Morten Iveland speaks on Bolda Display

From our previous post on Bolda Display, we got a chance to catch up the designer himself Morten Iveland. Morten is from Oslo, Norway. He does graphic design a digital communications firm, Apt. He does wonderful work as he is also into DJing, music, and loves photography.

So what is Infamous Foundry?
Infamous is a brand new and experimental foundry. Bolda Display is the first release. The next release, Hugo™ , is due for release in april




How did you get started designing type?
Actually by coincidence. I was making a logotype with some custom letters and the result was the basic shapes of Bolda Display.



How do you start designing a typeface? Do you find flaws in an existing face?
Sometimes I see a typeface that inspires me or maybe just a basic shape that start to give me some ideas.   

Did you do an apprenticeship at another foundry?
Nope. This is my first type design. Type design is an interest I picked only a couple a years ago. 
 
It looks like you design other media. Which media do you prefer? Typography, Photography, etc?
I like to combine different medias when I'm designing. I enjoy working with my own photos and type, it gives me full control over the visual expression. 

Thanks Morten for giving us the time out to bug you! For more about Morten and his work look here
http://www.apt.no/english/
http://www.morteniveland.net

The Infamous Foundry

What do you think about this type? Do you love it? Have you seen it before? It seems some of the typography trends in 2007, 2008 is evolving in 2009. In the past, display typography was very much geometric. Huge blocky letters sorta like what you would have seen in Clock Work Orange, the movie. Now it seems to have soften around the corners, as you see it here, Bolda Display from Infamous Foundry.


* images from
http://www.infamousfoundry.net/

Typotheque Rebus Limited Edition T-shirt

Designer Ondrej Jób pushed the borders of legibility when creating the visual of this t-shirt. While we don't expect everyone to be able to decode the image, we hope that some will be able to read it. The rest can simply enjoy the intriguing image.

Author: Ondrej Jób
limited edition
available in silver grey
one colour printing
American Apparel, Fine Jersey, 100% cotton
Printed in Netherlands
Price: € 29.00

Click here to purchase!

The World’s Most Perfect Script

I always pick up little candies or treats from Japanese, Korean, Chinese stores. What is it with their packaging? I think not only are they using materials that surpass American sweets, but it has a lot to do with their typography. Because countries that rely on a more block symbols as letterforms, their kerning and overall typography treatment is impactful and beautiful at the same time. Hoefler & Frere-Jones has written this article about The World's Most Perfect Script. Now that is a bold statement! Here is what they had to say: 

Typographically, the Republic of Korea has much to celebrate. The world’s first typefaces cast in metal were made in Korea: a fourteenth century book in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris establishes Korean printing from movable type at least as far back as 1377, though Korean typefounding may date to 1234, some 221 years before Gutenberg. An impediment to early printing was the complexity of Chinese characters, then used to render the Korean language, which further stifled national literacy. But in 1446, an undertaking by King Sejong the Great addressed both problems, through what is surely one of the greatest inventions in the history of typography: the Hangul alphabet. On October 9, Korea celebrates this incredible innovation as Korean Alphabet Day, better known as Hangul Day.

Please visit their site for further reading: Hoefler & Frere-Jones

Things I Learned from Peter Saville

I've been a big fan of Peter Saville's work. He is widely known for this album art of Factory Artists. I recently needed to do a ran across this page about him on his website. There is something to learn as we will always be students.
-Courtney

A Few Observations On How To Behave otherwise titled 'Things I Learned from Peter Saville'

1 Never answer phone calls directly until after midday.
2 Use all surfaces as work space including the carpet and coffee tables and closets and drawers.
3 Think of your persona. Think of your house as your persona. Think of possessions as extensions of your persona.
4 The preparation of coffee is an art form.
5 Treat all institutions with heavy scepticism.
6 Treat yourself sceptically but very indulgently.
7 Money is to be spent only. Well and fast.
8 Collect all ephemera around your life and work and archive it incessantly.
9 Never learn computer programs. Don't get that involved with technical information.
10 Take notes. Carry paper.
11 Areas of comprise have potential.

