Font ID: Applebee’s, Steak ‘n Shake
Applebee’s The modern day (post 2007 re-brand) Applebee’s has a menu with House Script, along with a geometric sans for contrast, DIN. It looks like they have left the ligatures off (not supported in all browsers yet) and added some tracking, which is usually not desirable for script typefaces. Notice how the exit strokes show up ...
Space Shuttle Terminal app
After seeing photos of the cockpit of the space shuttle Atlantis, I couldn’t help but want to set my command line interface, the Terminal app on my Mac, to the same colors. It’s easy, here’s how I did it: Open the Terminal app’s Perferences Under the Settings tab, you’ll see the theme options. Select ‘Homebrew’ ...
Font Aid V: Made For Japan
The fifth installment of the SoTA charity project finally made it to market. After being started in March 2011, an overwhelming response from contributors around the world took a lot of time for the volunteers to process and prepare the artwork properly for inclusion in the font. See the full story and more details about ...
New fonts in iBooks 1.5
Apple widened the font selection in iBooks version 1.5. They chose four beautiful text typefaces; the Athelas typeface from TypeTogether, the ITC Charter typeface by Matthew Carter (published originally as Bitstream Charter, then later as ITC Charter), the Iowan Old Style typeface by John Downer (published by Bitstream), and the Seravek typeface from Process Type Foundry in my hometown, Minneapolis. All of these are pretty ...
Font ID: From Engadget to The Verge
My favorite tech writers left Engadget, an AOL brand, in the spring of 2011. An interim WordPress site was setup to accommodate the writers dubbed “This is my Next”—a podcast catch phrase they coined for enthusiasm of their next phone, gadget, or whatever. Finally, this fall, they launched their latest-and-greatest tech news site, The Verge. As a reader, and a typographer, ...
Stenblak featured for Halloween
My tormented, stenciled, and ate-up blackletter typeface, Stenblak, is featured in the October newsletter from Ascender Fonts. Stenblak is perfect for Halloween or Dia de los Muertos headlines. • View October 2011 Newsletter from Ascender Fonts
Thinking in Contour with Cyrus Highsmith
The spoils of a workshop at the Type Director’s Club with Font Bureau’s Cyrus Highsmith. His approach of thinking and drawing in contours, I found, is really a study of figure-ground relationships. These relationships of positive and negative space are imperative to successful type design. I’ve noticed recently that Cyrus, and others like Eric Gill are masters ...