Back In Business

My broadband connection is finally up and running again.

I've come back to find lovely comments left on my posts on type - thank you. I'm glad that there are so many like-minded people out there. Can you imagine a future like the one William Gibson imagined in All Tomorrow's Parties? The reality we live in now isn't all that far away from the one cooked up in dear William's mind.

A Love Affair With Type (Pt. 2)

A continuation from my last post on type, here are some type which I find inspiring.

This is London by Miroslav Sasek
Buy from Amazon

Published in The New Yorker October 24, 1931
by Rose Silver

A Love Affair With Type

What is it about type that is so intriguing? 26 letters of the alphabet that can be designed to communicate various emotions and messages. Just look at M/M (Paris) - image below.

M/M (Paris) - with Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin
The Alphabet [Generic], 2001
Image borrowed from Haunch of Venison

Other fans of type like ACEJet170, an English graphic designer with his collections of found type from holidays, car boot sales and other peoples' waste - just to name a few sources of his. It's thrilling to share someone else's finds (and passions) and be privvy to another person's perspective of what is beautiful.

Image borrowed from ACEJet170.

So this journey on type leads one right back to the fundamentals. Letterpress. A dying art form in this day and age of Quark Express and Indesign, letterpress is the precursor of the desktop publishing and printing that we know today. Letterpress is taught on most graphic design courses but the only commercial one I could find is by Harrington & Squires. In the crudest form of explanation, one could say that letterpress is akin to rubber stamping on a large scale. Like Chinese woodblock printing, letterpress is important to the history of printing and, therefore, extremely important that this art be kept alive now and for future generations.

Image borrowed from Harrington & Squires.

Homemade Hobbies

Currently addicted to knitting and crafting, this site (A to Z) makes one want to get the scissors, rubber stamps and stickers out. Between the two of them (Anne Louise and Zoe), they have oodles of talent.

Now, if only I knew how to use a sewing machine...

Notebook Frenzy

Black, round corners, cardboard bound (with just enough flexibility). Hemingway had one, Picasso had one. A pretty notebook won't turn one into an overnight literary sensation, so some say. It may have sensory appeal but it's no quickfix for bad grammar and syntax. Real writers write on anything: bus tickets, cinema stubs, supermarket receipts. ... Don't care. ... I want my moleskin notebook. Pocket sized. Ruled or plain, I don't mind.

Moleskin diehards, please go here
Moleskin converts, please go here
Moleskin cynics, please go here