Clagnut

TypeCon 2010

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:39:36 PST

TypeCon2010 in Los Angeles was my first typography conference. It felt good. I was made welcome, made new friends and renewed old acquaintances. I was there to soak up what’s happening now in typography, and to represent Fontdeck, who were very pleased to be a sponsor of the conference.

Luke Dorny, Ale Paul, Grant Hutchinson & Corey Holms

TypeCon felt like a tiny SxSW with far prettier schwag. As in Austin, the conference was as much about the corridor talk as the presentations, although 400 people (as opposed to 14,000) lent itself to a far more intimate atmosphere, but there was the same vibe of being allowed to geek out among like-minded souls. Unlike SxSW the presentations were of a consistently high quality. Sure some were rather academic and a bit beyond me, but the great thing about being fascinated by a field away from your day-to-day job is that there is lots to learn, and learn I did.

The scope of the presentations was incredibly varied, within the field of typography obviously. The ones I particularly enjoyed were the shows and tells from type designers – I love getting an insight into talented people’s processes. In particular Kris Sowersby of Klim spoke of the Typographic Magpie. With the self-deprecating wit particular to kiwis, Kris regaled us with a potted history of design in New Zealand followed by his process of stealing and borrowing aspects of typefaces from elsewhere in history and the world in order to fit the design brief.

Another show and tell of particular interest was Jean François Porchez in which he gave us detailed histories of some of best known fonts (such as Parisine) but most fascinating was his process for creating five completely different typefaces which needed to work in harmony. The faces in question were commissioned by Conqueror Papers and are free to download when you register.

One of the most impressive presentations of the whole conference, at least in terms of the story it told, was the Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Type by Alexandra Korolkova of ParaType. In this Alexandra spoke about the creation of PT Sans, a typeface in 8 styles commissioned by the Russian Federation to enable the peoples of Russia to read and write in their native languages. This resulted in a character set in Latin and Cyrillic, encompassing all required glyphs from across Europe and Russia. Just the research required is astonishing enough, with 78 officially recognised written languages in Russia, resulting in a set of 697 characters.

On top of all this, the result is a very usable humanist sans-serif manually hinted for black & white rendering, greyscale smoothing and ClearType. The decision to create a narrow and caption set (for economic and small setting respectively) alongside the normal set of four styles was an interesting choice (the initial thoughts being two more weights instead). Did I mention its free to download? It’s also free to use through Fontdeck, including a subsetted version without the Cyrillic characters.

One final show and tell was that of Doyald Young, a veteran logotype designer held in high regard by the audience, and it wasn’t hard to see why. I bought his wonderful book, Fonts & Logos, which Doyald was kind enough to sign.

Other notable talks, highlighting the diversity of Typecon included:

Title Man: Harold Adler by Jill Bell, which highlighted the work of Harold Adler who was responsible for much of the beautiful hand lettering featured in the title sequences of Saul Bass.
West Coast “Cholo” Style Graffiti by Chaz Bojórquez was a history and expose of Mexican American Los Angeles graffiti art and lettering from one of its originators, some of which is astonishingly complex and beautiful.
We saw the Typography of Disneyland presented by Sean Adams, which showed how Disney doesn’t use a corporate typeface for the park (there’s none of the expected pink VAG Rounded with glossy highlights) but instead the type changes to fit in with the journey around the park; even signs to the exit and the loo fit in with their surroundings. And the choice of typeface is not one of historical accuracy but more cleverly designed to match our perceptions and preconceptions of the history (and future).
Sam Anvari spoke about P-English – transliterated Farsi by which chat and email users use Roman English characters to convey messages in Persian language. The problems encountered were fascinating, not least of all that transliterations of even city names differ wildly in spelling (even on local official signs). Although major operating systems do support Persian, many users prefer to type in P-English and not to deal with the hassles of setting up their computers and labelling their keyboards.

A particularly memorable presentation was Arabic Calligraphy and Dance by Nadine Chahine in which she discussed and demonstrated the links between Arabic calligraphy and belly dancing. Sadly no live belly dancing by Nadine, but we were treated to video clips supporting her hypothesis.