When I met Peter Saville he seemed at first like a slightly reclusive graphic designer living in a block of flats from the 1960s in Mayfair. 'The apartment', as it was called, was a consummate corporate hideaway. A throwback to another era. But what corporation? A space funded by entities unseen. An agenda that was never entirely clear, or if it ever was, Peter never divulged it. A bat cave for the nocturnal. Dark grey interior. Endless couches. Constant coffee service and unceasing advice from Peter on how to proceed. A perfect meeting point. I used to bring friends over too. They didn't quite know how to enter the dialogue as it presupposed a 'project', a need, a treatment. You had to turn yourself into one. Of course at that stage it was just about a publication I had asked Peter to prepare for my first Paris exhibition. I remember he accepted but said he didn't want to be a tailor. By this I guess he meant the act of judging how much white would be on my pages. I thought this was understandable. He seemed to be doing a send-up of the role of graphic designer. Yet he was very good at the process of spending time discussing the possibilities, judging the photography, debating the meaning and educating me about the endless other projects he was supposed to be doing to actually pull in some money. This of course was flattering and generous. The wasting of time has a precious economy all of its own.

He was often in a blue silk paisley robe by Sulka, complaining about the various commercial pressures upon him. He seemed to fetishize being an anti-capitalist. I think I even drew him this way a few times. It always seemed to be about 3pm in the main room as the vertical shades sequestered what little sun there was in London. A bit like Vegas in the sense of a commercial logic or actual strategy of ignoring the clock or at least natural light. The bathroom was like a Richard Hamilton painting. I remember it clearly; black marble, orchids, a box of Kleenex and a large container of liquid ant-bacterial soap. This was Peter's still life. Intimate but very generic too. Men's leather slippers next to a chair. Always in the same place. Seemingly never worn. It was an arrangement to be noticed. To be observed. To be imparted like a meticulous letter or font.

- Sarah Morris



I first came in contact with the work of Peter Saville through the cover art of Joy Division's 1979 album Unknown Pleasures.

I had moved to New York City in late 1977. As an aspiring young artist I quickly realised that the New York art world I had fantasised about becoming part of was dying, and the real excitement was happening in the NYC underground music scene. I went regularly to CBGB's to see the Ramones, Television and the Talking Heads, and listened to the Sex Pistols and the Clash in my studio. The energy and power of punk, new wave, and no wave music became the fuel for my creative engine. It was an awakening. This music felt like mine: a revenge on the failure of the hippie love generation.

A big part of my life then was going on weekly trips to the local underground record shop. It was like a trip to a new universe -- and the far reaches of the galaxy were usually in the import section. Money was always tight then so one's purchase had to be on the mark. But that risk was part of the fun of it.

The visual component of the album cover was monstrously important. It functioned like a visual-aural transporter. I never knew what a band sounded like until I played the album back in my studio, making it my private discovery. The album cover was how I would judge what record I ultimately bought. And that is how I stumbled upon Joy Division and Peter Saville.

On one of these exploratory trips to the record shop I distinctly remember going through the import racks and I must admit that I didn't really like the visual 'punk' sensibility. It looked too obvious. I was looking for something new, something in sync with what I was thinking about in my art. I was looking for images that had a radical visual elegance, historical yet irreverent; and having a certain distance. And there--between albums by the Jam and the Junk Circus--I found Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures.

The stark elegance of its cover and the graphic simplicity was eerie yet beautiful; but above all, radically different from all the endless punk crap covers. The striking, white, electronic waveform drawing centered on the black textured cover just hummed. The waveform image was a wave graph of a dying star. I mean come on! 'How fucking great is that?' I thought. A dying star for a dying culture on a dying planet! It was such a huge concept, yet so direct--it just blew me away. When I finally played the record in my studio I became hypnotized by the music. I will always associate that moment, music and album cover with the beginning of my professional life as a practicing artist. I would listen to it endlessly while I was working, usually late at night, and I would always keep the cover in view.

Saville's visual style exploded with New Order. His source material seemed to be coming from the same place that many artists of my generation were using: only Saville used them, at times significantly better. It just killed me with jealousy--how better to phrase a compliment? He helped reaffirm many of the notions I had had about the kind of art I wanted to make and I will always be indebted to his vision.

I have always felt that music is such a pure form. It always amazed me how Peter was capable of creating an album cover that did not infringe, hinder, ground or marginalise the music it represented, but simply enhanced one's personal imagination as the listener. It is extraordinary how the music is so lovingly carried in a Saville package--like a sacred message that need not be advertised, but was simply treated with reverence and respect.

After a while, seeing Saville's work felt like a one-way conversation with a good friend. And so, with that, I sought him out. We quickly became friends and, though I see him rarely these days, I always watch what he is doing. From what I have seen and read, Saville's visual sensibility has always been a few steps ahead in his world of design. Yet somehow he has always been in sync with the artists of my world. I believe that when the ashes clear, Saville's work will be in the art museums right next to the generation he ran with and inspired.

- Robert Longo

These two excerpts were first published in Peter Saville Estate 1-127 the catalogue for his exhibition at the migros museum fur gegenwartskunst Zurich 12th November, 2005-8th January, 2006 Copyright Sarah Morris, Robert Longo 2007

"And you, forgotten... no longer setting out for the haçienda where the roots think of the child and where the wine is finished off with fables from an old almanac. Now that's finished. You'll never see the haçienda. It doesn't exist. The haçienda must be built."

via.
http://www.btinternet.com/~comme6/saville/essay4.htm

Fun Fonts from Font Shop....mmmm yummie!!

Comicraft, Mr Mamoulian, Absolutely Fabulous,
Bryan Talbot, Enemy Lines, Mad Scientist, Ratatatat,
Sticky Fingers
A new series of fonts designed to thrill and delight proves again why the artists at Comicraft are the masters of authentic comic book lettering.



P22 Sniplash
Sniplash brings back the cartoons of the 1960s and ’70s, serving up sportive spirals and lively lines for packaging and parties.




Fleurons 1-5, Initials, Labels
Decorative initials and embellishments evoke the age of adornment. The fleurons serve beautifully as underlines, frames, and patterns, or in combination with Wiescher’s scripts like Ellida, Fleurie, Bodoni Classic, and Royal Classic.

Courtney's Type Tricks and Tips

Because last week was pretty hectic I have a double whammy of information!
Since my team are wrapping up holiday, I've decided to do a little on Initial Caps, Alternate Swashes, and little on Humanist type period.


Intial Caps or drop caps, what is the diff?
Intial caps are over sized letterforms that starts at the beginning of paragraphs using only the first letter of the first word of the first paragraph. The initial may sit on the same baseline as the first line of text, at the same margin.

Drop caps has the same purpose but the intial sits within the margins and runs several lines deep into the paragraph pushing some normal-sized text off these lines.

This style of typography dates back to the super old days try circa 200 when manuscripts were handwritten. Because of its popularity it has been passed down as a tradition of Roman text, It has lasted through out the periods of typography movements and can be used today. I think the best way to utilize this treatment is to find a typeface that has simuliar qualities of the your text typeface. Because intial caps do not come as a family of fonts such as Helvetica (roman, italic, bold, etc) you would have to silulate that both typefaces belong together. Also dont forget to work with the initial caps--that is to fix the kerning and baseline shift of the typefaces.

For more fun info lookie here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial


Alternate swashes
Another fun way to work with type is to use alternate swashes. It was developed out of using letterforms from calligraphers. Typically swashes are used at the beginning or the end of a word. However, it is not limited to only that usage. Some typefaces have alternate swashes for letterforms that work in a word that is not at the beginning or at the end, but does not read very well.

A typeface that we have that we can use is Zapfino. Some swash letters can be added almost anywhere. Avalon, Bookman, Garamond, also has alternate swashes. Those are some that are off the top of my head. I will further research what typefaces are available in our library.

For more fun info lookie here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swash_(typography)



Humanist period in Typography
So with all the Holiday cards, i chose to highlight the humanist period...why? Well it seems that with the religious tie of Christmas, although we recognize all kinds of religions, winter, santa claus, and holiday in general that majority of the typefaces that fit are from this period.

The Humanist types (sometimes referred to as Venetian) appeared during the 1460s and 1470s, and were modelled not on the dark gothic scripts like textura, but on the lighter, more open forms of the Italian humanist writers. The Humanist types were at the same time the first roman types.

Characteristics
So what makes Humanist, Humanist? What distinguishes it from other styles? What are its main characteristics?
1 Sloping cross-bar on the lowercase “e”;
2 Relatively small x-height;3 Low contrast between “thick” and “thin” strokes (basically that means that there is little variation in the stroke width);
4 Dark colour (not a reference to colour in the traditional sense, but the overall lightness or darkness of the page). To get a better impression of a page’s “colour” look at it through half-closed eyes.

For more fun info lookie here: http://ilovetypography.com/2007/11/06/type-terminology-humanist-2/

Adjust Baseline shift in InDesign
Move Up by Increment Option-Shift-up arrow
Move Down by Increment Option-Shift-down arrow
(add Cmd to the above keystrokes to make them Increment x 5)
Because last week was pretty hectic I have a double whammy of information!
Since my team are wrapping up holiday, I've decided to do a little on Initial Caps, Alternate Swashes, and little on Humanist type period.


