Recently, Ikea unveiled its new catalogue, and designers began complaining almost immediately. To laymen, the problem is probably almost invisible: Ikea has changed its official font from Futura—with its tony design pedigree—to Verdana.

So what? Verdana was designed as on on-screen font for Microsoft. And while it's serviceable in that context, it was never meant for print. Designers would liken that move to driving a Honda Civic around a racetrack—sure the Civic might be a fine family c...
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Typefaces based on the handwriting of homeless people in Barcelona are up for sale at homelessfonts.org. All proceeds go to the Arrels Foundation, an organization for the benefit of Barcelona's homeless. 


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This is a nicely presented little video, laying out the basics of typography. While I don't necessarily agree with everything that is said within the video, like leading, it is still fun to watch if you are a beginner at typography. Enjoy!


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One can only hope that the top image has been Photoshopped. Nevertheless I thought it was funny. Surely somebody isn't that inept!





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Here's a nice little video covering the very basics of good typography. It is especially helpful for those who are new to design. Click here!
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I found the below article on I Love Typography and have copied it here for your convenience. To see the original article, please visit I Love Typography's excellent website. Keith Houston, the author, is the founder of shadycharacters.co.uk. His latest book, The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time, is available now from W.W. Norton & Co.
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In 1450, Johannes Gutenberg entered into an agreement with on...

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With this book, enjoy more than 300 typography examples of dimensional lettering incorporating elements of relief and shadow from Europe and the United States. The examples come from a variety of sources, from type-specimen books and billboards, to shop signs and posters, all of which were created between the nineteenth and mid-twentieth century. Here’s an inspiring promo of the book and what you may expect to find within its pages:
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A paper letter-animation about the history of typography.


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I always enjoy the unusual and came upon this poster image on Creative Bloq. I'm not sure who did it but thanks!



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Madrid Spain based artist collective Boa Mistura recently gave a small corner of Brazil one very colorful and meaningful typographic makeover. Working with the inhabitants, including the children of Brasilândia Vila, a poor suburb on the outskirts of São Paulo, the team took the narrow streets and covered them with vibrant, colorful paint, leaving only the beautiful words beleza, amor, doçura, firmeza and orgulho (beauty, love, sweetness, firmness and pride) painted on the walls. The ...
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Bob Barker, a.k.a. Robert Barker to those who are not so close to him, was a printer to James the first of England and printer to Queen Elizabeth the first. He was in fact, the printer of the King James Bible, the only version that some say assure your eternal salvation. However, Mr. Barker either had a sense of humor or a mistress on the side and released another version which were eventually confiscated and burned. Only 11 of these remain in print somewhere today. It has been labelled by so...
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I accidentally ran across this book when I was supposed to be doing Christmas shopping and fell in love with it. I wanted to share it with you all, as it is not only entertaining but educational as well. The author mixes a lot of good ol' British humour with interesting stories and tidbits of gossip relating to type and provides an engaging voice on a topic (of course) close to my heart.

So…what does your favorite font say about you? Fonts surround us every day, on street signs and buildi...
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Okay…it won't be long before university classes start up again and to help me get in the mood of teaching, I thought I would put out a little question to see if any of you can guess the answer. Why does this font work for this image? I will reveal the answer after you get a chance to look at it and comment. Any takers?


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With an ever increasing dependence upon the digital media, the art form of hand-lettered type is a dying skill. I came across the work of Dana Tanamachi recently and was impressed by her hand rendered signage in chalk (another dying art form). While we still see evidence of chalk art on metropolitan streets, its temporary nature makes it a media that many can't be bothered to perfect. The temporal nature of this media, combined with the fact that it takes hours to perfect a good hand for lett...
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Let me go on record here as saying that I despise Comic Sans. Most non-designers know of this font and love it, whereas most GOOD designers know of it and hate it. Vincent Connare designed this font for Microsoft in 1995 and it was for one purpose only. He had been given a beta version of Microsoft Bob, a comic software package designed primarily for young users. The package featured a dog called Rover (very original and creative name), with message balloons set in Times New Roman. Connare th...
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“Oh, dash it all”, sounds very British doesn't it? Well to be honest I'm sick of it all. Everywhere I turn I see the dash in the most unnatural of places and it drives me batty. Why can't the the most advanced of all living species get this right? Why is it so difficult to understand? Do they not teach this in elementary school?