Nadine Chahine by checkofoto

Finally, much of the talk was about web fonts. At least much of what I talked about was. The programme included a series of 10 minutes talks introducing the W3C process, WOFF and Typekit’s Tim Brown on font metrics and the web, which had everyone scratching their heads, especially the type designers.

This was followed a monster 14-person panel discussion on web fonts. Other than the general positivity there was not much new here for web designers. A more detailed canvas of opinion can be found in Michael Dooley’s write-up The Future of Web Fonts Is Sooner Than It Used To Be

That biggest discussion panel I have ever seen

On the Saturday evening we were treated to a preview of Making Faces a film by Richard Kegler about the late Jim Rimmer and his unique approach to type design and manufacture. I’m privileged to be credited as an executive producer.

Trailer for Making Faces

The following morning I got to have breakfast with Matthew Carter, a charming man who feels he is hated by web designers for Georgia and Verdana. I tried to persuade him otherwise – many people I know rate Georgia among their favourite typefaces, including me.

The final evening was a party in a printing museum: now that’s rock n’ roll! Actually with the best food (Mexican) of the week and a fine selection of artisan beers it wasn’t far off. The venue was the amazing International Printing Museum, which gave us the chance to see Linotype machines in action, mould our own slugs of type, peruse a fantastic little type library, have a go at letterpress and play with a replica of Gutenberg’s press. All in all pretty bloody awesome.

So that was TypeCon2010 Los Angeles. Next up is ATypI in Dublin, where this time I will be speaking on Why web typography doesn’t have to suck. Maybe see you there?

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Fontdeck is go!

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 07:39:03 PST

I’m extremely proud to say that two weeks ago Fontdeck opened its doors to the type-loving public. It’s been a long time in coming – too long I’d admit – but Fontdeck is now live and I’m hugely excited about what’s to come.

To the uninitiated, Fontdeck is a webfont service, that is to say it hosts fonts licensed for use with @font-face font linking. This means is that web designers finally have an alternative to the standard web fonts of Georgia, Verdana, Arial et al, and can now safely choose from hundreds of fonts to use as real text on a website; no images, no Flash, no JavaScript required.

Jon Tan and I had the idea for Fontdeck back in early 2009. Speaking together at a SkillSwap in Brighton, it transpired we shared the same notions on how webfonts might be delivered. We wanted to help font designers provide the very best quality type to everyone whilst make sure that foundries were properly rewarded for their work. We wanted to create a marketplace where independent typeface designers could compete with large foundries, set prices themselves, and create an environment where foundries could manage their own fonts.

Later on in the year, Fontdeck as we know it was born. Clearleft would lead the interface design effort, and OmniTI, a company extremely well respected in the web infrastructure sphere where Jon was Creative Director, would lead the technical effort and provide the super fast and reliable font delivery network.

At Clearleft we designed Fontdeck to be the service that we as a professional design consultancy would want to use; designed by designers for designers you might say. The service had to be quick and easy to use, but as flexible as possible in its implementation. We needed to be able to pass on costs to clients easily. Most of all we needed to be able to put together designs using any of the fonts, to try different variations, and get agreement from clients before any money was handed over. We didn’t want our clients to pay for fonts they weren’t going to use.

To achieve this, we designed Fontdeck so that you can use all fonts for free, but with that use limited to 20 IP addresses per day – enough for to run on a local machine, with a development team, or on staging server, but not enough for a live production website. The idea being that when the built design is ready to be used on a live website, you upgrade your chosen fonts to unlimited usage and pay an annual fee for each font thereafter. By charging only for the fonts you actually use, we can give better value to web designers and their clients (prices start from $6.49), and a better deal for font designers.

One other crucial element of any font service is to have a great catalogue. Our priority for Fontdeck is to have the highest quality professional typefaces we possibly can. I’m really pleased with catalogue we have so far – around 600 fonts of 100 typefaces from 9 foundries.

We’re constantly talking to more foundries, and we’ve some fantastic new typefaces on the way very shortly. (If you’re a foundry or type designer interested in getting your fonts on Fontdeck please drop me a line.) In the meantime here’s a few of my favourites:

Reader from Colophon

Designed by Brighton-based design studio the Entente, I love this grotesque sans-serif with its echoes of Univers. We’ve used it on this year’s dConstruct website.

