. But where the V teeters, the W stands solid. on a rooted bush, with that most elegant of all have been designed by different people. The cap , minus the hook, is a little bit Christian for my The W has the symmetry and pleasing balance descenders. But look at them together! Were is by a genius; the lowercase, by a nincompoop. liking, although I do respect its simplicity. The of the M without being a directly inverted version they not made for each other? This is design that The capital R takes the best from the B and hook gives it an interesting character, and I like of same. I like it when the strokes cross in the thinks and understands relationships. I would the K and successfully merges them together. it, despite its being a tad rocky. middle, too. But is it because we are nearing guess it to be the later work of the designer of When the leg is not sitting solidly, firmly on the the end of the alphabet that we see this endless the Bb and the Mm. baseline, it is allowed to swoop down and become repetition of shrunken lowercase forms? Do I a tail – a form that I particularly admire. There hear, “Fuck it, we’re nearly done, let’s just get is love in the R. this job outta here.”? The lowercase r, on the other hand, is weak, imbalanced, stubby, and awkward. It’s an accursed thing that hangs around like a sick mongrel cur, drooling unpleasantly over all My first impression of this was that it was an the other letterforms. obscenely lazy design, rocky, and derivative of the already poor Cc. However, after my initial outrage, And last, but certainly not least, the Z – with I came to appreciate the anchoring aspect of a final flourish, a sword slash (yes, I know!), a the two straight sides of the U, and, especially, signature of completion. The Z has both action the firm little balanced foot of the lowercase u. and balance – the zeal of a project at its end! Alas, Suddenly, I am drawn to their tongue-like nature, Did Paul Rand design this? Is it not perfect? Do with the lowercase z, the alphabet goes out with to the crystal goblet of the form. you know why illiterates sign their name with an a bang and a whimper. X? Because it’s perfect, that’s why. Two strokes which give the illusion of four. Xxxxx, you know I love you. This was a great idea, but somewhat lacking in Written, designed, and illustrated by Marian Bantjes the execution… or rather, it’s just really difficult I have a special fondness for the cap V, but it © 2006. Originally published on the weblog Speak Up in to maintain a good standard. With all their does make me nervous. On the one hand, it’s so August 2005. This article has been reformatted for paper. potential for elegance, both the upper- and unstable, balancing on that point like a cheeky lowercase are hard to reproduce as anything upside-down A. On the other hand, it has a FontShop takes no responsibility for content. Text and other than clumsy and unbalanced by anyone certain confident pride. With its arms raised drawings are the opinion and personal expression other than a trained expert. Try it – make a good equally above the nadir, it manages to instill a of Marian Bantjes. Letters of complaint and outrage S for me… it’s hard! In the right hands, it’s a trust that it will not actually fall over, despite should be sent to [email protected]. sophisticated character, but horribly open to the precariousness of the situation. And it’s just abuse. It’s certainly not something that should be a nice form. Maybe I’m partial to triangles. Body text is set in New Century Schoolbook™ by Morris Fuller entrusted to children. I also think the lowercase The shrunken lowercase v obviously gets my Benton, c. 1923, with FontFont’s ff Zwo™ by Jörg Hemker, could benefit from a descender of some kind. scorn – it’s like telling a good story twice in a row. 2002. Both are available from FontShop.com, natch. 36 Font 005 fontshop.com 37 Font 005 Font egibility L Font is published by FontShop in San Francisco editors Amos Klausner Stephen Coles design Punchcut / www.punchcut.com punchcut staff Joe Pemberton Jen Wheatley Panasik Zara Evens Josh Bunting Jennifer Serota fontshop staff Michael Pieracci Wesley Wong contributing writers Marian Bantjes / www.quatrifolio.com Ian Lynam / www.ianlynam.com contributing editor Tamye Riggs / www.typelife.com hand lettering: cover, feature article EGO image credits front and back covers and inside covers: ©DAIM / www.daimgallery.com Page 08: ©Martha Cooper Page 12: ©Cassidy Curtis, Graffiti Archaeology www.grafarc.org/ Page 14 (top): ©Cassidy Curtis, Graffiti Archaeology www.grafarc.org/ Page 14 (bottom): ©Keez Duyves, Remco Verveer, and DELTA / www.pipslab.nl Page 15: ©ZEDZ and Maurer United Architects / www.zedz.org / www.maurer.nl Pages 03–07 and 18–19: ©their creators; available at fstop / www.fstopimages.com printing Dome Printing, Sacramento / www.domeprinting.com FONT 005 headlines ff Nexus™ Sans Pro body ff Nexus™ Sans Pro ff Nexus™ Serif Pro captions ff Nexus™ Sans Pro SWATCHES tags ff Nexus™ Sans Pro details ITC Berranger Hand™ FEATURE ARTICLE headlines ff Quadraat™ Sans body Dome Printing is Just Right. We’re large enough to have the experience, equipment, and exper- ff Avance™ tise necessary for state-of-the-art quality printing, but still small enough to offer one-on-one, captions personalized customer service. Visit us on the web at DOMEprinting.com ff Quadraat™ Sans FontShop 149 9th Street, Ste 302 San Francisco, CA 94103 © 2006 fsi FontShop International. All rights reserved. All trademarks named herein remain the property of their 1 888 ff fonts toll-free respective owners. The views expressed herein are solely the opinions of their respective contributors, and do not 1 415 252 1003 local necessarily represent the viewpoint of fsi. The contents of this publication may not be repurposed or duplicated www.FontShop.com without express prior written permission. Essays and illustrations copyright © 2006 by their respective authors.