Font 006 by FontShop

006

font

FontShop 149 9th Street, Suite 302 San Francisco, ca 94103 1 888 ff fonts toll-free 1 415 252 1003 local www.fontshop.com

font 006

thInK GLoBaLLY, DEsIGn LocaLLY

Font is published by FontShop 149 9th Street, Suite 302, San Francisco, ca 94103 1 888 ff fonts toll-free · 1 415 252 1003 local · www.fontshop.com editors

Amos Klausner Stephen Coles design and art direction

Conor Mangat / www.typographicproblemsolving.com creative consultant

Punchcut / www.punchcut.com proJect manager

Michael Pieracci contributing editor

Tamye Riggs / www.typelife.com image credits

covers: International flight density (diagrammed in 1968), overlaying f Stop 048.015 and 414.016; © their creators / www.fstopimages.com page 3: Tony de Marco by Egly Dejulio; Pepe Menéndez by Laura Llópiz pages 10 –12: © their creators / www.fstopimages.com pages 20 –23: © Tony de Marco pages 33 –35: © Pepe Menéndez sources

www.factiva.com, www.placenames.com, www.timeanddate.com, www.wikipedia.org printing

Dome Printing, Sacramento / www.domeprinting.com

The not-so-old adage is pretty simple: “Think globally. Act locally.” We started using it a few decades ago as an environmental call to action. But in today’s networked global community, where pollution drifts and flows across countries and continents, can acting locally really be enough? Yes and no. Doing the right thing in our own communities is an important step to save and sustain our wild places and designed spaces. But we also need to gain a wider perspective and focus on the big picture flickering just beyond our fundamentally narrow view. Unfortunately, Font won’t give you any tips on sorting recyclables, but it will suggest another interesting idea: “Think globally. Design locally.” Most of us are pretty good at the latter, but maybe don’t have the time or inclination to go global and seek out smaller, more intimate pockets of design diversity. The problem we run into as we all reach for success is that increasingly internationalized commercial communication is distilling messages down to a common denominator. And as certain logos and images (and the copycats they spawn) multiply across the world, finding inspiration in our own backyards – or someone else’s – is getting harder. In this issue, we hope to bring back some of the wonder that comes with design exploration. We’re featuring the work, the images, and the concerns of graphic designers in places overlooked in the face of clients, kids, and too many deadlines of every kind. Our travels take us to South Africa, where a dedicated community is designing their way toward an end to illiteracy. Nina Knežević shows us the new Sarajevo, while in Brazil, Tony de Marco clears away the clutter to reveal São Paulo’s ban on advertising. In Iran, Reza Abedini shares the ancient beauty of Farsi calligraphy before we make our final stop in Havana, Cuba, where Pepe Menéndez dusts off his city’s typographic details. In sharing these stories with you, we hope that you’ll gain an appreciation for the wide variety of contributions made to our design community each and every day. We also encourage you to think about preserving the diversity of our design culture and even integrating these kinds of cultural nuances back into your own practice. So sit back and strap on that extra pair of solar panels you’ve got laying around the studio. Font is taking you for a ride.

04 09 13

∞ 20 24 29

aMos Klausner Editor

;

36 © 2007 Fsi FontShop International. All rights reserved. All trademarks named herein remain the property of their respective owners. The views expressed herein are solely the opinions of their respective contributors, and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Fsi. The contents of this publication may not be repurposed or duplicated without express prior written permission.

fonts used

ff celeste ®

ff clan™ (titles and statistics throughout)

ff milo™ (caPtions throughout)

ff oxide™

fontshop.com

The number 26 doesn’t mean much to most people. But in South Africa—where there are 11 official languages, the HIV infection rate is approaching 20 percent, and the nation ranks 2nd in per capita assaults and murders—numbers have taken on new meaning. That’s where 26 comes in. It’s the number a group of dedicated South African graphic designers and writers are using to bring attention to violent crime and one of its notable precursors, illiteracy. fontshop.com

he 26 Letters project is built on the idea that, without a sound foundation in language arts, South Africans could have a more difficult time connecting to the world around them. They might have trouble creating a sense of belonging, could become bored and frustrated, and, without words, might ultimately express themselves with violence. In teams that pair a graphic designer with a copywriter, more than fifty professionals from across the country have designed almost seventy posters in support of this literacy campaign. In some cases, that means depicting a single letter, but more often teams have included related words or phrases that explore, subvert, or celebrate the colloquial nature of language in multicultural South Africa.

