The Slip by Miriam Webster is the first book to published by Aniko Press. The ten stories in this collection are dark, feral and completely unforgettable, full of strange encounters and big feelings. The vision for the design brief was to capture the author’s eye for the absurd and the surreal.

As with all the fiction covers I work on, I start by reading and taking notes of themes, key phrases and visual cues. These stories are great fun – weird, funny, dark, surprising – emotional and complex. In one story, the protagonist dreams of animals:

Black dogs and other beasts that stalked behind you on the back roads. Horses whinnying and bucking in the wind, synchronised and weirdly fluid, changing ways like schools of silver fish ... A nanny goat with two grey kids in tow, offering them her teats …

The dream is a premonition – there’s an escaped goat who has ‘chewed through her rope and fucked off up the hill somewhere’.

I interpret this as a symbol for freedom (perhaps incorrectly, but I’m prepared to run with it). I like freedom, I’m not sure I like goats but goats are pretty weird – they’re esoteric, surreal creatures (occult even!) – which seems a good fit for the collection. The power of the goat is calling.

After much trial and error, I eventually found the goat that might save my life. Tongue out – not too cute, not too ugly, just oddly charming enough, it’s chewing away in the high country. Being free, being chill, being weird. Being goat. Seems a nice vintage too, should contrast well with some garishly bright text – aiming for the sweet spot where the archaic (story telling; old as the hills) and the modern (the text often plays with form, while poking fun at its own metatextuality) meet. You know that spot, right? It’s a good place.

For the cover’s display type, I wanted something big and bold but with a certain softness and warmth – enter the rock-solid humanist sans serif with a hint of contemporary typographic finesse, P22 Underground. And okay, my handwriting sucks but I want something with a human hand behind it, so I turn to another literary surrealist – help me out, Franz? – the subtitle of ‘Stories’ is set in FF Mister K (a font based on Kafka’s handwriting).

The interior is primarily typeset in Garamond Premier and Underground (with a few wingdings and emojis for good measure). One story, ‘New Directions’ (which contains the titular story – ‘The Slip’ – in a metatextual way) required a very detailed setting; conveying multiple voices: author, confidant, publisher, analyst, patient – and an eel(!) – with the voices often switching between one another mid-sentence (very slippery indeed).

Providing sufficient visual difference between each voice, while keeping an elegant and cohesive overall, was quite a challenge. The story utilises varying degrees of indentation, all-caps, small-caps, italics, reverse slant, underline – and detailed spacing (the eel is getting high, getting loose, mind and text fragmenting). The result is best experienced in print, of course. On that note, do go buy the book, it’s very, very fun.

Located in Western Berlin in quiet surroundings with the Tiergarten park on one side and the Berlin Zoo on the other is a five-star design hotel with a Danish name: Das Stue – The Living Room.

Why Danish, why living room? It’s simple – the building was constructed in the 1930s as Denmark’s embassy and later became its Berlin consulate. Several years ago it was architecturally extended and upgraded as a hotel – an urban retreat combining luxury and homeliness. Quite a potpourri of prominent names is connected with the locality: Johann Schaudt, architect of the historical building; the Axthelm architectural practice responsible for its contemporary annex; celebrated Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola responsible for the interiors; Catalan chef Paco Pérez heading Das Stue’s Michelin-starred restaurant Cinco, and last but not least: FF Mister K – the Kafka handwriting font responsible for the hotel and restaurant logos.

Since it first opended its doors in late 2012 Das Stue has been a singular success story. The melange of Third Reich classicism, the new minimalist building wing, sleek but cosy guestrooms, 20-course Mediterranean meals, ostriches parading in front of the windows and Franz Kafka’s very unsleek handwriting – seems to fit perfectly to the zeitgeist of today’s Berlin. – A long list of enthusiastic reviews and awards confirms it.

Trade Gothic Extended, stylishly set in all caps, and Georgia support Mister K on Cinco’s menus …

Julieta Ulanovsky’s sans serif Montserrat and system font Times New Roman on Das Stue’s virtual presence are a surprisingly modest choice for “Berlin’s first luxury boutique hotel”. See them in combination here.

