Subtle Patterns Photoshop Plugin — (the robot siren is awesome, too)

Designing Blogs for Readers — a great reminder for focusing on content

Do you really need a freelance portfolio? — a great reminder for focusing on clients

Stacked Font by Denise Chandler — landing page extraordinaire

Ductus by Thomas Jockin — this is going to show up on next month’s headline heads up

100 Pixelated Camera Illustrations — some are a little blobby, but there are some real gems

David Bushell’s opinion on designing in the browser vs mockups

BitTorrent Sync — definitely going to find something to implement this

Starters Guide to iOS Design — a well designed overview of what to look forward to

Trend Hand Made

Foundry : Latinotype

Designer(s) : Daniel Hernández, Paula Nazal Selaive

Cost: $5 — $20

Layers. Rough edges. Sans. Slab. Inline. Ornaments. This typeface super group has tons of styles to help build typographic masterpieces. It absolutely captures the handmade, hipster vibe that is popular and trending now. In addition to the hatched drop shadow layer shown above, there is also a solid drop shadow. You really just need to go check out all the components to see the crazy amount of possibilities you can build with these fonts.

Basingstoke

Foundry : Decade Typefoundry

Designer(s) : Gilang Purnama Jaya

Cost: $45

In the middle this month, is a creative blackletter with decorative details. Basingstoke is inspired by 19th century newspaper mastheads but would work equally well as the logo for a death metal screamo band. The uppercase letters would also make great bases for building drop capital illustrations.

Delgado

Foundry : Gaslight

Designer(s) : Roman Shchyukin

Cost: $45

Last on this month’s list is Delgado by Gaslight. This tall, thin serif has delicate drop terminals. All together that creates a light, airy, elegant look. The towering proportions give it a contemporary approach to the traditional form. You could set a small length of body copy with Delgado but the long term readability isn’t there because of the proportions. It really shines in a headline or title role.

Final Men­tions & Inspiration

• VTG Oaf by Ray Fenwick — Hand painted, roller brush type
• Mikado by Hannes von Döhren — Casual, plump sans-serif
• Windows 8 Design Handbook — important aspects of the Windows 8 design language (via Sidebar)
• The New Yorker Strongbox — anonymous email and file drop off (via The Verge)
• You’re Officially Awesome — yes you.

It’s a great example of refinement and building on an identity already familiar to users. You can see the influence of Facebook’s acquisition as the type becomes cleaner, more professional, and more aligned with their corporate branding. There’s a little less personality but still enough to keep it interesting. All in all, a good step.

Unheap — a tidy repository of jQuery plugins

Went camping in Huntsville last weekend and spent Saturday around the Space and Rocket Center. This would be my artistic, interesting point-of-view picture from the trip.

For freebies, psddd.co combs through Dribbble and organizes items that have been released into the wild for the design community to use. Things are added and categorized manually to maintain a high quality of search results. There’s already over 780 items categorized and searchable better than what is currently offered on Dribbble itself. The design of Psddd also puts more focus on resources as any good search engine should.

For inspiration, niice.co scrapes Behance, Dribbble and Designspiration and presents results in a large grid layout that makes them easy to quickly digest and get creative juices flowing. Each photo links to its original post to get more information if something really stands out to you. In the future, they plan to add more source material sites as well as shareable boards to collect inspiration.

Salt and Foam

Foundry : Anna Karatcheva

Designer(s) : Anna Karatcheva

Cost: FREE

Inspired by the designer’s first time surfing, Salt and Foam is a great tribute to the ocean and waves. Shown above is Foam — with Salt being a straight-lined version of the same shapes. It captures the essence of water so perfectly that it would make a great headline font for any beach themed party, surf shop, or tiki bar. It’s fun, laid back, coastal cool.

Saline

Foundry : Mika Melvas

Designer(s) : Mika Melvas

Cost: $35

Next up is another nautical inspired typeface by the name of Saline. It’s an angular, slightly upright script that bounces along. All the corners give it tons of personality. It would make a great starting point for an identity or logo component. The nautical theme is reinforced with a set of Opentype ornaments that can be used as icons, borders, or patterns.

Yorker

Foundry : UPPERTYPE

Designer(s) : Pedro Lobo

Cost: €25

I couldn’t come up with a better image than what Pedro Lobo already created to advertise his Yorker typeface. The animated .gif showing the layers build up is all his doing. He has built a six style layering system of an old school, collegiate block typeface. There’s the solid base, the outline, the 3D shadow, the outer shadow, the inner shadow, and finally the hatching stripes. I wish I could remember how to do permutations because that is a lot of combinations for building up a headline. The basic shapes are a solid base for the star of this typeface — all the choices. You can make a ton of different display pieces with all these styles so get to designing.

State Rough Stencil

Foundry : Device Fonts

Designer(s) : Rian Hughes

Cost: $39

Straight-up retro cool is the best way I can think to describe State Rough Stencil by Rian Hughes. It has great stencil shapes, and I’m always a sucker for textured type. The fun thing about something so futurist is you can give it a modern twist or just indulge and go overboard with the 80s throwback feel. You know you’ve seen an album cover, concert poster, hell maybe even a high-top sneaker ad with something like this. It’s cool and anybody that says otherwise is lying.

Final Men­tions & Inspiration

• Attitude by Emil Kozole — Experimental, geometric sans-serif
• Yasakin by BMD Design — Hand lettered logo and identity concepts
• Ut One by Ultra Types — Experimental blackletter with geometric construction
• Typographica Favorite Typefaces of 2012 — It goes with out saying, must read
• The Death of Google Reader — Long live RSS!
• Tiny Tiny RSS — I’m probably going to roll my own feed reader with this open source software
• Feedly — The popular choice that seems to be filling the void
• Pooping Pixel Pigeon — Come on, hilarious (Via Veerle)

When’s Lunch?

This month I’m getting back on track with a pair of related wallpapers inspired by icons and a font released over on Creative Market. First is the spoons, forks, and knives of When’s Lunch? Then comes watermelon, cupcakes, and ice cream for When’s Dessert? Bright spring/summer colors carry the pieces with the icons and texture being more subtle additions. I’ve also added a Retina display Macbook Pro size for those of you needing 220 DPI density.

When’s Lunch Wallpaper Preview

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When’s Dessert?

When’s Dessert Wallpaper Preview

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Cleaning out a storage unit this weekend, I found a lot of old work. Don’t be surprised to see more of it showing up here in the next few days and weeks as I sort through it.

That got me thinking: What would a fifty-two state flag look like?

The first couple of ideas start out as very traditional, minor tweaks to the current formula. Then I broke with the past and went more modern with the later ones. I will admit the last ones look more like gala banners or invitations than a global symbol of nationalism. Most interesting is how the numbers work. Fifty-two divided by four equals thirteen so that could factor into a new design. Which one would you like to see flying over the capitol?

Thirsty Rough

Foundry : Yellow Design Studio

Designer(s) : Ryan Martinson

Cost: $9 (introductory offer)

First up this month is another great release by Yellow Design Studio called Thirsty Rough. It is a pick your poison of distressed fun. With four weights and four levels of increasing weathering for each weight you get sixteen fonts to play with. Then there is an offset shadow version for each weight, plus a fun set of textures to round out the font count at 21. The block printed feel reinforces the vintage quality of the script making it perfect for retro applications in packaging and poster design. (If distressed type isn’t your thing, there’s also Thirsty Script to check out.)

Salamander

Foundry : Fenotype

Designer(s) : Emil Karl Bertell

Cost: $24.50 (introductory offer)

Salamander is a fun, bouncy script from Emil Bertell released through his Fenotype foundry. With close to 570 glyphs there are three and four variations for uppercase and lowercase letters with multiple degrees of swash. Also available is an ornament set with even more curls, loops, and swooping curves. Really you should go check out all Emil’s scripts like Mishka and Mercury Script because they are all full of personality and would look great in all kinds of display settings.

Blyth

Foundry : Nick Slater

Designer(s) : Nick Slater

Cost: FREE

Blyth is a work in progress. Currently available as an Illustrator file of the outlines, Blyth shows tremendous promise as a display face. A fun mix of geometry with stripes makes the version shown above an Art Deco treat. It is also available filled-in and outline only. Blyth is definitely a font to watch.

Final Mentions

• Free dotted sketch paper for mockups and interfaces.
• The last roll of Kodak Kodachrome that would ever come off the line. (Via The Verge)
• Dune 2 from 1992 is now playable in browser. (Via Polygon)
• Animation easing gallery for more realistic movement (Via Noupe)

Desk

Foundry : UPPERTYPE

Designer(s) : Pedro Lobo

Cost: €10

Desk by UPPERTYPE makes the list this month because it’s a bold statement. It doesn’t try to be a lot of things; Desk is built for display purposes — end of discussion. It has uppercase, numerals, and punctuation. There isn’t a filled in variant, just the shadowed version shown.  The narrowness leans slightly art deco but the curves and shadow update it a bit. Somehow I read both high fashion catalog and emo band nostalgia album cover.

FM Bolyar Ornate

Foundry : The Fontmaker

Designer(s) : Jordan Jelev, Vassil Kateliev

Cost: $29

Next on this month’s list is an elegant copperplate adorned with spikes. FM Bolyar Ornate is uppercase only, but still comes with a few stylistic alternates, swash variants, and ornaments. It has a medieval look which lends itself easily for use in crests, seals, and labels. The letters have so much personality — especially the swashes — they could also form the basis for a logo or the headlines in an identity system. If the spikes are too much, there is also the more tame, plain version of FM Bolyar to check it out.

Caustic

Foundry : Alias

Designer(s) : Gareth Hague

Cost: $96

Third up is Caustic by Gareth Hague. It’s a successful merger of seemingly opposing ideas. Straight lines and pointed angles are combined with an italic, almost calligraphic lean. Add to that the high contrast among strokes and you have a typeface built full of movement that is noticeable and screams to be used at large headline sizes.

Chalk Hand Lettering

Foundry : Fontscafe

Designer(s) : Fontscafe

Cost: $79

I had just read this great tutorial on creating a chalkboard effect, when lo and behold I run across this gem of a typeface via Webdesigner Depot. Chalk Hand Lettering is a distressed, upright script with swash-filled capital letters. There’s a slight roughness around the edges that reinforces the handwritten aspect. Along with the plain and shaded variants, there is an elements set of flourishes, borders, badges, and words to help add to the vintage magic. These fonts would be the perfect tool for digitally recreating sidewalk street signs and adding similar little touches to a coffee shop or restaurant website.

The Christmas Present

As a little treat this year, I present a snowy pixel wonderland. I’m thinking of making a poster with it — once I incorporate some pixel type of course. I’m offering it up as a free, public resource for anyone who wants it. It’s not much but maybe it’ll inspire you with the holiday spirit to make fun things.

