007

font

04

Font 007
Neue
Fonts

09

Foundry
Spotlight

Its good to introduce

non-human forces,
be they mechanical
or natural, in order
to invigorate or
question existing
creative processes.
Rob Meek page 28

I need restrictions to
be creative; its when
I have restrictions that
I can perform my art.
jean franois porchez page 9

13

Making
the Rules

e mainstream
accessibility of
the computer has
publicly lowered the
accepted general
standards and value
of good design, while
professionally it
has considerably
magnified the
designers abilities.
When you have
tensions like these
at play in any field,
the result is usually
mixed, but a lile
more good than bad.
alejandro paul page 10

Ideas can be works of

art; they are in a chain
of development that may
eventually find some
form. All ideas need
not be made physical.
sol lewitt page 14

Font 007

Font

Shop

Rule Makers/Rule Breakers

20

Breaking
the Rules

29

New
FontFonts

34

FontStruct:
Built with Bricks

New
A

fter a long day of scanning web

pages and deleting junk email, I
might sit back and soak in the latest
entertainment news from Hollywood or
reflect on national opinion with the chatter
of pundits and their eternal polls that never
seem to get the story right. I like to think that
its my obligation to the media industrial
complex to absorb as much information as
possible or risk, like excess carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere, a dangerous buildup
of ones and zeros.
Things sure have changed in the last
decade. When I think about the trajectory of
our contemporary society, with all the tools
and applications we use to publish, move,
and manage information, Im immediately
reminded of Henry David Thoreau. I can
picture him sitting outside his small cabin,
quietly meditating on the breakneck speed
of social and economic progress as the last
rays of the day sparkle across Walden Pond.
Like us, Thoreau was experiencing a profound
shift. His, defined by rapid industrial
expansion and a final push across the frontier;
ours, by the release of the latest smart
phone or praise for the next big viral video.
But unlike Thoreau, who saw a need to
retreat from the rules and systems that were
quickly reshaping his world, weve embraced
ours as solutions to organize physical and
electronic space or to fulfill a personal
identity within the gathering storm of the
data we face every day.

Where Thoreau wasnt impressed with

change, writing that, There is an incessant
flow of novelty into the world and yet we
tolerate incredible dullness, curator and
art critic Glen Helfand finds inspiration.
Recognizing ours as an age of convergence,
Helfand focuses this issue of Font on the work
of a wide cross section of artists and designers
who are making the rules by channeling
that incessant flow through filters and toward
the creation of generative art. He convinces
us that processing information is not only
a reflection of our time but a celebratory
act that can result in beautiful thoughtprovoking images and objects. We also
focus on six additional projects that feature
graphic designers and typographers who
are breaking the rules by using generative
concepts to map ideas, from individual letters
to complex narratives. Finally, we toot our
own horn for FontStruct, a new online portal
for building and sharing fonts thats been
getting plenty of blog buzz.
If its true that everything has its proper
place, then we can rest assured that Thoreau
found his at Walden and those extra ones
and zeros (and all that they represent) have
found a comfortable home in Font magazine.
To get started, here are a few simple rules:
read, share, and recycle.
Amos Klausner
Editor

fonts used brisa parisine plus ff pitu ff scribble ff trixie fonts used throughout ff meta ff meta serif

fontshop.com

fstop 472.001

Font 007

e
u
e
N
s
t
n
o
F

fstop 596.006

Ed Benguiats revival of the

classic Bookman is now available
in OpenType. itc Bookman
differs from previous renderings,
with improved readability, a
real italic, and a suite of fanciful
alternates and swashes which
are now more accessible thanks
to the new format. Check out ITC
Bookman Std on FontShop.com
for a preview of the OT extras.

Business neednt be banal.

Fresh type can make the
difference. Take, for instance,
P22 Imperial Script, a new
take on formal copperplate
scripts. Thanks to its extra large
lowercase, it is unhampered
by the legibility issues of its
predecessors. OurTypes Parry
also borrows from the past,
acknowledging but softening its
Victorian roots. Think of it as a
contemporary Clarendon, with
the welcome addition of italics,
small caps, text figures, and a
complementary sans serif family.

fontshop.com

Time

Zon

fstop illustrated concepts collection

A favourite book of Mr. farles Washington Mevik 12

El ingenioso hidalgo
Don qixote de la Mancha

aka Donkey Jot

But only in selected regions of steveie

Rugged and angular, Rubn

Fontanas award-winning
Andralis ND is unlike any
traditional text serif, yet it reads
beautifully. The complete text
family is complemented by a
bevy of unconventional ligatures.

Font 007

starring

ne

Starlet
OHarlot

Based on Edward Johnstons

1916 type design for the London
Underground, P22 Underground
Pro is both a historical homage
and an expansive font system
for modern-day use. A large
set of alternate forms lets the
user replicate the flavor of the
original subway signage or create
something truly twenty-first
century. This sans powerhouse
includes six weights with broad
language support for Latin,
Greek, and Cyrillic.

Play
Directors Commentary Off On
Scene Selection
Bonus Features
Language Options
Theatrical Trailer

Time

Zone


Jumping straight from the titles
of a classic film, the OpenTypeempowered Kinescope is
meticulously crafted with
automated alternates to keep it
flowing smoothly. Meanwhile,
fp Dancer infuses a modern
text typeface with the fluidity
of hand lettering. Along with its
serifed companion, the family
has everything needed to set
professional type: small caps,
fractions, case-sensitive forms,
and a full set of figures.

e
u
e
N
s
t
n
Fo
With small slabs and blunted
rounds, Soho is grounded
in a contemporary look that
reflects modern technological
sensibilities. The 40-member
family of nine weights and
five widths weighs in at over
32,668 glyphs, versatile enough
for almost any task from a
corporate identity to a complete
magazine design.

fstop 010.025

fstop 330.023

Font 007

Foundry Spotlight

Porchez Typofonderie

******************

Pain at the pump

Le pain et la pompe
Le pain & la pomme
Les pommes frites
angie sanstm

nised

Mmm...

******************

( Sortie
parisinetm

a fontshop exclusive

AGJMQUW
defglwxyz

yme
Jean Franois Porchez is a national
typographic icon in his native
France, where his typefaces grace
everything from the signage of the
Paris Mtro to the internationally
renowned French daily newspaper
Le Monde. FontShop is honored
to be the exclusive reseller of
Porchez Typofonderie, a collection
that represents the finest in
contemporary type design. There is
something here for every purpose,
be it a chic rebranding or an
authoritative publication design.

Wishing on a

Chateaux Gteux
Liquoric
ui de Saola
Garic Upset
parisine plustm

a fontshop exclusive

AGJMQUW
defglwxyz

sarSky
ambroisetm

DArtagnan
et Dumbarse
le mondetm

a fontshop exclusive

The Scarlet Pimpernels

sou
e
addicion
proved to be his

dnouement
apollinetm

a fontshop exclusive

Porchezs Angie Sans is an incised

roman with a humanistic touch.
It works well with its companion
in the FontFont library, FF Angie.
Created for mass transit signage in
Paris, Parisine is a Frutiger for the
new century. Parisine Plus is its
more playful sister.
There are hundreds of Bodoni
revivals, but none is quite like
Ambroise. Available in three
widths, Ambroise includes Firmin
Didots original forms of g, k, and
y, along with a corps of alternates.
For Le Monde, Porchez created a
face that shares the color of the
old standby Times New Roman, but
is much more open and readable.
The comprehensive Le Monde
system consists of Journal for text
sizes, Livre for headlines, and Sans
and Courrier for the trimmings.

