Notes

A bit more about February’s font

At the Mölndals Stadsmuseum outside of Gothenburg, Sweden, the most interesting parts of the collection aren’t in the exhibitions. Instead, they reside in the museum’s “Open Storage,” which includes 10,000 everyday objects from 20th-century Sweden that visitors can see, touch, and wear.

When I visited the museum in the summer of 2016, one item that caught my eye was the midcentury Swedish garden calendar that is pictured below. Its title seemed like a condensed take on a geometric slab like Memphis or Stymie, and I loved how its rationalist letterforms contrasted with the organic shapes of the leaves behind them. But what interested me most about it were the atypical (some might say gratuitous) vertical slab serifs found on characters like e, a, and 9.

There was something that appealed to me about this overly-simplistic approach to modularity. If you’re drawing a slab serif, why not add a slab at every possible opportunity? So that is exactly what I tried to do.

As you might have guessed, the result is a slabfest. Rhody has narrow, straight-sided forms, rationalist curves, and extra-gappy inktraps that give it a little edge. Its mechanical nature is underscored by the unusually blocky shapes of f, j, and t, but the overabundance of vertical slabs prevents it from ever feeling sterile. I threw in a couple of weights, and some fun alternates and bonus features to explore!

A note on the name

I had some trouble coming up with a name for this one until I looked outside my window. There aren’t many leaves on the trees right now in Western Massachusetts, but my rhododendron is still nice and green. Seemed like an appropriate inspiration for a font based on a garden calendar!

But, just the other day, I was reminded that Jitka Janečková did a type]media project called Rododendron in 2016 (that’s the Czech spelling, which is probably why it didn’t come up in a search). Not only was Jitka extraordinarily nice about the whole thing, but Rododendron is a pretty kickass typeface, so you should go check it out!

So for now, I’m just nicknaming my design Rhody (which, of course, gets close to the classic Font Bureau grot, Rhode!) So we’ll see what happens to the name if/when I return to make this a full-fledged release.

Regardless of what you call it, this is the last day of February, so I encourage you to pick up your copy today!

Type.today interview

I had the pleasure of sitting in on a chat with Ilya Ruderman and Nick Sherman about the state of type design today. Here’s the full interview!  »

Here are some more images of Oded Ezer’s Hebrew expansion for Fit!

NEW: Fit supports Hebrew

Israeli designer Oded Ezer and I are very excited to announce Fit Hebrew, a Hebrew-language expansion that Oded drew for my typeface Fit.

Using my Latin version as a starting point, Oded adapted Fit’s rigid design to suit the needs of the Hebrew alphabet. Taking into account the squareness of the letterforms and the direction in which they open, Ezer sensitively applied Fit’s system of alternating curves and corners. And just as my Latin mixes uppercase and lowercase forms to take up more space, Fit Hebrew seamlessly mixes block and cursive forms. Ezer pushes Fit’s Hebrew alphabet to surprising extremes, making it an unforgettable and adaptable tool for titling and poster work.

See Fit Hebrew »

But wait...there’s more! To celebrate Fit’s first birthday, I’m also giving away this poster of Fit’s Sator Square to all Fit licensees who want one. You can also purchase the poster separately for $15.

See Fit Sator Square Poster »

A look at January’s Extraordinaire

It’s hard to believe we are already halfway through January. Here’s a bit more on the design of Extraordinaire, this month’s font for the Font of the Month Club.

When I started my typeface Bungee in 2011, I originally drew its shade as a simple “pin-line” stroke. This turned out to be a lot more difficult than I anticipated; because the shade never touches the letterform, it was hard to know how to end the stroke or what to do when one disappeared behind a curve. In the end, I was never able to get this to feel right for Bungee, and eventually abandoned it in favor of a more conventional drop-shade. But I didn’t let go of the idea.

I figured that a single-stroke shade might work better with a single-stroke typeface, but there’s just one problem: hairlines can be kinda boring. So much of what I love about drawing type comes from the contrast of thick and thin, and a hairline has none of that.

So I looked to Art Deco, as practitioners of this style did a ton of weird, interesting stuff with the skeletons of letters. I confess I am a sucker for their high and low waists, exaggerated proportions, and letters like C and S that can get so narrow that they almost disappear.

I found the final piece of the puzzle just last month during a visit to São Paulo for the amazing DiaTipo conference. Wandering past beautiful Art Deco buildings in the city center, I kept seeing this diamond-shaped O appearing in the signage above the doorways. It dawned on me that a pin-line shade would never have to awkwardly disappear behind an O with pointy tops and bottoms, so it would always feel well-defined.

Out of all this comes Extraordinaire, my proof-of-concept for a variable single-stroke shade. Not unlike my revival of Crayonette, its capitals descend below the baseline so that the small caps are vertically centered. The round endings of the strokes give the face a breezy, informal look that is distinct from the sharpness that I usually associate with Art Deco.

One last thing: Extraordinaire is meant to be used big. Super thin strokes can be tricky to work with and are always a challenge for printers and rendering engines. I hope that club members will take advantage of Extraordinaire’s adjustable weight and shade distance; by using its assortment of styles and/or its variable fonts, you can maintain a consistent stroke weight across different sizes, or layer multiple shades together to create a variety of dazzling effects.

That’s all for January! If you aren’t already a member, I hope you’ll consider joining Font of the Month Club and putting this font to some extraordinary use!