While you're not looking » Typography

THE FLOATING WORLD: UKIYO-E

Wendy Cooper — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:30:29 +0000

John Warwicker of Tomato, a god of 90s graphic design, is launching his book at The Narrows this Thursday 26 November, 6-8pm. Floating World: Ukiyo-e (ISBN: 3–86521–030–9) is already a winner of the TDC judge’s special prize at the 2010 Tokyo Type Directors Club. Surprisingly, the typography is not as refine as the photography in my eyes. Check it out and judge it for yourself.

Lubalin Now

Wendy Cooper — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:05:40 +0000

Lubalin Now is a beautifully curated exhibition to honour the illustrative typographic works of Lubalin.

On view at The Cooper Union from tonight’s opening reception (18:00–20:00, 5th November) until 9th December. A must see if you’re in New York!

Chinese retaliate by hacking

Wendy Cooper — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:27:49 +0000

It’s a busy time in Melbourne when MIFF hits the calendar. From here onwards the rest of the year is jammed pack with the arts. Someone whose also busy is the Chinese Government when they demanded the banning of the documentary made about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, The 10 Conditions of Love, from this year’s MIFF programme. This year’s Asian selection has suffered tremendously by the several last minute withdrawals. It is only understandable when you are part of the regime and there is no way of retaliating. But in the western world, we are not part of that hold and to remove a film for no just reason is simply not on. When the Chinese government did not get the response they desired they childishly sabotage the website early yesterday. What sort of statement are they making with all this trouble? This tantrum fit would only bring prominence to the film they so wish to dampen and forget.

Source: The Age

Liza

Wendy Cooper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:18:59 +0000

Bewitched, an American comedy series that broadcasted for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972

It is an ebullient moment when a new typeface from Underware emerges and Liza is no exception. With its loose and playful look, it is clearly inspired by the ID of Bewitched TV series and its time. This varied width Open Type has an abundance of tweaks that are handy for designers who have strong preferences over not only the style of ligatures and fractions but also particular lowercase and uppercase letter combination. This excessiveness does borderline over to indecisiveness of the designer where simplicity as a finesse is devoured into a mush of over unnecessary complexities. My motto when it comes to design stems from Terre des Hommes by Antoine de Saint Exupéry: Perfection is attained not when no more can be added, but when no more can be removed.

La perfection soit atteinte non quand il n’y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n’y a plus rien à retrancher.

The many faces of Liza

The various language support is good to see. The distinctiveness are defined by its accentuated strokes and the faux irregularity in the Underware signature style of Ligature and Contextual Alternates. There are small jarring details, as per preference, of the disconnection in strokes (such as the lowercase R) and the awkward overlapping of the dot of the it and the crossing of the t in the Alternates. In the instance of the R it is clear that it follows the open K but it interferes with its legibility, and the crossing ligatures can easily be avoid by leaving out the dot to give it a cleaner appearance.

The disconnected Rs

Dotting the Is and crossing the Ts

Another detail I was disappointed with is the extended stroke option as per Bello. It was flawless in Bello but here, demonstrated in the image below, it clearly shows the joints of where the E ends and where the extension starts. If this is deliberate, it is a very unattractive feature. Overall, Liza will definitely take a prominent places in the design world but as compared with its predecessors, it is a font that has une gueule de bois grave.

The refinements of Liza: An error or a design feature—that is for you to decide