REpUBLIc of soUth afRIca

“Perhaps someone with a book in his hand may not have a gun in it instead”

— Desiree Brown

Motto Unity in diversity Acknowledged 1488 Major cities Bloemfontein (judicial capital) Cape Town (legislative capital) Johannesburg (largest city) Pretoria (executive capital) Time zone GMT +2 national population (2005) 47,432,000 (or 101/sq. mi.) Johannesburg population (2001) 3,225,812 (or 5,082/sq. mi.)

font 006

beloW: If you can’t read, you can’t succeed when M is for Monopoly, by Terri Santos and Christopher Radcliﬀe. left: A is for ayeye, by Jonathan Edwards and Neo Makongoza. opposite, left: V is for violence by Greg Naude and Minky Venter. opposite, right: Followed by the letter ‘N’, the letter ‘K’ silently signs for peace in a poster by Francois Smit and Debbie Smit. previous page: A is for amandla, by Tiﬀany Turkington-Palmer.

Creative director and copywriter Desiree Brown, spearhead of the 26 Letters project, has been spelling out its benefits. “We call it literacy against crime. We believe that if people harness the power of the alphabet and regain a love of reading and writing, we can work through our problems more constructively and end up with a less violent society.” An exhibition of the 26 Letters project was launched at this year’s Design Indaba conference in Cape Town. The show is expected to travel throughout South Africa, Southern Africa, and possibly as far as Nigeria. Through these collaborations, themes converge and the prospect of impending danger is palpable. In their poster for the letter ‘V’, Greg Naude and Minky Venter portray violence as it’s perpetrated by vermin on their victims. The team of Gaby de Abreu, Sulet Schulze, and Brown entwined the letter ‘X’ with hate and barbed wire. Jonathan Edwards and Neo Makongoza extended the letter ‘A’ into ayeye, a Zulu warning cry and an anarchist’s vision of American imperialism.

fonts used

ff letter gothic text ®

ff soul™

fontshop.com

Wordplay is also popular. To describe just about anything cool in Afrikaans is to call it lekker. That includes Margie Backhouse and Harry Kalmer’s poster for the letter ‘L’. The Xhosa language gets a turn in another poster for the letter ‘A’, this time in Tiffany Turkington-Palmer’s African call for amandla, or power. Goalposts help form eish or the letter ‘H’ because Emma Douglas and Claire Harrison remember exclaiming Eish! (which translates into something like “oh man”) when South Africa won the 1995 Rugby World Cup and blacks and whites were united both on and off the field. With their creativity in check, the designers and writers of the 26 Letters project recognize that solving South Africa’s problems will take more than their goodwill. But as communication professionals, they also know that they need to play a role, however large or small, in helping South Africa and the African continent confront violence. Brown puts it succinctly when she says, “Perhaps someone with a book in his hand may not have a gun in it instead.” That makes the goal of returning literacy to its place as a pillar of education a worthy cause indeed. pp top left: L is for lekker, by Margie Backhouse and Harry Kalmer. top right: H is for eish, by Emma Douglas and Claire Harrison. above: I hate the X, by Gaby de Abreu, Desiree Brown, and Sulet Schulze.

font 006

fontshop.com

Featured Distractions

Tried and true can easily become staid and stale. Look beyond — the typefaces most fitting are often found on the road less traveled.

Akron Breda Croydon Dnyapro Graphis™ elsner + Flake

Romania Roman Script™ elsner + Flake

Eldorado Fyffe Genoa Hyderabad Bulldog™ monotype imaging ®

Pica, Puerto Rico Strayhorn™ monotype imaging ®

Type, TX Gagarin™ 2rebels

fontshop.com

Hyphen Gulch, Alaska

Terminal 4 a ff Berlinsans™ FontFont®

Blizzard™ urW

Ilkley · Jingxing · Kernville · Llandudno

Qyzylorda Roubaix Shasta Thamesmead

Silica™ monotype imaging ®

Tazzer Text™ lucasFonts

39° 51’ 29” N 121° 15’ 44” W Dublon™ paratype

Baskerville Colón, Cuba Karolla™ paratype

Arepo™ monotype imaging ®

Mombasa Nkongsamba Oostende Pijijiapan Mundo Sans™ monotype imaging ®

Ukraine VOLGA Whangarei ff Elementa™ FontFont®

fontshop.com

neue Fonts FontShop’s latest batch includes Radiogram by Rian Hughes of Device, Bureau Grot, a welcome remastering of the Font Bureau’s extensive nineteenth-century family, and one of the most under-appreciated and useful sans/serif suites, Mentor. See more of these fresh faces online. To keep abreast of new releases, join our email list at www.fontshop.com/ features/newsletters/.