Down­load the packaged vector file! (.ZIP — 276KB)

Final Mentions

• Pixabay Find stunning public domain images
• Top 10 Ugly Christmas Sweaters You be the judge on whether these are good or bad. I would wear the first one in an ironic hipster sort of way.
• The Toolbox A collection of the best time-saving apps, tools, and widgets from around the web.
• ByPeople Pre-Launch Download Bundle I still haven’t had a chance to look through all 5.5 gigabytes of icons, templates, and textures, but what I have seen looks good.
• RGB Stitch Alphabet Experimental, pattern typography
• Bobber Typeface Art Deco slab serif with grid based construction
• Twenty12 Typeface A hand sketched blackletter
• Fusion Typeface A futuristic Didone
• I Can’t Draw Animals via The FontFeed — simple, powerful, makes you want to pick up a pen

A Pixel Christmas

I don’t remember how I ran across this hilarious idea, but it inspired me for this month’s wallpaper. So I went 8-bit again and got into the holiday spirit. Added a touch of greenery for texture and festivity, then finished it off with Mota Pixel.

Wallpaper Preview — Pixel Christmas

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Autumn Leaves

Yeah, I missed the month of September. I’d like to say I made up for it by offering two wallpapers this month, but that didn’t happen either. The one I do have though is a nice reflection on the season of Fall, along with life and death in general as is often associated with autumn. That’s hammered home by a quote from Ernest Hemingway — set in Citizen Slab. The idea of time also reflected again in the tree rings showing age. Stay tuned to the blog to find out how I made the cross section of the tree. I’m putting together a tutorial to go up in a few days.

Autumn Leaves and Tree Rings Wallpaper Preview

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Terms of Use
This prod­uct may be used free of charge for per­sonal or com­mer­cial pur­poses. Attri­bu­tion is not nec­es­sary but you can always give some link-love to www.sparetype.com — it is always appreciated.

Pre­view

Down­load the pack­aged brush file! (.ZIP — 23MB)

Primus Script

Foundry : Katharina Putick

Designer(s) : Katharina Putick

Cost: FREE

First up this month is a neat idea called Primus Script by Katharina Putick. It’s a pixel script font and that just makes it unique. It has a very needlepoint, sewing feel because of this construction, but that doesn’t mean it’s for your grandma. It’s all digital business. I would definitely call it cute and feminine — think teen girl online journal, digital stationery, or a cupcake bakery. Get your copy of Primus Script on Dafont.com.

Che’s Bone

Foundry : Filiz Sahin

Designer(s) : Filiz Sahin

Cost: FREE

Che’s Bone (or Mr. Che) isn’t even a font. When downloaded, there is just an .EPS file of these capital letters. That’s not a knock against it. I included Che’s Bone because the letters are unique and have great personality. They work in a display usage as a drop capital, name, monogram, or even the type for a logo. Again, I’ll use the word cute. Filiz has a few more great typographic experiments on her Behance profile you should check out when you go to download Che’s Bone.

Savant

Foundry : Characters Font Foundry

Designer(s) : Rene Verkaart

Cost: FREE in 2012

Next up is Savant — a playful sans-serif with touches of personality. A dark weight gives it presence and its quirks give attitude. Just look at the lowercase ‘g’ or ‘k’ and the uppercase ‘E’ or ‘R’ for examples. Want even more curve and movement, combine Savant Italic for more personality. And while it is full of personality, it doesn’t sacrifice simplicity and legibility so it makes sense as a headline typeface. Savant is free through the end of 2012 so hurry up and grab your copy.

Citizen Slab

Foundry : Joel Felix

Designer(s) : Joel Felix

Cost: FREE for personal use

Last on this month’s list is a vintage slab serif that is quite the character. Citizen Slab is a modern update with its exaggerated features and curves. It speaks to an 1800s aesthetic, but does it in a new way — especially with some of the alternate glyphs. It would make a great look for packaging, posters, and possibly even an identity. Get your copy of Citizen Slab and get to making some headlines!

Final Men­tions

• A great list of typefaces over on The Next Web.
• A review of the new Microsoft logo with a focus on the typography.
• Accurate commentary on responsive web design.
• Similar to Citizen Slab but with a full range of weights and shadow versions, Wide Display is another slab serif worth checking out.
  

Mission Script

Foundry : Lost Type Co-op

Designer(s) : James T. Edmondson

Cost: Name Your Price

First up this month is a gorgeous brush script inspired by the signage of San Francisco. Mission Script by James Edmondson is a casual design with good flow. A few Opentype ligatures and contextual alternates for repeated letters like “ll” and “ss” are included. I love the weight and contrast of the typeface — not too thick, not too thin. Plus, it has an awesome ampersand so how can you say no. Get your a copy of Mission Script at The Lost Type Co-op.

Great Vibes

Foundry : TypeSETit

Designer(s) : Rob Leuschke

Cost: FREE

Sticking in the script family, next comes Great Vibes by Rob Leuschke. This script is more formal and on the elegant side with its swooshing calligraphic loops — think invitational golf tournaments and wedding invitations. The uppercase letters would make excellent drop caps for starting paragraphs. Great Vibes is available in several places since it is released under the SIL Open Font License including Font Squirrel and Google Web Fonts.

Blanch

Foundry : Lost Type Co-op

Designer(s) : Atipus

Cost: Name Your Price

Third on this month’s list is Blanch by Atipus. This typeface was designed for new branding for Fruita Blanch back in 2011, and there is a great showcase of the type in use over at Identity Designed. The family has six total styles — Caps, Caps Light, Caps Inline, Condensed, Condensed Light, and Condensed Inline — which provide a lot of choices for building hierarchy. It’s modular design feels contemporary. It’s skinny nature give it tons of character. Name you own price and get Blanch over at The Lost Type Co-op.

Architype Display

Foundry : Kenji Enos

Designer(s) : Kenji Enos

Cost: Free with a Tweet for Personal Use

Last on the list this month is Architype Display, something of a slab serif with condensed proportions. It feels like a modern take on old western poster type. Maybe that’s just because of the offset version or seeing it used on this poster — I’m not sure. It’s another uppercase only typeface but does have numbers and punctuation for setting great headlines. Pay with a tweet for personal use, or buy for commercial use for only $7.95

August Sun

Here in the southern United States we’re having a record hot summer. As we enter August and the heat continues to rise, I drew inspiration from that to create this month’s wallpaper. The colors, texture, and iconography all come from the sun so it holds a central point for this wallpaper.

August Sun Wallpaper Preview

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Download the Photoshop gradient file here.

I’ve spent the last month or so looking at various backup and synchronization options trying to find the perfect solution. While I use Time Machine as a full backup solution for everything on my laptop, I now needed something to sync just a few folders on a network storage drive with several computers around the house. I found countless apps, Automator scripts, even terminal commands — but everything kept coming up short. Finally my backup prayers were answered. The app is called Synkron and it will surprise you.

Synkron’s Main Window

First, some basics. Synkron is cross-platform working on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is free and licensed under the GNU GPL. Documentation is adequate but with all the features this application has to offer — and the potential for serious screw ups if you sync/delete the wrong files — it could be improved. The abundance of features also hurts the UI with some key options being hidden in menus and tabs. Both of these things are graphical rather than technical. Once you dig into it though, the power is awesome.

At its core, Synkron compares folders and files using names and their last modified date/time stamp. Newer files replace older files; older files are moved to a storage folder in case they need to be restored later. You set up jobs to organize which folders are being synced and what options are used. You can then preview what changes would happen by analyzing your sync. If everything looks right, then actually run the sync.

What types of jobs can you set up? Try the following:

• Traditional one-way backup from master folder to slave folder
• Compare and sync across two or more folders
• Sync source folder with destination and then empty source folder
• Combine multiple source folders into one destination folder

And all of these jobs can be automated. Once you have your parameters setup, you can run a job once or set a schedule to sync periodically — like every minute or five or ten — or just at certain times of the day. In addition to scheduling and restoring, you can also filter files, folders, and extensions to not be backed up.

Tip: Two options not on by default that you are probably going to want to turn on can be found in the advanced menu. They are “Propagate deletions” and “Detect collisions”.

Propagate deletions tells Snykron to keep track of deleted files and make sure they are not recreated in the next sync. With detect collisions turned on, Synkron will warn you when a file has changed in both the locations so you can decide which version should be kept and copied.

Synkron’s Schedule Tab

Synkron has completely streamlined my backup and sync jobs. The versatility and range of configurations is absolutely amazing. I can’t think of a backup situation this application couldn’t handle. It might take a minute to sort through and setup all the options, but once done you can set and forget it with excellent scheduling options. This is definitely a 9 out 10 if I had to give it a score. Download Synkron today and keep everything in sync.

Pros

• FREE
• Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux)
• One-way, two-way, multiple way synchronization of files and folders
• Automatic scheduling of backups and syncs
• Ability to restore old files

Cons

• Needs minor documentation updates
• Last update was January 2011 (at time of writing)

47

Foundry : Moinzek

Designer(s) : Hendrick Rolandez

Cost: FREE

First up is an Art Deco treat. Named 47, I like it for the numbers. They would look great cast in metal and hanging on a house for the street address. I could also see using the glyphs as the base for a logo and building on their shapes. It’s all uppercase and numbers at the moment, but there is also an italic that adds a little forward movement. It would look good on the side of a car for a nameplate or something. Get 47 on Dribbble, and check out some examples on Behance.

Glidesketch

Foundry : Typedepot

Designer(s) : Alexander Nedelev & Veronika Slavova

Cost: FREE

Glidesketch has some of the same inspiration in its curves as 47, but is in another realm because of its weight, contrast, and the way the curves come together. Slightly futuristic, the tight shapes and repetition greatly reduce the readability, but that’s why it’s a display face for headlines, logos, posters, and other big applications. There is also a filled in, smooth version called Glide that is available for $35.

Bispo

Foundry : Type Curitiba

Designer(s) : Jackson Alves

Cost: FREE

Last on this month’s list is Bispo, an italic chancery script straight from the nib of a calligraphy pen. It’s a very straightforward digitization of calligraphy but executed to a high degree with OpenType alternates and swashes to help a designer build more interesting compositions. Overall, very charming, elegant, and sophisticated. Also, did I mention it was FREE? And while I’m on the subject, definitely check out Jackson Alves portfolio because there is more great calligraphy, blackletter, and overall typographic awesomeness you should check out.

Wanna Be A Hipster?

I shaved my beard off the other day before spending a week in the woods camping. It’s just too hot to be dealing with all that. So with it went most of my hippie street cred. So I started thinking of other symbols of the hipster look - moustache, cassette tapes, glasses, and skinny tie — and a desktop wallpaper was born.

Hipster Icons Wallpaper Preview

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I’d like to think its better because it puts more focus on the content. Let me know what you think or if you find something broken. I tried as much testing as I could. I know I have some work to do on my small screen media queries and layout, but I had reached a good framework and wanted to go live instead of continuing to toil in obscurity with this new theme. I would love some feedback now that its in the wild.

Terms of Use
This product may be used free of charge for personal or commercial purposes. Attribution is not necessary but you can always give some link-love to www.sparetype.com — it is always appreciated.

Preview

Download the packaged brush file! (.ZIP — 60MB)

Sheepman

Foundry : Hanoded

Designer(s) : David Kerkhoff

Cost: $15

Sheepman is a quick, slightly messy handwriting typeface with very fluid movements. It’s perfect if want to imitate a hastily written note. It also has versatility for more applications with an italic and bold weight also available to expand its range. A handful of alternates and ligatures also help keep the letters flowing and from feeling monotonous.

