The Weekly Typographic

Drawing letterforms, beautiful alphabets and fixing font size This week we're getting nerrrrdy. Not just in Nerd Alert, which is all about creating contrast in letterforms through translation and expansion, but in our articles too. We're finding out about the influential work of Gerrit Noordzij, looking at alternative ways of allocating sizes to fonts and admiring some beautiful 20th century alphabet samples. Let's get into it! Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links

Asterisk History, Another Car Rebrand, Justin Bieber, Drop Caps + More! Last week we took a trip around the world, and this week, we're taking a trip through history. From the evolution of the asterisk (who knew it has had so many existential crises throughout its long life) through to the historically-influenced new Renault logo. Plus, some articles from the modern times involving choosing fonts that give the right feeling, raising the standard of free fonts and... Justin Bieber. Which we're going to admit, is a name we did not expect to be talking about in this newsletter. PLUS a Nerd Alert all about the history of drop caps... Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links

Pokémon, watch typography, Garamond banned + more! Wow, this edition goes everywhere. From font-based Pokémon hunting in Minnesota (you read that right), to a DC Courtroom where they're banned a particular font being used in briefing documents, through to watchmaking studios around the world. Phew. There's also an article that proposes a way of standardizing the weights of fonts, creating more consistency across the world of typefaces and finally, a neat little guide to using your type choices to inform your other design decisions. Spoiler alert: it's all in the details. Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links

The ethics of type and what the heck are SVG fonts?! What a party this week! After last week's interview with Tré Seals of Vocal Type, we had a couple of links we were hungry to share — a good meaty take on the science of design, some system font news, a little insight into the journey of a letterer, and some pretty interesting perspectives on moral perspectives seeping into licensing. Let's go.... Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links

Interview with Vocal Type Co. Founder Tré Seals This week, we've got an interview with one of the best, most down-to-earth & talented type designers we know. Tré Seals is the founder of the very popular Vocal Type Co., whose mission is to highlight stories of underrepresented groups of people through their catalogue of historically-inspired typefaces. We chatted all about how he started building his portfolio/career/client list from the ground up, his life-long love of typography, and some of his big plans moving forward. Stay tuned until the end for a special announcement regarding an upcoming collaboration.

The Vignelli Paradox, Free Design eBooks + Sustainable Fonts A whole lot of fun packed into this week's episode — in links this week, we have a great tutorial on color theory in digital design, the inside scoop on how Arial and Times New Roman are good for the Earth, an amazing resource that compiles free design eBooks, and more! For our Nerd Alert segment, Olivia and Micah chat about Vignelli's controversial design principle of only using a few "good" typefaces and how that impacts design learning today. Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links

Font Production & Engineering Oh what a week — we had more than we could fit in this week, but we wanted to start with something we've been working on lately that you're gonna like. Yesterday we announced a new workshop, hosted by our excellent pal Daniel Nisbet + us, to teach beginner type design fundamentals. Starting with how to use the most affordable pro option out there, Glyphs Mini. To prep, we gave a fun overview of some of the concepts behind the production side of font-making! Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links

How to Network, Arcade Game Typography, and more!

The Four Most Important Letters in Type Design What a party this week — from grocery packaging to color fonts, with inspiration & type design thrown in. And a pretty fun intro to a very important type design concept in the podcast this week, too, so if you've been curious about making fonts & want a fun way to learn more about starting, it might be a good week for you! Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links

Legibility vs Readability, Uniwidth Typefaces, and more! This week we're going into detail about what really is the difference between the terms legibility and readability and why it's important to distinguish the two as a designer. Plus, we've gathered some fantastic Internet finds. There's a one-of-a-kind article about the science of reading, an unbelievably detailed thesis covering the design of italic type, and we'll top it off with a list of recently released typefaces that will rock your socks off. Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links

Typeface Classifications They Didn't Teach You in School Besides our fun roundup this week, including one of our favorite new type design books, a visually readable braille, and a fascinatingly in-depth article about the importance of open-source in a city's rebranding, we've got an extremely entertaining Nerd Alert to teach some of the nerdier types of classifications you might never have learned about.

The Lost Art of the Ex Libris, Burger King's Rebrand & Fictional Fonts This week we've got a handful of interesting stories to share. The highly discussed new BK branding, some fictional typography, a video from one of our favorite entertaining type nerds, and a bunch more! Not to mention our deep dive into the the beautiful art of Ex Libris designs. Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links

Our Favorite Share-worthy Font Reads of 2020 ✨ As the end of the year rolls around, we present our final ✨holiday edition✨ Weekly Typographic! Our "greatest hits" list this week is all about our favorite share-worthy font reads we found this year. While we are in the season of giving, how about giving your friends some quality, nerdy, typographic fun! You can blow their minds with generative fonts, teach them a thing or two with Ohno Type School, and give them a beautiful site to stare at with Reagen Ray's Jazz Musician Lettering, and a bunch more. If you love what we're doing, share this roundup with a fellow type nerd. ❤️ Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links

Our Favorite Free Resources from 2020

Our Favorite Free Font Finds from 2020 ✨ As the last few weeks of the year roll around, we've decided to approach the newsletter a little bit differently this month. These special ✨holiday edition✨ Weekly Typographics will feature "greatest hits" lists for different categories of links we shared this past year. This week we're presenting our favorite free font finds from 2020. Nearly all of these were included in our member-exclusive content this year, so if you're loving what you're seeing here, you'll definitely want to check out the membership. Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links

The Futura Underdog, A Font-Lover Gift Guide + Pricing Advice This week we're chatting about an incredible round-up of type-related articles and resources. We share a gift guide for all the type enthusiasts in your life, shell out some Chris Do-approved pricing advice for freelancers, and talk about the nearly unknown Futura copycat called Spartan, that was largely influential in America's graphic design history. Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links

Interview with 'Designing Type' Author & Educator Karen Cheng We have a special episode for you this week—an interview with the inimitable Karen Cheng! Karen has been teaching type design at the University of Washington in Seattle for over 20 years and in 2006 wrote the book 'Designing Type', which has since become a staple on type design bookshelves around the world. We chat about her process for writing and creating such a detailed and robust educational resource and her experience teaching type design to undergrad design students. You won't want to miss this one!

Typesetting Latin-Based Languages, Jazz Type, and more! This week, we've got a couple of in-depth guides about the different kinds of typesetting rules for the most widely used Latin-based languages and a deep dive into the philosophy of copying in design. We've also got a great article on the lettering behind famous jazz album covers and an awesome database of the dimensions of thousands of popular objects and spaces. Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links

Interrobangs, Drop Caps + Victorian Type This week might be our most fun one yet! We talk about our two favorite obscure glyphs: the interrobang and the manicule. We discuss their origin story and what they're up to today. We also go over our favorite links from the week including a deep dive into the history of drop caps, some Adobe Max highlights, and advice for those thinking about entering the UI/UX industry Tune in! Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links

Our All-Time Favorite Books on Type, Design & Lettering Besides chatting about a handful of fun, somber, and educational resources, we're diving into a few recommendations for books that have been super impactful in our own learning about type this week. Weekly Typographic Newsletter Links