Radiogram™ device Fonts · fstop 279.009

Bureau Grot™ Font bureau · fstop 134.027

Mentor™ and Mentor™ Sans monotype imaging ® · fstop 100.023

Ampersand Bay, NY Balega™ linotype®

CAPITAL, KUWAIT Goldenbook™ mark simonson studio

Lettered Rocks Soda Script™ emigre

Xylophagou Yosemite Zwolle Stancia™ monotype imaging ®

Pabst™ Oldstyle lanston type co. · fstop 264.032

Relato™ emtype · fstop 297.039

saRaJEvo, bOSNIa-HERZEGOVINa nickname Seher established 1400s Coordinates 43° 52' 0" N, 18° 25' 0" E Time zone GMT +1 City population (2006) 602,500 (or 11,035/sq. mi.)

cities are symbols that carry meaning to the world. Sarajevo, recently rocked by civil war, has been characterized by a chain of historic events that conjures strong emotions in its people and the global community. Alternating between hostility and fear, courage and hope, it feels like Sarajevo has always been “above the fold.” Now, with just over a decade of peace under its belt, Sarajevo is trying to move beyond the headlines and reclaim its place among the cultural and creative capitals of Europe. To chart this new course, a generation of young artists, architects, and designers are pushing past those shadowy reminders toward a reappraisal of the city. One rising star is Nina Knežević. Born and raised in Sarajevo, Knežević held refugee status during the civil war, studying graphic design at the Academy of Arts in neighboring Montenegro. Although physically removed from the fighting, her family and many of her friends stayed behind. Nina did her best to focus on her work but the reality of war was never far away, especially when close friends were lost to the fighting. When peace finally returned to Sarajevo, so did Knežević. Back home, the newly minted graphic designer recognized that gaining a fresh perspective on an old city had its challenges. “The city and its people have huge

A B C D E SOME 3 FOTHER G H CITY I J K L M N O 2 P Q m

KNEŽEVIĆ T U V W X Z a c b ALEKSANDRA d e f g hNINA i j k l R Y 7

n p q r s t o u v BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA w x y z 1 4 6 8 9 0

fontshop.com

creative potential, but there just isn’t enough opportunity for implementation,” she says. In this respect, Knežević has been lucky, stringing together several years of successful work for a nice mix of corporate and cultural clients. This past winter, she was given a chance to articulate a more personal point of view by participating in Sarajevo Winter, an annual festival showcasing a wide range of performances and exhibitions. The theme, “some other city,” asked artists to consider the concept of identity, both theirs and the city’s. For her exhibition, Knežević skipped the highly charged symbols of the city’s past, instead photographing her Sarajevo – the ordinary and the overlooked. In doing so, the designer captured icons that she hopes will eventually represent a more harmonious set of everyday experiences. Knežević turned these images of buildings, bridges, street furniture, public transportation, and everyday objects into stylized vector files. “I’ve been collecting dingbat fonts for years,” Knežević noted. “I knew I wanted to design one of my own and this project seemed right.” Characters from the designer’s completed dingbat font were printed and hung throughout the exhibition space, inviting visitors to experience her city or reconsider their own. “Today the city is being rebuilt, it’s recovering, and it’s open to anyone who wants to live here,” Knežević is quick to remind people. “We’ve always been a multicultural community and we’ve always relied on the past. Now we’re excited about the future. That’s the real Sarajevo.” pp

this page: With over seventy subjects, Nina Knežević’s first dingbat font is a unique view of Sarajevo that’s been crafted through the eyes of a young designer who is more than ready to forget the past. above: To create a compelling exhibition for Sarajevo’s Winter Festival, Knežević reproduced her dingbats in several formats and paired them with a selection of historic postcards and artefacts from the city.

font 006

fonts used FF eureka ® mono ff good™

fontshop.com

1040 L’une des plus prestigieuses écoles d’art à travers le monde ars descendiaan ™

stargate broken Also, at your convenience, please read through the enclosed contract agreement, fee guide, and other important materials for more detailed information about your new account.