Chauncy Pro

Foundry : Chank

Designer(s) : Chank Diesel

Cost: $29 — $99

Chauncy Pro is another handwritten typeface but with a more childish and playful look. Shapes are more rounded while strokes feel more deliberate and analyzed — like a child learning to write and trying his or her hardest to make them perfect. By ignoring the baseline, letters bounce from one to the next to create interesting compositions in a line. With tons of alternates and OpenType awesomeness — along with bold and italic styles — Chauncy Pro has a lot to offer any charming, kid-oriented design. It’s definitely better than Comic Sans.

 Final Men­tions to Check Out

• Molesk Font by Pedro Lobo
• PLSTK Font by Aesthetic Therapie
• Typominima — a minimalist, typography driven WordPress theme
• Jigoshop — a FREE WordPress eCommerce plugin
• Katharine Watson — excellent inspiration for block printing
• The latest issue of MyFonts Rising Stars

Typography Squares

This month’s wallpaper is inspired by a project I remember doing my first year in college. You made a composition by cropping letters in squares and seeing how far you could push a letter before it just became unrecognizable shapes. We ended up making around ten squares for each letter and then sat there shuffling them around through endless combinations. It was a great introduction to legibility and attention to positive vs. negative space. I kept the background simple with just a little noise to let the squares and letters do the real work this month.

Typography Squares Wallpaper Preview

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Birra Stout

Foundry : Darden Studio

Designer(s) : Darden Studio

Cost: FREE

This fat face, slab serif has some serious junk in the trunk, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. There is ton of quirk and personality that give the characters life — the ‘E’ has two different serifs, the little crooks to the ‘R’ and ‘S’. My favorite character is the numeral five with its balancing act stem and interesting negative spaces. Overall, it is a solid heavyweight that is both bold and whimsical, almost circus and carnival like.

Metropolis 1920

Foundry : Josip Kelava

Designer(s) : Josip Kelava

Cost: FREE

Looking for an interesting take on Art Deco? Then have a look at Metropolis 1920. The reason I like this font — besides the fact that it looks awesome — is the glimpse of the creative process provided on the project page. Using a simple two-line technique and simple stick figure letters, basic shapes were created and refined. Because of their straight edges and rigid construction, these letters feel very solid and bold but remain interesting because of their intricacies.

Sullivan

Foundry : Lost Type Co-op

Designer(s) : Jason Mark Jones

Cost: Name your price

Last on this month’s list is Sullivan by Jason Mark Jones. This industrial feeling typeface comes in three variants — hatched, beveled, and complete fill. Used together you can layer multiple colors to create even more variety. The modular, structured nature of the letters can give them a solid presence in a design. Depending on the color combination, you can reinforce the industrial, hard edged feeling or soften Sullivan for a more modern flavor.

Robin’s Egg Blue

I wanted something with a little spring in its step. Here in Alabama, one of the first signs of Spring is the robin with its colorful chest and identifiable eggs. I used those remarkable colors to put together this wallpaper with help from wood textures from Bittbox. I also wanted a phrase — kind of like “April showers bring May flowers.” — which I set in Anodyne.

Robin’s Egg Blue Wallpaper Preview

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Hard Drive Blueprint

For some reason this idea popped into my head the other day, and it actually worked out better than I thought. It took a bit of playing around in Photoshop to get the original full color scan to be the right color and have the right transparency and blending, but as you can see it worked out. With a little background and a little scruff for character, you have a nice, slightly technical-looking wallpaper that would look good on any IT expert or architectural computer screen.

Hard Drive Blueprint Wallpaper Preview

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Stgotic

Foundry : Latinotype

Designer(s) : Daniel Hernández

Cost: $10

Stgotic is a unique idea. It is a pixel based blackletter typeface. That modern interpretation of a historic model gives Stgotic a retro coolness. It also reminds me kind of a cross stitch, embroidered pattern. Being pixel based, it’s limited to looking best in multiples of 8 point font size. With all the bits hanging off, long readability would suffer, but with all its character and personality Stgotic is definitely a display face for headlines. Plus, it is on sale for $5 at MyFonts through March 25 — so go grab a copy today.

Anodyne

Foundry : Yellow Design Studio

Designer(s) : Ryan Martinson

Cost: $80

Another great introductory offer on MyFonts is Anodyne — on sale for $19 until February 25th. This all caps sans-serif gets its character from the block printed texture and slight unevenness that works into the edges of the letters. Each glyph has two to four variations of textures that can be accessed with Opentype contextual alternates to create unique combinations. Add to that a second typeface of drop shadow hatching lines and you have tons of grungy, rustic personality. Layer the regular typeface and the hatching lines with different colors to set a really eye-catching headline.

Sovereign Display

Foundry : G-Type

Designer(s) : Nick Cooke

Cost: $46

This decorative display face makes it quick work to add some formal flair to a piece of work. With built-in drop shadows, horizontal rules, and 3-D outlining — this font immediately lends the iconic look of engraving and paper currency. Sovereign Display would make the perfect drop capital for starting chapters in a book or setting the titles for formal certificates.

Meander

Foundry : Thrift & Thistle

Designer(s) : Matt Hull

Cost: FREE

Meander is an experimental doodle typeface from UK outfit Thrift & Thistle. The lowercase is a connected script while the uppercase letters have a few loops here and there. The entire face has a rough, chopped look — like a child cut the letters out of construction paper. That looks gives the letters charm and personality. Meander has the perfect style for a children’s book or any project looking for a handmade and slightly vintage look. Be sure to check out the other handwriting-based typefaces Matt has available on his website.

Hexa

Foundry : Akos Polgardi

Designer(s) : Akos Polgardi

Cost: FREE

Following some strict and rigid construction principles, designer Akos Polgardi has put together a stunning blackletter inspired typeface. Comprised of straight lines and angles, Hexa has crazy rhythm that bounces you from one letter and word to the next. Each line carries you down valleys and up mountains just to read it. For short headlines and blockquotes, this engagement is really effective in getting someones attention. Over a full paragraph, the lack of readability would make you go insane. But as a display typeface, Hexa’s unique shapes command attention and presence.

Have A Heart

Ah, February. You wield the double edge sword of love with your Valentine’s Day. Show some mercy and have a heart. Put together with Homestead and textures from Valleys in the Vinyl as part of the ZeroBundle, this month’s wallpaper is a quick reminder to be nice and have a heart.

Have A Heart Wallpaper Preview

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These pages are for early stage wire-framing and sketching since the windows are scaled 25% — 50% of what they will actually become. I found it useful to have them all on one page so I could easily see the differences in aspect ratio and size. I didn’t spend much time sketching on these pages before moving to larger sheets with grids, but they helped me get ideas started for further refinement in that next stage.

There are screen sizes of 1440 x 900, 1024 x 768, and 800 x 600 scaled down to 25%. Then there is a smartphone and tablet size (based on the resolutions of the iPhone4S and iPad2) scaled to 50%. There is one PDF with blank outlines and a second PDF with generic scroll bar and headers blocked in for consideration.

Let me know if you find them as helpful as I did in the comments.

Bready

Foundry : Måns Grebäck

Designer(s) : Måns Grebäck

Cost: $5 — $79 (depending on license)

It seems like every month I have something from Måns Grebäck on my list, but he keeps releasing awesome new fonts that would make great headlines. This month it is Bready — a thick, pointed brush script with what I can best describe as some “wonky” bits (which isn’t a bad thing). These uneven curves and interesting stroke weights are what actually tie the letters together and make the typeface work. The typeface also works because of four extra fonts that extend the selection of alternate characters with more swashes in different directions. Look through all the choices for letters and you’re bound to find a good combination to set an opening word or any short display type.

Arizonia

Foundry : TypeSETit

Designer(s) : Rob Leuschke

Cost: FREE

We stay in the pointed brush script family but go in a slightly different direction. With more slant and a lot less weight, Arizonia by Rob Leuschke has a slightly more calligraphic feel. There is the hint of cursive handwriting over sign-painting as the source of inspiration. I definitely can see a romantic book title or the tagline for a home and garden magazine being set in this swooping typeface. I think it might even work in some formal settings such as the names on an invitation. Without any alternates though, judge your words carefully and look out for repeat letters that might disrupt a handwritten flow (if you want to go for that).

Arco Web & Arco Crayon

Foundry : Okaycat

Designer(s) : Luke William Turvey, Natsuko Hayashida

Cost: $29.95 each

These two cousins are casual serifs with plenty of easy going, childhood bounce. The filled-in Arco Web would be perfect for flash cards, children’s birthday invitations, and circus tent programs. Want even more schoolmarm chalkboard charm, Arco Crayon is a textured version full of distressed edges. Arco Web could easily set a short paragraph and be perfectly legible, but both versions will easily add cute, fun personality to any headline.

Final Men­tions

If your appetite for typography is still hungry, here are two recent posts with more great free fonts to take a look through.

• New High-Quality Free Fonts on SmashingMagazine
• 10 Fresh Free Fonts on Web Design Ledger

A Penguin New Year

I had this idea the other day for a wide-eyed penguin that just stares you down. I put him together and brushed the whole thing using some water­color brushes from Bit­tbox. I played with a couple of different type treatments for him to say something about enjoying the new year, but I never found anything I really liked. (That’s why the I’m a day late!) He needs a name, so leave a suggestion in the comments.

A Penguin New Year Wallpaper Preview

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1. Responsive Web Design

The hot topic issue of 2011 was responsive web design. Using CSS3 media queries, layouts and content can adjust based on width, height, device orientation, and more. 3 inch smartphones, 10 inch tablets, 52 inch televisions — they can all now access the internet and your websites. The explosion of internet capable devices in all their various sizes and shapes will only continue to grow in 2012. Be prepared for clients wanting better looking, easy to touch websites on their smartphones. Now is the time to start planning, designing, and developing responsive websites that adapt to how the user is interacting with your site.

Examples

• http://www.colly.com/
• http://www.stephencaver.com/

Further Reading

• http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-mediaqueries/
• http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/
• http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/responsive-design-in-3-steps

2. @font-face

Typography has grown on the web in 2011 as web browsers have developed better support for @font-face and better solutions for publishing fonts on the web became available. Type foundries joined forces with services like Typekit and Fontdeck to offer high-quality, unique typography in a simple to implement way.

Headlines, body copy, links, and more can now be easily styled to create consistent branding across both print and web. 2012 is the time to start offering your clients the advantage of setting their site apart with custom styled text and unified branding.

Examples

• http://www.twopaperdolls.com/hiring/
• http://www.futureofcarsharing.com/
• http://www.lostworldsfairs.com/

Further Reading

• http://www.miltonbayer.com/font-face/
• http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/css3-font-face-design-guide
• http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/06/beautiful-fonts-with-font-face/
• http://www.fontsquirrel.com/

3. One Page Web Design

It is often said that simpler is better. Some designers have taken this idea and boiled down an entire website into one page. This trend isn’t for everyone, but it’s an option to be aware of as a web designer. Take a look at the content you have to convey and see if it can be arranged in one page with interesting interactions that can engage the user. Sometimes an entire content management system (CMS) might be overkill. Like responsive web design, this is another technique that involves planning at the beginning of the project to guide the entire development process. It also involves careful consideration for navigation and user interaction.