Foundry Spotlight

Sudtipos

Roasted Gallic Flavour

amorindatm

Teriyaki Ribs
cuisinetm

Sweet Potato
brisatm

Spanish for type of the South, the

Sudtipos name proudly displays
its Argentinian heritage. The
foundry, based in Buenos Aires,
is setting the standard for a region
that has become a hotbed for new
type design. Founder Alejandro
Paul draws his own type and

works with fellow Argentine artists

like Diego Giaccone and Angel
Koziupa, whose lettering skills help
create script fonts that dance on
the page, defying the limitations
of conventional digital type. The
latest Sudtipos releases feature
bountiful ligatures, swashes, and

contextual alternates that allow the

type to do justice to its freehand
pen and brush origins. See more at
FontShop.com, where the advanced
character set viewer offers a
complete overview of all these
extra characters and the OpenType
features that invoke them.

M PuebloTaqueria
sudestadatm

Tierra del Fuego

plumerotm

Ossie & Ricky

milk scripttm

Chorizo

Tis Pity Shes a...

herenciatm

Is she really going out wth him?

argentatm

10

Font 007

la porteniatm

TypeTogether

Cracking Quackerz
breetm

Belarus, Belarus, will you do the fandango?

coratm

Kafka Ztopek Dvok

Navrtilov
Trained at the University of Reading,
classmates Veronika Burian and
Jos Scaglione put their world-class
education to real-world use in the
creation of TypeTogether.
Their global perspective (hailing
from the Czech Republic and
Argentina, respectively) has yielded
highly original typefaces, from
spirited sans serifs like Bree and
Ronnia to steady contemporary
workhorses like Cora and Karmina.
Like those of any Reading grad,
each of their fonts is studiously
researched and expertly crafted.

ronniatm

Meritorious economy combined with

encyclopdic mellifluousity

And 4,852 rather splendid numerals, too

karminatm

RFRF

RFRFRFRFRFRFR
PampaType

Julio Cortzar wears flares

sometimes
rayuelatm

El jardn de senderos que se bifurcan

Another Reading grad, Alejandro

Lo Celso has parlayed his education
into a series of roving international
student workshops. His PampaType
creations, meanwhile, positively
drip with academic rigor. Rayuela,
for example, plays with notions of
rhythm, yet remains one of the few
serif text faces that is both informal
and eminently readable. Borges
was born out of a love for the clean
economical style of writer Jorge Luis
Borges. Quimera displays Lo Celsos
deep admiration for the great
French designer Roger Excoffon,
adopting the unusual horizontal
stress of Antique Olive.

Garden Forking
Moments of Poetic Delicacy
borgestm

Organic vibrancy

@ Estudio U+O
quimeratm

fontshop.com

11

Foundry Spotlight

Suitcase

Druk Diggler
fishmongertm

Magnum
Opus Day-O
Komm, Mr. Spiekermann, tally me banana

teimertm

Czech designer Tom Brousil

is a relative newcomer to the font
world, but is already making
waves and winning awards for his
refined contemporary typefaces.
From versatile utilitarian families
like Teimer and Katarine to compact
headliners like Fishmonger and
Atrament, Brousil has a knack
for filling the empty spaces in a
modern designers type palette.
Gloriola is a sans serif that hits the
sweet spot between cool sterility
and lively warmth. Purista is
a thoughtful twenty-first-century
nod to early twentieth-century
geometric grotesques like Eurostile
and Bank Gothic. Brousil knows
how to have a good time, too:
BistroScript pays homage to a sign
painters playful strokes, while
1980s throwback Corpulent puts
on as much as weight as legible
type possibly can.

Praha
Brno
Plze

atramenttm

Czechs
I know
you got & balances

jabba

Seoul
puristatm

katarinetm

corpulenttm

Velvet Underground
Revolution Square
Masarykovo Ndra
gloriolatm

clair

A cake, long in shape,

but short in duration
bistroscripttm

12

Font 007

Systems rule our world. They are structural mechanisms that, when
they function, make order out of chaos and we all know theres plenty
of that floating around. Systems get us out of the house in the morning,
they channel communication, and they (hopefully) lead to a functional
culture. The systems department runs the office, giving us parameters
and password protocol. In general, though, systems seem to connote
automation and a lack of
flexibility. But rules, they
say, are made to be broken,
and systems, when theyre
generative, often lead to
wonderfully creative output:
generative art. Befitting the
topic and its vastness, this
article is structured by a set
by Glen Helfand
of parameters with somewhat
elastic edges. To survey generative in art is to activate a large and unruly
machine that sparks more ideas than can be contained within the space
allotted to this article. Hence, this piece is structured by a simple set of
parameters: five generative systems, presented somewhat chronological,
the creative process tracking closely to our technological prowess, three
hundred words (or so) each, artists and projects as illustrations.

Making
the Rules

fonts used ff balance ff scribble

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13

1
above
Installed at the
San Francisco
Museum of Modern
Art, Sol LeWitts
Incomplete Open
Cubes (1974)
explores the
complexity of
construction.

14

Font 007

Systems of response: chance strategies and

conceptual frameworks eradicate the artists hand
and delegate actions.
Beginning in the 1950s, avant-garde composer
John Cage employed chance as his signature
music-making system. He used the I Ching, an
ancient text used to divine order and change,
to structure music and determine notes. In 1961,
Cage plotted celestial maps on a musical staff
and created the composition Atlas Eclipticalis.
Such works sound amazing even if you never
hear them. He termed some compositions
indeterminate of performance, meaning
theyd always sound different when played live.
Theyre so satisfying, though, because there
is so much to the means of creating them. Did
they write themselves? Cage, you could say,
wrote the software code in the form of scores.
Those sometimes rumpled papers are fascinating
objects, matrices meticulously plotted with
whatever system Cage employed. Whatever
turned up on a random cast of those I Ching
tiles resulted in input for music and sometimes
as drawings or prints. Order out of chaos is a
beautiful thing. History imposes certain kinds
of structure; it creates art movements when one
group of artists responds to its forebears. Cages

seemingly impersonal approach couldnt be more

opposite in feel to abstract expressionism, the
dominant emotive force during his formative
years. In his work, the artists hand is essentially
given over to systems.
Conceptual art of the 1960s taught us that its
the idea that counts. Sol LeWitt wrote in his
Sentences on Conceptual Art: #10. Ideas can be
works of art; they are in a chain of development
that may eventually find some form. All ideas
need not be made physical. The axiom freed
something up and allowed plenty to happen
conceptually and physically. The titles of his
pieces were like Cages scores: Wall Drawing
#65. Lines not short, not straight, crossing and
touching, drawn at random, using four colors,
uniformly dispersed with maximum density,
covering the entire surface of the wall. It was
first installed in 1971, but if you owned it, you
could start it at home that night. Close your eyes
and you can imagine lines dancing in your head,
in hues of your choosing.

