I’ve already posted about the beautiful Italian typography of the I Am Love title sequence, but I couldn’t resist sharing the video of the entire sequence now that it has been released. Paul Soulellis has also created a flickr set of a few film stills that show some of the typgoraphic variations used throughout the film.
Ill Studio is a design practice in Paris that no only produces print and online work, but they also create a diverse collection of unique typefaces for their projects. You can see more of their work, including how they used these typefaces in printed pieces, on their website.
Ogaki is a new display typeface designed by Áron Jancsó. Bold, roughly geometric, and utterly defamilarizing, it seems like a rewarding fusion between blackletter and record label.
The Quick Brown Fox Jumps over the Lazy Dog: A typeface memory/identification game for all of us type geeks.
A photographic collection of hand painted type across the globe.
A parodic deconstruction of how television reports the news (and there’s an online article version too).
Excellent interview with Stephen Doyle on Design Matters with Debbie Millman. The interview spans his entire career, ranging from his beginnings in magazine design, to working with Tibor Kalman at M&Co, to where he is now, creating playful combinations of word/image for The New York Times, handmade word sculptures, and is this year’s National Design Award recipient for Communication Design.
Ellen Lupton’s Thinking with Type, now resides online and is an incredibly useful resource and a beautiful site design.
The Yale undergraduate admissions website was recently (and brilliantly) redesigned by Pamela Hovland (MFA ’93), Senior Critic at the Yale School of Art, and Wolasi Konu (MFA ’09).
Type specimens from the office of [Herb ] Lubalin, Smith, Carnase from 1969–79.
Lost World Fairs: Explore the “beauty of the [typographic] web” with visits to Atlantis, El Dorado, and the Moon.
Skinny Ships: Illustrations and typography by Richard Perez.
“Massimo Vignelli’s Desk” as a logical extension of his modernist grid.
Michael Bierut launches another design discussion on Vignelli’s subway map (even Massimo and Erik Spiekermann chip in).
Lorraine Wild on Massimo Vignelli’s black rule.
Wes Anderson and Noam Baumbach film each other in the New York Public Library.
“Typewriters you can own. I think a computer owns you.” Interview with Manson Whitlock, New Haven typewriter repairman, who has restored two of my typewriters.
Today, I spent my morning looking at type specimens, contemplating the typeface I will design for my Letterform Design course with Tobias Frere-Jones. Though I shouldn’t even begin to consider designing a script typeface this semester—the course is more about training the eye to see the shapes in letterforms to ultimately create a complete, proportional, and legible, alphabet—I stumbled upon the work of London typedesigner Sebastian Lester today, who is fluent in the curves, ligatures, and swashes of script.
I’ve included a few of my favorite letterforms below, but you can see more of Lester’s work on his website.
I’m new to the work of Non-Format, but their typography is so strong, there is no other word to describe it but, absolutely rad. It also doesn’t hurt that the majority of their work is monochromatic. See more below or here.
I Am Love is a rich and realized film that manages to successfully convey a contemporary melodrama (in an age when most melodramas are easy victims to parody). Director Luca Guadagnino clearly evokes the tradition of Antonioni, Visconti (particularly The Leopard) and Hitchcock with an awareness of how cinematography, sound, and color can shape the emotional tensity of a scene. It is the first film I’ve seen for some time (since The White Ribbon or Exploding Girl) where I felt the camera was active.
The film features a sophisticated title sequence designed by Marco Cendron. Though the design is subdued and traditional in comparison with the more interactive title sequences common in contemporary films, the titles use a typographic sensibility that is gorgeously Italian. Combining a Milanese script with an Italian deco sans serif, both typical of Italian signage of the 40s era, the result “echoes both the handwritten titles of the Italian neo-Realist films of the late 1940s.”
The rolling script was hand-drawn by Italian calligrapher Luca Barcellona. Based in Milan (where the film takes place), Barcellona has an stunning portfolio, featuring a wide breadth of hand-drawn type, from a Fraktur blackletter to a Milanese script. (Be sure to watch this video if you’d like to see how he draws letterforms.) Alongside the script type, is a deco sans serif, which seems to be a redrawn version of Neutra.