Examples

• http://www.smartusa.com/
• http://www.janploch.de/
• http://www.carterdigital.com.au/
• http://www.onepagelove.com/

Further Reading

• http://www.noupe.com/design/single-page-websites-examples-and-good-practices.html
• http://www.sixrevisions.com/web_design/the-science-behind-a-single-page-website/

4. User Interaction with a Story

How a user interacts with your website has always been a pillar of web design. Nobody likes a site if buttons are hard to find and tasks are difficult to complete. But what if you could add more to how the user is interacting with the website? What if you add a compelling story?

People like a good story. People like to be more engaged; they want to have a two-way conversation instead of you just telling them something. Social media and it’s new role in customer service and support is a good example of this interaction.

By increasing the amount of user participation just a little bit — and keeping it simple, you can create more interaction and make the user feel more of a partner and less of a target. These types of user interaction usually involve leading the user down a path or playing a game. Again, this isn’t a technique for everybody, but it’s a popular idea to take a look at in 2012 for improving user interaction.

Examples

• http://www.head2heart.us/
• http://www.benthebodyguard.com/index.php#utmxpreview=0
• http://shape.method.ac/

Further Reading

• http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2010/02/11/better-user-experience-through-storytelling-part-2/

There’s plenty more going on in web design — there’s always new coding and language developments as well as artistic design trends. I chose these four trends as the most prominent to explode in 2012 based on their momentum and their wide ranging impact on the entire design process. I would love to hear your suggestions in the comments. Are these trends boom or bust? What trend would you add to the list as number five?

Portfolio Site for Sean Wes
Some great lettering and all around good type & design.

Print Free Graph Paper
Need a A4 sheet of 1/4″ isometric graph paper? Print one here along with normal boxed graph paper and other formats.

Portfolio Site for Anthony James Paglia
All around fun design and some nice type projects. (Plus I love the color.)

Icon Fonts are Awesome
A cool CSS trick with icon fonts.

Meaningful User Interface Transitions
A great overview of common animation techniques for user interfaces.

Portfolio Site of Nate Williams
Fun, childlike illustration and great lettering

Winter Blues

Feeling the chill of winter in your bones? Share those blues with your computer desktop by downloading this month’s wall­pa­per. I’ve put this month’s wallpaper together using some watercolor brushes from Bittbox and the type is set in Hand of Sean. As always, let me know what you like or if there is some­thing you want to see.

Winter Blues Wallpaper Preview

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How about some awesome display type?

Adec 2.0

Foundry : Serge Shi

Designer(s) : Serge Shi

Cost: FREE

First on the list is Adec 2.0 by Serge Shi. You should check out the Behance portfolio for a couple more awesome fonts — Grogy and Boldin. As for Adec2.0, it is a sans serif with clear art deco inspiration. I mention Adec2.0 because of the initials set for building textures. Combine the initials with the main forms and you can get some really interesting shapes and patterns like the ones shown below.

Pronounce

Foundry : Ripe Type

Designer(s) : Cameron Sweeney

Cost: FREE

Have something big to say? Do you like small counters in your glyphs? Take a look at Pronounce from Ripe Type. It has a little bit of slab serif inspiration, but as thick as it is you pay attention to the weight and not the serifs. Needless to say, the larger the point size the better to let this super heavy type show off. Also check out Ripe — a geometric slab serif with rounded terminals — while you’re over there.

Monoment

Foundry : Måns Gre­bäck

Designer(s) : Måns Gre­bäck

Cost: $59

Last on the list is Monoment — a 1930s / 40s inspired script with a super low x-height and calligraphic slant. For a connected script, there isn’t any fancy OpenType extras or alternates for creating variety in your line. The readability at small sizes is also pretty poor. But it’s built for headlines and display, where those drawbacks aren’t important. Where it does shine is by having a family of thin, condensed, and slanted options that can help mix things up a bit. So if you’re looking for some retro flair, try out Monoment.

Final Mention

There’s a ton of new releases on the Lost Type Co-op so go check them out. In fact, just bookmark that browse page and keep checking in over there because awesome stuff is always being released on their pay-what-you-want plan.

GRN Burgy

Foundry : Marco Goran Romano

Designer(s) : Marco Goran Romano

Cost: FREE

First up this month is the bubbly GRN Burgy. It screams 70s retro at the top of its disco lungs. With built-in reflection highlights and elongated proportions, the letterforms create unique and interesting negative spaces. GRN Burgy is great inspiration for any food related project — especially anything to do with fast food culture. See more great examples and download the font on Behance.

Cabin Sketch

Foundry : Impallari

Designer(s) : Pablo Impallari

Cost: FREE

I love sketch typefaces. I love seeing the human touch of the hand on screen. Cabin Sketch is a hand drawn version of Impallari’s Cabin — a humanist sans-serif inspired by the typefaces of Johnston and Gill. This gives the letters a very solid base before the slight bumps and jitters are added. It also has the great features of coming in both a regular and bold weight along with being hosted on Google Web Fonts. It looks great large, but again because of the solid forms it is based on can also be used smaller too.

Old Press

Foundry : Galdino Otten

Designer(s) : Galdino Otten

Cost: FREE (for personal use)

Distressed typefaces are another area where variation and the intricate interplay of positive and negative spaces come together to create something interesting and unique. In other words, distressed is awesome. With some unique proportions — for example, the height of the crossbar on the “A” versus the bowl and leg of the “R” — Old Press has a human look and personality more so than a colder, Swiss sans-serif. The rough edges and distressed spots reinforce that feeling of the letters being hand touched. And though Old Press does not have any extra glyphs to create variations in the amount of patchiness, that shouldn’t be a problem when setting short headlines. If you’re interested in getting your feet wet with the woodblock look, get a copy of Old Press to try out some ideas.

Estelar

Foundry : Emilio Correa

Designer(s) : Emilio Correa

Cost: FREE

Last on this month’s list is an experimental font by the name of Estelar. A creation of straight lines and 90° turns, the type is more shapes than letters. Inspired by Pre-Columbian art and architecture, the shapes definitely capture the look of decorative border treatments seen in these pieces. As experimental as it is, readability is non-existent and legibility is tough for some characters. If you have the right word though and are looking for a splash of South American styling, Estelar might be perfect. Otherwise, it would be a useful tool for creating simple patterns for use in borders or backgrounds as illustrated below.

Fatboy Type Love

If you haven’t heard of the Wood Type Revival, stop reading now and go check it out… don’t worry this post will still be here when you get back. They released an initial free version of Fatboy as part of their Kickstarter campaign which I’ve had sitting around for awhile and wanted to do something with it. Once I saw these vintage paper textures from Bittbox, things just rolled together real fast. I topped it all off by setting SpareType in Old Press — a font that will be part of this month’s Headline Heads Up.

Fatboy Type Love Wallpaper Preview

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Homestead

Foundry : Lost Type Co-op

Designer(s) : Luke Lisi

Cost: Name Your Own Price

Homestead is awesome because it is a well built slab-serif with plenty of weight that lets it really hold a space well. What makes it even more awesome is a crazy Display style of solid and striped pieces that evokes woodsy, frontier maps and Paul Bunyan flannels. You can layer endless combinations as the spacing and metrics are the same across all the styles. Throw in a little spice of color — maybe some distressed, dusty texture — and you have a knockout headline for plenty of settings.

Mountain Goat

Foundry : Atlantic Fonts

Designer(s) : Ken Russell

Cost: $19.99

Straight out of a Dr. Seuss book comes the bouncy Mountain Goat! Quirky unevenness looks like someone took scissors to construction paper and the result was digitized. It is fun and full of childish playfulness — perfect for a birthday invitation or a lemonade stand. It is limited though without having any OpenType alternates to keep things unique, so watch out for repeating letter patterns that might start to look clunky. Take advantage of the exaggerated proportions to really make your headline standout.

Emmy

Foundry : Emily Lime

Designer(s) : Emily Conners

Cost: FREE — $19

Sticking in the handmade realm, the next typeface on this month’s list is called Emmy. It is straight-forward, easy to read, and even a little cutesy. It gets even better with the Stripe, Shade, and 3D styles — the last of which is available for free. Like Mountain Goat above, the lowercase uses exaggerated proportions to give it a signature look. Where it excels is having Regular, Semi, and Bold weights along with italics for plenty of options in setting a headline and maybe even a short bit of body copy.

Mr. Moustache

Foundry : FaceType

Designer(s) : Georg Herold-Wildfellner

Cost: FREE — $19

Mr. Moustache shares a lot in common with the above. It has a handwritten touch with a thin line weight. It has a unicase style of mixing upper and lower case letterforms. It also has great extras — solid and outline dingbats, solid and outline ornaments, solid and outline frames. Then come the OpenType ligatures and stylistic alternates that put it over the top with options for making your text really stand out. The dingbats are free — some of them are shown below — so you should definitely check those out, but the whole package is a deal currently at $39 on MyFonts.

Final Mention

The closing note for this month’s Headline Heads Up is an awesome foundry found via Abduzeedo. Designer Joshua M. Smith works under the names Hydro74 & Legacy of Defeat, but no matter the name — the work is awesome. Be it illustration or font, there is truly insane and unique stuff going on at his websites. Below is a quick snapshot of some of the stuff you’ll see, but I’ll leave it at “You just need to go check this out!”

Falling Leaves

October brings a change in the weather and changes in color as trees prepare for the long winter months. That inspired me to put together this month’s wallpaper of browns and oranges with punches of yellow and hints of greens.

Falling Leaves Wallpaper Preview

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I’ve gotten behind because it is now September, and here in the southern United States that means college football. As a way of celebrating the start of the season, I put together some buttons honoring my alma mater — as well as our nemesis. They turned out to be more popular than I expected. Get your own over at the shop and keep me busy.

Toomer’s Tree

For this month’s wallpaper I’m sticking with the Auburn theme. Using the iconic Toomer’s Tree outline and the words for the Auburn Fight Song, I put together something simple and nice. I know it’s not for everybody, but maybe next month will be yours. You can always send in suggestions.

AU Fight Song and Toomers Tree Wallpaper Preview

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Now on to the awesome type I’ve seen floating around.

Teléfono

Foundry : Arnold Hoepker

Designer(s) : Arnold Hoepker

Cost: FREE

This would be a great drop-cap for any editorial use. It reads right off the page of something Wired Magazine would do. The elements come together to create interesting shapes that are awesome just as pieces. The fact that they can be used as letters is almost a bonus to me. You can find more Teléfono on the designer’s Behance page.

Glow Gothic BF

Foundry : Bomparte’s Fonts

Designer(s) : John Bomparte

Cost: $29 for each style

With some effects work in Illustrator I know I could recreate this style on a piece of lettering. But sometimes it’s nice to already have the tool in the toolbox instead of reinventing the wheel. With companion underlay and overlay styles for creating multicolor variations quickly with copy and paste, this font can be an effective tool. Though it definitely speaks to me as something from the 1990s — kind of a “we did the effect because we could.” The effect and the rotund gentleness of the base letters also give it a children’s playfulness, maybe something you would see on Nickelodeon.