2
Visitors relax
as a selection
of Brian Enos
77 Million Paintings
shifts across the
projection screen.

The artist Roxy

Paine proves that
machines can
become engines
of creativity
with the robotic
Erosion Machine
created in 2005.

To define the
pattern of erosion
on this limestone
block, the artist
translates crime
statistics into
a set of robotic
arm movements.

Factory systems are

capable of endless
production. (Turn them
on and they work.)
To generate is to produce. The term is taken
ambivalently in the arts as it suggests factories,
and those can be rather impersonal. Andy
Warhol, however, had his Factory, which had
something to do with a hands-free response
to those bossy aforementioned abstract
expressionists or so art historians say. His
assembly line resulted in some great paintings,
but the machinery in his factory was mostly
manual. Fast-forward to 2006, when Brian Eno
released 77 Million Paintings a computer
program that endlessly shifts pattern and color
in layers. You can buy it on dvd and unleash
paintings on your home theater system
forever. Eno made sound in a similar way. His
Generative Music 1 (1996) employed a software
program, the Zen-ishly titled SSEYO Koan,
which continuously produces short ambient
compositions from 200 pre-selected sounds. Eno
picked them and let the computer dole them out.
You dont see the apparatus in those works,
but Roxy Paines Painting Manufacture Unit,
Erosion Machine, and SCUMAK (Auto Sculpture
Maker), 19992005, are perhaps more about
the matte metal machinery than they are about
the resulting pictures and objects. Each uses
randomizing computer code to generate slight
shifts, surprising turns, and variation in the
application of pressure. The automated SCUMAK
makes gooey-looking extruded plastic sculptures
that resemble vibrant plastic blobs of pulled
taffy. Theyre made slowly, with as much care as
a machine can muster, but the resulting objects
arent exactly comely. It is a commentary to be
sure art production! and Dutch artist Wim
Delvoye took it to the next visceral level with his
Cloaca factory works, which have been appearing
in ever-upgraded versions, since 2000. Theyre
elaborate Rube-Goldberg-in-a-lab contraptions
that artificially with chemicals and tubes
recreate bodily functions. Insert a gourmet meal
at one end and, a few hours later, it will deliver a
processed object that looks and smells a lot like
what we all generate with regularity.

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15

Danica Phelps
originally used
stripes to
represent money
she personally
spent or earned.
Today, you can
order one of her
paintings and
pay by the stripe.
At 15 per slice,
this painting,
20,000 stripes,
would cost $3,000.

The artist is an information

filter, creating structure out
of free-floating information
(so we dont have to).
There are strategies we implement in daily life,
those little things: morning rituals, TV viewing
habits, and the like. We need that order when
possibilities of choice have been multiplied
immensely. Can the I Ching help choose cable
channels? Artists who use themselves to filter
and create structure from reams of banal
information do us all a favor they reveal
how free-floating input can actually add up
to something. Danica Phelps gained notice in
2001 for loopy graphite drawings of her daily
activities and financial transactions. If she drew
the ice cream cone she ate that day, shed note
who she ate it with and how much it cost. Below
the drawings, she added red or green hatch
marks, based on income or expenses, each mark
representing a dollar. The sales of her work
became part of this system, which evolved into
ever more elaborate schemes and increasingly
larger conglomerations of lines. Her manner
of translating impersonal data into something
dazzling reached an apex with the many marks
resulting from two real estate transactions.
Interestingly enough, her most recent work is
about eradicating the self by creating a madeto-order Stripe Factory. The stripes have
become unmoored from my personal data,
she writes, and instead, represent only their
own production.
If Phelps brakes for dollars, Lee Walton has given
up his body to sporting events. Acknowledging
both meanings of the word score, he devised
a pre-determined set of actions triggered by
particular occurrences on the baseball field. For
Opening Day: Giants vs. Marlins (2001), Walton
would run across the street and scale a mailbox
or other street fixtures as dictated by live
radio coverage of the game. His rather graceful
drawings serve as records or scores of the game,
with curved lines perhaps representing a base
hit. Imposing limitations on himself served as
another organizing element. He played a round
of golf, one shot a day (it took him five months),
and vowed, after September 15, 2006, to never
enter New Yorks Union Square again. Thats one
way of getting somewhere new.

16

Font 007

4
above
While the Red Sox
were beating the
Angels in Game
Three of the 2004
American League
Division Series, Lee
Walton was creating
his own box score.

Art engines are exhibition-making machines.

Curators generate art shows, but if they were
once behind-the-scenes characters in the
contemporary art world, many have moved to
the foreground. Their exhibition-making means
have become increasingly systematic. After all,
theres more and more art being produced, and
perhaps it makes good sense for the decisions
to be more transparent. You could call some
recent approaches curatorial engines, as they
are parameters or concepts that allow shows to
move themselves. A curator working this way
takes risks or firmly believes in the system
theyve devised as you never quite know what
youll get. Jens Hoffman has employed this
approach in shows such as Artists Favourites,
a 2004 project at Londons Institute of
Contemporary Art, for which he invited 39 artists
to select a beloved artwork by someone other
than themselves. Another example is Hoffmans
Americana: 50 States, 50 Months, 50 Exhibitions
at San Franciscos Wattis Institute, a series
of small showcases that unfold in alphabetical
order in a vitrine shaped like the U.S.

That physical structure echoes web architecture

as a site where artwork can aggregate. It does so,
with a wry wink, on Learning To Love You More, a
website by artists Harrell Fletcher and Miranda
July. It offers visitor participants a selection
of assignments (68 of them at this writing) that
can be completed and posted online. Like a
recipe, meditation practice, or familiar song,
the prescriptive nature of these assignments
is intended to guide people towards their own
experience, the organizers say. Your charge,
should you choose to accept it, would be to do
something like 34. Make a protest sign and
protest, or 10. Make a flier of your day.
The artists/curators set up the system and offer
a collaborative curatorial site. Since its launch
in 2002, the artwork has been rolling in. ltlym
even winks at its own generative properties;
see 44. Make a ltlym assignment.

fontshop.com

17

Using patterns
and keywords
found in the text
of spam email, Alex
Dragulescu filters
his data through
three-dimensional
modeling tools to
create something
that is definitely
not junk.

right
Mark Napiers
newest project,
Spire, uses
software to show
what happens when
the hard structures
of old industrial
power collide with
the soft structures
of ascendant
new media.

