“Acquired: at the Museum Bellerive in Zurich recently, the catalogue for Typotecture: Typography as Architectural Imagery, an exhibition at the Museum fur Gestaltung, Zurich, 2000. Great collection of posters, wide-ranging in provenance and subject matter but all concerning typography ‘being able to subject itself to gravity and acquire a physical presence, to expand into a space and come closer to architectural form’. Includes an essay by curator Andres Janser. Features work by Max Huber, Michael Bierut, Ivan Chermayeff, Mihaly Biro, Claude Luyet, Tomoko Miho, Mirko Ilic, and many others.”

“Just for fun, I’ve decided to share my first published writing on the subject of typography. It appeared in the April 19, 1977, issue of Metropolis, the Weekly Newspaper of Minneapolis. Metropolis unfortunately folded about six months later, but it was an incredible place to work. I may write more about it sometime.”

From Erik Spiekermann: “What is the ONE thing you think every student of typography should know?” (Thanks Coudal Partners!)

“‘What font is used on the Absolut Vodka bottles’? ‘Can you identify the font used in the new Star Wars movie’? ‘Do you recognize the font in the attached PDF’? I get questions like these daily. I don’t mind them. Fact is, I enjoy the challenge. What I don’t like, however, is the nomenclature. It seems that just about everyone is using the word ‘font’ when they are referring to a typeface. ‘Fonts’ and ‘typefaces’ are different things. Graphic designers choose typefaces for their projects but use fonts to create the finished art.”

“As soon as I saw the stellar titles that opened Thank You for Smoking, I had to fight the font freak in me from attempting to identify each typeface Shadowplay Studio used to emulate the look of cigarette packaging. Now that Veer has formally called us out, I’ll take a whack at it.”

“In the Japanese language Nikkei newspaper yesterday I stumbled upon an interesting article featuring stories on people who have started small grassroots movements — however unintentional — by doing something in a unique way. One such person is Mr. Masayoshi Takahashi who has gotten a lot of people interested in his unique way of presenting, now labeled the ‘Takahashi Method.’ Takahashi uses only text in his slides. But not just any text — really big text. Huge text. Characters of impressive proportion which rarely number more than ten, usually fewer.”

“This study sought to determine if certain personalities and uses are associated with various fonts. Using an online survey, participants rated the personality of 20 fonts using 15 adjective pairs. In addition, participants viewed the same 20 fonts and selected which uses were most appropriate. Results suggested that personality traits are indeed attributed to fonts based on their design family (Serif, Sans-Serif, Modern, Monospace, Script/Funny) and are associated with appropriate uses. Implications of these results to the design of online materials and websites are discussed.” (Thanks Design Observer!)

“The population is rapidly aging and becoming a larger share of the marketplace. 13 percent of the population is currently over 65 years old. In 30 years that group will double to 66 million people. People change as they age. Sensory, cognitive and motor abilities decline. The built environment is not typically created with the needs of the aging population in mind. How does the choice of typeface in signage systems, for example, impact the older viewer who is experiencing vision problems typical to that age group? Are certain typefaces more suitable to the aging eye?”

“Comic Sans was designed because when I was working at Microsoft I received a beta version of Microsoft Bob. It was a comic software package that had a dog called Rover at the beginning and he had a balloon with messages using Times New Roman.” (Thanks kottke.org!)

“There’s a scene early on in the movie Meet the Fockers where Ben Stiller and his bride-to-be fly off to see her parents. The establishing shot cleverly reminds us exactly which city they’re leaving.”

“Today, early readers are faced with the daunting task of memorizing an abundance of characters — 26 uppercase letters, 26 lowercase letters, 10 numbers and over a dozen basic punctuation marks and monetary symbols. This task is daunting on its own, but becomes even more challenging for early readers who are dyslexic. A big problem for early readers is the identification of letters.”

“If one aspect of design has suffered most in its transition to the Web, it is the art of typography. For years, Web typography involved little more than choosing a typeface and font size. Unstyled Times New Roman was the norm, and the integration of established typographical techniques and rules was unimagined.”

“The radio channel on type and design. Type is speech on paper. Typeradio is speech on type.”

“I need help understanding the concept of kerning fonts. Is there a formula to it, or is it really what looks ‘best?’”

“Letter spacing is a fine-tuning process that demonstrates a designer’s sensitivity towards typography. Words are made up of what seems to be an infinite number of letter combinations. But not all of these letters fit together very well.” (Thanks Coudal Partners!)