I can’t believe it, but this site turned 20 years old today! It’s been a bit quiet around here lately, but there will be more to come in the future… so keep checking back, there will be some new type on here soon :)

Thanks for visiting, following along, and liking type too!

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These photos from August 26, 2023… I’ve been going back through some photo archives and finally decided to start posting some old things. These were from the Secessions exhibition at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin last year. Most images here are, obviously, of the beautiful typography on display, but most of the other visitors were more into the Klimts.

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Cosette was born in 2004 on the streets of Oklahoma City. I rescued her from a co-worker’s yard before animal control was called. She was the only one from her litter to get adopted before the rest were taken away.

When I moved to Europe, Cosette stayed in the US… I never thought she’d be able to join me again… But, long story short, she did! Her favorite things in Berlin were to sleep on the warm radiators & to greet visitors @ the Mota Italic gallery.

When she was 10, we both relocated to Mumbai India. Luckily, she adjusted really well and didn’t seem to miss the radiators. She remained the only child for another 3 years, till 2017 when we adopted a local street cat, Nukta. By then, Cosi had been slowing down – taking longer naps & being lazier. But Nukta’s crazy energy gave Cosi a second wind. She was forced to be more playful & active, and they quickly became like siblings – but Cosette was always the alpha. Their bond only deepened when we all moved to Germany in 2020, where they’d spent much of the days snuggling in a ball.

Cosette lived with me longer than I lived with my parents (but not technically, if you count all the time I was away on vacations or for the ~2 years she was in the US). Losing her has been even more difficult than I ever imagined. But I find comfort knowing she had a full & wonderful life and was adored by so many.

She was remarkably healthy her whole life, until her last week. Since turning 20 in April, we took her for regular Vet visits. She always amazed them with how fit & healthy she was – until they suddenly discovered a tumor in her lung. They did all they could, but sadly, there was no fix.

Thankfully, besides some heavy breathing last week, she didn’t suffer much. She had a pampered last day full of cuddles, petting, and being the center of attention – all her favorite things.

Thank you to everyone who cared for her and helped look after her over the years. She was fortunate to have so many loving friends.

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I’m not a writer, Jan was. I won’t be able do him even a fraction of justice the way he championed design. But I am still compelled to share a bit about him and our friendship.

Jan Middendorp has been one of the most respected design writers since at least 2003 when I got interested in type. He was known for his well-researched articles, his reviews of typeface & conferences, his thoughtful interviews with other designers, and for his critiques of the design industry and politics. He penned, designed, and contributed to many books. A few include: Dutch Type is the ultimate encyclopedia of all things letters from Holland, Shaping Text is a brilliant textbook for students of graphic design, and his final large project was designing a series of books for Repeater books.

Aside from his books, Jan was also a journalist and a regular contributor to numerous design magazines. Eye magazine has a nice archive of many of his articles.

MyFonts became the most popular font distributor for several years in a large part thanks to Jan’s special texts. It’s no coincidence the popularity of MyFonts wither after his departure in 2016. He had tried for years (on a weekly basis) to convince me to sell my typefaces on MyFonts – I nearly gave in, but ultimately, I stayed strong. (Jan’s promise was sound: I’d make way more money if I was on MyFonts. I probably should have taken his advice…)

Earlier this year at ATypI, Jan received the TDC Metal (a lifetime achievement award). There is a video of the ceremony with several insightful and heartfelt tributes to Jan – he unfortunately wasn’t able to attend the conference. The stories by Petra Dočekalová, Laurence Penney, and Gerry Leonidas are touching and I’d recommend watching it to hear more firsthand accounts of what an exceptional person Jan was.

Beyond typography, Jan was also passionate about music – this was the other interest the two of us bonded over. Every time I’d visit his apartment he’d share some obscure artists from his extensive CD & vinyl collection. Many of my favorite memories with Jan were from 2010-2014 when he was my goto concert buddy. We saw many amazing live shows together. My favorite was Dr. John in 2012 for his Locked Down tour.

It pains me that we didn’t keep in touch more after I moved to India in 2014. Upon my return to Berlin in 2020, between Covid and his illness, we only met a handful of times. Even though he was unwell for years, it always felt like there would be more time. Jan is the first close friend I’ve lost, and I’ll never forget him. His passing has taught me that I need to keep my friends closer and make more of an effort to stay in each other’s lives.

I will forever be thankful for my time with Jan. I’m also grateful for the chance to see him a few weeks ago and that we could re-listen to Locked Down together one last time.

He will be missed.

RIP Jan.

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The best cough syrup in the world. Accept no imitations!

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This year’s theme was cartoons! As always, I used letters from my Collection typeface, and I drew them (roughly) in the style of the cartoon they are featured in. For A-Z, the letters represent the character they are shown with. For 0-9, those are all cartoons inside of cartoons – no correlation of numbers to the show, but the metaness of show inception is fun in its own right.

Can you name all the characters and shows?

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This year we have three families in the Typodarium calendar! The first up is Show Me the Mono. Go check it out more now :)

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Porcelain W made around 2005/06. Photographed in 2022. Posted in 2023.

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Ceramic R made around 2005/06. Photographed in 2022. Posted in 2023.

