Monthly Archives: January 2012

Vernacular Typography

Standard | Posted on by

Vernacular Typography is a wonderful web-archive of urban lettering from around the world, documented and collected by graphic designer Molly Woodward.

Woodward says, “One vanishing art that can still be studied in the interstices of the assault of global retail is vernacular typography. All over the world, there are cities and towns that retain their rich traditions of vernacular signage. Unfortunately, the fate of these typographic havens is being threatened by the uniformity of corporate advertising, which ignores and subverts local history and tradition. This website seeks to collect and document examples of these vanishing symbols of art and culture.”

It is a wonderful and inspiring collection.

No time? Limit yourself to…

Standard | Posted on by

four.sentenc.es is a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be four sentences or less.

The Problem: E-mail takes too long to respond to, resulting in continuous inbox overflow for those who receive a lot of it.

The Solution: Treat all email responses like SMS text messages, using a set number of letters per response. Since it’s too hard to count letters, you count sentences instead.

Sarcasm moves forwards, or is it backwards?

Standard | Posted on by

Further to our post on the SarcMark a couple of years ago, another typographer, Glenn Mcanally, has come up with perhaps the best solution to conveying sarcasm yet: the “Sarcastic Font”, a typeface that renders sarcastic comments in reverse italic script.

The manifesto says:
For too long e-mails, instant messages, web pages and documents have been unable to fully communicate the subtleties of sarcasm. Text delivered without intonation fail to represent the rare form of language where the intended meaning is the opposite of the written word.

You can download his ‘Arial Sarcastic’ from the site and get going!

Type Navigator: The Independent Foundries Handbook

Standard | Posted on by

The rapidly expanding online market for digital typefaces is exciting and diverse. With new fonts and type foundries launching on an almost daily basis, it has been difficult to keep track of notable developments—until now. Type Navigator is a useful current handbook of modern fonts, independent foundries, and innovative type designers that provides an overview of today’s vast market. This comprehensive publication offers a valuable overview of international sources for quality fonts. In addition to concise profiles of type foundries and recent typefaces, Type Navigator features inspirational visual examples of fonts in use. A free digital collection of 100 typeface variations from 20 choice foundries accompanies the 320-page book.

Editors: Jan Middendorp, TwoPoints.Net
Release Date: September 2011
Format: 24 × 30 cm
Features: 320 pages, full color, hardcover, incl. CD-ROM with 100 typefaces from 20 foundries
Language: English
ISBN: 978-3-89955-377-2