Author Archives → Amy Papaelias

Turn That Frown Upside Down? The Project Faces Debate.

The typographic twitterverse is aflutter today. The subject? Project Faces, an iPad app by Adobe that allows users to customize the skeleton of a typeface and watch it magically change from flat to fabulous in a matter of seconds. Well, not exactly. At least, that’s not the consensus on Twitter. The application itself, demoed at Adobe Max last week, is perhaps less interesting than the ensuing discussions. Here are a few collected tweets worth sharing. Continue reading →

The Ruq’ah Project by Zeynep Akay

Check out The Ruq’ah Project by Zeynep Akay, documenting the research and making of a typeface inspired by Ruq’ah, a common style of Arabic handwriting, to be added to the Google Webfont Library. It’s not always easy to allow the world to peek behind the curtain of one’s process but Zeynep is determined to partake in what she is calling “immersion therapy”.

I will open my process, my most unrefined drawings, my kookiest ideas, my most embarrassing failures to the snarkiest, most passive aggressive comments on the internet.

We’ll be right here, watching — and cheering — along.

Dissertations and Papers from Type Culture

Mark Jamra’s site Type Culture hosts a couple of very interesting research papers and similar texts, for instance:

Oldrich Menhart: Calligrapher, Type Designer and Craftsman
by Veronika Burian
This extensive dissertation presents the versatile work of the great Czech calligrapher and type designer Oldrich Menhart in his most unique and interesting period between 1930 and 1948.

French Type Foundries in the Twentieth Century
by Alice Savoie
The value of this dissertation lies not only in what it imparts to the reader, but also in its rarity, since relatively little information on the recent history of type in France has been written in English. To people who are less than fluent in French, most information about the state of affairs in French type and typography is woefully out of reach. This well-written study focuses on the activity of French foundries, their fateful decisions regarding the adoption of new technologies and the evolution of French type design throughout the last hundred years.

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Impractical Thoughts on Paying for Practical Typography

Unless you’ve been living in a secluded yurt for the past few days (although you’d probably still be checking your phone, don’t lie), I’m likely not the first person to tell you about Matthew Butterick’s Practical Typography, a new read in a long line of essential reads on typographic rules. Butterick’s writing is especially refreshing and particularly useful for explaining these sometimes confusing and cryptic details to the novice or the first-year design student.
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The Type Conference Fee is Too Damn High

With type conference season in high gear, designers everywhere are uttering sighs of disbelief at the prohibitive costs of getting one’s geek on.

The discussions over conference fees, travel and hotel expenses are understandable. And given the variety of international type conference options available these days (ATypI, TypeCon, TYPO, Ampersand, TypeTalks, ICTVC, Typography Day, Granshan, Kerning, oh, and this), how does one even chose what is worth attending?
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