Every member of the audience, every point on the map

becomes a part of a mutable picture.
Web 2.0, according to the user-created info
source Wikipedia, is described as technology
that aims to enhance creativity, information
sharing, and, most notably, collaboration
among users. Its a utopian vision that offers
lots of latitude to artists. So its hardly a
surprise that digital media that responds to
and organizes online data would be such artistfriendly territory and such a valuable tool to
generate collaboration in the real world. Its
about barn-building with information feeds,
regardless of how useful the source material
might initially appear. Junk email, for example,
is transformed into virtual structures in Alex
Dragulescus Spam Architecture project.
The buildings may not exactly bear weight,
but they do provide an inspirational concept
of informational recycling. Thats something
Mark Napier does with various projects at
potatoland.org, like the classic Digital Landfill,
which allows you to create a kind of compost
with your unwanted emails, or the more recent
Black and White, which creates kinetic drawings
as it reads CNN.com.
The blur between art and information
handling is a particularly exciting generative
space. Digg.com is a place where people can
collectively determine the value of content
by posting stories and tracking their traction.
It gets more interesting with Digg Labs, a kind
of hipster cousin working in the burgeoning
field of data visualization. Here that content
is tracked and organized live stacked in bar
graphs, color-coded based on popularity, and
organized around a circle. Sometimes PacMan-like pixels drop like rain to indicate hits
on an online posting as they happen. Martin
Wattenbergs Many Eyes website similarly offers
a platform where anyone can upload, visualize
(in a vast range of styles and shades), and
discuss data say, the shift in gas prices, or top
concerns of college freshmen. The elastic nature
of information becomes almost heartening.
Little is cut and dried, save for the notion that
the possibilities are endless.

Systems will become

increasingly basic tools.
Its a fact that were living in the information age.
It means that the ways that we create and share
information will become more sophisticated
the barrage of input will be channeled through
sleeker systems. These developments cant help
but continue to inspire artists, who have always
responded to the ideas and material of their
time. The system continues. pp

fontshop.com

19

Breaking
therules
Graphic designers and
typographers use new
rules and new tools
to develop work that
pushes the boundaries
of communication
graphics.

20

Font 007

Poetry on the Road

For all its assumed freedoms, poetry has
remained a bastion of strict rules that, perhaps
ironically, govern the creation of some of our
global cultures most ethereal and elegant verbal constructs. Rhythmic structure in the form
of meter, like the popular iambic pentameter,
or Japanese haiku with its rigid count of five,
seven, and five again, are examples of how
sound is organized to influence meaning and
emotion. So its only fitting that, each year
since 2002, graphic designer Boris Mller has
used his own mathematical structures to reorganize poems into a visual identity for Poetry
on the Road, an international literature festival
held in Bremen, Germany. In 2006, Mller
assigned a number to every letter in the
alphabet so that, added together, each word in
a poem had a specific value. He then graphed
each poem by word in numerical order as
points along a circular path. Simple rings
were applied around each point to denote how
many words within a poem shared that specific
cumulative value, thicker rings representing
more common word counts. Softly curving
lines add a graceful, dare we say even poetic,
element and connect each word in the order
they were originally written by the poet. The
result is a swirling and dynamic visualization
that considers the artistic entropy of a purely
inventive enterprise while also recognizing
how invisible structures can be made visible.

fonts used ff airport ff tisa

fontshop.com

21

504 hours
How are you feeling right now? Thats the question
graphic designer Cinthia Wen asked herself every
hour for 21 days. The answer (far left) is an astounding peek into a designers diary and a roller-coaster
ride across 504 hours of emotional ups and downs.
Wen translated the results, her personal reflections, into a poster where each day is broken into a
simple bar graph. Over 90 different colors are used
to represent the varying shades of 13 different emotions ranging from peaceful to exhausted to agitated.
Moving through a day in the life, Wens visual guide
tracks activities like sleep, work, relaxation, and
entertainment. She punctuates these with line work
that announces random bouts of revelation, panic,
or intoxication. Taken alone, any one bar is the
abstraction of daily ritual. Together, these 21 days are
a colorful reminder. As we continue to layer routines
and expectations upon ourselves, these limitations
can quickly define our mental stability and quite
possibly the sum of our personality in the long run.
The designer notes how she relishes the projects
dual purpose, as a visual representation of time and
an analytical representation of emotion. But its the
unfolding of these days and weeks as a journal for
critical self-assessment and discovery that will keep
us counting the hours.

noplace
Imagine building out your utopian vision. Is it
physical: an ecologically perfect Earth or a workers
paradise with true equality? Is it transcendent: a
state of enlightenment like the rapture or nirvana? In
the past, personal wishes and desires were often just
that personal. Today, the all-encompassing flow
of digital information is routinely typed and tagged
into categories of interest and subsequently mapped
and ranked as ever-new insights into our collective
identities and ideologies. Artist and architect
Marek Walczak exploits our penchant for structure
over chaos and mines an increasingly deep vein of
collective thought to build a picture of analogous
and divergent views of paradise in a project he calls
noplace. Using live feeds from the internet, Walczak
collects text tags from images and sounds and
stockpiles them in a database. A tag sequencer looks
for and finds relationships among these and streams
them to a series of projectors. Each projector has a
cluster of visual data that interprets the tags to create
a random but distinct narrative on the paradise
theme. The results, architecturally-inspired collages,
are a compelling commentary on the development
of hybrid physical and information spaces. Currently,
Walczak has pre-selected just eight different sets of
visual data, each representing a different collective
interpretation of a utopian vision. However, he will
soon launch a live tool on Tate Britains website that
will let everyone build their perfect world.

fontshop.com

23

24

Font 007

Seelenlose Automaten
For Seelenlose Automaten, a recursive
multimedia project that loosely
translates as Soulless Machine,
designers Benedikt Gro and Patric
Schmidt found inspiration in the work of
Hungarian biologist Aristid Lindenmayer.
Lindenmayers research on algae
growth patterns and complex branching
structures in plants forms the basis for our
understanding of self similarity. Gro,
responsible for their machines visual
elements, populated his environment
with an increasingly complicated nest
of abstract branches, buds, and birds.
Using his experience as an intern with
the Frankfurt-based multidisciplinary
digital design studio Meso, Gro powered
his project with a multimedia design
tool called vvvv. Its a relatively new and
increasingly popular piece of software
that designers are adapting for the
visualization of complex, collaborative, or
real time media environments. Schmidt
created a simple music track composed of
27 distinct sounds, including sonar peeps,
snare and bass drums, high-hat cymbals,
and even something he calls a dinosaur
scream. Together, they came up with the
comprehensive rules that connect each
sound to a specific action within the
graphical environment. To add interest,
a second layer of context-sensitive
rules count instances and trigger more
arcane activity when select sounds reach
predetermined target numbers. Instead
of a traditional time-based animation,
vvvv allows the designers to send MIDI
control messages simultaneously to both
the sound and image generators. The
result is a lively machine with more than
the standard bells and whistles.

fontshop.com

25

Emil Ruder

ard Fella

Pieter Brattinga

Typopath 1.0

The Dutch are known for equal measures

of logic and wit. It was a little of both that
encouraged settlers and farmers to beat
David Kin
back the sea and reclaim a series of tracts
across the countryside. Staying above water
required mapping a cooperative system:
a grid of dams, dikes, locks, and pumps
etched onto the land. By staying true to the Ruari
Alber Kapr
rules that govern water management, DutchMcLean
Erik van Blokland &
Just van Rossum
society flourished. Over centuries, systems
and the data they organize have become
hardwired into the nations collective
identity. These traits guide Typopath 1.0, an
analog generative project created by Joris
Peter Saville
Maltha and Daniel Gross of design studio
Catalogtree. The two met and hatched
the idea for Typopath 1.0 at Werkplaats
studio dumbar
Typografie, a graduate program in Arnhem
conceived and supervised by designers
Gerrit Noo
Karel Martens and Armand Mevis. Martens,
Mevis, and a third designer, Wigger Bierma,
were asked to rate 200 typographers whose
work spans 500 years. In the eyes of Maltha
and Gross, the results represent a mental
map of the thinking that helped define
Jost Hochuli
and still drive the Werkplaats. To translate
into a detailed road
Jamie
Piet Schreuders subjective responses
Reid
map, the designers
conceived a set of simple
rules, using convergent and divergent
opinion as a starting point to generate
colorful twists and turns that offer a truly
unique perspective on design history.