Futura from URW++

The classic typeface by Paul Renner, gracing Wes Anderson films.

Calluna from Exljbris

A solid, highly legible serif by Jos Buivenga.

Sommet Rounded & Sommet Slab from Insigne

A lovely sans and serif pairing by Jeremy Dooley. See also Parachute’s Centro Sans and Centro Serif for a matching pair.

Swingdancer from Chank Co

A lovely quirky script font by Chank Diesel.

Egyptienne URW by URW++

You may recognise this solid slab serif from the headings in Clagnut.

To the future

We’ve put together a great little team between us at Clearleft and OmniTI. We’ve got some amazing plans for Fontdeck, and I’m really excited about what we’re going to be doing over the next weeks, months, and years to come. 2010 is going to prove a great year for web typography.

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I ran a marathon

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:34:51 PST

Last Sunday I completed the inaugural Brighton marathon. It was also my first. It was a glorious day – the warmest of the year so far – but still a very comfortable running temperature, without a breath of wind. It belied the 4 months of training through the coldest, snowiest winter in a generation. Regularly running 8 miles in the dark, wind and sleet was not a pleasant experience. But it was all worth it.

The day as whole was hugely enjoyable. There were crowds throughout the course, 8 people deep in some places, so I’m told. Even from a runner’s perspective there seemed to be a celebratory, carnival atmosphere. It was great, too, having my name on my running vest, as I was personally cheered on throughout the distance.

Credit: Dave Rutter

This was particularly welcome when I hit the wall at about 21 miles. It wasn’t what I was expecting. It was far worse. When I’ve been mountain biking I’ve blown up or bonked, when you suddenly run out of energy and it becomes hard to even turn the pedals. That’s what I thought hitting the wall would be like, but it’s turns out to be much more painful. I didn’t so much feel that I’d exhausted my reserves, instead every foot fall suddenly started sending shooting pains through all my leg muscles. It was like being kicked hard with every step. The urge to walk was almost overwhelming, but I knew if that happened I wouldn’t be able to start running again, and I really, really wanted to get in under 4 hours.

So as I passed the 25 mile point, with the end in sight, it was great to receive a massive cheer from friends and family who’d come out to support – thanks everyone! That spurred me on for the final push, and I was mightily relieved to the huge FINISH banner, with its clock beginning with a 3. (And thanks to Jeremy Keith for the photo.)

The official timing showed that I ran the second half of the marathon quicker than the first, which was a surprise. That said I’d tried very hard to pace myself at the beginning (in fact my Nike+ recording even shows a comfort break at about 6 miles). In the end my registered time was 3 hours 51 minutes. Well chuffed.

I ran the marathon partly as a personal challenge, but also to raise money for Have a Heart which funds local charities supporting disadvantaged and disabled children. If you’d like to make a small donation, I’m sure they would be most grateful, and Clearleft will gladly match all gifts made.

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Shortbread finger

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:09:43 PST

In a special edition of the revived Friday Biscuit series, I am happy to honour the save BBC 6 Music campaign by revisiting “Joy Division Oven Gloves”:

Well I’ve been here and I’ve been there
In me Joy Division oven gloves
I’ve been to a post punk postcard fair
In me Joy Division ovengloves
Talk to the hand
Talk to the hand
In me Joy Division oven gloves
Dance, dance, dance
Daaaaaaaaaaaaance!
In me Joy Division oven gloves

Why? Because the Save BBC 6 Music campaign is trying to get Joy Division Oven Gloves to number 6 in the singles charts this weekend. So whip out your credit card and fork out 49p on a great song, and see if we can get Half Man Half Biscuit to subvert the charts (channel your inner Malcolm Mclaren, RIP).

You have until the end of Saturday 10th April for your purchase to count. At the time of writing, Joy Division Oven Gloves is at number 2 in the Amazon mp3 chart and number 57 in the UK iTunes chart.

What’s all this 6 Music kerfuffle about anyway? BBC 6 Music is a much loved digital radio station threatened with closure following a strategic review of the BBC. This caused much anger from regular listeners and music lovers in general, because of the widely held view (with which I agree) that 6 Music is the last bastion of alternative music in the UK, and an important output for new artists that would not otherwise get airtime. Essentially 6 Music is seen as the last remaining output of the BBC to channels the spirit of John Peel.

