I received my Photo-Lettering Catalog this week and House Industries never fails to disappoint. They create not only the most beautiful type specimens, but catalogs that also make you want to buy, use, and overuse their fonts. Though my cover is not as beautiful as the ones above (they indecisively produced 8 different covers), each interior spread features a different design with their typefaces. Sign up for your free copy here.
Albin Holmqvist, of recent claim to fame as the typographer behind the Live the Language videos, created these typographic logotypes for the EF International Language Centers. Holmqvist takes the same approach that he used for the videos—using typography historically and connotatively specific to each city—and adds a simple icon above. The results are refreshingly simple and sophisticated.
Typography Deconstructed: An extensive illustrated glossary for the anatomy of type.
A flickr set of typography in Rome.
The Phraseology Project: submit a word or phrase, and the duo behind the Phraseology Project will “make it look beautiful with type.”
The 50 “greatest” title sequences.
James Franco’s Top 10 Criterion Collection films.
I posted these promotional videos for EF Language Schools a week ago, but after they circulated the blogosphere, I watched the Paris video again. I realized that it deserved its own post, not only for its impeccable typographic treatments, but also for its cheerful beat, that reminds me how one is always happier in Paris.
There are also videos for Barcelona, London, and Beijing—and you can view them all on their vimeo page.
[ Directed by Gustav Johansson, typography by Albin Holmqvist ]
I’ve stumbled across a number of interesting type designs over the past month—here are a few that I wanted to highlight and share:
Scripts by Sergey Shapiro:
Benedictine Type by Paul-Henry Masson:
Neo Deco, by Alex Trochut:
I’ve already posted about Paul Soulellis’s design work, but he recently accepted a fellowship at the American Academy of Rome and he is creating these compositions with paint and oil pastel crayons. To see more of his process, visit his website.
Oscar Germade is a Barcelona-based designer, working on a range of identity and packaging projects, but I was particularly struck by his type designs. Originally created for his identity projects, these typefaces (a lined based type for the University of Vigo in Spain, a bespoke typeface called Pazo Baión, and another identity system for designer Cristina Prats) are strong enough on their own. See more of Germade’s designs below, or visit his website.
After the release of the Jean-Luc typeface last week (a free digitized version of the title type in Made in U.S.A. and 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle, created in honor of the director’s 80th birthday), Christan Annyas of “The Movie Stills Collection” started searching for the primary sources and found few stills or videos of Godard’s films online. In response, Annyas watched all of the early Godard films that featured custom typefaces and created an extensive collection of typographic stills.
Though some stills from Une Femme est Une Femme already existed online, Annyas has collected stills from sixteen of Godard’s films. Though these unique, hand drawn typefaces are strong enough to stand alone (and Godard patriotically emboldens them in the colors of liberté, égalité, and fraternité), I found the credit displays to be the most remarkable aspect of this oeuvre. The arrangement of names and roles is far from formulaic—each successive film takes a different approach, resulting in some poetic and experimental designs.
I’ve posted a few of my favorite typographic specimens below the jump, but visit “The Movie Stills Collection” to see the complete set.
© 2011 Jessica Svendsen