Stroke Dimension

Foundry : Måns Grebäck

Designer(s) : Måns Grebäck

Cost: FREE for personal / $59 for commercial use

Sometimes it is the simplest things that are the most remarkable. There are no crazy OpenType ligatures or alternates. There are no unique and radical letter forms. All there is to Stroke Dimension is a simple hand-drawn, shaded styling that gives it all the character and purpose it needs. It is the perfect display font when needing to work with children’s school material and the pent up teenage angst of love notes passed in class.

Just to mention another cool typeface I bookmarked with awesome handmade appeal — bobsmade font. I ran across it on deviantART, then got to checking out their website where they’ve got even more awesome everything! (*hint* You should totally check it out!)

 Final Mentions to Check Out

• Rose Tattoo by Billy Argel
• Mensch by Morgan Knutson
• Fat Boy Husky by Matt Braun & Matt Griffin
• Dash by Typodisiac

Example of the Final Product

Tutorial Details

Program: Adobe Illustrator CS3
Difficulty: Beginner
Topics Covered: Warp Effect, Smart Guides, Rotate Tool
Estimated Completion Time: 15–20 minutes
Required Files: None

Step 1
Create a new document and create a text box with the Type tool(T). Type out just one line of text and choose a font.

Step 2
For this example, I am using the letter ‘f’ set in Rockwell Regular. Starting point size is not important as the effect is percentage based and will work the same whether you start with 12pt. or 200pt. type.

Step 3
Switch back to the Selection tool(V) then click on Effect > Warp > Arc.

Step 4
Adjust the Bend to 70% and the Horizontal Distortion to 100% then check the Preview box to see the results. Depending on your letters you might want to move the Bend to 60% or 80%.

Step 5
Click OK when your Arc looks right. This is the arm of your spiral. Then click on Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 6
If Smart Guides are off, click on View > Smart Guides.

Step 7
Switch to the Rotate tool(R ) and hover over your object. Your looking for the single anchor point where everything bends in together. The Smart Guides should snap you to it.

Step 8
Option + click on the anchor point to move the rotate point and bring up the rotate dialog. Use 20 degrees for the rotation and click Copy.

Step 9
Use the keyboard shortcut Command + D to transform the new object again.

Step 10
Continue to hit Command + D sixteen more times to complete the spiral.

Step 11
Use the keyboard shortcut Command + A to select all of the individual objects. Then click Window > Pathfinder > Add.

Step 12
The last step is to click Expand in the Pathfinder palette to unify everything into one object.

As always, play with the settings and see what you come up with. Changing the amount of rotation is a quick way to come up with different looks. Then there is your type choice. The more decorative your typeface to begin with, the more intricate the resulting spiral will look. Here are two more examples I came up with just playing around.

FF Screen Logger Cool

Foundry : FontFont

Designer(s) : Kai Vermehr

Cost: FREE

First up is a great pixel font available for free over at FontFont. It’s actually part of a package of free pixel fonts — FF SubVario. There’s a set of six proportional pixel and six mono-spaced fonts. Then three fonts in the Screen Logger family. Screen Logger Cool has the most personality in the set mainly because of its outlined form. It also comes with a useful Back version for easily layering two-tone versions. Check out the package to see samples of the SubVario and SubMono, then go ahead and grab it because it’s FREE!

Appetite

Foundry : Dzianis Serabrakou

Designer(s) : Denis Serebryakov

Cost: $49 per style

Next up is Appetite which is best described as a bold, upright script, sans-serif. Yes, it certainly does blend a ton together and pulls it off extraordinarily well. The sweep of the strokes builds great personality that is reinforced by the weight. Given the script influence there are some nice standard and discretionary ligatures to enjoy. Then there is an italic if you need to switch it up a bit in your headline or packaging design. Be sure to go check out the font and see how it might work for you, and take a look at the designer’s Behance page as there is some great work there too.

Samantha

Foundry : Laura Wor­thing­ton

Designer(s) : Laura Wor­thing­ton

Cost: $75 for the Pro version

I’m going to continue down the upright script path with the latest release from the always impressive Laura Worthington. You’re going to want to get the Pro version and its 2,715 glyphs which includes 60 ornaments, 45 pre-built catchwords, and 2,200 swash variations. As expected, everything is extremely well executed. The ridiculous amount of options will keep you busy finding the perfect letters. Here’s just a taste of some of the ornaments and catchwords in the image below. (And a link to the original image on Flickr because its a nice picture) Buy Samantha Upright Script on MyFonts.com

Final Men­tions to Check Out

• Farola by PeGGO Fonts
• Satura Suite by Fountain Type (check out the Parts and Pro styles)
• Tillom by Ahmet Altun

Ampersand Love

So there’s a good story about this wallpaper. It starts with the following post which led me to the font Black and White. The pictures looked really good and I absolutely loved the ampersand. I put together the wallpaper — using Gill Sans Ultra Bold with all of its awesome personality for the text. Then as I went back to check out some more about the design and designer and see what else he might have done, I find out he just ripped off another font. Here’s the twist. As I look through the glyphs of the font he pirated, this ampersand isn’t in there. It’s not the default nor listed as an alternate. I’m guessing it might also be pirated but I couldn’t find a match. So in the end, go check out Calypso I as a great display font with tons of OpenType niceties.

Ampersand Love Wallpaper Preview

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Vintage Vectors Ornamental Letters

Foundry : Unknown

Designer(s) : Unknown

Cost: FREE

First on the list this month is not a font at all but an .EPS of over-the-top ornamental letters. They are full of texture and old world looks. They would work great as a drop-cap or blown up real big as a background element. There’s a ton of other great vectors of vintage engravings over on VintageVectors.com so go check them out.

Sugar Pie

Foundry : Sudtipos

Designer(s) : Alejandro Paul

Cost: $79

Next is the latest release from Sudtipos. I seriously cannot get enough from these guys. Sugar Pie is an amazing brush script with swooping curves that culminate in sharp pointed terminals. Nicely weighted strokes and plenty of personality let this type really hold a space which makes it perfect for packaging or point of purchase signage — especially in food related applications. And of course being from Sudtipos, there are plenty of extra alternate characters and ligatures to keep things interesting and help vary your words. So open up that glyph palette and dig into Sugar Pie.

Marlowe

Foundry : FaceType

Designer(s) : Marcus Sterz

Cost: $80 for a family of 4 styles

I’ve been holding on to this a few weeks after seeing it in a Typedia post. Marlowe is a family of four styles; the basis is an Art Deco sans serif. Then comes the variants — Cocktail, Swirl, and Escapade. They build on the regular in different ways, and its really hard to explain all of them. So take a look at the sample below to get a better idea. There’s also some OpenType ligatures and alternates through out the styles, so check those out too. Pick up copies on FaceType’s website or over on Fontspring with @font-face web licensing.

Quintet

Foundry : ShoType Design

Designer(s) : Kunihiko Okano

Cost: Unknown

Last on the list this month is more an inspiration piece. For now, it’s still student work and not for sale anywhere. Part of the TypeMedia 2011 class, Kunihiko Okana has put together something truly amazing — a formal script with five variations built for layering and offsetting to build elegant headlines and display pieces. You have to go check out the portfolio page on TypeMedia2011.org to see more great combinations along with an accompanying Quintet Serif to carry body copy. You better believe as soon as this becomes available for use, I’m jumping all over it.

 Final Mentions to Check Out

• Crescendo by Canada Type
• Feathergraphy by Måns Grebäck
• Ostrich Sans by Tyler Finck
  (check out the two-line bold and dash)

Halftone Pixel Zombie

Some people at work suggested zombies the other day when I asked for more ideas about the next round of buttons I was making. After digging into it a bit, I put together a post of 10 killer design resources for the horror/zombie atmosphere. Now to bring the zombie apocalypse to your desktop wallpaper!

Wallpaper Preview — Halftone Pixel Zombie

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1. Absinthe Typeface

Victorian personality oozes through the curls and broken shapes of this typeface. It lends a refined gruesome, a restlessness that is uncomfortable because of the unevenness of the shapes. Absinthe is perfectly unsettling for that horror atmosphere. It also has an awesome name.

2. Folk Typeface — Sketches Variant

Again, unevenness is at play in Folk Sketches to put it on the list. Its simple letterforms make a warning message easy to read, but lend a bit of the hand scrawled nature expected in a post-apocalyptic zombie world.

3. B-Movie Retro Typeface

The last typeface on the list is a true a poster child. The most awesome version is Brush Extreme with its crazy edges and rough strokes. It’s a straight up monster movie or Halloween design staple. Also cool, a catchwords font of already setup words like Danger! and Terror!

4. Blood Splatter 1

What’s more zombie than blood splatter? I can’t think of anything else. You’ll always need a few good blood splatter patterns to add background texture and help set the scene of gruesome.

5. Blood Splatter 2

You need variety in your blood patterns. Any good forensic investigator will tell you that blood does different things depending on the object used and the force at which the zombie’s head is decapitated.

6. Blood Splatter 3

One last splatter just for good measure. There are plenty more out there with their own subtleties so keep an eye out for that perfect splotch of blood.

7. Brain Engraving

Give your pet zombie exactly what he or she wants with this squishy brain engraving. Perfect to use as its own element, this brain also makes great use for adding that wrinkled, brain texture to other elements by layering and clipping. I scanned this out of an old book a while back and can’t remember exactly where I got it, but it sure is a perfect brain. I’d hate for it to go to waste.

Download the package right here! One TIF, one Illustrator tracing, and one EPS file — 15mb

8. Zombie Pixel Head

This is something I made myself. The 8-bit zombie niche is very small — some might say nonexistent — but I would argue that zombie pixels are just as dangerous as regular zombies. There really should be more public service announcements making people aware of the danger zombie pixels pose to their computer screens.

Download the package file right here! One Adobe Illustrator and one EPS file — 108kb

9. Three Zombie Heads

Way more gruesome than the pixel head above, these three heads perfectly showcase decrepit flesh and bone-gnawing teeth. Oh the horror, the horror!

10. Zombie Color Swatches

Do you need a jump on the perfect brain color or perhaps you’re having a hard time nailing down the right color green of undead flesh? Well, here’s a palette to start you off right. A good mix of blood reds, Frankenstein greens, and internal organ pinks will put you on the right path color wise.

Last Clicks

Need more inspiration for your next zombie project. Here’s two more lists for inspiration.

The Blog of Francesco Mugnai
Zombie Design — 30 Awesome Examples

Noupe
Zombie Inspiration: 50 Awesome Artworks

Codswallop

Foundry : Hanoded

Designer(s) : David Kerkhoff

Cost: $20 per style

First on this month’s eye catching menagerie is Codswallop. And it’s not just because of the name. Something about the rough edges of hand drawn — or made to look hand drawn — type just pulls me in. The font has its limitations as the uppercase and lowercase letters are identical, but it does have accented characters, basic fl and fi ligatures, and numerals built for fractions. I love the weight and heavy handedness of it. The reason I’m mentioning Codswallop though is because it has a family.

• Regular
• Italic
• Condensed
• Condensed Italic
• Extra Condensed
• Extra Condensed Italic

That leaves room for playing crazy like the example below. Also, check out that freaking awesome @ symbol. Try it out yourself over on MyFonts.

I thought about showing off Florentin 2D. But now that I came back and looked at it some more, I’m a little iffy. It’s got an interesting idea going on with the extra choppy gravure style. Maybe it’ll grow on me and I’ll come back to it again. Take a look at it and tell me what you think in the comments.

