This Week From the Desk
Having been in the works for few years now, Positype has finally released Scotch, a slender and wily Scotch Roman in 3 varieties. Neil Summerour has injected a bit of a new wind to this genre—populated with other well known families like Miller or Harriet—by adding a “Deck” expression to the family... something between Text and Display. Its handsome, expressive, and reminiscent of a bygone era of mid-mod furniture and weekend drives in the Cadillac. Scotch is available through MyFonts.
It’s rare on this platform that we would talk about something before it is officially released, but this is just too exciting to leave unmentioned. Bethany Heck has been working away at creating a platform for intelligent discourse on quality fonts since she saw a need after attending the Typographics Conference this year:
“We need more discourse and analysis around the usages of typefaces by designers, for designers. So, I’m going to start the Font Review Journal, where I will be talking about the general aesthetics and historic influences of typefaces while spotlighting unique letterforms or characters and breaking down what a font excels at and what it has a harder time with.” —Bethany Heck
The Font Review Journal will launch next week, and you can be sure we’ll be sharing it here. For now, see a few previews of what the FRJ could be on Bethany’s Dribbble.
Creative Mornings has always been a source of inspiration. This list of 12 Talks from Founders on Big Ideas and Humble Beginnings is a great resource to help you recharge this weekend.
Online publishing platform Medium has done another about-face on their logo, to lukewarm reception. It's easy to see why when you examine the reasons or needs for this change. Medium has always had a fantastic eye for typography on the web, making it a central part of their product. Perhaps this new wordmark shift is in homage to that, but it's unlikely. Read more about Medium’s change on Brand New, or see how the new identity plays out on the redesigned site itself.
The annual typography conference put on by SoTA is happening right now (Aug 23-27) in Boston. Of course, nothing beats actually attending this conference, but if you’re not able to be there this year you can follow along on twitter and instagram under the hashtags #typecon and #typecon2017.
Monotype’s trade publication The Monotype Recorder has been a cornerstone of the company’s outreach and education initiatives for a few years now. The publication has been filled with everything from typographic eye candy to thought provoking long form articles on type history. This week, Monotype opened up the Monotype Recorder Issue #5 for sale—to be shipped August 25th. Grab a copy here.