*The Martian Chronicles* is the book that prompted me to start designing an homage to Electra (which remains incomplete still, but may someday get finished).
The penultimate “chronicle” takes place on today’s date.
(Thanks to @Troggie@beige.party)
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Kent Lew
@kentlew@typo.social
mastodon 4.6.9Type design & font production. Designer of Whitman, Haffner, and Clarimo type families. Has worked with Font Bureau, Carter & Cone, and Morisawa.
163 Followers
118 Following
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Joined August 29, 2024
I was inspired by several posts today to go dig out this old t-shirt that was created for a Font Bureau event that happened to fall on May 1st (2009). It was Font Bureau’s 20th anniversary and Cyrus Highsmith made this characteristic graphic for the event, with a nod to the date.
The t-shirt is too discolored and threadbare to wear anymore, but I still keep it bunched up in my drawer. Classic Highsmith.
(Sorry for all the wrinkles. Couldn’t find our iron.)
I swear I spend way too much damn time deep in diminishing-returns territory. I *know* this. And yet… I just can’t seem to be able to help myself. 🫤
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In particular, I was thinking of George W. Jones’s Georgian — a transitional face in the manner of Wilson, Fry, et al. It’s almost completely unknown over here. And I don’t think it ever saw much use even in Great Britain, despite being favorably reviewed early on by typographers on both sides.
Certainly not the widespread adoption of his better-known types — Granjon and Linotype Baskerville. Jones’s Estienne is also less known and somewhat overlooked; but at least it got picked up and offered stateside by MLCo. I’ve never seen Georgian in a Mergenthaler catalog.
So I thought I’d share a few samples that I have managed to collect.
2/
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@Okay@typo.social Well, this will be under copyright for several more decades to come. But hey, at my rate of progress that might work out just right … 😆
Despite my many many misgivings about the current political climate and the policies & actions of our current government, I still think this is a remarkable country, with a remarkable history, filled with many remarkably good people doing remarkable things. Happy Birthday, America.
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On the bright side, though: chickadees & warblers were singing, the ferns are coming up, and lots of trilliums are in bloom. 🙂
Nevertheless, Mother Nature persists.
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@letterror @db My wife has taken up keeping worms (indoors) to supplement her composting efforts. Certain conditions do need to be attended to. Her first attempt failed. But the current “herd” seems to be getting along now without too much fussing.
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@nicksherman @JTDType I had similarly pondered a naming scheme that would incidentally fall into alphabetic order. I was trying to use common designations that tend to have some general, relative consensus. Here’s what I had come up with as a potential:
Banner
Display
Heading
Subhead
Text
Tiny
XSmall
The small end is not entirely satisfactory, but there’s not a lot of alphabet left after “Text”. 🤷♂️
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@frankrolf@typo.social @nicksherman@typo.social Just realized that Zapf’s Hunt Roman was cast with a Th ligature. Interesting.
I glossed right over it in previous study. Zapf’s seems more convincing than most.Though I would still want this sort of thing in {dlig}.
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@nicksherman @JTDType Yeah, I realize that “Banner” has more limited familiarity beyond the old Font Bureau world. Never occurred to me that newer folk might have a completely different response to “Display” though.
Probably all name-based sequences are going to have weaknesses due to different perspectives/interpretations. 🤷♂️
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@frankrolf@typo.social Yeah, but I know exactly what they meant. 😉
FWIW, also not a fan. On at least one occasion, I have customized ITC Franklin for a client to remove the default T_h behavior that DB put in there. (So yeah, there’s a non-Adobe example.)
@dyana@typo.social Devanāgarī is correct (but spacing/fitting is a little odd, to my eye 🤷♂️).
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@typographica@typo.social @djrrb@mastodon.social @SandrineNugue@typo.social @klim@typo.social So glad to be able to see this talk online, Stewf. I was bummed not to be able to make over to Boston when you were out here.
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@Rougeux@vis.social This is an awe-inspiring undertaking. I’m thrilled to see scans of originals, and even more excited to have links to many of the references that Updike wasn’t able to show images of.
