Thinking For A Living

"Well done is better than well said." - Benjamin Franklin

The new Thinking For A Living 3.0 has launched by some good friends of mine.

Well done, boys.

Feltron 2009 Annual Report

Even though pretty much every blog has posted this, I must re-post because it is always so good:

Every year, the master of data visualization, Nicholas Felton, creates an annual report for himself. This year he has raised the bar yet again (with letterpress!).

Letterpress Reprints

Part of the reason this blog has been quiet recently is that I have been feverishly printing in my new home studio. I am happy to say that the fruits of my labor are now available. Both of these prints sold out their first editions quite quickly, so I have printed new prints with (in my opinion) improved paper and colors.

"When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade" is now printed on bright yellow French "Lemon Drop" Pop-Tone 100 lb. cover-weight paper with green ink. I have always been fond of this phrase and I'm happy that others like it as well.


"All You Need is Love" is now printed on light blue French "Sno Cone" Pop-Tone 100 lb. cover-weight paper with a burgundy/wine colored ink. Although I know that love isn't the only thing you need, it certainly wouldn't hurt to have more of it in our lives.

I have uploaded a few photos of the printing process on my Flickr.

A Few New Polaroids

"Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible." - Edwin Land

I am making a new concerted effort to continue my Vernacular Typography Polaroids series. I just purchased a boatload of expired film and I hope to start shooting like crazy soon.

I Have A Printing Press - INSIDE MY HOUSE!

I finally moved my Vandercook SP-20 Proof Printing Press into our house last weekend. I am super excited to have the press close and I hope to get it up and printing soon.

If you want to see moving photos (we took a ton to help anyone else that is planning to move similar presses), visit this Flickr set.

Tungsten - A New Typeface from H&FJ

Hoefler & Frere-Jones have created yet another great typeface: Tungsten.

It is a square-sided sans serif that is “more Steve McQueen than Steven Seagal" and “whiskey highball, not a martini.” It has a nice association with Alternate Gothic No. 3 but they created some nice contemporary design elements to give it a fresh look.

City of Melbourne Identity

Even though it was designed by a Sydney design firm (which is sadly ironic) I am very impressed with Melbourne, Australia's new city identity. Fresh, flexible, and very Australian.

Basel Summer Type Design Workshop 2009

I am back home from my fantastic workshop at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland. It was a great time of meeting friends from all over the world, nerding-out on type, and learning from some of the most knowledgeable designers in the world.

It is difficult to write about an intense week of type design in a foreign land, so I have chronicled some of my time there in a Flickr set for your enjoyment.

Love is Sweet...

Wow. I wish I had the patience and skill to do something similar to this amazing piece by Julene Harrison.

Typographic World Map

I love maps. I love type. This Typographic World Map fulfills both quite nicely.

Type Nesting

See! Type is useful even to animals!

Type Nesting.

Wood Type Web Museum

Unicorn Graphics has a very nice web museum of wood type and specimen books. See H&FJ review their favorites here.

Wall Street Journal Article on Comic Sans

Love it or hate it, the Wall Street Journal has written an article about Comic Sans. Learn about the history, the designer, and the backlash against the typeface.

TypeCuts - Andrea Tinnes

I came across Andrea Tinnes type designs today via WeLoveTypography and I cannot contain my enthusiasm for her work! Her custom work for the Eastern Columbia building is most certainly my favorite as well as her design for a Optima replacement, Viceroy.

All of her work is brilliant and makes me so very jealous!

Continue to Make Your Own Path

Some shameless self-promotion here:

I just finished printing another big set of "Make Your Own Path" prints that are now for sale at Keep Calm Gallery!

Each print is hand letterpressed on a different topographic map making each print unique. I hope you like it!

We Love Typography

From the creator of one of the best type sites on the internet, ILoveTypography, comes another great site: WeLoveTypography.

Contributed to by some of the best type people on the net, think of it as FFFFound for all things type, typography, lettering, & signage.

A new daily source of typographic inspiration!

Keep On Trucking!

Trucks + Type.

Polaroids on Murketing.com

I am late posting this, but my Vernacular Typography Polaroids were recently the "Flickr Set of the Month" on The Journal of Murketing. Thanks to Rob and Tom!

