Nebiolo typefaces in search of an author
An analysis of the archive material that survived after Nebiolo’s shutdown makes it possible to identify more precisely the role played by Studio Artistico’s director Alessandro Butti, Novarese’s predecessor, in creating Nebiolo typefaces. The case of the photo in the type specimen book PC 570.
Featured This Week
Font Reviews
Job Clarendon
This variable design turns its back on a common tendency of adopting Clarendon-style letters to text-typeface proportions. David Jonathan Ross and Bethany Heck returned Clarendon to its more condensed 19th-century roots.
Design News
New Releases
Font Reviews
Book Reviews
Fonts In Use
Essays
Knowledge
Foundry Profiles
Quick News
Tune in into a stream of updates on everything typography and design. ↓
Interview with Alexander Nagel
The Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin has published a new video interview with Alexander Nagel, whose career covered all the stages of photo-typesetting in Germany.
Fonts In Use: Variable Fonts
The three most frequently cited advantages of variable fonts are compact file size (especially an advantage for non-Latin scripts), the return of optical sizes, and the ability for font users to tweak the appearance of text. The design projects on Fonts In Use with “variable fonts” as the tag fall mainly into the latter category. Here are four examples where designers have used their project as a typographic playground, exploring the possibilities of variable fonts within a set of self-imposed constraints.
A Distinct Voice in Swiss Type Design
Often in life, our most defining moments of change come to us through a chance encounter. This was certainly the case for the Zurich-based type design studio, Nouvelle Noire.
Unveiling Nebiolo’s history
Renowned for its last art director Aldo Novarese and some of its iconic typefaces, from Neon to Eurostile, since its closure in 1978 a history of the Società Nebiolo is largely still to be written. The Nebiolo History Project is a team effort to investigate the outstanding legacy of what was Italy’s greatest type foundry, with the aim of publishing an exhaustive monograph. In September 2021 an international symposium was held in Turin, focusing on its history and relevance.
Fonts In Use: Visiting an exhibition
During the COVID pandemic, some countries recognized the value of art by keeping museums accessible during the lockdowns. In most countries however, visiting cultural activities quickly became a sweet memory from a near past that now seems distant. As a reminder that museums have not ceased to exist, here are four exhibitions from the past two years, indoors and out, from four continents.
Type feeds technology
This Parisian company is well-known in type circles for technological improvements to the type-design process and its typefaces.
Quick News
Pierre-Yann is the Recto Verso studio’s art director and the creator of the Typologie typographic color chart collection. After the success of the first Typologie, dedicated to French foundries, he is expanding his collection with a new edition dedicated to Swiss foundries. That unique and ephemeral edition is now available for pre-order on Kickstarter. It features 18 Swiss foundries, including Grilli Type, Optimo, and Swiss Typefaces. The cover will be signed by the Swiss artist Rylsee and the item will include a preface by Roger Chatelain, author of La typographie suisse du Bauhaus à Paris.
After two years of online-only meetings, Fontstand can finally organize an in-person conference again! The 2022 edition of the annual Fontstand International Typography Conference takes place in The Hague on September 9th and 10th.
There is a new online course for learning how to make Variable Fonts. Taught by Arthur Reinders Folmer, it is open to everyone who wants to experiment with variable fonts: graphic designers, creative coders, visual designers, type lovers, and type designers; both students and professionals of all levels of expertise. You can learn in your own tempo with 11 video lessons coving the process from letter creation to HTML & CSS browser animations. The goal is to make this new technology accessible and fun for everyone!
On March 17th, Gerrit Noordzij passed away. He was 90 years old. From 1960 until 1990, he taught at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague. The influence of his lessons can be seen in the work of numerous type designers active today, including many of the people represented on the Fontstand service. Although he primarily wrote in Dutch and German, books of his in the English language like Letterletter and The Stroke: Theory of Writing have impacted many designers’ practices. The Type and Media program at KABK has published an obituary.