Dan Friedman

erritsen

Alan Fletcher

David Carson

Bruno Monguzzi

an
Hans-Rudolph Lutz

Max Kisman

Ruedi Baur

Gerard Unger
Walter Nikkels

oss

Licko

Wolfgang Weingart

Neville Brody

H. R.
Bosshard

Rudy van der Lans

wild plakken
nes pas plier

Micha

Paula Scher

Robert
Nakata

Erik Spiekermann

Jonath

Lex Reitsma
Fred Smeijers

Tessa v.d. Waals

Mart Kempers

ndersley

Ontwerp / Design Daniel Gross / Joris Maltha / www.catalogtree.net / Arnhem 2002

Chris Brand

Wim Crouwel

Charles Jongejans

An
Fro

Jan Bons

Hermann Zapf

Herb
Lubalin

Pieter
Wetselaar

Quentin Fiore

Max Miedinger

Henryk Tomaszewski
Adrian Frutiger

Hans Mardersteig

Harry N.
Siermann

Alexander Verberne

Sem Hartz
Josef-Mller Brockmann

B
Richard Paul Lohse
Saul
Bass

Mart Kempers

Emil Ruder

Edward Fella

Jurriaan Schrofer

Pieter Brattinga

pentagram

Otto Treumann
Vordemberge Gildewart

Alan Fletcher

Anthony
Froshaug

Charles Jongejans

Piet Cossee

Bruno Munari

David Kindersley
Imre Reiner
Dan Friedman

Mieke Gerritsen

David Carson

Ruari
McLean

Alber Kapr

Erik van Blokland &

Just van Rossum

Jurriaan Schrofer

Willem Sandberg
Dick Elffers

pentagram

Max Caflisch

Max Caflisc

Helmut Salden

Jan Tschichold

Piet Gerards

Peter Saville
Anton Stankowski

Max Bill

Paul Rand

studio dumbar
Bruno Monguzzi

Jan Vermeulen

Gerrit Noordzij

Jan van Krimpen

Hans Peter Willberg
Milton Glaser

Tibor Kalman
Hans-Rudolph Lutz

H.N. Werkman

Bob Gill

Jost Hochuli
Jamie
Reid

Piet Schreuders

Anthon
Beeke

D
Max Kisman
Ruedi Baur

Anton Stankowski

Max Bill

Otl Aicher

Gerard Unger

Oliver Simon

Bruce Rogers

Paul Rand

Ootje
Oxenaar

Jaap Drupsteen

Walter Nikkels

A.M. Cassandre

Sjoerd
de Roos

Paul Renner

Robin Kinross

Jan Vermeule

Wolfgang Weingart
Swip Stolk

ordzij

Neville Brody

H. R.
Bosshard

Rudy van der Lans

hard werken

nes pas plier

Gerard Kiljan

John Heartfield
Piet Zwart

Paula Scher

Jan van Toorn

Pierre Bernard
Robert
Nakata

Paul Schuitema

Josef Albers

Michael Harvey

wild plakken

Hans Peter Willberg

Kurt Schwitters

Herbert Bayer

Erik Spiekermann
Stanley Morison

Martin
Majoor

Milton Glaser

El Lissitzky

Bob Gill

Jonathan Barnbrook

Lex Reitsma
Tessa v.d. Waals

Fred Smeijers

Suzanna Licko

Eric Gill

LEGENDA / LEGEND

Irma Boom
Morris Fuller Benton

fuel

Max Caflisch
David Carson
A.M. Cassandre
Piet Cossee
Wim Crouwel

[C5]
[C1]
[D6]
[B6]
[A3]

Jaap Drupsteen
studio dumbar

[D4]
[C2]

elektrosmog
Dick Elffers
Paul Elliman
experimental jetset

[H4]
[C7]
[F3]
[H4]

Edward Fella
Quentin Fiore
Alan Fletcher
Dan Friedman
Anthony Froshaug
Adrian Frutiger
fuel

[B1]
[A3]
[C3]
[C1]
[B6]
[B3]
[F3]

Piet Gerards
Mieke Gerritsen
Vordemberge Gildewart
Bob Gill
Eric Gill
Milton Glaser
golden masters
goodwill
Frederic Goudy
grappa blotto
gtf

[C1]
[C1]
[C7]
[D4]
[F5]
[D4]
[H5]
[H5]
[F5]
[F4]
[H5]

hard werken
Sem Hartz
Michael Harvey
John Heartfield
Jost Hochuli

[E4]
[B6]
[E3]
[E5]
[D2]

Edward Johnston
Charles Jongejans

[G4]
[B5]

ael Harvey
I

Pierre Bernard
K

[H5]
[E1]
[F4]
[B5]
[G4]
[C3]
[B3]
[D1]
[I5]
[E4]
[G3]
[C7]
[B2]

Moholy Nagy
Robert Nakata
nes pas plier
Walter Nikkels
Gerrit Noordzij
north

[F5]
[E1]
[E1]
[D3]
[C3]
[I5]

octavo
Ootje Oxenaar

[G4]
[D4]

pentagram

[C3]

Paul Rand
Jamie Reid
Imre Reiner
Lex Reitsma
Paul Renner
Bruce Rogers
Sjoerd De Roos
Emil Ruder

[C4]
[D3]
[C6]
[E2]
[D5]
[D5]
[D4]
[B3]

Helmut Salden
Willem Sandberg
Peter Saville
Paula Scher
Piet Schreuders
Jurriaan Schrofer
Paul Schuitema
Kurt Schwitters
Harry N. Sierman
Oliver Simon
Fred Smeijers
Erik Spiekermann
Anton Stankowski
Swip Stolk

[C6]
[C6]
[C2]
[E2]
[D2]
[C4]
[D7]
[E6]
[B5]
[D5]
[E2]
[E2]
[C5]
[D4]

Henryk Tomaszewski
tomato
Jan van Toorn
Otto Treumann
Jan Tschichold

[B4]
[G4]
[E4]
[B6]
[C6]

Gerard Unger

[D3]

Henry v.d. Velde

Alexander Verberne
Jan Vermeulen

[G4]
[B4]
[C5]

Tibor Kalman
Albert Kapr
Mart Kempers
Gerard Kiljan
David Kindersley
Robin Kinross
Max Kisman
Jan van Krimpen

[D1]
[C3]
[B5]
[E7]
[C3]
[D1]
[D1]
[D6]

Rudy van der Lans

Suzanna Licko

[E1]
[E1]

Anthon
Beeke

[E3]
[D3]
[G4]
[D7]
[A4]
[E2]
[D5]
[I5]
[H4]

Hermann Zapf
Piet Zwart

[A4]
[E6]

+A

F
AM = Armand Mevis
KM = Karel Martens
WB = Wigger Bierma

Oliver Simon

belang voor het vak

importance to the profession

ALL

Bruce R

Bruce Mau
Edward Johnston

KM + WB

Emil Rudolf Weiss

persoonlijk belang
personal intrest

Roelof Mulder

ontwerper
Akzidenz

octavo

G
drie personen
three persons

Jaap Drupsteen

tomato

Sjoerd
de Roos

twee personen

Paul Renner
two persons

2x4

Cornel Windlin
experimental jetset

gtf

n persoon

one person

75b
elektrosmog
m&m
Jop van Bennekom
golden
masters

bureau

Thomas Bux

goodwill

mooren & vd velden

Josef Albers
John Heartfield

north

Roger Willems

Jan van Toorn

W Tessa vd Waals
Wolfgang Weingart
Emil Rudolf Weiss
H.N. Werkman
Pieter Wetselaar
wild plakken
Hans Peter Willberg
Roger Willems
Cornel Windlin
Z

ALLE

Frederic Goudy
Henry v.d. Velde

P. Scott Makela

Swip Stolk

hard werken

AM

Otl Aicher

Moholy Nagy
grappa blotto
Paul Elliman

M m&m
Martin Majoor
P. Scott Makela
Hans Mardersteig
Bruce Mau
Ruari McLean
Max Miedinger
Bruno Monguzzi
mooren & vd velden
Stanley Morison
Roelof Mulder
Bruno Munari
Josef Mller-Brockmann

Ootje
Oxenaar

han Barnbrook

[E3]
[B6]
[D2]
[E5]
[D4]
[H4]
[F4]
[E4]
[C5]
[C2]
[A4]
[F3]
[E3]
[A4]
[B3]
[E2]
[H4]
[H4]

[E5]
[B5]
[A3]
[D1]

Jonathan Barnbrook
Saul Bass
Ruedi Baur
Herbert Bayer
Anthon Beeke
Jop van Bennekom
Morris Fuller Benton
Pierre Bernard
Max Bill
van Blokland / van Rossum
Jan Bons
Irma Boom
Hans Rudolf Bosshard
Chris Brand
Pieter Brattinga
Neville Brody
bureau
Thomas Bux

El Lissitzky
Richard Paul Lohse
Herb Lubalin
Hans-Rudolph Lutz

KM

[H4]
[H4]
[D5]
[E5]
[G4]

+W

2x4
75b
Otl Aicher
Josef Albers
ontwerper Akzidenz

AM

KM

INDEX / INDEX

typopath 1.0

Kur

Herbert Bayer

Stanley Morison
3

El Lissitzky

Meek FM
With the fifth version of his typographic
synthesizer, Rob Meek hit a high note when
he unveiled the aptly named Meek FM at the
music-themed 2007 TYPO Berlin design
conference. In collaboration with Frank
Mller (the FM in Meek FM), Meek integrates
letterform modulation and sound generation
in a hardware package thats a welcome nod
to Robert Moog and the invention of the
modular synthesizer. Playing the device
requires a computer and the attractively retro
Meek FM control panel. Select a letter from
one of several predetermined typefaces and
a cursor will flicker along its outline like an
imaginary pen. The synthesizer constantly
redraws the letter and replays its sound like
some old sci-fi tape loop. Depending on how
one chooses to play the synthesizer, rows of
dials and buttons let typographers mutate
letter characteristics and invent new letterforms (which can then be saved and used),
while musicians can dial up new sounds
based on language. Since Meek FM isnt easy
to work in any highly controlled way, play
is the operative word. But thats just as well,
the inventor says. Its good to introduce nonhuman forces, be they mechanical or natural,
in order to invigorate or question existing
creative processes. A machine can literally
produce what human imagination by definition cannot the unimaginable. pp

The New
FontFonts
ff ClantmItalic ukasz dziedzic

r&sOs.std
ff Nettotm daniel utz

fontshop.com

29

And so it ges on
ff Maxtm4 morten olsen

Dampfbahn Furka-Bergstrecke DFB

Hexa

ff ChamberstmSans verena gerlach

Comptoir des Marchands

ff Nettotm daniel utz

Cavallino Rampan
ff Enzotm tobias kvant

tax

Torre pendente di
ff Tisatm mitja miklavi

ff QuadraatSans Bold Italic fred smeijers

Fai
Twas a frisky fish,

Nicht on your nelly, guv

ff UnittmRounded erik spiekermann & christian schwartz

Formal
30

Font 007

ahedron
ff Cubetm jan maack

Trill symbiont

Aesthetic
nte Fulfiment
ff DaxlinetmItalic hans reichel

ff Pitutm ukasz dziedzic

Pisa (Leaning Power of Tisa)

ir Play vous
ff Utilitytm lukas schneider

methinks a haddock
ff Nuvotm siegfried rckel

Boot loader
ff Milotm3 mike abbink

characteristics
ff Polymorphtm stefanie schwarz

fontshop.com

31


ffj

ff MetaSerif erik spiekermann, christian schwartz, & kris sowersby

FF Meta Headline Compressed

FF Meta Headline Condensed
FF Meta Headline
FF Meta Hairline
FF Meta Condensed & Italic
FF Meta Correspondence & Italic
ff Meta & Italic
introducing ff Meta Serif & Italic

Throughout the 1990s,

Erik Spiekermann made
several attempts at designing
a companion for his original
ff Meta, arguably one of
the most ubiquitous fonts
of the past two decades.
Colleagues had often asked
which serif face would best
fit with Meta, and after
years of recommending
a variety of suitable faces,
Spiekermann realized that
he should just make his
own serif companion.