The Periodic Table of Typefaces

The Periodic Table of Typefaces.

Flavor

Juan Camilo Rojas has created a work of art that has the potential to give you stained teeth, fingers, and hair; increased frequency of colds and bronchitis; asthma; neuralgia; gastrointestinal difficulties;headaches; nausea; and convulsions - to name a few.

Type + Travel

A Flickr set combining my two favorite things. Type + Travel.

TDC 2009 Winners

Congratulations to all of the 2009 Type Directors Club winners!

Akzidenz Grotesk on the Streets

I had posted a few images of this project a while back, but now I have found more information about it - Tobias Battenberg took typography and a projector to the streets and made some very interesting photographs.

New York City Subway Destination Prints

These old New York City Subway Destination Prints are quite nice!

Lettering of Brooklyn

Paul Shaw has been documenting the commercial and residential lettering of Brooklyn and has written a great article with photos all about it!

Letter Museum in Berlin

The Letter Museum’s mission is the preservation and documentation of letters, regardless of culture, language and font systems. Yet another reason I need to visit Berlin!

Futurist Typography

Ace Jet 170 reminded me about the great typographic work done by Futurists.

Westvaco Inspirations

Bradbury Thompson's work for Westvaco in the 1950's was seriously great.

Book Cover Design Blog

Have you ever wondered what goes into a book cover? Henry Sene Yee shows his process (as well as his good results) in his book cover design blog.

Adrian Frutiger: The Complete Works

Arguably the most important type-related book of the decade has been released: Adrian Frutiger - Typefaces. The Complete Works.

When I first read about this book, I literally yelled in excitement. Yes, I am that much of a nerd.

Ampersand Cutting Board

I recently purchased this amazing Ampersand Cutting Board from the fine folks at House Industries. Cutting cheese has never been better!

My New Press!

I am the proud father of this 1969 Vandercook SP-20 printing press! 1500 lbs. of solid steel beauty!

Check out this great promotional brochure (PDF) for the SP-20.

Fair warning: letterpress is a serious, if not fatal, disease.

FontCase

If you are looking for font-management software, there is a new one on the market called FontCase. They claim it is the iTunes for fonts - looks interesting!

The Arm NYC

Design*Sponge has a great interview with Dan Morris proprietor of The Arm NYC.

All things letterpress and all things good.

Penguin Classic Horror Book Covers

The Penguin Blog (which is always good) has a post about their recent super-awesome covers for their classic horror books. It shows work in progress as well as a video interview with the designer. Really stunning work.

Feltron 2008

Nicholas Felton has done it again. His 2008 annual report is a celebration of all things obsessive and typographical.

Asile One

"An inspirational resource focused on graphic design, typography, grid systems, minimalism and modernism." Asile One by Antonio Carusone.

Super, awesome, great resource.

Fwis + Type + One Month = ???

Design firm Fwis is trying a very ambitious project: designing a typeface a day for one month. See the (so far really great) results here.

The Vignelli Canon

Massimo Vignelli has published a 96 page book on understanding typography and graphic design, according to him.

It is available as a free, downloadable PDF and I am super excited about it!

via AsileOne.

I ♥ typeworkshop.com

To start the new year off right, you should head over to TypeWorkshop.com. Make sure to check out their Type Basics for some great typographic resources to start your own typeface (or if you are not so ambitious, to understand the subtleties of type).

Student Field Notes 2008

For the second year in a row, I gave each of my Advanced Typography students a Field Notes to fill with whatever their hearts desired.

Here are the (sometimes surprising) results!

Typographic Christmas Ideas

Here are some great Typographic Christmas Ideas - just in case you were wondering what to get me...

The Island of San Serriffe

The Guardian has found out more information about a very small island in the Indian Ocean by the name of San Serriffe. So interesting!

Anthony Burrill

Anthony Burrill makes nice things. Especially this letterpressed poster: Work Hard & Be Nice To People.

Kinetic Typography

Typography and motion; put together in great ways: 20 Brilliant Kinetic Typography Videos.

Typography Flickr Groups

In need of some typographic inspiration? These 30 Typography Flickr Groups should help.

The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway

Paul Shaw has written an insanely detailed piece about the history of Helvetica and the NYC Subway: The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway.