Another project soon to be launched is the brand identity, photography and website for Trance and Progressive House Music Producer, Breame. Breame also happens to be my other half – it’s been a challenge, working with someone I’m close to, but we are getting there. He’s been producing for last ten years and is ridiculously talented I can’t wait to unveil his new brand and site to give him and his work the platform it deserves. Photography by the excellent David Boni.
From a young age, I was aware of typefaces. Only I didn’t know they were typefaces as I was five, and although fairly bright and a precocious reader, I wasn’t some kind of intellectual-design-kid-prodigy (although how cool would one of those be?!). I remember wondering why certain ‘types’ of letters were used for kids books, adults books, cereal boxes, billboards, TV adverts etc. and noticing patterns as to how they were used, the styles that were aimed at kids on toys and cartoons for example. Then as an egotistical and slightly obnoxious teenager I spent inordinate amounts of time developing (far too) many variations on how I wrote and signed my name (Mandi, with an ‘i’ of course – cringe) and then painstakingly scrawled it all over my – and my pals’ – schoolbooks.
Safe to say, I find the subject of typography fascinating, and can look at type books for hours; probably longer than would be considered healthy. I obsess about it because as a designer, its an important part of my job; weird typesetting and crazy typeface choices can do so much damage to visual harmony, brand voice, legibility, readability and ultimately the viewer’s understanding of a piece of communication.
Anyway this brings me to this excellent book, Type Matters! by Jim Williams. This is a great book for a basic, but comprehensive, education in typesetting. An absolute pleasure to read with a gorgeously tactile cover, rounded page edges and beautiful typographic spread.
Type Matters! covers a huge range of topics, with each being illustrated with clear examples. I devoured this book in no time at all. To be honest much of it I was taught at college, but it’s always good to refresh your memory I say. This is a fabulous book for design students, and also a handy reference tool for seasoned designers too. Plus it looks great on your bookshelf…
Just bought this beauty from my fonts. Yes, I look at fonts for fun, and would much rather buy a font than a dress. Hands down.
Trend is, despite the above declaration, hipster as hell. It’s like the lovechild of Gotham and Neutraface, two of my absolute favourites and comes in a huge selection of weights – sans, shaded, inline, shadow and a lovely contrasting slab. I’m also delighted to see that there is a huge selection of quirky ornaments. Plus, look at that ‘R’, cheeky or what?
All in all 20 weights plus ornaments and webfont for £17.50 is amazing. Buy it here, it’s on sale (a whopping $140 off) until February 18th. Both images from myfonts.
Myself and my friend Rachel Patrick held a wee stall at the Roamin’ Nose’s Christmas Market last week. It was a fab event and great fun to chat to other crafty creatives such as Kapunk, By Mi and Bleather it was also awesome to finally meet in the flesh the lovely Zoe from Conversation Pieces who bought some of my Typetastic Tags, which you can buy here along with my ‘Ink’ print which is now for sale.
The Roamin’ Nose was a fabulous venue, with a cosy and welcoming atmosphere. We had Honey Bread Toast with Pecorino and Pears, which was divine followed by fabulous thin cut chips, which are somewhere between crisps and chips. I also sampled the heavenly Seasonal Tart with Winter Salad. We also had a good stab at working our way through the wine list, all of which were lush and ended the evening with marshmallows from The Marshmallow Lady (which I have been raving about to anyone who’ll listen – nothing like shop bought ones). Yum, I’ll definitely be going back.
Myself and the lovely Rachel Patrick headed to Brighton a couple of weeks ago for the Ampersand Conference. Brighton is such a cool place, great atmosphere and tons of cool lettering and art everywhere. Loved it.
Ottmar! You’ve done it! A line of type!
Whitelaw Reid, New York Tribune, 1886
At the Ampersand 2012 Conference we were treated to a screening of Linotype: The Film over lunch followed by a Q&A session with the director, Doug Wilson (whose very cool ampersand tattoo is set in Scala, fact fans).
This is a wonderful film and not only for type enthusiasts. The Linotype was invented on 3 July 1886 by German watchmaker Ottmar Mergenthaler and created a communication revolution. Publications that previously required to be typeset by hand could be done much faster using the LInotype machine to create lines of hot metal type. This allowed for news to be reported to the public hours after it happened, and also made the production of printed publications cheaper thus allowing for the widespread and timely dissemination of information to the masses. It also didn’t even put anyone out of work, it increased the demand for print so much that hand type setters were employed to operate Linotype machines. Win, win I say.
All in all a fascinating tale of an invention that changed the world, a great piece of social, industrial and cultural history. Linotype: The Film will be released on DVD in October and will also be available Netflix, iTunes and Amazon. Absolutely worth a watch,
Oh and I also treated myself to an awesome letterpress print, pressed by the director himself. Amazing Lintoype artwork by Brian Collins
