FontShop - Istella

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
h
16
∞
20
24
29
C
33
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™
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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.
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T
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.)
6
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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™
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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.
8
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neue Fonts
FontShop’s latest batch includes
Radiogram by Rian Hughes of Device,
Bureau Grot, a welcome remastering
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nineteenth-century family, and one
of the most under-appreciated and
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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
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Pabst™ Oldstyle lanston type co. · fstop 264.032
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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
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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.
14
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fonts used FF eureka ® mono ff good™
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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
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toP of
The poPs
16
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/
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17
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 ™
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Discoverable
Please wait while devices are mating
sophisto ™
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Scruttock’s Old Dirigible
caligrafÍa de bula ™
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FOUNDRY SPOTLIGHT psY/ops
read more at WWW.fontshop.com/features/neWsletters/
18
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Xavier Cavazos
I t doesn’t play games
It
take pictures, or give
you weather updates
P
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
e
aQuaMarIne™
MaxIwee
Q
“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?
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19
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
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21
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
25° 41' 46" N, 51° 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.
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25
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).
26
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font used
ff cellini™
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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.
28
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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
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29
g in OpenType format | FF Blur
®
OT | G Disturbance® OT | FF Dot Matrix™ OT | FF Eboy™ OT | FF Letter Gothic™ Mono OT | FF Let ter Gothic Text® OT | FF Market® OT | FF QType™ Pro | ff Seria® Pro | ff Seria® Sans Pro | ff Signa™ Pro | FF Signa™ Correspondence Pro
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
30
font 006
Leave all your baggage behind...
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31
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
90
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 ®
“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.)
34
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/
36
font 006
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37
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/
38
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
39