Here is a website I have created during a college project for the North East of Scotland College Film Festival.
10 Must have Typography, Lettering and Calligraphy Books.
Now that we’re almost in the holiday season, is the perfect opportunity to give to yourself a lovely gift and what more useful and funny that a book?. I’ve made a compilation of 10 (must have maybe?) typography, lettering and calligraphy books. You don’t have to know previous knowledge to read this books. For example if you want to know to very basics about typography I really recommend Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton, or if you want something more elaborate and specific rules to craft your paragraphs or style every text you prepare The Elements of Typographic Style is definitely for you. Enough to say lets go to the matter (you can click and see more details on every book’s name on the list):
- Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton
Ellen Lupton made the great task of shrinking the tons of information about typography and fit it into a digestible book. If want to know what kerning is, this book is for you. If want to know more advance knowledge like style your paragraph, this book is also for you.- The Elements of Typography Style by Robert Bringhurst
This is more a Manual than a book, is loaded with a lot of information. From the structure of a types to style a whole book. You will find almost any typography rule here, and at the end you will learn to break the this rules. Some people say is the most complete book related to typography.- The Anatomy of Type by Stephen Coles
Observing is another way to learn, Anatomy of Type is a collection of on hundred typefaces. Stephen Coles analyze every of this typefaces families including all their characters. This is not a book related to any typography topic, is more a gallery, classic and modern typefaces are included here. And yes… you will find helvetica here.- Type Matters by Jim Williams
Type Matters! is a book of tips for everyday use, for all users of typography, from students and professionals to anyone who does any layout design on a computer. The book is arranged into three chapters: an introduction to the basics of typography; headline and display type; and setting text.- Just My Type by Simon Garfield
Just My Type investigates a range of modern mysteries, including how Helvetica took over the world, what inspires the seemingly ubiquitous use of Trajan on bad movie posters, and what makes a font look presidential, male or female, American, British, German, or Jewish.- The Big Book of Font Combinations by Douglas Bonneville
This little e-book is something to go straight to the point, if you don’t want to spend hours remembering the rules and make explorations, just go to this book and follow the combinations founded in there.- Reinventing Lettering by Emily Gregory
This gorgeously presented book showcases the multitude of creative possibilities offered by the medium, including examples of illustrated and hand drawn lettering, digitally drawn lettering, 3D lettering and found lettering. Each chapter begins with an overview of the different techniques used in creating lettering and type and lettering, followed by informative profiles of some of the most innovative and exciting lettering designers working today, accompanied by inspirational galleries of luscious lettering.- Little Book of Lettering by Emily Gregory
This collection—large in scope but petite in size—surveys the recent lettering renaissance, showcasing a diverse range of talent in gorgeous, eye-catching examples and profiling today’s innovators. In a stunning little package that expertly combines a handmade feel with a modern aesthetic, this is the ultimate inspirational collection of contemporary lettering for design buffs and type enthusiasts alike.- Drawing Type by Alex Fowkes
Part inspiration and part workbook, these hand-drawn type of images will inspire and excite any designer to draw and explore type. Drawing Type features real-world projects and sketchbooks of well-known type designers, including interviews about their processes. Playful, hand-drawn type can easily be used in a range of disciplines within design and illustration such as packaging, editorial, posters, advertising, online graphics, and signage; the hand-made aesthetic is more prevalent now than ever.- Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy by Eleanor Winters
You know what copperplate is right?. This old style of writing even can be a synonymous of calligraphy, now you don’t need to awake you ancestors to learn this calligraphic style. You can do it with this book.
(via graphicdesignblg)
(via fuckyeahtypography)
Typographer’s typefaces
The 25 most admired typefaces by typographers, type designers and letterers.
Selecting the right typeface makes all the difference to effective design and communication. But with over 100,000 font families to pick from it can be a daunting task. There are some excellent guides on how to choose a typeface and helpful methods for pairing typefaces but in order to apply these principles it’s important to be familiar with a broad range of quality typefaces.
Wouldn’t it be great to start with a short list of typefaces, hand-picked by designers in the type industry? In each issue of 8 Faces magazine we asked eight leading designers from the fields of typography, lettering and type design itself: If you could use just eight typefaces, which would you choose?
Over four years and across eight issues we interviewed 64 world-renowned designers1, including; Erik Spiekermann, Jessica Hische, Michael Bierut, Nina Stössinger, Mark Simonson & Seb Lester, plus owners of respected type foundries such as, Font Smith, Type Together and Process Type.
We’ve counted the number of times each typeface was selected and found consensus with the top 25. The top 10 designers’ favourite fonts will be quite familiar to many but hopefully the full list will provide a useful stepping stone to exploring many more.