A+

ustomer Information Thank you for your prompt ayment; we appreciate your business. Nonethess, DVR service may be subject to credit verificaon and a hefty deposit.

toP of The poPs

font 006

a fontshop eXclusive

A38 Droitwich ars maQuette ™

a fontshop eXclusive

TokeN ars trio ™

a fontshop eXclusive

ars DesCenDIaan™

The details of this book serif were inspired by architectural curves and angles rather than classical typographic shapes. This strong foundation gives ARS Descendiaan an atypical appeal while keeping the typeface extremely functional.

ars MaQuette™

A clean, reliable neogrotesque in the spirit of Helvetica and basic architectural lettering.

ars trIo™

Trio’s forms range from basic to radical, giving it the power to emulate either the lights of a stadium scoreboard or the control panel of an extraterrestrial spacecraft.

ars DeVIata™ Restrained embellishment, rounded edges, and striking ligatures make ARS Deviata worthy of announcing a grand occasion or labeling a unique wine.

ars teGel™

Russian men risk death by drinking aftershave ars deviata ™

a fontshop eXclusive

Pedagogy ars tegel ™

a fontshop eXclusive

When polishinG silveR forks use pipe cleaners to get in between the prongs ars district ™

Bauhausians, eat your heart out. Modular typography has never looked so good.

ars DIstrICt™ Mix and match upperand lowercase to create ultramodern word forms.

It is said that The Netherlands holds more type designers per capita than any other country. Living in Amsterdam, Angus R. Shamal is surrounded by design tradition, but he also picks up the values of his city’s street art: “In graﬃti you make your own forms and images in order to communicate, to express individuality. I guess I could place myself somewhere in between these two, the classic and the intuitive.”

a fontshop eXclusive

FOUNDRY SPOTLIGHT aRs tYpE® read more at WWW.fontshop.com/features/neWsletters/

fontshop.com

This set of titling serifs, decorated caps, and ornaments is one of Gábor Kóthay’s more ambitious journeys into historical type design. Swash alternates and graceful ligatures abound.

FOR GUYS WHO CAN’T hold on armchair modern ™

a fontshop eXclusive

HEATHCLIFF

u It’s me, your Kathy J I’ve come home v aQuamarine ™

a fontshop eXclusive

anGlIa sCrIPt™ Kóthay’s elegant script family is an intense exploration of traditional calligraphy. Two versions of the typeface (Standard and Concise) come in a regular and an antiqued or pen drawn (Olde) ﬁnish.

Oxtail has its roots in the Egyptian type style which became popular in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Stefan Hattenbach personalized the traditional forms with unexpected letter shapes and ﬂowing tails.

soPHIsto™ A collaboration between Hattenbach and PSY/OPS founder Rodrigo X. Cavazos, Sophisto grew into an extensive family of twentyone fonts. Corresponding buttons, images, and patterns make a complete type system.

CalIGrafÍa De bula™ Half-fraktur, half-roman – there’s nothing quite like Mario Feliciano’s leafy ornamental headliner.

Beaucoup de Ponce anglia script ™

a fontshop eXclusive

Arthur Spendlove’s

Partially Nude Aerial Ballet oXtail ™

a fontshop eXclusive

Discoverable

Please wait while devices are mating sophisto ™

a fontshop eXclusive

Scruttock’s Old Dirigible caligrafÍa de bula ™

a fontshop eXclusive

FOUNDRY SPOTLIGHT psY/ops read more at WWW.fontshop.com/features/neWsletters/

font 006

Xavier Cavazos

I t doesn’t play games It take pictures, or give you weather updates

oXtaIl™

“We are PSY/OPS. Our shimmering mid-mod salon overlooks downtown Market Street and all its vistas: retro streetcars, meandering clusters of tourists and day trippers, salary folk dodging panhandlers and their corrugated solicitations. Protests and parades now and again. Walk three blocks in any direction and take in San Francisco’s blue-ribbon eclecticism: a distilled blend of influences that makes it difficult not to feel inspired. Jets of Pacific air funnel between buildings and bring ideas into crisp focus.” — Rodrigo

aQuaMarIne™

MaxIwee

“Growing up in Iceland, I was exposed to Scandinavian modernism from an early age. My parents had Arne Jacobsen furniture around the house,” says designer Stefán Kjartansson.

Withering Heights Life, the Universe, and Everything

arMCHaIr MoDern ™

5705 Pacific Blvd

How should you organize? What should you charge? Wh marketing techniques yield th best returns? How do you kno when it’s time to expand? What are the most effective strategies for managing employees? How can you buil salable equity?

fontshop.com

sÃo paULo, bRaZIL Motto Non ducor, duco (I am not led, I lead)

são paulo no logo

established 1500s Coordinates 23° 32' 36" S, 46° 37' 59" W Time zone GMT −3 City population (2006) 11,016,703 (or 18,733/sq. mi.)

