Eccentric Books has started the publication of a book series of all the fantasy novels written by William Morris. Morris wrote these books during the last decade of his life and published most of them himself at Kelmscott Press. Although little known today, these books are the beginning of British fantasy and they have been a strong influence on authors like J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

The design of the books tries to capture Morris’s spirit of the original Kelmscott editions and transfer it to the 21st century and to a very different production method. We have maintained the traditional layout with the wide margins, the use of a dark contemporary Venetian typeface, almost everywhere in one size, and the use of decorative elements.

Two books have already been published — The House of the Wolfings and The Roots of the Mountains.

American ad for North German Lloyd’s transatlantic sea passages from 1936, in Element schmalfett (1934). While there apparently was the desire to convey a deliberate teutonic look by using one of the new streamlined texturas which mushroomed in the first years of the Third Reich, Element’s gotisch H was considered to be too much, and illegible to American eyes: It got replaced by a romanized creation with a clunky foot swash. The “long s” (ſ) has been foregone, too.

The shaded upright script provides a classy contrast, and likely is not a font. On a related note to the altered H, the final letter with straight descender in the script would probably pass for a g only in the US, cf. the Berghoff sign.

DHUB interior graphics

Design by Atlas, the new studio of Astrid Stavro and Pablo Martín, has designed a stellar new identity system for the iconic Museu del Disseny de Barcelona and the Disseny Hub. The identity is reminiscent of the best of modernist design, yet contemporary and original. The largely typographic solution uses Graphik to the fullest.

Read an interview with the designers for Grafik Magazine and watch a video about the design details.

DHUB posters

DHUB interior graphics

DHUB brochures

DHUB posters

DHUB posters

DHUB posters

Design Hub Barcelona poster

“Byte magazine was an American microcomputer magazine, influential in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s because of its wide-ranging editorial coverage. … From 1975 through 1986 Byte covers usually featured the artwork of Robert Tinney. These covers made Byte visually unique. In 1987 Tinney's paintings were replaced by product photographs.” — Wikipedia

The original BYTE logo was set in Countdown. In the mid-1980s the mark was modified into a custom set of letters that were more blocky due to squaring off the circular counters.

See full issues of BYTE magazine on the Internet Archive.

Pentagram:

The ongoing series of typographic posters designed by Pentagram’s Michael Bierut for the Yale School of Architecture has made use of literally hundreds of different fonts since the series began in 1998. For the poster announcing the school’s fall 2014 lectures and exhibitions, Bierut and designer Jessica Svendsen wanted to try Maelstrom, an unusual new font by Kris Sowersby of Klim Type Foundry. The reversed-stress typeface makes the typically thick strokes of a letter thin, and the thin strokes thick. The font’s architectural quality is brought out in the poster, which stacks the letterforms and their heavy horizontals into a typographic structure. (The designers made some small modifications to the “E” and “F” to slightly improve legibility.) The school’s circular “Y” emblem also appears in Maelstrom.

Two sample pages of the new English translation of the 1543 and 1555 editions of De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem by Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564), who is widely considered to be the father of modern anatomy.

From vesaliusfabrica.com:

In keeping with the uniqueness of Vesalius’ masterpiece and the typeface in which it was first published, Swiss font designer Christian Mengelt developed a new typeface based upon the Basel Antiqua font that was distinctive to the 16th-century printing powerhouse Basel. Basel Antiqua is a modern rendition of that typeface especially prepared for the new translation.

Mengelt was asked early in the course of the project to create a typeface that would be representative of Vesalius’ assiduous production with Basel printing master Johannes Oporinus, but, as an added challenge, which needed to be compatible with new digital technology. 

See also the video below, where graphic designer Erich Gschwind explains the thinking behind the fresh design.

Detail

Detail

In 2012 Seattle Met’s food and drink editor, Allecia Vermillion, had the fun idea of a yearbook for beer. The 11-page feature celebrated the “new school of Seattle craft beer” by awarding classic honors and riffing on the periodic table.

I tend to stay away from layout gimmicks but this was impossible to resist. Font Bureau’s Biscotti and Bradley Initials lead the way. The opener acts as a kind of cover, inspired by vintage American yearbooks. For the spreads, I stuck to a reduced color palette and strict range of type sizes, so that most of the energy would come from imperfect alignment and overlapping elements — many yearbooks were made by students and are full of quirks. The photography caps off the concept; all of the subjects were willing participants and photographer Patrick Kehoe nailed the look.

I recommend anyone striving for a retro look to seek out unusual combinations of typefaces. Don’t rely on fonts exactly from the genre you’re emulating — unless the product needs to be historically accurate — instead, understand your content and express a feeling. A touch of contemporary typefaces will balance the design, keep you away from copycat mode, and help your work ring true.

platform-muenchen.de

Nicholas Felton’s 2013 edition of his annual report is one of the first public uses of the Input type series. It is also a perfect example of how Input can perform beyond its primary function as a coding typeface. Felton explains the typographic backstory on the Font Bureau blog.