By all means buy Joy Division Oven Gloves, it will be good publicity, as are the Twitter campaigns (love6music and #save6music) and Facebook groups (JDOG and Save BBC 6Music) but if you want to directly affect the future of 6 Music you need to contact the BBC through official channels. The Beeb doesn’t make this obvious, but instructions and directions are on www.bbc6music.info. Sounds like a good thing to do on a Friday – do it now!

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Against the Digital Economy Bill

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 10:45:28 PST

As Jon Hicks wrote a few days ago, the House of Lords recently passed the Digital Economy Bill. The bill panders to big players in the music industry is being hurried through without due democratic process, clearly intended to be made law before the election. Unsurprisingly the driving force behind it is Lord ‘Mandy’ Mandelson, the Business Secretary; a powerful but unelected passive-aggressive imposition.

Through the partly Clearleft designed 38 Degrees, I wrote to my local MP, the retiring Des Turner, to present my objections, and to urge him to speak out against rushing through the Digital Economy Bill without due debate and process.

Dear Mr Turner,
I’m writing to you today because I’m very worried that the Government is planning to rush the Digital Economy Bill into law without a full Parliamentary debate.
There are many aspects of this law which hand far too much power to the few, and are designed to bypass any due process, such as a courtroom.
In particular, the law appears contradictory regarding the Government’s stance to providing access to information online. As it stands, a broadband connection used by anybody accused of file sharing three times can be severed whether or not they are convicted of copyright infringement. How is that person then supposed to access vital information provided by local and national Government? The bill reverses the core principles of natural justice by requiring customers to prove their innocence. Being accused is not the same as being convicted.
The law also makes it incumbent upon internet service providers to monitor usage of their customers and provide evidence thereof. Apart from being a severe invasion of privacy and an unreasonable burden upon ISPs, this exactly akin to demanding that telephone companies monitor and record all phone calls on behalf of the Government.
The fact that this law appears to be have driven by demands from large companies within the music and entertainment industries is particularly insidious (I point you to evidence that language used in the law was identical to a proposal by British music industry body the BPI.)
In the House of Lords recently, the Earl of Errol is not wrong when he expressed concern that future amendments to the Bill will not be subject to full parliamentary scrutiny, and that a new clause “will not be subject to any amendment, or discussion and then amendment, by either house. We have no idea what it looks like, and it seems to be an abuse of parliamentary process.”
Those good MPs who remain are getting a hard enough time as it is, and undemocratic laws such as this only serve to exacerbate that opinion. What’s more, I believe the situation surrounding this law has far deeper implications and consequences than some fiddled expenses. If we had a constitution it would be unconstitutional.
As a constituent I am writing to you today to urge you to speak out against this bill, and to ask you to do all you can to ensure the Government doesn’t just rush the bill through and deny us our democratic right to scrutiny and debate.

I haven’t had a reply as yet (it’s only been few days) but his incoming Labour candidate, Simon Burgess, has since spoken out against the Bill:

There are a lot of good intentions contained within the bill but I am concerned that there is potentially too big a slant towards large record companies interests. It is important that the interests of independent musicians, performers and producers are fully represented because at the moment they may find the legislation more of a hindrance than a help. I want to see it delayed, rather than rushed, because it is important to make sure this legislation is of the best possible quality with the widest possible input.

Hopefully Des Turner will repeat this in the House of Commons, although while delaying the Bill is one thing, it’s clear the DEB is in place solely to appease the music industry big boys. A law this far reaching should not be pandering to a single industry (especially one clinging to decades past).

Update

I received a brief reply via email from Mr Turner. Here it is:

Thank you for your e-mail. I will certainly take all of the points you raise into consideration when voting on the individual clauses and amendments of the Bill. I will certainly want to hear what Ministers have to say in response to the various points made in the campaign on this Bill, and know that it is of importance to many people working in the digital economy here in Brighton.

What a shame, then, that Mr Turner didn’t actually vote one way or another on behalf of his constituents.

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