Intial Caps or drop caps, what is the diff?
Intial caps are over sized letterforms that starts at the beginning of paragraphs using only the first letter of the first word of the first paragraph. The initial may sit on the same baseline as the first line of text, at the same margin.

Drop caps has the same purpose but the intial sits within the margins and runs several lines deep into the paragraph pushing some normal-sized text off these lines.

This style of typography dates back to the super old days try circa 200 when manuscripts were handwritten. Because of its popularity it has been passed down as a tradition of Roman text, It has lasted through out the periods of typography movements and can be used today. I think the best way to utilize this treatment is to find a typeface that has simuliar qualities of the your text typeface. Because intial caps do not come as a family of fonts such as Helvetica (roman, italic, bold, etc) you would have to silulate that both typefaces belong together. Also dont forget to work with the initial caps--that is to fix the kerning and baseline shift of the typefaces.

For more fun info lookie here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial


Alternate swashes
Another fun way to work with type is to use alternate swashes. It was developed out of using letterforms from calligraphers. Typically swashes are used at the beginning or the end of a word. However, it is not limited to only that usage. Some typefaces have alternate swashes for letterforms that work in a word that is not at the beginning or at the end, but does not read very well.

A typeface that we have that we can use is Zapfino. Some swash letters can be added almost anywhere. Avalon, Bookman, Garamond, also has alternate swashes. Those are some that are off the top of my head. I will further research what typefaces are available in our library.

For more fun info lookie here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swash_(typography)



Humanist period in Typography
So with all the Holiday cards, i chose to highlight the humanist period...why? Well it seems that with the religious tie of Christmas, although we recognize all kinds of religions, winter, santa claus, and holiday in general that majority of the typefaces that fit are from this period.

The Humanist types (sometimes referred to as Venetian) appeared during the 1460s and 1470s, and were modelled not on the dark gothic scripts like textura, but on the lighter, more open forms of the Italian humanist writers. The Humanist types were at the same time the first roman types.

Characteristics
So what makes Humanist, Humanist? What distinguishes it from other styles? What are its main characteristics?
1 Sloping cross-bar on the lowercase “e”;
2 Relatively small x-height;3 Low contrast between “thick” and “thin” strokes (basically that means that there is little variation in the stroke width);
4 Dark colour (not a reference to colour in the traditional sense, but the overall lightness or darkness of the page). To get a better impression of a page’s “colour” look at it through half-closed eyes.

For more fun info lookie here: http://ilovetypography.com/2007/11/06/type-terminology-humanist-2/

Adjust Baseline shift in InDesign
Move Up by Increment Option-Shift-up arrow
Move Down by Increment Option-Shift-down arrow
(add Cmd to the above keystrokes to make them Increment x 5)

Courtney's Type Tricks and Tips

Another weekly dose!

On choosing Type
Typography is not a science. Typography is an art. There are those who’d like to ‘scientificize’; those who believe that a large enough sample of data will somehow elicit good typography. However, this sausage-machine mentality will only ever produce sausages. That typography and choosing type is not a science trammeled by axioms and rules is a cause to rejoice.

For further reading: http://ilovetypography.com/2008/04/04/on-choosing-type/


Something Interesting: Kinetic Typography
Kinetic typography refers to the art and technique of expression with animated text. Similar to the study of traditional typography of designing static typographic forms, kinetic typography focuses on understanding the effect time has on the expression of text. Kinetic typography has demonstrated the ability to add significant emotive content and appeal to expressive text, allowing some of the qualities normally found in film and the spoken word to be added to static text. Kinetic type has been widely and successfully used in film as well as in television and computer-based advertising. Perceptual psychology research on attention, reading performance, and comprehension has indicated that time-based presentation of text can be used effectively to capture and manipulate a viewer’s attention and in some cases improve overall reading performance.

For further reading: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/kt/


Indesign Keyboard Shortcuts for Styling Text
Bold: Cmd-Shift-B
Italic: Cmd-Shift-I
Normal: Cmd-Shift-Y
All Cap: Cmd-Shift-K
Edit Style Sheet without Applying it: Cmd-Option-Shift-Double click style

Courtney's Type Tricks & Tips

Some how at work I've been given the responsibility of informing my team about typography. As a designers we've all gone through typography classes, however, after time goes by and as we get older sometimes we all need a brush up. So I will share this weekly drop of information with you as well.