With a population closing in on twelve million, skyscrapers stacked as far as the eye can see, and some of the worst traffic jams in South America, it’s no wonder that São Paulo is home to one the world’s largest ﬂeets of private helicopters. Hopping from one helipad to the next, the view from above is nothing but blue sky. Back on the ground, there’s a movement afoot to turn a new leaf in the urban jungle. 20

font 006

fontshop.com

Earlier this year, São Paulo mayor Gilberto Kassab proposed new “clean city” legislation that would outlaw all forms of outdoor advertising. He likened his city’s visual pollution to that of noise, air, and water pollution, even carefully dropping Al Gore’s name during a press conference. After much debate and a few legal challenges, Brazil’s economic capital went ad-free. Over 13,000 billboards, many of them installed illegally, were repainted or removed. The city’s 17,000 buses were stripped of commercial banners, and even advertising blimps were outlawed — although courts eventually determined that São Paulo’s airspace came under federal jurisdiction. Naturally, the ad community responded. They insisted on the public’s right to information and lamented what they said would be an inevitable loss of jobs. Surprisingly for a shift of this magnitude, public opinion strongly supported the ban; so did Tony de Marco. The São Paulo-based typographer and fine artist has always been fiercely dedicated to the city he loves, having paid homage with several fonts derived from the city’s active urban graffiti scene. As the outdoor ads have come down, de Marco has documented the process, as well as the metal skeletons left behind, with a series of arresting photographs. De Marco credits the mayor for the city’s visual transformation and is impressed with the results. “São Paulo was covered in horrible images and there were no laws to regulate them. Anyone could rent out their garden or their building to a company that would insert another gigantic panel into the fabric of the city. It was total chaos and much of it was pure garbage,” he says. In his opinion, “The landscape is not media. It can’t be sold. To see the sun, the stars, the mountains, and the horizon, that’s the right of every citizen.” Removing billboards revealed more than the forgotten details of São Paulo’s art deco buildings. Ironically, it also exposed the favelas (shanty towns) and sweatshops that had been conveniently hidden behind them. Another set of unexpected, if less dramatic, social concerns were revealed when Paulistanos realized that billboards also represented the visual reference points they used to pick their way through a congested and confusing city. When they disappeared, so did the core elements of their navigational language. Residents now find themselves redefining the city with a new language that accounts for these changes and still makes sense of the sprawling metropolis. While de Marco believes the city is better off, he knows that it’s still too early for a proper evaluation of the results. “The playing field has been levelled for legal and illegal advertising, and we have the chance to start fresh. It’s time to carefully consider how we should reintroduce this part of our culture back into the city.” And already there are signs that a conversation is underway as the mayor, city council members, and São Paulo’s business community begin hammering out the details that will eventually bring virtue and vice back to Brazil’s capitalist heart. pp see more of tony de marco’s photos at www.fontmag.com

fonts used ff Oxide™ ff sari™

tEhRan, IRaN nickname The city of 72 nations established 6000 bC Coordinates 25째 41' 46" N, 51째 25' 23" E Time zone GMT +3:30

I Reza Abedini N City population (2006) 7,797,520 (or 25,899/sq. mi.)

opposite: IRANI, one of a series of posters announcing the Iranian Cultural Poster Exhibition (2004). beloW: Logo for the Second International Typography Festival of the Islamic World (2000).

Life in modern Iran is a careful balancing act where timeless traditions compete against the inevitable advance of a global economy, all played out against the backdrop of geopolitics in the cradle of civilization. No one is more aware of this dichotomy than Iranian graphic designer Reza Abedini. As a student, Abedini studied archaelogy in Isfahan, the ancient city famous for its Islamic architecture. It was a formative experience, helping him visualize Iranian culture, internalize the evolution of Persian art, and experiment with painting and printmaking before choosing a career in graphic design.

fontshop.com

above: Birth of Typography out of the Spirit of Calligraphy. This poster was developed for Abedini’s lecture and workshop in Isfahan (2006). beloW: Graphic, a logotype for the 2004 graphic design biennial in Tehran.

