View allAll Photos Tagged letterforms
Met yet another American foundry I didn't know existed. Hello, Hobart & Robbins! Thank you, Letterform Archive.
Not much is known about them. Circuitous Root has only these two entries:
www.circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/press/noncomptype...
www.circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/press/typemaking/...
AKA The New England Type Foundery. Merged with Boston Type foundry in 1885. This 1851 catalog is from the Tholenaar Collection at the Letterform Archive in San Francisco.
Wallpaper 1920x1200 designed with the typefaces listed here below:
Typefaces in use:
Ricardo Marcins and Erica Jungs (PintassilgoPrints) decorative display face »Changing«
Changing is a lively font, loaded with many automatic interlock pairs that do their magic in OpenType aware applications. Its peculiar design and such choices for letter combinations make this a very dynamic, spirited and useful typeface.
Nick Curtis’ (Nick’s Fonts) retro script face »Fuller Brush NF«
Fuller Brush NF is a snappy single-stroke alphabet from The New Lone Pine ABC of Showcard and Ticketwriting, which Aussie author C. Milnes suggested should be executed with a well-loaded brush, provided the inspiration for this loose, lilting retro script. Its condensed letterforms and tight spacing allow for larger headlines than most brush scripts, and its bouncing baseline adds an extra dollop of visual fun. The PC Postscript, Truetype and Opentype versions contain the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.
Maze: Matevz Medjas (Gigofonts) decorative headline type family »Gf Selfcensor«
Gf Selfcensor Gf Selfcensor is a compressed unicase typeface best suited for use at display sizes. It works well in magazines/newspapers, posters, flyers, and book covers. When printed in black or red it has the character and seriousness of classic newspaper headline fonts, and when brightly colored it becomes live and playful. Negative leading is not a problem with it, it’s a must!
Ad pages from Ver Sacrum, ca. 1900. Collection of Letterform Archive. (If you don’t like how the ads look in your mag, insist on designing them yourself, like the Secessionists did here.)
I shot this for the salon we did last year on Letterforms of the Vienna Secession. If you’re an Archive member you can see a recording. Join or log in.
The use of Art Nouveau letterforms, a touch of Edward Munch, and shock illustration was very much an individual statement by the illustrator, reflecting his own response to the subject matter. My problem is, I want to make my own interpretation, and I just want to know what, when and where about the play, concert or movie being scheduled.
Warsaw theatre poster designed by Jan Lenica 1964. He later went on to France, then Germany where he was also involved with film, especially animation.
Hungarian book from the 1930s. From the collection of the Letterform Archive, San Francisco (letterformarchive.org).
Ornaments from Shriftguß AG, ca.1927. German for “eyecatching jewelry”. Basically, this is typographic bling. Also, my new rapper name. From the Tholenaar Collection at Letterform Archive.
Since a lot of people have been asking about Sütterlin: A simplified, monoline and upright version of the German Script (also: Deutsche Schrift, Kurrent, German Blackletter Script) which was taught in schools in Germany up until the 1940s.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%BCtterlin
This is from a German lettering manual from the ~1930s («Die Schrift in Wort und Bild», Hrsg. Malerschule Zimmermann, Mannheim-Neckarau, o.J., um 1935/1940)
Collection of Letterform Archive.
“12 x 12 sheets each reproducing a full alphabet selected by Theo Crosby, Alan Fletcher, and Colin Forbes, and printed by Mears, Caldwell, Hacker, Letterpress & Lithography, London SW9. Originally distributed as a Crosby/Fletcher/Forbes Christmas promotion, this set was distributed by Mears, Caldwell, Hacker to select clientele.” [modernism101]
This typeface is Series 4009–4019.
From the Tholenaar Collection at Letterform Archive.
Normal-Grotesk was released around 1943. It was reworked from Haas’ Akzidenz-Grotesk (based on a Wagner & Schmidt design, c.1909). It is not the same as the Berthold Akzidenz-Grotesk, but both designs, along with Französische Grotesk, were models for Neue Haas-Grotesk (later Helvetica). Info from Indra Kupferschmid. See also her history in Helvetica Forever.
Wallpaper 1920x1200 created with Pilar Canos particularly extravagant and beautiful typeface family»Techari«.
»Techari comes from a commission in which the brief consisted of the creation of a typeface family to be used for the design of the third disc of the band called Ojos de Brujo based in Barcelona. This disc was called Techarí, which means “free” in Caló, the language of the Spanish gypsies.
The starting point of the design was the music of this band, the meaning of the disc’s name, and three words given by the band as key concepts: ethnic, baroque and graffiti. Techarí is a mixture of lots of influences, which give it its unique personality.
From its technical viewpoint designing Techarí was a challenge, on the one hand it had to have lots of personality, and on the other it had to work in text at 9 or 10 pt size. Its goal is precisely that, while keeping a strong personality it works in text size.
The typeface also contains a Stencil version for use in display sizes which keeps Techarí's innovative spirit. The way it has been “cut" is unconventional, it has been carefully done to keep the freshness of the typeface by taking advantage of the letterforms' flow. Techarí extra complements the typeface by taking a classical typographic form, the ornament, and making it a contemporary graphic tool, vindicating this wonderful typographic element.«
Novel Effects with Novel Gothic brochure, undated.
Tholenaar Collection at the Letterform Archive. Better photos of this booklet in the Online Archive.
As far as I know, this is one of only two ATF specimens of Novel Gothic. For some reason it does not appear in the 1934 ATF catalog, which was their last major specimen book. The typeface was initiated by Charles H. Becker and finished by Morris Fuller Benton for ATF in 1928.
There are many digital typefaces in this 1920s showcard style (such as Kobalt), and many poor digitizations of Novel Gothic, but no faithful revival currently exists. Telenovela NF is a digital interpretation with an additional highlight effect, while Napoli and Naked Power are attempts to tame Novel Gothic’s comical personality into large, straightforward sans families.
A concise specimen booklet of the Futura family as it stood in the early 1930s, with its designer Paul Renner on the cover. Sadly, this cover has separated from the unusual mini ring binding, but it’s no less beautiful.
One of many duplicates from Letterform Archive’s collection available at our Rare Book Sale starting shortly.
Clearing a display case at the San Francisco Public Library after a Letterform Lecture in 2017. This is a Photo Typositor phototype reel from Type Films of Chicago (Castcaft) with 4–5 fonts, including Hopkins Wood, Homestead, Honda, Honey, and Horatio.