From Elements of Typography
Robert Bringhurst

1.2.4 Choose a typeface or a group of faces that will honor and elucidate the character of the text.

This is the beginning, middle, and end of the practice of typography: choose and use the type with sensitivity and intelligence. Letterforms have a tone, timbre, character, just as words and sentences do. The moment a text and a typeface are chosen, two streams of thought, two rhythmical systems, two sets of habits, or if you like two personalities, intersect.
The root metaphor of typesetting is that the alphabet is a system of interchangeable parts. Every comma, every paranthesis, every e, and in context, even every empty space, has style as well as bald symbolic value. Letters are microscopic works of art as well as useful symbols. Typography is the art and craft of handling those doubly meaningful bits of information. A good typographer handles them intelligent, coherent, and sensitive ways.


A fun site to check out is myfonts.com you can find fonts and it suggest fonts that have the same characteristics for more variety. 

Our Type, Premium fonts from the Netherlands

Our Type, Premium fonts from the Netherlands. Available on Fontshop.com


OurType holds a special place in FontShop’s heart because it was co-founded by the clever captain of our Benelux operation, Rudy Geeraerts. The foundry was born in 2002 when Rudy teamed up with Fred Smeijers who is internationally known for his writing and lectures, but above all, for his type designs. Smeijers’ work is sought after by designers seeking to dip into the deep well of contemporary Dutch typography.

Six years later, OurType is now one of the world’s preeminent font collections with over a dozen extensive families from both established designers and promising young guns. This latest batch includes several new releases along with existing typefaces updated to OurType’s OTF Pro format which supports the Latin Extended character set and OpenType extras like case-sensitive forms and additional figure styles.

via. fontshop

Yummie Type: Motter Ombra and the One Show

Yummie Type: Motter Ombra. The sample is of the 1980 spanish Letraset catalog. A fattie typeface as mentioned in a back post..is just as hot then and now.

NEW YORK, NY -- The One Club this week will recognize the excellence of the Typophile Film Fest 4 titles with a coveted One Show Pencil. Punchcut commissioned Brent Barson and Eric Gillette for the title design on behalf of Typophile. We could not be more pleased for Brent and Eric and the students of their Visual Arts 441 / BYU class that participated. The titles opened our Typophile Film Fest 4 to a filled-to-capacity audience of 300+ attendees at TypeCon 2007 in Seattle and was shown again to a standing-room-only crowd at the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco.

via. typophile

Fontstruct. Build, Share, Download Fonts for FREE!

Lately friends have been emailing me items that they want to share, thanks guys. Wes from Imeem as well as Paloma from Il-literacry have emailed me Frontstruct. I've browsed the site before and figured this needs to be posted because of the wonderful feed back. This is truly an awesome site delivered to you by FontShop. You know its legit when FontShop has their hands on it, its not your 1000 free fonts online kind of place. It offers the ability to make your own font without having to make one old school (you know you had the project freshman year in design school). People can vote on it, download it, buy it etc. 

Be on the look out for an exclusive font by iDR! If you happen to make on let us know, we'd like to see what you got

Free font!

This typeface is free for you to use as you wish, but may not be re-distrubted without prior written consent. Download it here

via. www.skwiotsmith.com

Font: Moderno FB

In 1995, David Berlow cut FB Moderno for Esquire Gentleman and Reforma from a TrueType pole of Giza. In 1996 he cut new styles with Richard Lipton for El Norte. In 1997 Roger Black ordered new weights for Tages Anzeiger. Redesign of Baltimore Sun, with FB Ionic as text, required further growth. The whole series was then revised for Louise Vincent, Montreal Gazette, with further styles added in 2005 for La Stampa. FB 1994-2008

Among other uses, Moderno FB is recommended for Newspaper and Magazine use.
To purchase, download it here:Font Bureau

bad designer

Fatty Type

Poster about saving water (maybe), designed by Distrikt55/ United Kingdom

Trick typeface, designed by Andrei Robu / Romania


There has been a reocurring type trend in 2007 that is creeping into 2008. Fatty geometric type is everywhere. I first used Bauhaus for a flier that designed for Wild 'N Krazy Kidz but its seen across the globe from print, to packaging, editorial, promotional, to just about every design there is out there. Of course there remains a lot of unseen type that needs recognition but this fatty geometric type is fun and funky.

anyone out there that have any clue to this label thing?