This Week From the Desk
This week, we find our desk in a different location. We have moved our office from the trees and rocks of Denver, Colorado to the palms and sands to San Diego, California. We’re happy to have moved to the West Coast, and can’t wait to continue to bring the world of type to you from a new perspective.
This week, however, has been distracting for several reasons besides our move west. With hills and mountains from LA to Colorado engulfed in several wild fires, an earthquake off the coast of Mexico, devastating floods in India, Hurricane Harvey having drowned out lower Texas and another hurricane, Irma, leveling the Caribbean Islands and gunning for Florida and the southern US... it seems like the world is quite literally out to get us. It’s been hard to focus on the importance of fonts and the business of making letters. But there has been a lot to celebrate this week in the world of typography, and that’s part of what this briefing is here for: to bring a bit of calm and interest amidst weeks of distracting news and heartbreaking events.
Be sure to sign up for the email dispatch of This Week From the Desk, where you’ll find even more insight and news form the world of type. Have a great weekend everyone, and good luck.
Klim Releases National 2
Building on top of what was already a momentous design, Kris Sowersby of Klim Type Foundry has updated his National Type Family in almost every way, and expanded it's ability and scope. Now containing 64 fonts over 4 widths, National 2 is a “comprehensive expansion of National’s original aesthetic concept.” As is the case with most Klim releases, you can get a more insightful read into the origins and details of the complete project on the Klim Blog.
Typotheque released a set of Devanagari companion fonts to their seminal Greta Type system this week, in explosive fashion. “Greta Sans Devanagari is the largest typeface system of interrelated styles produced for any Indic language, suitable for small text and headlines.” says Typotheque. The family consists of 80 styles for Devanagari, which aids in Greta's far reaching language representation. Read more about what Greta Sans Devanagari has to offer and explore the colorful specimens (designed by Shiva Nalluperumal) at Typotheque.
Production Type released a type family this week that has been in the works for a long time, and springs from fashionable roots. Antique Gothic is Production Type's commercial offering of a private type system created for Louis Vuitton back in 2014. This new expression of Antique Gothic is delivered with three light weights, a regular, and medium weight. The lack of bolder weights is a tasteful choice here, honoring the origin of the types themselves. Buy and discover more about Antique Gothic at Production Type.
It looks like our friends from Across the Atlantic are headed this way for a whirlwind trip through Canada and the USA, bringing goodies and toys for us all. Their Roller Coaster Tour is bringing 5 lectures and 2 workshops to 4 cities in 6 days in the month of September. A roller coaster indeed. Learn how you can get connected to all the tour's events on their own event page.
Optimo Type Foundry released a sturdy condensed Sans this week called Next. On first look, it seems rather devoid of anything worth writing home about, however the character does start to emerge with a little time spent. The turned out flares, of the lowercase a, the strange cuts on c's and g's, and then the alternates which seem to have no restraint when it comes to the rules set by the other glyphs.... Interesting things happening here. See the full family on the Optimo site.
The home to display fonts both famous and infamous, Virus Fonts, has a new site, and a fresh take on their deep catalog of display and text typefaces. Perfect for the rebel, protest sign maker, or counter-culturalist in you, the work of Barnbrook Studio has got you covered. See all the Virus Fonts in a new light on their redesigned site.
Type Network announced this week that it has partnered with Garage Fonts to bring the famed type family Freight to it’s ever-growing collection. Freight is a design produced by Darden Studio that has found success in wide distribution through Garage Fonts. Garage Fonts’ partnership with TN means that the 4 style family can reach an even larger audience. Freight is a masterstroke of type design (we use it on this site). Check it out for yourself at Type Network.