Along the way, Abedini’s curiosity was piqued by the bittersweet artistic and cultural shifts that coincided with Persia’s Qajar dynasty of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1779, the feuding tribes of Persia were unified under the rule of Agha Mohammed Khan’s Qajar tribe. Political stability led to patronage, creativity, and technological progress. It was also a time of cultural vulnerability as Persia opened itself to the West and European influence impacted artistic practice. A heritage of poetry surrendered to novels, the painting of miniatures was sacrificed to the lure of large canvases, opulence was abandoned in favor of naturalism, and new technologies like photography and lithography gained favor. Abedini recognizes that the dynasty’s adoption of lithography and its acceptance of a Western writing system was a bitter pill to swallow for a culture that had always been dedicated to calligraphy and the word. Abedini shared his regret. “Missionaries needed to have Persian script printed as separate letters. That destroyed the language because Persian is written, with all the letters connected. It was no longer possible to have this liaison for good composition. Print was a disaster for Persian script.” Conversely, Abedini appreciated the ways in which Qajar artists were able to harness the printing press, photography, and (eventually) fi lm to their advantage in creating highly inventive work that continues to inform today’s visual artists. Following his graduation at the age of nineteen, Abedini landed his fi rst professional job – designing a monthly magazine for a local fi lm foundation. Although it was printed on a photocopier, Abedini’s obvious skill attracted new clients. Many were also in the fi lm industry and just about all of them were surprised by his youth. “I was too young to look trustworthy,” he recalls. “I remember once I dropped off a project with a client who asked

above left: Wordless, a poster for an exhibition of Abedini’s work (2007). above right: Photo + Graphic, a poster for an exhibition of the work of Abedini and photographer Mehran Mohajer (2004). right: Two thousand sketches, a poster for an exhibition of drawings by Farhad Gavzan (2000).

font 006

font used

ff cellini™

fontshop.com

above Left: One thousand flying wings, one thousand book titles – Abedini’s poster for a book exhibition (2000). above right: Dreams of Dust, a film poster designed by Abedini in 2003.

font 006

me why Mr. Abedini never came to deliver his work in person, adding that he would really like to meet him some day.” Youth may have been an asset when computers arrived in Iran just after the revolution and Farsi script was digitized. Like his Qajar forefathers, Abedini embraced technology, using new tools and the flexibility they offered to both restore and reinterpret calligraphy in the printed piece. By manipulating individual letters, finessing letter patterns, and breaking up the baseline, he revived the visual, poetic, and adaptable qualities of the written language. With the addition of Qajar-inspired photography in his work, Abedini wove letters and images into intricate patterns that would rise and fall like the folds of a hijab (veil or covering). But he is not without his critics, especially in the calligraphic community. Some lettering artists worry that, by taking too many liberties and pushing the envelope too far, the graphic designer is further degrading the historic charms of their art. Abedini understands their concerns, but recognizes that experimentation and change are a necessary part of evolution. “I get so excited,” the designer says, referring to his work between the sacred space of word and image (or word as image). Given the Western criticism of Iran’s government, many question why Abedini doesn’t include more overt political commentary in his work. He says, “I view it to be my role to preserve our culture, not overthrow governments.” Of greater concern to Abedini is a Euro-centric definition of typography that, in his estimate, bases its evaluation of writing systems on Latin examples. Always working toward a reevaluation, this pioneer will continue to share his traditions and proffer new reasons to embrace nonLatin letterforms. pp

Take a swim across the Bering Strait, take a train down to New Cross Gate Jostle with unruly tourists in St Mark’s Square, do a few things you’ve never quite dared

The New FontFonts

ff Sanuk™ xavier dupré

fontshop.com

g in OpenType format | FF Blur

Gate 32, now Boarding ff Clan™ Łukasz dziedzic

Buckle up! ff Atomium™ donald beekman

Window or aisle? ff Holmen™ per baasch jørgensen

Please return your tray tables to their locked and upright position

Any chance of flying over the fjord again?

ff Milo™ mike abbink

Papiere bitte! ff Speak™ jan maack

ff Absara™ Headline and Sans Headline xavier dupré

This way for Secondary Processing

Is the purpose of your visit business or pleasure? ff Good™ Łukasz dziedzic

ff Soul™ donald beekman

font 006

Leave all your baggage behind... fontshop.com

Made with FontFont is not the catalog of a type library. it is a catalog of possibilities and of ways to enjoy type. Edited by FontShop cofounder Erik Spiekermann and Dutch writer-designer Jan Middendorp, the 352page book showcases the history and influence of the award-winning foundry.