The final mention for this week’s Headline Heads Up goes out FontDeals.com — a new project started by Jay Hilgert of Bittbox.com and Brush Pilot™. It’s an absolutely crazy deal on a whole handful of fonts. $49 for 29 font files. And these are some awesome looking and well crafted fonts. I’ve purchased my set and am still wading through the possibilities for the range of applications. It’s just too good a deal to pass up. Go check it out! Remember, there’s 24 more fonts included in the pack than what I’m showing below! It’s crazy.

Angry Birds

I’ve been playing Angry Birds like crazy recently and when it came time to sit down and make a wallpaper for this month’s post I immediately thought of doing something birdy. Well, I did a Google search to see what was already out there and was blown away by the first picture. That led me to the idea of going the pencil and paper sketch route. Once I got into it I couldn’t decide which paper I liked better, so I finished up both and will let you decide which to choose.

Wallpaper Preview — Angry Birds Sketch on White Paper

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Wallpaper Preview — Angry Birds Sketch on Brown Kraft Paper

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I’ve been picking at FontLab — learning the basics and starting on some advanced OpenType programming. I’m beginning with my very own handwriting, as I’m pretty familiar with it.

The idea is to end up with six to eight glyphs for each letter, three or four variation glyphs for numerals, and maybe two or three variation glyphs for punctuation marks. Along with some custom ligatures and nifty OpenType programming, the concept will be a very natural handwritten font with a lot of fluctuations and randomness to best mimic real handwriting. As you can see from the screenshot above, I’ve got a lot of work to do and holes to fill in.

The Other Thing I’m Making

My other awesome project that I’ve put into action is some fun buttons that I think are pretty cool and witty. I’ve put together a quick online shopping cart if you think they’re neat enough that you want to give me some of your hard earned money and get a set. *hint hint wink wink* There’s four regular pin-back buttons and four magnets to a set.

Right now, I’ve got the typography related set and a set with some skull designs. I think I’m going to work out a plan where I release new sets on a regular basis and build a bigger catalog. And of course, some more styling tweaks to the shopping cart for more cohesive branding.

But as the article says…

“I’m a true believer in perfect is the enemy of good. I could perfect the design until every pixel is exactly how I want it, until every feature and filter is live on the site, but for what? My own personal satisfaction? That’s just silly. Launch now, provide value now, and sweat the details later.”

- Michael Aleo

I would like to add to that — “Everything is a work in progress, just like life.”

Reina

Foundry : Lián Types

Designer(s) : Maximiliano Sproviero

Cost: $24.95 — $37

First up is an excellent didone inspired family called Reina. Lovely curves, extreme contrast, sweeping swashes all build the character of these characters. And there are tons of characters — somewhere over 500 glyphs in the pro versions — full of titling swash characters and OpenType alternates. It is built for cherry picking letters through the glyphs palette to set that perfect interaction of swashiness in a headline. Not to mention the additional engraved version and fleurons set also available for purchase. You should definitely check out the PDF put together to layout all the details and show really wicked examples.

Liam

Foundry : Laura Worthington

Designer(s) : Laura Worthington

Cost: $29

Second on the docket is a new release by the extremely talented Laura Worthington. I think of this as a display typeface though it might be possible to set a paragraph if you were careful. So, what does it have going for it besides being impeccably drawn and imbued with perfect pitch of personality? Try two and three alternate glyphs for every letter. BOOYAH! Then, to throw icing on your cupcake, a set of cute ornaments to match the childlike theme of the whole typeface.

I’m going to end this month’s heads up with another non-font link to an awesome Flickr album to check out. There are some really sweet letters in this Morgan Press Type Catalog. You can also read a little bit about the life and influence of Mr. Morgan in his obituary from the NYTimes.

Melville and Miltonian

I showed off Miltonian last month and its been stewing in my head to do something with it. I started in the tattoo direction but after playing with it for a bit that seemed to cliche. Working off the tattoo heart idea, then for some reason sailors — which led to Moby Dick — all to end up with this. A shout out goes to Bittbox and the awesome textures put out over there. The starting point for the background texture came from a freebie over there. Go check it out.

Wallpaper Preview — Melville and Miltonian

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an introduction to typography’s beginnings based on a historical research paper

Typography, and graphic design in general, is an ever evolving, process driven field. This is the same today as it was 500 years ago when mass printing was just beginning in Europe. By examining the evolution and typography of this incunabula period, the novice designer can learn both the intricacies and history of type.

The Italian Renaissance that occurred from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries caused revolutionary changes in human history that still impact society and culture today. One aspect that witnessed phenomenal change was that of book production. Technological achievements combined with cultural revival of classical antiquity created standards of production and typography that have served as the foundations of both fields since their inception more than five hundred years ago. The change was an evolutionary process that involved both creative inspirations from the classics of Greece and Rome as well as trial and error refinement of printing techniques.

Western civilization developed reusable, moveable type around 1440. The major breakthrough came from the perfection of the mold in which to cast each block of type. With this new method, hundreds of pieces of type could be cast in a day allowing for mass production of printed materials. (Dowding 3) From its initial birth around Mainz, Germany the innovations quickly spread throughout Europe as entrepreneurs saw the potential for mass printed material in other markets and began establishing presses across the continent. Having found its way to Italy, printing and typography underwent fundamental changes at the hands of humanist scholars and the printers associated with providing these educated men with reading material.

Closeup of Textura Letters from Lactantius’ Opera printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz — Subiaco 1465

Two Germans, Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz established the first printing press on Italian soil at Subiaco near Rome in 1465. (Dowding 20) They brought with them the conventions of German type that had developed from the formal manuscript hands that flourished during the Middle Ages. (Dowding 5) This style of type is known as textura for its very dense, dark presence on a page and textured effect created by the condensed letterforms. Humanist scholars later labeled the style black letter and gothic for its association with the unenlightened, barbarous era of the Middle Ages. Textura lettering developed from the need for a quick, efficient writing style for scribes who had to handwrite books during the Middle Ages and to conserve space on a page. (Meggs 54) Mass printing eliminated the need for a quick writing style. The knowledge of making paper had also spread along trade routes from East Asia to Europe and had lowered the cost of materials on which to print. (Meggs 64)

These technical advances were coupled with humanist research into classical texts. Scholars such as Francesco Petrarch and Coluccio Salutati were working from the late fourteenth-century onwards at spreading the classical writings of ancient Greek and Roman authors, poets, and philosophers. Besides reviving their ideals, these humanist scholars also sought to revive the ancient writing styles found in these volumes of classical texts. They saw textura lettering as the writing of the barbarians who had destroyed classical civilization and thus wanted to return to what they believed was authentic Roman writing. (Twomey 137) The writing was in fact from the ninth through eleventh centuries in a form known as Carolingian minuscule from the scholarly revivals of Charlemagne. He organized and ordered the standardization of writing in scriptoriums and the revival of classical literature. This move preserved the knowledge of classical antiquity that the humanist scholars later relied on when they sought their own revival in the fourteenth-century. (Meggs 49)

The preference by the Italian humanists for Carolingian minuscule over gothic textura was firmly in place by 1465 when Sweynheym and Pannartz began printing in Italy. The humanists also admired the original Roman majuscules found inscribed on the ruins of ancient monuments such as Trajan’s column. These two very different styles of letterforms were in need of reconciliation if they were to be used in harmony by a printer. Sweynheym and Pannartz realized this when they moved to Rome in 1468 and revised their initial type to have thinner strokes and more space between letters. However, the resolution of these typestyles into a definitive form was achieved by Nicolas Jenson in Venice in 1470.

Letters from Trajan Column — Roman Majuscules Carved in Stone

Nicolas Jenson had studied printing in Mainz and moved to Venice around 1468 to take advantage of the emerging market for books. (Meggs 94) Once in Venice, Jenson studied the inscriptional majuscules and current humanist script minuscules in preparation for cutting his new type. Jenson thinned the strokes on his minuscules as well as adding more roundness to the letters. These changes created a more even tone across a page balancing positive and negative spaces. The revolutionary change though in Jenson’s type is the addition of serifs to the minuscule characters. Combining the swoosh leading out of a pen drawn letter with the chiseled perpendicular endings of the Roman majuscules, Jenson unified the two styles into one. This is historically viewed as the first true roman type thus establishing a new typestyle.

Close up of Letters from De Praeparatione Evangelica printed by Nicolas Jenson — Venice 1470

Jenson used his type to print 155 books from 1470 until his death in 1480. The type and press were bought by one of Jenson’s workmen Andrea Torresani who would later be instrumental in establishing the Aldine Press of Aldus Manutius. (Barolini 47) Besides influencing the Aldine Press, Jenson’s type has served as inspiration through the years to typographers wishing to create their own roman types as well as established roman letters as the de facto type for text and reading material in Western culture. This establishment owes in part to the proliferation of printed books by Aldus Manutius starting in 1495. (Dowding 32)

A humanist scholar and tutor, Aldus Manutius dedicated his life to teaching the language and writings of Greece. Through connections with the humanists of Italy and the help of Andrea Torresani, Aldus gathered Greek texts and organized the printing of an incalculable amount of knowledge. His contributions to typography are equally as immense simply by the sheer extent to which his works spread, and were copied, carrying with them both the ideals of the Renaissance and the roman type cut by Francesco Griffo and based on Jenson’s model. Aldus also pioneered book layouts and alternative movable types.

The Aldine roman can be seen in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili that Aldus printed in 1499. The book also illustrates the integration of imagery and type on a page as well as the overall layout of margins and space. These design characteristics were adopted throughout book production and still hold influence today over the positioning of text for general reading material. Another layout Aldus pioneered was that of a smaller page size, 3.75 by 6-inch over the 8 by 11.9-inch. (Meggs 101) For this smaller space, Aldus had Griffo cut a new type that combined the new serifs of the roman typestyle with the slanted compressed nature of script handwriting. Thus, the first italic type was born in 1500.

An even greater achievement of the Aldine Press was its rescue and proliferation of classical works in Greek. For such an undertaking, Aldus oversaw the creation of a Greek typeface modeled on the handwriting of Greek scholars and scribes and cut by Griffo. (Davies 14) Aldus also pioneered two techniques in association with printing Greek types and accents. The process involved what is known as leading, or adding space between lines of type. This allowed the second technique of adding accents throughout a line of type instead of having unique letters cut for every possible accent. (Davies 18) Both methods increased the flexibility of printing and how a page could be arranged.