That makes this so much more than just an online transcription. What a tremendous resource.
Thanks for all the research, and for making this available.
(And I love that you used Matthew’s revival of Monticello! 🙂 )
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@JTDType @nicksherman I thought Banner would catch on back when, but it never really got beyond the FB families. Never struck me as any less useful or suggestive than, say, “Micro”. Hard to say why one spread and the other didn’t.
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@paulvanderlaan @nicksherman Technically, I believe Knockout and Gotham were both released when it was Hoefler Type Foundry (HTF). Gotham was expanded under Hoefler & Frere-Jones (H&FJ). And Forza was Hoefler & Company (H&Co).
But it’s all Mono now …
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@dyana I’m not a native reader nor an expert, so take my comments with a grain of salt. Also, this seems to be aiming for a specific tight-not-touching display aesthetic, and I’m not qualified to weigh in on this from a non-Latin perspective.
That said, the tightness of the vowel mātrās in ना (nā) and री (rī) leave the wide stance of ग (ga) feeling very unnatural there and pulling the word apart rather than cohering.
Spacing aside, the arm of न looks a bit long (or व slightly too narrow?). And the knot on the ग seems heavier than that on न, and I don’t know that it should be.
But that’s a lot of second-guessing on my part.
Perhaps someone like @matratype would be better qualified to comment, if you’re seeking more feedback.
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@ksmallgallery I believe Brill has them. Technically more Transitional than Old Style, but maybe close enough. Definitely solid book face, of course. @TiroTypeworks
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@nathansnelgrove @onpaperwings That’s a lot of shelves is what that sounds like. Looks like you’ve got another trip to plan.
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@frerejonestype *Final* Jeopardy, no less! If you make it to NYT crossword, it better be the Sunday edition. 😉
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@ryan Fairmount looks great. Love the badge. Not to get nitpicky, but what was Gretel’s thinking behind that big honking word space in the wordmark, I wonder?
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@tphinney @TiroTypeworks @davidsudweeks @timahrens This discussion got me curious about the encoding of ellipsis as a single entity. I haven’t yet found any evidence of ellipsis cast as a single sort in foundry type, nor among Linotype or Monotype matrices. Plenty of two-dot leaders (cast on em). That seemed common. But not three-dot ellipsis. 🤔
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@letterror Ooh, were there any leftover unused letters and did you get any as a keepsake?
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@letterror Nice! 🤩
Yeah, I can’t imagine they would aim for overshooting the bare requirement. Must have been costly to fabricate.
Would’ve been funny, though, if they got to the end and were, like, “How come we have this extra Л over here? Did anybody proofread this?” 😅
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@jenskutilek@typo.social @DunwichType@typo.social In which case, by "scarce" they must mean ominpresent.
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@HEX Haven’t bothered to add up my TIME subscription over the past ten years and compare to the original license.
Probably got a few more years left. 😜
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@timahrens Some discussion on Typedrawers from a few months ago: https://typedrawers.com/discussion/comment/68356
(More about fitting than internal spacing, though.)
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@morningtype According to some previous discussion, the PE investor for TTF is Eagle Private Capital.
https://typo.social/@frerejonestype/111155789846702680
Or “was”? I no longer see TTF listed in their portfolio. I do vaguely recall seeing the listing there previously. So I don’t know if that signals any meaningful change. 🤷♂️
You should reach out to Sam Berlow if you want to try to get direct answers.
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@nika@typo.social @TiroTypeworks@typo.social Strange. Not sure what else to suggest. 🤷♂️
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@JTDType In a word: No. But it sucks that these corps don’t want to take no for an answer. (See also @jasonsantamaria’s experience with Adobe.)
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@nika@typo.social @TiroTypeworks@typo.social Looks like you’re in Mac full-screen mode. Clicking the green button in the upper left should escape and return to window mode.
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@janmaack What does it say about me that I’m equally fascinated by what’s going on in that central square, in particular the wavy patterns being made by that vibratory soil compactor? and that maze of concrete footings? 😳 😆
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@mass_driver Congrats! From a guy whose average typeface gestation is more like ten years. 😆