Replete with real-world examples of FontFonts in use, contributors include Strange Attractors, John D. Berry, Peter Bilak, Neville Brody, Susanna Dulkinys, Eboy, Rian Hughes, Max Kisman, Akira Kobayashi, LettError, Ellen Lupton, Ian Lynam, Martin Majoor, Albert-Jan Pool, Paula Scher, Christian Schwartz, Nick Shinn, Fred Smeijers, Studio Dumbar, and xplicit. Made with FontFont is available now at www.fontshop.com

FontBook pages

1,760

type samples

32,000

foundries

cross-references

7,400

books that come close

Get in touch 1 888 FF FONTS toll-free within the usa 1 415 252 1003 local

Zero

Get your copy at www.fontbook.com

info@fontshop.com www.fontshop.com font used

ff meta 速

“for design to play an active and positive role in the life of a community you need more than wishes and good intentions” —pepe Menéndez

C U B A

Old and new live side by side in Cuba. It’s a complicated relationship, tangled up in years of Spanish and AmericaN influence, now punctuated by Castro’s revolution.

Havana, Cuba Nickname Ciudad de las Columnas (City of Columns) Established 1515

If the decaying façades of neoclassical apartment buildings and the rumble of Detroit’s mid-century roadmasters represent a certain status quo, then Pepe Menéndez typifies Cuba’s future. One of the first graphic design students to graduate from the country’s only design school, el Instituto Superior de Diseño Industrial (ISDI), in 1989, he and his fellow graduates were excited and optimistic about the future. “We started the eruption, in the early 1990s, of a new generation of Cuban graphic designers that came together with the idea that we could improve the lives of our people, improve the country, and change the history of Cuban design,” Menéndez recalls. What Menéndez didn’t know was that, under the dual pressures of economic and political liberalization, the Soviet Union and related socialist states would collapse, as would his transformative dream. Almost overnight, Cuba lost sympathetic trade agreements, agricultural subsidies, and the technical assistance it had relied upon since the revolution. The country’s economy sputtered and it launched what has been oﬃcially called the “special period.” Under new economic restraints, many of the agencies directly responsible for supporting the graphic design community (and the global success of the Cuban poster) lost much of their state support. Mired in financial difficulty, these agencies – including Editora Politica, the Cuban Film Institute, and the Organization in Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa, and Latin America (OSPAAAL) – are still struggling to reinvent themselves as self-sustaining entities. At the center of the cultural crisis, the Cuban design industry is being challenged. To think that almost twenty years have passed since Menéndez graduated from ISDI and materials like paper and ink remain in short supply could be

Coordinates 23° 8' 0" N, 82° 23' 0" W Time zone GMT −5 City population (2005) 2,328,000 (or 7,908/sq. mi.)

font 006

fonts used ff maiola™ ff moderne gothics™

disheartening, but Menéndez is pragmatic about the situation. “I realize that in order for design to play an active and positive role in the life of a community you need more than wishes and good intentions,” he says. As a nation, Cuba continues to look for outside investment and it’s capitalizing on a celebrated culture by taking steps to preserve Havana’s historic quarters and architectural treasures. The hope is that tourism will get the economic engine back on track. As the design director for one of Cuba’s most active cultural centers, Casa de las Americas, Menéndez is equally committed to redevelopment, doing what he can to bring attention to Cuba’s design community. That includes playing host to Icograda’s 2007 World Design Congress. Even though Menéndez is resolutely focused on the future, he hasn’t forgotten his roots. Walking the neighborhoods of Havana, he’s started his own historic preservation project, collecting photographs of typography in use throughout the city. Noting that one day he felt the need to begin collecting these attractive details, Menéndez says, “I admire the variety of formal solutions and the fine finishing. It’s obvious that these letters have been manipulated with expressive intentions according to the style of building, the commercial message, or the owner’s status.” After so many years of vandalism and neglect, he is surprised these examples still exist and, after six years of collecting images, is always thrilled to find a new detail half hidden behind a patina of rust or erosion. “The photos combine my professional vocation with the enjoyment of a person on foot who is attentive to the city,” Menéndez smiles. He knows that with each picture, his love of the city is transformed into a romantic portrait of a place where time is standing still, if only for the last few minutes before the alarm sounds and Cuba is changed again. pp

Guaranteed against dodgy parts, shoddy workmanship, & rubbishy batteries

qil; ° ÅLPHOX classica,™ classica prestige ™

Tucked away high in the French Alps and thus removed from mainstream design, Thierry Puyfoulhoux is free to work from instinct. This makes his typefaces highly original and very uncommon. If he has any central source of inspiration, it comes from his years at Paris’ Imprimerie Nationale under the tutelage of José Mendoza y Almeida, one of Spain’s foremost type designers. His surroundings, family, and kayak only inspire him more.