A Decorative Initial Capital and Body Copy from Aldus Manutius Hypnerotomachia Poliphili — Venice 1499

Closeup of Italic Letters Cut by Francesco Griffo for Virgil’s Opera printed by the Aldine Press — Venice 1501

A final undertaking that was never completed by the Aldine Press due to Aldus’ death was a Polyglot Bible. An initial proof sheet from 1501 survives showing a three-column layout of corresponding Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. The Greek and roman types used are not new, but the Hebrew is a new creation by Griffo. The first in Venice, the type is extraordinary for its geometry and groundbreaking use as educational material for humanist studies. (Davies 52)

It is worth mentioning that better-executed, more legible types later replaced the Aldine italic and Greek starting around 1525. (Dowding 47) These improvements underscore the nature of Aldus and Griffo’s work as steps in the evolution of typography that continues to this day. Their work was inventive and original for its time, but it was inspired by Jenson who was inspired by the humanists who were inspired by the Carolingian scribes; it went on to inspire the sixteenth-century typographer Claude Garamond in Paris and later in the eighteenth-century William Caslon I in England. (Dowding 32)

From Caslon to Square Pixels

Today, typography and print production have undergone another significant change in the move from material to digital workspaces. Typefaces no longer physically exist as metal pieces but as pixels of light on computer screens. The change is similar to the move from handwriting to moveable type that occurred in the fifteenth-century. New possibilities with a new medium were created and typographers looked to the past for inspiration in trying to re-create past types, to update them, and to completely reject them in search of better ways of communication, much like Sweynheym, Pannartz, Jenson, Griffo, and Aldus did at the birth of printing and typography.

Their contributions refined and perfected the technical achievements of Mainz and provided the foundation for Western typography that we still use today. They also provided the process of looking at the past for inspiration. As such, these great works of Italian Renaissance book production stand as hallmarks of their field and as pillars of human civilization for the knowledge and spirit they preserved.

For More Inspiration / Works Cited

1. Baronlini, Helen. Aldus and His Dream Book. New York, New York: Italica Press, 1992.
2. Davies, Martin. Aldus Manutius: Printer and Publisher of Renaissance Venice. Malibu, California: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1995.
3. Dowding, Geoffrey. An Introduction to the History of Printing Types. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 1998.
4. Fletcher III, Harry George. New Aldine Studies. San Francisco: Bernard M. Rosenthal, Inc, 1988.
5. Meggs, Philip, and Alston W. Purvis. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. 4th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2006
6. Seaby, Allen W. The Roman Alphabet and its Derivatives. London: B.T. Batsford, Ltd, 1925.
7. Szepe, Helena Katalin. “Desire in the Printed Dream of Poliphilo.” Art History 19 (1996): 370–392.
8. Twomey, Juliet Spohn. “On Type Whence Jenson: A Search for the Origins of Roman Type.” Fine Print 15 (1989): 134–141.

But I’m tired of waiting. I want to start putting myself out there. So, consider this the soft launch, the preview, the beta.

Please bear with me as I continue to build and develop this site into what I want it to be. Plus, if you have any good suggestions — positive or negative, let me hear it.

Miltonian

Foundry : Pablo Impallari

Designer(s) : Pablo Impallari

Cost: FREE

So, I was perusing the Google web fonts list and noticed this addition by the same guy who did Lobster which I already showcased a while back. The trend of the two versions — one open and one fill — strikes again. The typeface references a distinct tattoo style with its rough edges, high contrast, and slight embellishments. It’s because of the unevenness that a long text setting never gets into a real rhythm. It does have punctuation, accents, and enough characters to cover the Latin character set so there is some flexibility there.

Six Caps

Foundry : newtypography

Designer(s) : Vernon Adams

Cost: FREE

Another typeface on the list the stuck out to me for setting headlines, was this Six Caps by Vernon Adams. An extremely condensed sans serif, these letters are tight. Text setting is out of the question as it is an all-uppercase font with the lowercase replaced by a small-caps copy of each letter. So you’re basically typing in ALL CAPS all the time. But, say you wanted to set the first word or two of paragraph apart in drop-cap fashion; then Six Caps might be a great choice. Or if you need to squeeze a four word bit into a tiny space, the economy of these letters tightness might just do the trick. That condensed form does lend to a modern, streamlined feel so be aware of that when using Six Caps.

And finally, I’d like to mention something different. It’s not a font or typeface per se but it completely falls in the realm of display typography and setting headlines. House Industries has finally released their Photo-Lettering project. It allows you to set some type with old PLINC alphabets, set layering colors, maybe some alternate or ligature options then buy the headline and receive it as a vector that you can mess with some more or drop into your design. They have started out with 38 styles and say they plan to release more. Definitely worth taking a look at and playing with a little bit. The interface is wonderful and intuitive; everything works like a charm. The site itself looks great as to be expected.

Now for the critical part. I’m not sold yet on the pricing or really the whole business model. I think of fonts as an investment in a tool that I can carry around in my toolbox and pull out whenever the need might arise. With a font installed on my computer, I can tweak and style and size to my hearts content in a Character palette. I can access all sorts of OpenType features.

Then again, maybe I’m not the niche audience. I’m a graphic designer with the Adobe Creative Suite and tons of knowledge on how to use those programs. You get a vector PDF which can be edited in Illustrator but more importantly, could also just as easily be dropped into someone’s Office Word document above a page of Comic Sans.

That shouldn’t sound too harsh because I don’t mean it to be. I think there is a definite cost/benefit analysis to be done based on the quantity of headlines that you need. I still totally recommend that you check it out. Heck, even sign up for an account and get one FREE setting to download. Then let me know what you think in the comments.

Wild West Bodoni

For this month’s wallpapers I went to the well of some old projects I did back in college. The first is a background I built for a poster. I designed, printed, and made a full deck of cards with the letters of a Bodoni Poster version on one side. Then I sat down and spread them out over the table, trying different arrangements, and shooting some photos of the different setups. This one I liked the best; now here it is in a couple of different wallpaper sizes.

Wallpaper Preview — Wild West Bodoni Poster Cards

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That GD Graphic Design

This is another idea from my college days. I developed this pattern for my self-identity as a graphic designer. Hence the GD. Plus my name is Griffin, so Griffin Design also GD. This one is extremely busy so its definitely not for the person who carries a ton of icons on their desktop. Maybe I’ll expand on the idea some more and try some different letters or words and see what else I can do with the style.

Wallpaper Preview — GD Graphic Design Jumble

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I recorded it with the free version of Jing and there’s a few things I’m not thrilled about with the sharing and streaming so I think I’m going to go ahead and step up to something like Screenflow and a YouTube channel for better recording, distribution, and overall betterness.

So, I sat down to round up some good display faces today and sitting in my email was the latest Rising Stars from MyFonts. It’s like most of my work — at least the searching — was done for me. So that gave me a good starting point, and I just wanted to give credit where credit is due.

Delight Script

Foundry : Sudtipos

Designer(s) : Angel Koziupa, Alejandro Paul

Cost: $59 USD

Any conversation about script typefaces must include the Sudtipos foundry of Buenos Aires, Argentina and they continue that conversation with Delight Script. Super fun, with plenty of quirk — take a look at the capital “F” and “L” — it has the special OpenType touches of several stylistic alternate characters that makes Sudtipos stand out.

The script is bouncy and has the awesome feature of mimicking a sign-painter’s need to reload the brush with ink by having some letters break the connecting flow of letters. Notice below the three distinct parts of “A” “mer” “ican” as an example. This definitely can pull off a vintage look if that’s what you need, but also suggests a contemporary sweet tooth for candy packaging. Get you copy today!

Skitch

Foundry : Yellow Design Studio

Designer(s) : Ryan Martinson

Cost: $20 USD

Now this is a versatile font. I seem to love the fonts designed to be overlaid and setup for multi-color use. Skitch has a solid version but where it looks real nice is when the open and fill styles come together with the slight offset. All three are shown together in the sample above. Coming from its hand drawn origins, the rough edges and unevenness give it a very natural quality. This also holds it back at smaller sizes as things get a bit jumpy and the details disturb the flow of reading.

Other features that make it a great headline type include some nifty ligatures of the ball terminals, about 100 extra beyond “fi” and “fl” including those shown below — “ra” “ch” “es”. Another awesome feature — an entire second set of uppercase, lowercase, and numerals with slightly different contours under an OpenType stylistic alternate option. This can increase the hand drawn quality by introducing variation among letterforms.

And finally to round out the awesome goodness of Skitch — there are a set of Border Fonts and Ornament Fonts following the same solid, outline, and fill setup. Those can go a long way in helping set great looking headlines. Plus, check out those awesome ampersands and asterisks!

HVD Steinzeit

Foundry : HVD Fonts

Designer(s) : Hannes von Döhren

Cost: FREE

Let’s keep with the hand drawn, multi-layered theme but in a completely different style. These rough block letters are crude cut-outs with a ransom letter look. It’d be perfect for band posters or a kids book — those are two really different things which is why I think this typeface is a good choice to have in the toolbox. There aren’t any fancy OpenType features like ligatures or alternates, but there’s a full set of punctuation and accented characters so that’s not holding it back. Take a look and see what you can do with it!

The above illustration is copyright Feodor Rojankovsky — 1956 Caldecott Winner — and was originally published in John Langstaff’s ‘Frog Went A-Courtin’!

Say it Fat by Timo Titzmann

I mentioned this font in a post a week or so ago and decided to try and come up with something of a wallpaper using it. I played off its heaviness of course and let that carry the piece with just a few extra effects to spice it up.

Wallpaper Preview — Say It Fat typeface by Timo Titzmann

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Stop Staring at my Ascender

This next one is a trademarked phrase. It’s mine — DIBS!!! I haven’t seen it or heard it anywhere else. I’m also going to claim its close cousin, “Stop staring at my asterisk!” A simple Adobe Caslon with a little manipulation and positioning and you have something nice. I needed something for the background and decided on a ruled notepaper kind of thing. I wasn’t sure about that at first but I after I used it on the desktop for a week and came back to it looked alright. What do you think?

I think I might have found my first product idea for promotional posters and t-shirts. Hmm…

Stop Staring at my Ascender Preview

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So, if you’re registered to play soccer in Alabama and want to field a team, take a look and get in touch with them.

I got my girlfriend some jewelry for Valentine’s Day and it came wrapped in a surprising bag that was pretty nice. The paper was cheap kraft and the printing was cheap and bled a lot but I’m pretty sure that’s the point to achieve the look. It has a lot of charm though and definitely fits their vintage brand.

I’ve had this font around for a month or two. Not sure where I saw it first. The rounded edges really show out nice in the bold weight. At least that’s were I think it shines. It could do double duty as either body copy of carry a headline because of the bit of character that shines through in places like the lowercase “g” and the legs on the “K” and “R”

Melbourne

Foundry : 26 +

Designer(s) : John Marco Mueller

Cost: Free under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

While I was on the 26+ website, I checked out some of the other fonts on there and found this one.

Say it Fat

Foundry : 26 +

Designer(s) : Timo Titzmann

Cost: Free under CC BY-ND 3.0

Definitely headline material here. I’ve set it below at 225 points so those counters can really shine. I also really love the numerals. It only comes in lowercase so take the into consideration. Check out the PDF specimen over at 26+

Wow, that took up a lot space. You should be rewarded for all the scrolling and for making it this far through the post. How about some cute space icons? I had the idea of something used in a children’s book with some cartoon styling of very simple shapes and flat colors. This will be release version number 0.5 because I definitely want to add to it a couple more ideas — an alien, a satellite, a telescope — so not finished yet. I also want to try and package them up as actual icons but I’ve never done that process before. Anyway, here’s a taste, so give me some feedback in the comments.

Download the package with Adobe Illustrator and EPS files.

To do list for 2011!!!

• Launch this blasted website!
• Stick to a regular posting schedule — content, content, content!
• Learn more Fontlab and try to put together my first font!