• THE HYPHEN (-) is a short little thing and should be very sparingly. It is used to combine compound words together and too often at the end of a line in a paragrap...

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I came across this video today and thought some of you might enjoy it. The letterpress technology is being overrun by our digital world, which is a pity. It has such a wonderful look that the computer finds difficult to copy or imitate. What do you think?

Letterpress from Naomie Ross on Vimeo.

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There are countless numbers of precedents within art and typography of using human bodies to express typographic forms. Some were published and many were censored from the public's eye. One of the earliest examples we have is Peter Flötner's Anthropomorphic Alphabet (below), which was created around 1540.



Since that first appearance there have been countless number of people who claim their inspiration came from Flötner and the principle of human letter forms has been recreated in most of th...
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Below is an excerpt from Beatrice Warde's famous essay on typography. It is considered a classic and has been used as a source of inspiration since its original appearance in 1955. Some may automatically consider anything written this long ago not to be valid in today's fast-paced digital world. However, there is everything to learn and some principles never change no matter what age we live in.  Enjoy.

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Imagine that you have before you a flagon of wine. You may choose your own favourite vinta...

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Okay…this is too much fun. Pentagram has a quick little interactive web programme that tells you what typeface you are, which if you think about it too long doesn't make sense. You are required to answer four questions and it will reveal something about yourself and your style. According to my answers, I am Dot Matrix (not to be confused with the 1987 Mel Brooks character in Spaceballs or the name of a character on the show ReBoot).

The Dot Matrix font is a 2-dimensional array of dots used ...
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An excellent former student and now friend, Melissa Sybert, sent me this link which I thought was definitely worth sharing to any other typophiles or history buffs. It is produced by Counterspace and gives a nice overview of the history of type from pre-historic man to current-day. It is a nice little interactive website and I think many of you will enjoy it.

Typography Timeline

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The inspiring part of this news article is the fact that dear Tyler has a smile on his face. The fact that he survived this miraculous event surely propels him into the Guinness Book of World Records. And for those women who claim childbirth is painful and women have a higher tolerance of pain—bullshit. Or perhaps I should say…“deershit.” This is proof that guys can do anything women can do and even better.



Lesson: Use spell check!

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The Type Directors Club in conjunction with Cardon Copy presents POSTERS OF FORTUNE: 20 Fortune cookies, with 20 distinct fortunes, have been sent to 20 internationally renowned designers. The designers have in turn transmuted these personal divinations into richly imagined typographical posters. See them, bid on them, come hear the designers discuss them.

POSTERS OF FORTUNE is on display at the TDC from April 5th – May 12, 2011. The end event and final bids will take place on May 12t...

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Substance’s Oscar Goldman uses original photography and a little Photoshop layering to create hand-crafted, traditional typography that’s strikingly fused with computer-based portraits from the cyber age.

When asked to produce a tutorial based on the techniques he had developed while working at Substance, his immediate response was to develop a tutorial that had a strong bias towards “organic design”. After all, too many illustrators these days produce glossy fashion-o...

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The Social Network "Going Live" Typography from Jorge Sandoval on Vimeo.

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Okay…so you've been invited to the wedding but the invitation got lost in the post. What do you do? Well, you contact Katherine Baxter. Surely she will help you out. Even though this has absolutely nothing to do with typography (directly) it does have to do with design and more particularly designing maps. Katherine Baxter has been commission to create several maps for the big day on the 29th. This means that even though the postal system is sometimes incompetent, you don't have to totally ...
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I have said for some time that good typography is a science and as such must be studied. Now there is proof to back it up (click on image for a larger view).



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