For music events Mister K is joined by Impact and a condensed DIN-like grotesque.

FF Mister K Icing (still to be approved by the FontFont Type Board)

A bit of Stue made it to K-designer Julia Sysmäläinen’s balcony.

It’s been some time since I last entered the country at HEL – Helsinki airport. And unfortunately I don’t really have time to admire all the new achievements there since I have to catch a train to the east. My schedule is tight.

After the baggage claim I am as usually surrounded by a crowd of meeters awaiting their relatives & friends. Not expecting anyone waiting for me there I want to elegantly and swiftly elbow my way out. But wait a second: There is a friend there, high above all the others. It’s the Kafka handwriting font Mister K greeting everybody with a loveable “Moi Helsinki” (Hi Helsinki). Instantly my priorities change. It will have to be a later train. I absolutely must check out the first bar in Finland using Mister K as its keynote speaker!

They give you a really homely welcome here. Besides friendly typefaces and funny illustrations they have a relaxed Scandinavian interior – and the seductive aroma of freshly ground coffee together with that of korvapuusti cinnamon rolls. It doesn’t take long that I get the feeling you might not only miss trains but also planes here.

But who is Mister K’s partner telling amusing anecdotes on the beer coasters and not so amusing prices in the menu? It is Belta Bold, a trendy font of handwritten caps by Antipixel from Buenos Aires. Probably nobody would have combined typefaces like this a few years ago. But the times they are a-changin’, and there is enough contrast between the two of them to make a good Finnish–Argentinean pair. – And would anyone miss grotesques or antiquas in a place like this anyway?

I’m sure to be here more often in future – doing less photographing – and letting more coasters wander into my pockets. With more than 8 € for a beer I guess that’s justified – just as the 5-star rating Moi Helsinki got by its visitors.

A look at the technical side of Moi.

The menu – gold on cardboard.

Fuller was commissioned to tell the 70 year old St Hallett story in words and images. After six months of research we revealed a journey of booms and near busts, dreamy visionaries and loyal workhorses, ingenuity and tradition — and an absolute dedication to the Barossa and Shiraz. The design style was applied to a commemorative 100 page hard bound book and a bespoke animated video, mixing traditional and contemporary elements through hand drawing. A strong correlation between the brand colours and an artisan feel gave the content a unique and memorable style. The finished result was something St Hallett and Fuller could be truly proud of.

The two FontFonts play their role well, maybe a bit too workmanlike. They make a quirky but friendly handwriting–humanist sans pair and create an up-to-date feeling distinct from the more traditional competitors around.

Walking through the streets of Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg I met two old FontFont friends: Yanone’s FF Kava and Julia Sysmäläinen’s Kafka font FF Mister K. They hold a key position in the identity of Cornelia Sommers Naturheilpraxis – a small & pricy naturopathy practice for children and adults. With its population of baby booming ex-bohemians Prenzlauer Berg is an ideal environment for this kind of enterprise.

The division of labor is conventional: As tested often before, the script font – Mister K – takes care of the logo and headlines and the sans – Kava – offers easily digestible info text. In all a pleasant appearance – Franz Kafka, a great believer in natural therapy, would not have objected.

If the book we are reading does not wake us up with a blow on the head, why then are we reading the book? — Franz Kafka

Kafka in artists’ books. Exhibition of the Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum at the German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) in Leipzig.

Casual handwriting letters are an unusual style for architectural signs. Using an off-the-shelf font (instead of a custom drawn logo) is even more exceptional. For this Australian shopping mall, FF Mister K Informal works just fine.

The font choice for the website is not so fortunate. Spiffily NF — “a workmanlike interpretation of John Pistilli’s eponymous extreme Didone” — doesn’t lend itself to being used in small sizes (yes, 36px still counts as small here), it is much too delicate for that. Also, it’s not really well-spaced. Omitting the kerning adds insult to injury. Harriet might do a better job here.