Let’s see how this goes; wish me luck!

And then, there was this. In big, bold, block letters — Hey Kids This Is Advertising! Now that I’m reflecting on it, I’m not quite sure what to think. At the time, I smirked. I almost LOL’ed but something stopped me. I think it was the indecision on whether this was a good or bad thing.

On one Whopper-filled hand I thought, “It’s a good thing that they are identifying and in some way separating the advertising push from the helpful fun part.” On the other hand, occupied by a 48 ounce “small” cup of sugary Dr. Pepper, I find the tone of the statement to be, “Hey Kids, this is advertising and doesn’t it look cool!”

Because really, the whole thing is advertising. The bag, the toy, the coupon, the entire concept of kid’s meal is advertising. So what’s the point of putting that statement on there? That’s the question I put to you.

Fatquad 4F

Foundry : 4th february

Designer(s) : Sergiy Tkachenko

Cost: $30 USD

Ooooh, chunky, chunky! This is a new font released in November. I’m pretty sure I first saw it through the MyFonts RSS, which is a great address to have in your reader for new inspiration and new releases.

Fatquad 4F is truly fat. It makes its mark and takes over space with sheer force. The slight bulge of the edges makes it overinflated, and something about that is playful. For some reason, that playfulness made me think Polynesian Tiki Torches. I think it has to do with the incised, woodcut feel of the counters and contours that define each letter. It also looks so different than your normal serif and sans faces that it works great when needing that other-worldly, alien feel.

Fatquad 4F has some really nice technical features. It supports Latin and Cyrillic character sets; it also has a set of boxed letters and numerals that would work out great for page numbers or section markers. There is also a slanted “italic” should the need arise for some type of differentiation or emphasis in a medium to long headline. Go grab your copy today!

SAF

Foundry : Font Fabric

Designer(s) : Svetoslav Simov

Cost: FREE

I’ve had this one laying around for a few months. I like soccer, nowhere near being a hooligan though. World Cup years are good years. While watching this year’s games in South Africa, I loved the type they were using and did a Google search which led me to SAF. It is not the original used by FIFA but a re-creation by a fan who redrew the vectors for the letters. (If anybody knows of an official, original font for this please let me know.)

It is definitely headline material, as it does not have a lowercase. It does have a good set of accent characters to cover a few languages outside of the normal Latin character set. It also has a set of numerals and punctuation marks — so you could set a sentence if you wanted.

The shapes, the curves, the slight unevenness in places all lend to the playful, dancing quality the letters seem to have. They are alive and bouncing, full of energy leaking out of every corner. The playfulness makes it another great alternative to the overused Comic Sans — though a company memo about the upcoming picnic will still look horrible if the entire page is set only in SAF.

Lobster

Foundry : Pablo Impallari

Designer(s) : Pablo Impallari

Cost: FREE

The third and final headline typeface I’m showcasing this month is Lobster. It is an upright script with a very even character. It has a very restrained personality and very few letters even attempt to steal the show with a fancy detail. This is both a pro and con depending on what you are trying to do with the type.

I do love the look of Lobster. My first thought is Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips from Maine. I also love the OpenType features being built into special stylistic ligatures and finial forms. Below you can see some of the subtle differences already built into the font — slight alterations to the “yp” connection and a big change to the “phy” at the end.

One of the main reasons I picked Lobster is because it is released under the SIL Open Font License. This means when you download it, you also get the raw source files for editing in FontLab. You can build on to the font and add your own characters, ligatures, stylistic alternates, OpenType features, or any font trait you can think. (Albeit, you have to know your way around Fontlab!) It is a great typeface with where it is now, but also has a roadmap for expansion of alternates and language support which will be exciting to see.

Exclamation One

So I wanted to do something with the exclamation icon from my SpareType logo. I layered up a few scrap papers I had scanned to get a nice background texture to complement the logo and colors. I wanted to play around with a emboss/deboss effect so a little tweaking around and came up with a style I liked. I’m going to package up the style to share so look for that post in the next day or two.

Exclamation One Preview

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Floral Deboss

I loved the deboss effect I came up with on the above wallpaper, I decided to do some more with it. I matched up a custom shape I had in Photoshop with a nice background paper scan and then BAM! — DEBOSS! I like the elegance, the slightly modern lime color, and how the focus of the one central element really takes over the whole thing.

Floral Deboss Wallpaper Preview

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Aeronaut

Foundry : FaceType

Designer(s) : Georg Herold-Wildfellner

Cost: $49 USD

From the guys at FaceType, this Neogothic typeface is sooo-weet! You can read a little background on their source material (an 1879 German font book) and of course buy your copy of the font over at their website.

I chose Aeronaut because it straddles a line between the obvious heaviness of its Gothic roots and the modern feel of the straight line and ball terminal swashes that are mixed in to the letters. I find that an incredible feat to pull off. Want to make it even more modern? The base letters and swashes have been separated into three fonts that can be overlaid with multiple color combinations.

Besides its obvious uses in Medieval period pieces like a Renaissance Fair poster or perhaps something about Gutenberg, Aeronaut is also a great choice for trying out a monogram or initials. That’s how I ran across it and it worked out great with the letters I needed to use.

Folk

Foundry : Tipos Pereira

Designer(s) : Marcelo Magalhães Pereira

Cost: FREE

I ran into Folk while searching through Font Squirrel.com, which is a great site for all kinds of free fonts and especially for @font-face kits for web fonts. Folk stood out to me for the same reason Aeronaut did, the ability to combine its four options with multiple colors to create different looks. It starts with a solid letter form that can be combined with an outline or an offset shadow or a sketchy outline. Mix and match the colors and you can come up with some very interesting and attractive looks.

True to its name, Folk is very folksy. It reads right off a hand painted folk art sign that you might find at a city craft festival. Its bubbly feel also lends it a childish charm. Dare I say it, you could replace Comic Sans with it. Well, not really. The biggest drawback with Folk is its character set. There is no lowercase; everything is a capital letter. The font is made to work like a small caps style, with the uppercase letters scaled smaller and mapped to the lowercase. It does have a full set of numerals, punctuation, and accented characters so it has that going for it.

I might set a two or three line sentence if the mood and words were right, but I think of Folk as more of a headline and display type which is why it made Headline Heads Up.

Something simple this time. A little bit of a gradient, some fun type stacked nicely in the corner. And that’s all there is to it. For those curious, the type used is Aeronaut and MEgalopolis Extra.

Give Me Some SpareType Preview

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Scattered Metal Type

This comes from an old school project I did back in the day. I plan on putting it up here for everybody to see because it was one of my better projects. For one of the spreads I needed a picture of metal type and we had some lying around in the classroom. I threw a handful in a light box, sorted them around a bit, and snapped the picture. I tweaked the gradient aspect a bit in Photoshop to put the whole thing together as a wallpaper. It was a much tighter crop for the project along with being integrated with some other elements.

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I’m thinking it will be every two weeks and probably include two different wallpapers in various sizes. They might be related somehow but we’ll see how things work out. For now, take a look at the two below and tell me what you think.

Copper Flourishes

I had a few flooring tiles lying around and one of them had a mix of the colors you see here. I increased a little bit of the brightness in the colors and made the green patina parts stand out a little more through a bit of Photoshop. Finally, I scanned this sheet of paper with the flourishes and that had a bit of linen laid texture. That got blended in on top and you have the wallpaper below.

Copper Flourishes Wallpaper Preview

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Bamboo Shells

Again, this came from just a couple of things lying around. There was this little wicker tray, some rock salt, and a couple of sea shells. I posed them up and snapped a quick picture. I got into Photoshop and added some depth with slight gradients at the top and bottom and blended using a linear burn. I really like the little bit of variety that shows up in the wicker here and there.

Bamboo Shells Wallpaper Preview

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A little disclaimer first about carrier. I’ve been on Cingular and AT&T ever since I got a cellphone, 10 years and going. I’ve never had a problem with service. I’ve got 3G coverage all over town (Auburn, AL.) I’ve taken a look at the new data plans and made my peace with them. Sure, who wouldn’t love one of the old unlimited plans but bandwidth is quickly becoming a hotter commodity. I already have Wi-Fi setup to cover the whole house. AT&T is alright by me. We’ll see if my feelings change in a couple of weeks. Now, on to the phone.

The market has finally hit the selling point I’ve been waiting on. Dual cameras. Front and back cameras seems like such a simple idea and such a long time coming. And then you have the resolution. The back camera shoots video in 720p at 30 frames/second. An HD video camera in my pocket, heck yes. It shoots 5 megapixel still photos. Not bad at all.

On to the front camera and FaceTime, the software that allows video calls. I’m not completely sold on FaceTime yet. It only runs on Wi-Fi and only to another iPhone 4. Still, it’s freaking video calls. Also, I’m sure Skype will update soon and tie into that front camera, opening the range of video calls a little bit further. Oh, and when you hit the little switch button the phone switches to the back camera and you can start broadcasting what’s in front of you to whomever you’re calling. That’s an even cooler part.

I’m not just buying an iPhone 4 for the cameras. I’m also buying it for the display. The Apple engineers behind the curtain have magically crammed 326 pixels into every inch of the screen. Absolutely ridiculous. I cried a little bit as Steve Jobs talked about rendering typography and anti-aliasing during the keynote, starting about minute 35. Everything just looks so crisp, so nice, so perfect. And not just the type, but pictures and video too.

*This blog is not endorsed by Steve Jobs. I doubt he even knows about it.

And that’s it. Those two features — improved dual cameras and ultra high resolution display — have sold me on the iPhone 4. All the rest of the operating system improvements and hardware improvements, and there are many, are just icing on the cake as they say.

Now the counter argument. Why not go with an HTC Evo or some other Android relative? Come on the Evo is 4G — you can even hear the whooshing sound as you surf the cutting edge of technology. Um, if you live in about 40 cities in 13 states. That sounds too sarcastic and I’m not trying to knock the Evo 4G or Sprint or anything like that. In fact, the Evo also has dual cameras. It even has a higher resolution with the back facing camera, 8 megapixel. It shoots HD video. It has a larger screen and even offers HDMI output. I would love to have one. Sprint even has unlimited data plans. I honestly can’t find any negatives as to why not to buy an HTC Evo 4G running on Sprint.

So why am I sticking with buying an iPhone 4 with AT&T? I guess it really comes down to staying in my comfort zone. I have built up a relationship with Apple and AT&T that makes me comfortable with them and their products. I trust Apple to make a great product. Score one for marketing, and two for engineering. Have I made the right choice? I’ll let you know on June 24th.

Progress has been a long time coming. I originally developed the idea of SpareType as my senior project for my undergraduate degree at Auburn University in 2008. I have worked off and on at putting together a website through various incarnations and designs over the past two years. Having a perfectionist streak certainly didn’t help.

Though the name is SpareType, the site won’t be strictly typography. Type will play a part. I plan on releasing some typefaces once I learn the nitty-gritty of FontLab and the technical side of OpenType. Mostly, there will be general graphic design goodness in the form of vectors, textures, and whatever else I feel like exploring and producing. I’m also into web development so I’m sure some of that will come into my posts too.

In the meantime, take a look around and please, oh please, give me any feedback or suggestions.