1. Georgia
Matthew Carter, 1993. Chosen 11 times. Originally designed for clarity on low resolution screens, for Microsoft, it is the counterpart to Verdana, which also appears in this list. Georgia has a large x-height and ascenders that rise above the cap height. It’s a sturdy yet friendly typeface, with a wonderful flowing italic, that features on millions of websites.
“A gorgeous technical achievement.” Jason Santa Maria
2. Gotham
Tobias Frere-Jones, 2000. Chosen 8 times. Famously used for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
“Each character just feels ‘normal’ and ‘right’”. H & FJ
3. FF Scala
Martin Majoor, 1990. Chosen 6 times. FontShop International’s ‘first serious text face’.
“Scala and Scala San are just about perfect.” John Boardley
4. Futura
Paul Renner, 1927. Chosen 5 times. This immortal ‘modern’ typeface with its uncompromising shapes has become the benchmark geometric sans for almost 80 years.
“Paul Renner’s Future characterised his time and influenced many other designers. It was a real modern typeface, not based on existing serif typefaces”. Georg Salden
5. Gill Sans
Eric Gill, 1926. Chosen 5 times. A quintessential British design; though it’s eccentricities make it notoriously tricky to use well. A blend of humanist and geometric shapes.
6. Garamond
(Claude Garamond, c. 1480–1561), Several derivatives of the Parisian punch cutter’s design have been chosen, including; ITC Garamond (Tony Stan), Adobe Garamond & Garamond Premier (Robert Slimbach). Chosen 5 times.
“Garamond was quite the master who appreciated restraint as much as elegance. Of the various roman and italic sizes that he cut, I feel his Vraye Parangonne font (about 18 pt.) best captures the essence of his vision. The subtlety of line and detail are simply remarkable.” Robert Slimbach
7. Caslon (Adobe Caslon)
(William Caslon I, 1722) Carol Twombly, 1990. Chosen 5 times. Gave rise to a printer’s saying ‘When in doubt, use Caslon’. Also a favourite of Benjamin Franklin.
8. Akzidenz Grotesk
H. Berthold, Berthold Type Foundry, 1898. Chosen 4 times. The first widely used sans serif typeface.
“The original grotesque and still the best.” Vincent Connare
9. Alternate Gothic
Morris Fuller Benton, 1903. Chosen 4 times. Designed for the American Typefounders Company (ATF). All three weights are bold and narrow. Currently used on YouTube’s homepage logo.
“Very well designed and drawn. It’s a standard that I strive for in my own work” Mark Simonson
10. Baskerville
John Baskerville, 1757. Chosen 4 times. Baskerville designed his own type to improve his printed works and better the dominant fonts of William Caslon. His typefaces were both admired (notably by Giambattista Bodoni and Benjamin Franklin) and criticised by his competitors.
Baskerville made variations of his typeface for use at different sizes (now referred to as ‘optical sizes’). Some modern interpretations of Baskerville have been reproduced following the designs of a specific size, resulting in several distinct versions.
11. Helvetica
Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann, 1957. Chosen 4 times. Helvetica needs no introduction as the planet’s most famous typeface—it even inspired a very good film.
“You can say, ‘I love you,’ in Helvetica. And you can say it with Helvetica Extra Light if you want to be really fancy. Or you can say it with the Extra Bold if it’s really intensive and passionate, you know, and it might work.” Massimo Vingelli
12. Metro
William Addison Dwiggins, 1930. Chosen 4 times. Designed out of a dissatisfaction with the san serifs of the time like Futura.
13. ITC Franklin Gothic
Morris Fuller Benton, 1902. Chosen 4 times. Created for the American Type Founders Company and named after Benjamin Franklin.
14. Meta Serif
Erik Spiekermann, Christian Schwartz and Kris Sowersby, 2007. Chosen 4 times. The serif companion to Eric Spiekermann’s influential sans serif, FF Meta. Also designed to work well with FF Unit and FF Unit Slab.
15. Trade Gothic
Jackson Burke, 1948/1960. Chosen 4 times. Michael Bierut described it as “The ultimate ‘I don’t give a damn” typeface. No style, no nuance, just blunt, in-your-face, straightforward attitude.”
16. Adelle
José Scaglione and Veronika Burian, 2009. Chosen 3 times. Adelle is a slab serif typeface conceived for intensive editorial use, mainly in newspapers and magazines but its personality and flexibility make it very adaptable.
“Adelle Sans manages to capture one of the most desired of human emotions: cheerfulness.” Nadine Chahine
17. Caecilia
Peter Matthias Noordzij, 1990. Chosen 3 times. A humanist rather than geometric slab serif, aiding its legibility.