Etd
Meta
tme
m
m
m
32

Font 007

a The whole Meta system is supposed

4 to solve separate typographic
@ problems while keeping a family
resemblance. This is not a family
of identical triplets, but sisters and
brothers or even nieces and nephews.
Erik Spiekermann

The OpenType version of ff Meta

While the serif design can stand
Serif offers book, medium, bold,
on its own in a wide range of
and black weights, each including
applications, the extra benefit is
italics, Small Caps, alternate numeral
its close relationship to the original
styles proportional, tabular, lining, ff Meta, its sans serif sister. The two
oldstyle extra ligatures, case-sensitive
families can be mixed in the same line,
punctuation, and a range of arrows and
and one can be used to accentuate the
other symbols. (The Pro version also
other. Using both on the same page
supports Eastern European languages.)
adds variety and meaning to a text.
Q

Now available in OpenType

T
r T
i rT
x ir
i xi
remix
ei
e

ff Atmaot
FF BastilleDisplay OT
*FF BeoSansHard OT
*FF BeoSansSoft OT
FF BeowolfOT
FF CartonnageOT hE
FF CelesteOT
ff CelesteSans OT
FF ClairOT
ff CliordPro
FF DaxPro
FF DaxItalic Pro
FF DaxCondensed Pro
ff DaxWide Pro
ff EurekaPro
ff Eureka Sans Pro
ff Eureka Sans Condensed Pro
FF Eureka Mono Pro
FF Eureka Mono Condensed Pro
ff FagoPro
ff FagoCondensed Pro
ff FagoExtended Pro
FF Gothic Min
FF JambonoPro
FF LegatoOT
FF Magda Clean OT
FF MetaCondensed Italic Pro
ff PageSans OT
ff PageSerif OT
ff ParableOT
ff PlusPro
FF PopMin
FF ProfilePro
ff SariPro
FF Schmalhans Pro
ff SignaCondensed Pro
ff SignaCondensed Italic Pro
ff Signa Extended Pro
ff Signa Extended Italic Pro
FF SoupboneOT
FF Strada OT
FF Strada Italic OT
FF Strada Condensed OT
FF Strada Condensed Italic OT
FF Super Grotesk OT
FF Tag TeamMin
FF Tartine ScriptPro
FF TradeMarkerOT
FF Transit OT
*FF Trixie Pro
FF ZineOT
FF ZwoPro
FF ZwoCorrespondence Pro

FF Trixie:
__________
Based on the 1991
Trixie outlines,
the new version adds
OpenType features
and extended
language support
(in Pro fonts).

ff Trixie& Trixie HD erik van blokland

FF Trixie Rough:
________________
Extra detail
maintains Trixies
trademark rough
inky texture at
larger sizes.

Old is new:
FF Trixie takes OpenType
to the limit with broad
languae support, extensive
layout features, thousands
of alternate glyphs... and
some silliness too.

FF
Trixie HD:
_____________
Hyper-realistic
on the big screen
or in print, the
new Trixie boasts
seven alternates
per character,
each with its own
weight and rough
detailing. OpenType
features switch the
alternates around to
simulate typewriter
type in a way never
before seen in
digital typography.

*Remastered with new characters

and improved accessibility
fontshop.com

33

FontStruct has swept across the blogosphere. Stephen Coles chats

with its creator and Chief Brickmeister Rob Meek.

Built
With
Bricks
o, what exactly is this FontStruct thing?
FontStruct is a free online platform for creating and
sharing modular grid-based fonts which FontShop
International launched in early April 2008.
Where did the idea come from?
In many ways, the starting point was really the Meek fm
(also see page 28), which was my first contribution to the
world of grid-based design tools, and initially appeared in
2000. I was relatively new to the world of graphic design,
having just switched from the programming to the design
department at the agency where I was working. I was
completely ignorant of the world of typography, but soon
became fascinated by it, and wanted to design a font;
a grid-based modular font seemed like an easy way in.
How did the project come about?
I started laying out shapes in Freehand. My lack of
experience led to a lot of hesitancy in making creative
choices. I kept changing my mind about the forms I wanted
to use should they be spaced out or flush next to each
other, that kind of thing. At some point, I moved from
Freehand to Flash so that I could automate changes, and
gradually built a tool to cater to my indecision. Thats
where the Meek fm came from.

font used ff nuvo fontstructions used blocparty texture tuscan radar

There were also a number of comparable projects under

development at about the same time evidence of a
broader interest in grid-based design tools.
Really? Who was behind them?
Michael Gianfreda, Lorenz Lopetz Gianfreda, and Kaspar
Lthi at Bro Destruct were working on BDD (Bro Destruct
Designer) between 1999 and 2003. A tribute to Swiss
design of the 1960s, its certainly a classic of the genre,
encouraging the user to make a virtue of limitation. Strict
adherence to a grid, a simple point and click interface, and
a selection of simple geometric shapes to choose from
were its key ingredients. The ability to export creations
in a usable format was also an important feature.
Another inspirational piece of Swiss work was Linetos
Lego Font Creator (circa 1999), by Urs Lehni, Rafael Koch,
and Jrg Lehni. This was more explicitly a type builder,
but was again based on principles of grid-constrained
construction using a palette of predefined shapes.
Fast-forward to 2005, and there was BitFontMaker from
Japan. (I actually only became aware of this after I first
pitched FontStruct to FontShop in May 2006.) It shares
many characteristics with FontStruct: one hundred percent
online; a simple intuitive interface for grid-based font
creation; a gallery; and downloadable TrueType fonts.

fontshop.com

35

I think FontStruct offers a lot more than BitFontMaker,

but its very well executed nonetheless.
So theres definitely a clear precedent for grid-based
design tools, and a tradition of designers trying to create
their own more specialized tools.
Perhaps its also partly a reaction to the complex
interfaces offered by the likes of Fontlab and Adobe.
Yes, its good to have or at least imagine alternatives,
whether they are more specialized tools or simply tools
which defamiliarize the creative process.
How does the Meek fm differ from FontStruct?
The Meek fm is about tweaking an existing design; I wanted
to do something that was about constructing grid-based
typefaces from scratch. Also the Meek fm, and, to a certain
extent, the other projects Ive referenced, are more toys
than tools. Theres an emphasis on playfulness rather
than earnest practical production. The output is of limited
quality and practical value. I wanted to make something
that could really stand up as a useful tool to enable
modular type design.
I saw the opportunity, particularly when approaching
FontShop with the idea, to create an online font-sharing
community around a modular font editor; a kind of
mini-Flickr for fonts, if you will. Font design really lends
itself to the online environment. The file sizes are small,
and the relatively simple systematic nature of the data
make the creation of an online font design tool much more
straightforward than an image, video, or music editor.
Id wanted to pursue the project for quite some time
and had initially imagined an offline application. However,
as Web 2.0 apps continued to get more sophisticated
and powerful, I felt a sudden panic that someone else
was bound to do this and realized that I needed a partner
with clout, with typographic expertise...
Enter FontShop.
Yes. Its been a great match as far as Im concerned.
Ive effectively been paid for what I wanted to do in my
spare time anyway, with no compromising of the original
idea. FontShop had an immediate understanding of
the potential for an online font-building and sharing
platform. I think its quite brave and forward-thinking
for a font vendor to give people the chance to make
their own fonts for free.
FontShops vision for FontStruct really focused on
developing a community site rather than a pure font
editor. Sharing, rating, and discussion capabilities are
all right there in the browser.