Ingredients: enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, sheB1], was a bit of a mountainous reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate [vitamin sports girl, if you get my drift riboflavin [vitamin B2], folic acid), high fructose corn syrup, sugar, soybean oil, yellow corn syrup, partially hydrogrenaded cottonseed oil, calcium carbonate (source of calcium), baking soda, salt, soy lecithin (emulsifier), artificial flavour

Eat

prÉsence ™

Insouciant bigticY ™

ClassICa™ ClassICa PrestIGe™ The Classica types are an elegant pairing of capitals with roots in the Latin inscriptions of the ﬁrst century and a lowercase from the chancery writings and books of the Renaissance.

PrÉsenCe™ This modern sans serif features a light stroke contrast. Replete with subtle original forms, Présence is suitable for text and display work.

bIGtICy™ Puyfoulhoux says of his impactful display design: “For the Maxi style, I tried to reduce the inner white spaces to their minimum. I had in mind those amazing stone walls that one can see in the ancient Incan cities in Peru.”

Aesthetically pleasing

no. 13706

Small is more less is beautiful (or something like that) alinea ™

Polish old copper pans

with ketchup adesso ™

“ê û Ñb

1024 Bytes

alInea™

This suite’s members— a contrasted serif, neutral sans, and crisp incised style—are designed to work harmoniously in the same document.

aDesso™

Warm and friendly, Adesso is a fresh alternative to typewriter and grotesque typefaces.

MaDIsonIan™ The creator of this face must have raised some eyebrows back in the 1850s. It feels like a Spencerian script at ﬁrst glance, then a Bodoni italic, then the kinky little ﬂame i-dots and bizarre descenders enter the fray. Puyfoulhoux found Madisonian in an old foundry catalog and added Bold and Engraved styles.

madisonian ™

FOUNDRY SPOTLIGHT pRÉsEncE tYpo® read more at WWW.fontshop.com/features/neWsletters/

font 006

fontshop.com

BAKED SNACK CRACKERS Don’t be shy about asking us for samples, tech support, Hauser sCrIPt™

Among the many typographic valuables unearthed by Red Rooster founder Steve Jackaman are original drawings from Ludlow, an important American foundry from the metal era. This sprightly script is one of the gems of this library.

VeneZuela™ Venezuela and its cousin Honduras™ celebrate the decorative ﬁll lettering of the 1920s and ’30s.

lesMore™ Paul Hickson lovingly digitized the work of Les Usherwood, a mid-century pioneer in Canadian type design. The result is Lesmore, one of the few truly original sans serifs to come out of North America.

Thank you, Sir, may I have another hauser script ™

WASHING THE LIZARD

veneZuela ™

Dernière étape Champs-Élysées lesmore ™

alPHabet souP™ Jackaman created this soft headliner back in the ﬁlm type days at Typographic House in Boston. It quickly became popular then and will again now that it’s in digital form.

DOES MY BUM LOOK BIG IN THIS? alphabet soup ™

GranD Canyon™ As deep and majestic as the natural wonder itself, the Grand Canyon fonts come in a variety of ﬁlls and shadows to replicate the letterpressed posters of the American West.

Canterbury™ sans Sans and swash come together in this beautifully modern take on 1920s ornamental typography. This graceful design is also available in its original serif ﬂavor.

NO SHOES· NO SHIRT· NO SERVICE grand canYon ™

Artiﬁcial Intelligence canterburY ™ sans

FOUNDRY SPOTLIGHT RED RoostER coLLEctIon® read more at WWW.fontshop.com/features/neWsletters/

font 006

¿Que?

or to ﬁnd out more about us. The number in the corner will put you in touch with our insanity.

eLearning Objectives:

4263

VERSION 2.0 “Frederick Goudy said, ‘The old guys stole all our best ideas.’ If that’s the case, we’re busy digging all the ‘old guys’ up!” jokes Steve Jackaman in his playful English timbre. He emigrated to the States in 1977 and brought over 100 exclusive display typefaces with him. Since then, his team at International TypeFounders, Inc., has licensed and digitized more metal, wood, and ﬁlm type with great care and respect for the original designers. see WWW.fontmag.com for more of the red rooster storY

fontshop.com