Great care was taken with the letterpressed and die-cut material, which was produced by Studio On Fire.

Debossed merchandise cards, info cards, and leather details in harmony.

A 3D-logo with the same felted feel as the mobile case, along with a pair of AIAIAI’s TMA-1 headphones.

The type follows suit: Ole Schäfer’s FF Zine Serif Display is employed in the wordmark, grafted at the serifs to form bespoke ligatures. Playing counterpart to this masculine, square-jawed logo is our whimsical friend FF Mister K from Julia Sysmäläinen. Of a less European pedigree, Hoefler & Frere Jones’ Sentinel appears in print splash images, with New Century Schoolbook as the webfont stand-in. Futura plays the neutral (yet still European) tone on headlines in the site. And, as these two founders have their fingers on the pulse of the Hypebeast, the recently fashionable Orator is used for splash metainfo. (The Futura used as a webfont is a questionable digitization called Function. It does not hold up to the task nor does it fit with the otherwise impeccable attention to detail.)

Hand-drawn details playing well with FF Mister K.

Broad assortment, narrow aesthetic. See a full-size view of Hard Graft’s product line.

Hard Graft could be criticized for using too many typefaces (or praised for their typographic eclecticism?), but much like their product line, the texture of the typography gives a richness that grey and brown can’t shoulder on their own. Personally, I would axe either Orator or Futura, and would be quick to upgrade Schoolbook to Sentinel once H&FJ webfonts are available.

Patch Hofweber is a young multidisciplinary designer living in southern Sweden. His latest work is the typeface Trim Poster in collaboration with Göran Söderström and Letters from Sweden.

Bókmenntahátíð is the Reykjavík International Literary Festival

A series of hand-drawn limited edition posters created for FontFont by Laura Serra. Featuring FF Pitu, FF Mister K, FF Tartine Script, FF DIN and FF Fontesque Display.

For the upcoming Schocken/Pantheon Kafka library, cover designer Peter Mendelsund turned to a typeface derived from the handwriting of Franz Kafka himself. FF Mister K is not a facsimile of Kafka’s pen, but Julia Sysmäläinen studied the writer’s manuscripts closely to develop a font family that could be readable and useful in modern design. The result is a script with a sense of timelessness, a rare trait among handwriting faces — most are either antique or contemporary.

The FF Mister K family has three members: Standard, Crossout, and Onstage, a more decorative alternative.

Mendelsund uses the fonts well. My only suggestion would be to substitute an alternate ‘k’ on this title to avoid any ambiguity between “America” and “Amerika”.

The choice of Times for the author name is not as straightforward. It’s based on Mendelsund’s personal view on Kafka and how he sees the writer connecting to Times’ modern day image:

My associations with Times are two-fold, and contradictory. On the one hand, Times puts me in mind of Microsoft, MS Windows, Word (with which Times is distributed and is most people’s intro to the font), which in turn makes me think of nefarious organizations and the powerlessness of the individual in the face of the large, uncaring, politico-corporate entity. On the other hand, as the universal default face, it has an everyman-like humility to it. Kafka, I think, would approve.

On the smallish “F. Kafka”, Mendelsund adds:

There are authors who cry out for a big treatment for their name, Like, you know, TOLSTOY, or NIETZSCHE. Or even some that want prettifying, like a Proust, say. But Kafka, he seems, weirdly, best treated with as little grandiosity as possible.

And the eyes?

… not the first or last time I will use an eye as a device on a jacket — book covers are, after all, faces, both literally and figuratively, of the books they wrap. I find eyes, taken in the singular, create intimacy, and in the plural instill paranoia. This seemed a good combo for Kafka, who is so very adept at the portrayal of the individual, as well as the portrayal of the persecution of the individual.

By the way, any book lover will love Mendelsund’s portfolio site. The breadth of his work is represented by each book spine, sitting on the page like a bookshelf. It’s impressive way to show how much he’s done, worthy of a desktop background or printed poster.

Mendelsund’s book design work. So wide I had to split it into two “shelves”.