High Quality Free Font O’ The Week: Kilogram font (shown above at 75pt).
Download it now. Kilogram is the work of Karl from Kalle Graphics and was based on a font called Anagram by Nick Curtis. You must check out the type samples he created. What a great showcase for this fun, distinctive font. (via ImJustCreative)

Video: Final Alphabet Collection – Using Google Earth
There are some interesting similarities between this video by Darren Dub and a photo project by Rhett Dashwood (from TypoTh 6.11.09). Both use Google (Earth and Maps respectively) to find type-shaped satellite image elements and create an alphabet. I have to say the zoom animation in the video just blows me away.

Light Reading: Papyrus – A Story of Hate and Misuse
It’s sad tale indeed. I’m not sure I’m going to change my mind about “the second most hated typeface” anytime soon, but Tuhin Kumar makes some good points in his defense of Papyrus and even offers some suggestions to make it look good. Well, better at least. “The case of fonts like Papyrus and Comic Sans is one where designers simply love to hate them. However, I would seriously like all of you to think over again, if it is the font or the usage that makes a typeface worthy of hatred. For if it is the usage, then it is us the designers to blame for.” What do you think?

Brain Teaser: Revealing The Secrets – Fonts Of Famous Logos
Can you identify the typefaces used in the famous logos of Google, Adidas, The New York Times and PayPal? Zoran Stosic does and has gathered them together in this post, complete with designer attributions. How fun would this be on family game night? (via Julie_K)

Have you come across something amazing and typography-related online? Let me know!
If I include it in an upcoming edition of TypoTh, I’ll give you credit.

I have a love/hate relationship with Caribou Coffee. Followers of my Foursquare activity will find this surprising since I check into their locations frequently. While not my favorite corporate cup of joe, I often fall prey to the convenience of tripping over their stores throughout my day (most of their 500 locations are in Minnesota).

Don’t get me wrong, there are some things I really enjoy about the Caribou experience: the fireplaces, their Monday Happens campaign ($1 coffee on Mondays), and the company’s line of reusable knitted and fabric cup sleeves to name a few. So I was naturally quite interested when they announced their new logo and branding direction on March 1.

The world’s second-largest coffee retailer (a very distant second to Starbucks, but still impressive) is based here in the Twin Cities and stayed close to home for guidance on their new branding effort. Minneapolis ad agency Colle+McVoy is responsible for the makeover which ironically aims to make the chain feel less regional. Brandweek describes it as an attempt to “bolster its appeal as a branded coffee company by playing down the ski lodge imagery and, yes, the caribou, with a sweeping rebranding.”

The local press had mixed first impressions. The Star Tribune called the new logo “sublime” while City Pages thought it resembled one of those hidden image puzzlers found in Psychology textbooks. “Is it a vase or two lovers kissing? Is it a rose or the profile of a woman? It it a tree or an infant?” They also saw a bulbous-nosed proboscis monkey within the design, which doesn’t add much to the discussion but I just think is awesome.

My musings inspired fellow designer, @sparkyfirepants, to write an excellent post about why rebranding and a new logo won’t fix their problems. The design itself was nicely summed up by underconsideration.com, “The caribou itself is not as convincing and it’s trying too hard to carry meaning: Its body is a coffee bean! The antlers make a ‘C’! The shield is like a park sign! The angle of the jump signifies the expected revenue of 2010! Okay, I made that last one up, but in trying to do too many things with the icon, it becomes a little bit of an amorphous jumble.”

I asked folks on Twitter and Facebook for their feedback and got a range of opinions with distinct trend toward the negative.

Logos are tricky things. People get VERY attached to them and change is largely treated with skepticism. Just think back to the ruckus Pepsi caused a year ago when they changed theirs. Any brand going down this path should tread lightly. At the very least, the process should be thoughtful and clearly explained. I believe the execution of the rollout phase can tell a lot about the brand itself. Most importantly, it reveals how they really feel about their customers.