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14 years ago after my first after New Year’s Eve in Berlin, I did a little post about the fireworks packaging everywhere. Over the next several years I experienced many more even wilder December 31sts but didn’t bother to ‘document’ them. Last night’s festivities in Berlin were rather crazy again after two very mild & low-key covid years. So while I was walking around today, I again photographed some of the fireworks trash to see how the typography has changed in the last ~1.5 decades.

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As for the presentations, there were many wonderful people and topics, but for sure my favorite was the very first one: Irma Boom. I’m a big fan of hers, I also love miniature books, and I’ve been kicking myself for years for not buying her last mini Boom anthology. Seeing her speak and tell stories behind some of her favorite projects was enlightening and inspiring. She spoke for a bit over 1.5 hours, but I would have happily listened for several more. Unfortunately, we had to vacate the building immediately following the presentation and I didn’t get a chance to say hi :( I did however manage to score a brand new copy of the 3rd edition of her mini ‘manifesto’ book! The TPTQ book shop had some copies of this brand new version, and I was able to snatch one! It is a beautiful piece of work <3

Another personal highlight of mine was getting to know Álvaro Franca. I was a bit embarrassed to learn that we we met some years ago, but I didn’t remember. He is a fellow typeface designer from Brazil who is now living in Barcelona. If type doesn’t work out for him (it will, he’s very good) he could become a motivational speaker. We had unexpectedly intense and stimulating conversations about business and life and he gave me a lot to think about! If you aren’t familiar with Álvaro’s designs yet, I’d highly recommend checking out his work at his Naipe Foundry or Future Fonts.

Time to rapid fire a few of my favorite presentations from the main conference day (the Boom and Franca experiences were on Friday night; Saturday was the main event).

Ek Type’s Sarang Kulkarni & Noopur Datye came all the way from India to show off their latest typefaces and letterings. We used to practically be neighbors with them in Mumbai, so it was lovely to see them again and to hear them share their massive and complex projects with everyone. It’s not an understatement to say they doing the best pan-Indian type families ever made.

Ulrike Rausch is practically a current neighbor in Berlin, and all I can say is it’s always nice to see her. She has become THE handwriting font lady, so she had lots to say about faking handwriting digitally.

Not a neighbor (but I wish she was), Indra Kupferschmid is always a sight to behold. Whether she’s schooling you on design history, giving blunt opinions about the world, or just quatsching over a beer, she’s amazing.

Master Type Designer and Master Chef Yanek Iontef was one of the people I was most looking forward to seeing there. He is such a kind and thoughtful person, it’s a shame we are also not neighbors. He and his Fontef partner Daniel Grumer showed off some Hebrew & Arabic multiscript projects from Israel.

Finally closing out the day was Elias Hanzer from Dinamo. As you are likely aware, Dinamo is one of the hippest and most popular foundries… Having Elias there was a strong ending to the conference program. I didn’t get a chance to speak with Elias, but I did finally meet Dinamo’s Fabian Harb, no surprise but he is mega geil!

One last notable post-event highlight I’d share was getting to hang out with Pascal Zoghbi the morning after. Kimya had worked with him on a project last year (Zarid Sans Devanagari – a really really exceptional design, you should check it out!), but I didn’t have much chance to ever really speak with Pascal till now. He is one of my new favorite type people… again, just such a nice guy! ★★★★★

Last but least, my complaints about the conference. It was too short. One full day (and one extra late-night talk) is not sufficient time to catch up with everyone we’ve not seen since Covid. Or maybe there should have been coffee breaks between every talk. Better yet, why not make a conference sans presentations – the whole day would just be socializing with coffee, food, beer. (Someone please take that idea and make a new type conference!)

There was time enough to have decent chats with a handful of old friends. Another subset of friends I at least got to briefly say: “Hi, hope you’ve been well, let’s talk more soon…”. But there were so many other people I said barely anything to or even nothing. For example, Erik van Blokland & Paul van der Laan are a couple that spring to mind that I didn’t even say hi to. Laura Meseguer & Irene Vlachou I greeted once but that was about it… There were so many more I had hoped to chat with. Maybe I should email them now… but that’s not the same.

PS— if I didn’t specifically mention you here, I’m sorry. Ben, Linda, Frank, Dan, Boom (Thai not Irma), Tim, Shoko, all the normal Berlin people, etc., I really like you all too and hope to see you more soon!

Aside from the conference, I had two other discoveries that I can recommend in The Hague. 1) Het Rariteiten Kabinet is amazing (if you are into natural history sorta stuff)! I spent most of the lunch break there and was a bit late to Indra’s talk because it was so great. 2) Poké! I’ve only had this a few in my life (vegetarian ones at that), and the two I had in The Hague were quite nice (at least based on my expectations). Poké is something between a burrito bowl and sushi, it is a delicious pile of food.

PSS— Congrats to Peter & Andrej on organizing a great event!

PSSS— Dan Reynolds just made a great review of the conference over at the Fonststand blog. It’s an actual essay about the event, not just a rando blabbing about the nice people he hung out with.

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A tour of the southern border of Czechia August 8-12, 2022 with Mr. Rosetta.

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This is an in progress design that will be coming out soon!

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Not sure if you’ve seen yet, but we recently joined I Love Typography and are now offering all our fonts there on their website!

Today we’ve just updated all the product images to be more unified and cohesive for the whole foundry. This screenshot is from Affinity Publisher – and I just like the way everything looks together :)

You can also see them live on our Mota Italic page at ILT!

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