“A friendly slab serif that’s more contemporary in its structure. Its large, flexible, family that always sets a really nice approachable tone whenever I use it.” Frank Chimero
18. Chaparral
Carol Twombly, 2000. Chosen 3 times. A “hybrid slab-serif” text face that mixes the legibility of 19th Century designs with 16th century panache.
19. DIN
Albert-Jan Pool, 1995. Chosen 3 times. This clean geometric sans is based on the German standard typeface, DIN 1451, used for official documents and street signs etc. DIN stands for Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Institute of Standardisation). The font was added to the MoMA Design Collection in 2011.
20. Hoefler Text
Jonathan Hoefler, 1991. Chosen 3 times. Designed for Apple to demonstrate advanced type technologies it reintroduced type design traditions once central to fine printing like ligature sets, engraved capitals, ornaments and arabesques.
21. Quadraat
Fred Smeijers, 1992. Chosen 3 times. An original typeface Combining Renaissance elegance with contemporary ideas on construction and form. Named after Smeijers’ design studio in Arnhem, of the same name.
“In my opinion one of the most significant type designs of the nineties” Yves Peters
22. Sabon
Jan Tschichold, 1964. Chosen 3 times. An oldstyle serif typeface based on Garamond. A distinguishing feature of Sabon is the same width occupied by characters in the Roman and Italic styles, and the Regular and Bold weights.
23. Sentinel
Jonathan Hoefler & Tobias Frere-Jones, 2009. Chosen 3 times. “For everyone who’s ever wished Clarendons had italics”. Three of our interviewees had. A slab serif with copious weights suitable for both text and display. Based on the original Clarendon designs by the Fann Street Foundry in Clerkenwell, London
24. Verdana
Matthew Carter, 1996. Chosen 3 times. It was created specifically to address the challenges of on-screen display. Verdana’s large x-height, wide proportions, generous letter-spacing and large counters are key to its legibility at small sizes.
25. Fedra Serif
Peter Bilak, 2003. Chosen 3 times. A highly original text typeface. Shaped by a unique blend of technological considerations while maintaining hand-written forms.
“A beautifully crafted typeface. A very nice, contemporary example of technical quality and carful design.” José Scaglione and Veronika Burian
26. Feijoa
Kris Sowersby, 2007. Chosen 3 times. Aiming to create a feeling of softness, Feijoa has an almost complete absence of straight lines. Feijoa successfully avoids the sense of coldness that Kris had felt with some previous digital typefaces.
“Those gently curved straights and rounded corners lend the design a beautiful organic, almost calligraphic quality. Yet there is nothing frivolous to the typeface, it all is functional and looks very self-assured.” Yves Peters
27. Officina
Erik Spiekerman,1990. Chosen 3 times. A paired family of serif and sans serif faces, originally designed as a typeface for business correspondence but found a much wider, trendier audience.
1. Interviewees:
Erik Spiekermann, Jessica Hische, Ian Coyle, Jason Santa Maria, Jos Buivenga, Jon Tan, Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals, Martin Majoor, Ale Paul, Stephen Coles, Tim Brown, Nick Sherman, Rich Rutter, Veronika Burian, and José Scaglione, Ellen Lupton, Frank Chimero, Steve Matteson, Mark Caneso, Vincent Connare, Yves Peters, Jason Smith, and Phil Garnham, John Boardley, Craig Mod, Kris Sowersby, Doug Wilson, Nadine Chahine, David Březina, and Silas Dilworth and Neil Summerour, Jonathan Hoefler,Tobias Frere-Jones, Mark Simonson, Trent Walton, Keetra Dean Dixon, Peter Bilak, Gerry Leonidas, and Mark MacKay, Simon Walker, Dan Rhatigan, Seb Lester, Nina Stössinger, Grant Hutchinson, Mike Kus, and Eric Olson and Nicole Dotin, Michael Bierut, Tomáš Brousil, Georg Salden, Hannes von Döhren, Phil Baines, Ken Barber, Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko, Elliot Jay Stocks, Jeremy Leslie, Jan Middendorp, Robert Slimbach, Steven Heller, Fiona Ross, Erica Jung and Ricardo Marcin.↩Cover graphic, words & data analysis: Jamie Clarke
Image graphics (1-2, 4-21): Stefan Weyer, 8 Faces Magazine.
Correction, 27th August 2014.
Three versions of Baskerville were chosen: Baskerville (twice), Baskerville 1757 and Berthold Baskerville. These have been combined and Baskerville added at number 10.