What does this move say about Caribou?

To me, it says they’re not really committed to doing this in a coordinated fashion. While the new look was unveiled March 1 on cups, napkins, cardboard sleeves and some signage, the website won’t change until April 1. Many other in-store updates reportedly won’t be complete until early 2011. I was at a Caribou on Monday and barely noticed anything different. The fancy napkins were nowhere to be found, the few new signs featured tiny new logos and the staff was lackluster when asked about the change. Worst of all, my coffee came in a cup with the old logo and a cardboard sleeve with the new one.

I realize Caribou locations are franchises and it may be difficult to coordinate something of this size easily. Wasn’t it at least worth the effort to try? When Starbucks roll out their red holiday cups each Fall, it happens at every location at at the same time. Overnight. Of course there is waste involved in replacing the current inventory of Caribou cups, but why make the cup one of the key elements of the rollout if every store doesn’t feature the new ones proudly? Especially when so few other elements even include the new logo.

Why wait a month for the website to reflect the new brand? It’s the easiest way easier to sync a central element up with the new look and certainly cheaper and faster than updating major store elements. Here’s their homepage on March 1. Less than a third of the page is devoted to the new brand. There’s simply an image without any explanation.

Clicking the image leads you to a brief page with the only explanation on the site of the new brand. There is little about the motivation behind the change or expectations of when it will be fully rolled out. They relied on news stories to fill in the gaps. There seemed to be no intention of leading the online conversation or even doing much to support it. What a missed opportunity.

Now to be fair, they did update their Twitter background and avatar. Although they didn’t answer my tweet asking why the new logo wasn’t more prominent on their website. I’m not bitter about that at all. Really.

The other thing that troubles me about the way they describe the new brand is the emphasis on a broader-based, new direction. They are essentially telling their existing customers that the woodsy-lodge feel that attracted them for the last 17 years is no longer desirable. It’s too regional now that they want to grow aggressively. They simply want new customers who are attracted to a more contemporary logo and less homey decor. It’s no surprise some long-time fans are upset. Caribou is moving on without them.

What do I think of the new brand? I thought you’d never ask.

I’ve had a few days to mull this over now and have some random thoughts on the subject. Overall I like the feel, the colors, the style of the hand-lettered typography but have trouble with the execution. There are some readability issues with certain letters in “Caribou,” the sans-serif font used for “COFFEE” is too formal for me and the light blue color is really hard to read against the brown cardboard sleeve. The horizontal version of the logo feels unbalanced (especially with the color/contrast issue on the sleeve), although I like the vertical orientation.

I love the handwritten note elements on the other branded pieces, but it feels tacked on and disconnected to the main logo.

I’m not a fan of the caribou either. It’s too simplistic and icon and a little obvious for my taste. If I want to find hidden pictures I’ll buy a copy of Highlights. They make you work for it.

There’s something about the antler that bothers me too. The way it’s sitting on his head reminds me of Max in “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.”

In any event, I’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you think?

I did a similar video for my first 100 days.

I was honored to be congratulated in a post on the 365 Community Blog by my favorite photographer, Meshl.

You can see the entire project as a slideshow below or as a set on Flickr.

My original plan was to take a few weeks off from blogging in January to get a jump on some plans I had in place for the new year. I guess I lost momentum after that because as the subsequent weeks went by I had less and less motivation to get back to it. So before I drift even farther away, I thought I’d drop anchor.

I’ll be getting caught up over the next few weeks, restarting Typography Thursday, as well as launching a number of new projects and site enhancements. Please stay tuned.

Photo by me

(Illustration by PostTypography)

50 Best Free Fonts From 2009 - Creative Nerds offers a really solid groups of quality fonts from the past year. This is a nice companion to the Henry Jones list (The Best Free Fonts of 2009) I posted earlier this month.

Have any deep, dark, type secrets you need to get off your chest? Leave them in the 2009 year end type confessional over at Typophile.