36

Font 007

It feels unique having the creation and editing together

with the community features. I dont think there are many
online applications which integrate both. Its as if people
were actually recording music in MySpace or taking
pictures in Flickr. Theres a very close relationship between
the creation and exchange with others.
Absolutely. Ask even the most seasoned expert and
theyll more than likely say theyre still learning.
Thats probably what keeps so many people so
interested in drawing and redrawing the alphabet
over and over again. Youre always learning and your
context is always changing.
Indeed. My main goal when creating the interface was to
keep it accessible for beginners but also powerful enough
to interest seasoned typographers. I wanted to remove
everything that would inhibit a novice. You start with a
very simple metaphor drawing on a grid of squared graph
paper and you dont have to bother with any specialist
terminology or concepts. More advanced features are
available from menus and with keyboard shortcuts.
The first two months have borne out your vision and
FontShops foresight. FontStruct has been unexpectedly
popular, resulting in some very high quality work and
tremendous diversity. Hey, we even got a mention
in The New York Times! So, whats next?
We have a lot of ideas, many of them from the user
community, and were adding features steadily. The
highest priority at the moment is fixing minor bugs and
annoyances, and adding some control over horizontal
metrics so people can define how their letters are spaced.
We also want to bolster the community features, such as
incorporating proper user homepages.
Are you concerned that free FontStructions devalue
commercial type and might harm FontShops business?
Quite the opposite, actually. FontStruct is fun and easy
partly because it is very limited. I think it nurtures not only
the pleasures of type design but also an understanding
of how much work is involved in making a font and
why real fonts cost money. FontStructions have too many
limitations (everything has to be based on a grid, theres
no kerning, no hinting, no OpenType features, and so forth)
to be any real threat to FontShops retail sales. pp

give the tires a kick for yourself at

www.fontstruct.com

Unique
FontStruct
shows how
easy it is to play
around with
type, and how
difficult it is to
make real type.

Erik Spiekermann

Oldie

COUGH up
or thE
budgie
GETs It

clockwise, from top

Featured FontStructions include
Epiorque Joined, SlabStruct Too,
Ransom Note, Tight, Bolt, Texture
(shown within the FontStructor),
and Tristeak Ribbon.

fontshop.com

37

149 9th Street, Suite 302

San Francisco, ca 94103
1 888 ff fonts toll-free
1 415 252 1003 local
www.fontshop.com

editors
Amos Klausner
Stephen Coles
design & art direction
Conor Mangat
www.mangatelier.com
fontshop san francisco
Michael Pieracci
contributing writer
Glen Helfand
www.stretcher.org
contributing editor
Tamye Riggs
www.typelife.com
spiritus rector
Erik Spiekermann
www.spiekermann.com

kol'-fon(t)

Font is published by FontShop

Cover
Outputs from Meek fm, courtesy
of Rob Meek

Introduction
2

Typeface sketch courtesy of Tom Brousil,

Suitcase Type Foundry

2/3 Other images credited below

Neue fonts
48 Images their creators
www.fstopimages.com
Object photography courtesy of the
LiveSurface Layered Image Library
www.livesurface.com

Making the Rules

14 Sol LeWitt: Incomplete Open Cubes, 1974
Painted wood structure, gelatin silver
prints, and drawings on paper
12"120"216"
(30.48 cm304.8 cm548.64 cm)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Accessions Committee Fund: gift of Emily
L. Carroll and Thomas Weisel, Jean and
James E. Douglas, Jr., Susan and Robert
Green, Evelyn Haas, Mimi and Peter Haas,
Eve and Harvey Masonek, Elaine McKeon,
the Modern Art Council, Phyllis and
Stuart G. Moldaw, Christine and Michael
Murray, Danielle and Brooks Walker Jr.,
and Phyllis Wattis.
Estate of Sol LeWitt/Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York
15 Brian Eno: 77 Million Paintings

printing
Paragraphics, San Rafael, ca
www.paragraphicsinc.com

Scott Beale and laughingsquid.com

15 Roxy Paine: Erosion Machine, 2005
Stainless steel, rubber, felt, glass,
galvanized steel, silicon carbide,
electronics, dust collector, reclaimer,
robot, and air

Fonts used
ff Balance and ff Scribble
FF Balance marked the beginning of
FontFont designer Evert Bloemsmas
decade-long exploration into readability.
Its peculiar horizontal stress and four
weights of equal widths put it in a class
of its own. FF Scribble is inspired by
the era of pre-digital composition and
an ironic play on the design truth that
sketches are often more pleasing than
the computer-processed final.

Breaking the Rules

21 Boris Mller: Poetry on the Road,
20022008
Images courtesy of the artist
22 Cinthia Wen: 504 Hours, 2003
Image courtesy of the artist
23 Marek Walczak: Noplace, 2007
Images courtesy of the artist
24 Benedikt Gro: Seelenlose Automaten,
2007
Images courtesy of the artist
26 Catalogtree: Typopath 1.0, 2002
Image courtesy of the artists
28 Rob Meek: Meek FM, 2007
Images courtesy of the artist
Fonts used
ff Airport and ff Tisa
FF Airport is the Lineto studios tribute
to the charm of LCD displays, freight
waybills, and boarding passes. The
FF Gateway fonts are based on the
electronic display systems at Tegel and
Schnefeld airports in Berlin. For FF Tisa,
Slovenian designer Mitja Miklavcic set
out to create a more subtle and dynamic
slab serif. He succeeded, earning the
Type Directors Clubs Certificate of
Excellence in Type Design for 2007.

11'5"21'11'5"
Roxy Paine, image courtesy
of James Cohan Gallery, New York

Over 30 years fine printing experience,

combined with the newest eco-friendly
technologies. Proud to be a certified
Green Business and the first FSC-certified
printer in the San Francisco Bay Area.

15 Roxy Paine: Erosion Machine Stone #3

(Crime Statistics), 2006
Limestone
10"32"19"
Roxy Paine, image courtesy
of James Cohan Gallery, New York
16 Danica Phelps: Stripe Factory Sample
for Sister (20,000 stripes), 2007
Watercolor, gouache, and pencil
on cut paper mounted to wood panel

Cert no. SCS-COC-00781

built with bricks

Font used
ff Nuvo
During a stay in Paris, the elegance
and extravagance of French magazines
inspired Siegfried Rckel to create
a typeface of his own. The result isnt
nearly as ostentatious as his muses,
yet is sublimely usable for editorial
design in its own right. FF Nuvo has
a soft calligraphic touch with a set of
alternates that offer stylistic versatility.

20"15"
Image courtesy of Sister, Los Angeles
17 Lee Walton: Angels vs Boston
3 Game Series, April 22, 23, 24, 2008
Ink and paint on paper

Printed with VOC-free UV and

100% vegetable-based inks.

24"54"
Image courtesy of Lee Walton
and Kraushaar Galleries
18 Alex Dragulescu: Spam Architecture Series
Images courtesy of the artist

2008 fsi FontShop International. All rights

reserved. All trademarks named herein remain
the property of their respective owners. The views
expressed herein are solely the opinions of their
respective contributors, and do not necessarily
represent the viewpoint of fsi. The contents of this
publication may not be repurposed or duplicated
without express prior written permission.

38

Font 007

19 Mark Napier: Spire, 2007

Image courtesy of the artist

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FontShop
149 9th Street, Suite 302
San Francisco, ca 94103
1 888 ff fonts toll-free
1 415 252 1003 local
www.fontshop.com