Art director/designer: Cipe Pineles Burtin
Artist: Janet Amendola
Typographer: MKP

Catalogs and posters for Parsons School of Design, 1983–84

Designer: Cipe Pineles
Artist: Janet Amendola
Typographer: Tom Carnase

Art director/designer: Cipe Pineles Burtin
Artist: Richard Hess
Typographer: MKP

“Metric in use for the theatrical, understated rebrand of the New Theatre by Interbrand in Sydney, Australia.” — Klim Type Foundry

Inspired by Italian Rationalist architectural lettering, Salvo Nicolosi’s Telegrafico is a typeface that ticks many of the aesthetic boxes that appeal to designers: uniform stroke weight and letter widths, sharp apexes (AMNVW), and circular rounds (CGO). Unfortunately, those who eagerly snag the free font soon discover that Telegrafico is a hobbyist effort, not really suited for professional design. Not only does it lack a lowercase, accented characters, and even punctuation, but many of the existing caps are in need of a skilled designer’s touch. The geometry is not optically corrected, for instance, and the diagonal stroke weights are inconsistent. Those seeking Telegrafico’s characteristics are better off springing for pro options like VF Sans, Telefon, DTL Nobel, Neutraface, Mostra, Verlag, Relay, or the newly released Apres.

Still, Telegrafico is undeniably attractive to lovers of Art Deco and Geometric sans serifs, who flood Nicolosi’s deviantART page with requests to use it commercially. One of those designers who recently employed Telegrafico for professional work was Korean motion graphics specialist, Sangdon Lee, who picked it for the moody opening title sequence of the 2013–14 sci-fi flick Snowpiercer.

To make Telegrafico function in these titles, Lee had to invent his own hyphens, quotes, and diacritical marks (or borrow them from another font), and he replaced the very mechanically constructed Telegrafico ‘S’ with one from another typeface, possibly Akzidenz-Grotesk.

Despite these compromises, it’s easy to overlook the type’s faults at this small size, and it does its job remarkably well, serving as a sort of post-apocolyptic industrial techno-glitch. The subtle shadow overlays, referencing the view from a moving train, are a nice touch. Watch the clip here.

“For fine typography in Philadelphia, call on Jordan.”

From the Eighth Graphic Arts Production Yearbook, 1948.

“Saturdays Surf NYC is a downtown Manhattan surf lifestyle brand. Since opening in 2009, Saturdays has cultivated an iconic mix of surf lifestyle, menswear, art, and coffee. Like the brand itself, the magazine explores the interplay between NYC lifestyle and surfing. This duality threads throughout the first and second issues—from the balanced blocks of color on the cover to the layout and editorial content: half interviews and half photographic essays.” — Jevas Lehn Studio

For the big type on opening spreads and pull quotes, the designers used Miller Banner — the largest of Matthew Carter’s Miller series — to full effect. These delicate and graceful shapes contrast with stark numerals in Memphis.

“The Great Discontent is an online publication of interviews about beginnings, creativity, and risk. Early in 2014, we were hired to help the publication translate its online interviews into a bi-annual print publication. The bold photography and typography take a nod from the website, while some of the design refinements and modifications will eventually make their way back to the site. Interestingly, the design has flip-flopped: the printed magazine was influenced by the website, and soon the website will be reimagined in light of the magazine—a true multi-format design system.” — Another

Creative direction by Ryan Essmaker.

For their summer 2014 “Trend” feature, British menswear retailer Topman snags letters from the California license plate. I can’t think of anything that says West Coast summer more succinctly.

United on the Twitter announcement of the 23 player roster. Oh boy, this evoked some feelings. And I’m not talking about the font use …

I’m a huge soccer fan and I obsessively follow the US National Teams. As the USMNT has been prepping for their World Cup Group G matches, I have been eagerly following their progress. So, you can imagine the thrill I felt when I first noticed that my favorite team is using my typeface United Sans for all of their typography leading up to the World Cup! It’s on their website, Twitter graphics, signs, vehicles, etc. It’s everywhere.

I am in awe. Thank you to whoever decided to use United for this. You made my year. The only thing that would be better than this is would be if I designed a typeface specifically for the team. Which I totally want to do. It’s one of my two dream projects. Do you work for US Soccer!? OMG! Get in touch! Seriously, please get in touch.

#USA #USA #USA

More World Cup coverage on Fonts In Use »

United on the team bus.

What do you think Jürgen Klinsmann is smiling about? Was it a good training that day? Was he happy to see United on the bus? Both?

More United on the team bus. (See that @? That’s the rarely seen version that I drew just for use in all uppercase text. Whoever noticed that it should be used here is my hero. Also, Hi Kyle Beckerman!)

United in the locker room. I haven’t been able to find an image online, but ESPN’s documentary about the team has shown that United is even being used for player names on the lockers. My typeface could be one of the last things that the team sees before heading to the pitch!

United in the press conference room.

United on the practice field.

United in the tunnel to the field.

United on the players’ luggage tags.

Part of a Braun hi-fi system designed to be hung on a wall. This amp/receiver unit was produced in 1964.

Detail.

Seasons themed illustrations for wine labels. The only briefing was that the brand name, Annual, was included.