30 Fantastic “2010″ Wallpapers - Nice round up of wallpapers consisting mainly of interesting typographic treatments.

2010 By The Numbers: A Typographic Wall Calendar by Post Typography (limited edition) – Gorgeous illustrations all based on interpreting 2010. Get ‘em while they last.

Web Design Trends for 2010 – #1 is typography. Great list by the folks at Helicopter. (via Designmoo)

(Even more) Web Design Trends for 2010 – Web Design Ledger chimes is with it’s own list. They rank typography at #4, although slab typefaces make an appearance at #3.

No matter where you landed on the emotional scale this year, I hope you enjoy them both.

Christmas Presence 09
Warm & Cozy Holiday Tunes

Listen (via Opentape)

1. Frosty the Snowman – Fiona Apple & Jon Brion
2. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Red Baron Remix) – Berlin Symphony Orchestra
3. The Christmas Song – Esquivel
4. Holly Leaves and Christmas Trees – Elvis Presley
5. Mr. Heatmiser – Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
6. Sleigh Ride – Diana Krall
7. Carol Of The Bells – Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra
8. Jing-A-Ling, Jing-A-Ling – The Andrews Sisters
9. Silver Bells (Christmas Time in The City) – Bright Eyes
10. I’d Like You For Christmas – Julie London
11. White Christmas – Ella Fitzgerald
12. The Night Before Christmas – David Seville & The Chipmunks
13. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Jimmy Smith
14. Merry Xmas Everybody – Eux Autres
15. Snowfall Kind of Love – Ingrid Michaelson

Holidazed & Confused 09
The Other Side of Christmas

Listen (via Opentape)

1. Christmas Dirge – Nellie McKay
2. Christmas Rappin’ – Kurtis Blow
3. Santa Claus – ApologetiX
4. Ding Dong! – Protoplasm Daddy
5. Do You Fear What I Fear? – Parenthetical Girls
6. Christmas Is Cancelled (This Year) – Farrah
7. All I Want For Christmas (Is You) – BIGBIGcar
8. Cold White Christmas – Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
9. I Hate Xmas – Sob
10. Christmas Tree’s On Fire – Holly Golightly
11. Better Be Good – Hot Buttered Elves
12. Santa, I Got Your Number – Tommy Tutone
13. R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas – Meco Monardo
14. Christmas Tree – Lady GaGa
15. Silent Night – nullsleep

(All copyrights to respective writers, publishers, etc. Used without permission.)

You also might like the 2008 versions.

Cast Iron Ampersand

Kern Zip-up

Movable Type in Chocolate

Come In/Go Away Doormat

Alphabet Ice Trays

Helvetica Movie

Lowercase Scarf

Type Coasters

This month, Rick Mahn, Brad Bellaver and myself are joined by special guest Lindsi Gish (Communications Manager  at Second Harvest Heartland). Second Harvest Heartland operates the fourth largest Feeding America member food bank in the United States. Lindsi discusses some of the ways the organization uses social media.

We also touched on details about the next event, how SMBMSP gear makes great gifts (SMBMSP store), and were visited by some surprise guests (including one from the North Pole).

Thanks to BellaMedia for ongoing prodcution support of the SMBMSP podcast.

Measuring Type – Delightfully unscientific exploration of how much ink common different typefaces use at the same point size. Designers Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth drew them on a wall using ball point pens and then used the pens themselves as a graph showing the results. (via The Ministry of Type)

Hearing Type (PDF) – In this essay, Frank Armstrong presents the structure of his analogy between music and typography, and then proposes it as the foundation of an instructional method for understanding static and kinetic typography. (via TypeCulture)

Designing For The Switch – Nice overview on web vs. print fonts by UK designer Mark Boulton.

Orbis – Experimental typeface by Jordan Blood based on letter soundwave forms. Nice interactive demo on his site. My 7 year-old loved playing with it. (via I love Typography)

28 great typography blogs & websites – A wealth of information here. Carve out some time to dig in these. (via imjustcreative)