This Week From The Desk

Meet Sherman

This is a great project released this week. Pentagram's work for Syracuse University needed a bookish and smart looking type family, and Goudy seemed to work well, so they turned to Chester Jenkins to develop a forgotten Goudy design for the modern era. Its sharp, its friendly, its intelligent, and looks damn fine on orange. 

Positype has thrown a hat into the neutral sans ring with their latest family release Aago. Its a family of 54 fonts that aren't COMPLETELY devoid of personality despite the marketing comparisons to Helvetica and Arial. I think it has more to do with DIN an humanist sans faces than anything else. Either way, you can explore Aago on your own via MyFonts. 

Everyone who knows me, and even if you don't (if you don't, let this be your informing), knows that I have a soft spot for print, especially if its unconventionally made or bound. Structure is a publication that looks gorgeous and is singing my song. Full of sexy photography of furniture and graphic texture, this is a printed object that has jumped to the top of my want list. See the full feature on BP&O.

Ideo's deep think tank has produced a vision of a whole new future to think about. Circular Design. It's not necessarily an original idea, but it IS the most thorough and useful presentation of it I've ever seen in their Circular Design Guide. I'm convinced this is worth its weight in gold, I can't wait to employ these ideas, and the site is kind of amazing. 

Need. This. Book.

“Fonts just fall out of the sky. People don’t think about the thousands of hours of craftsmanship that go into building them. We’d like to make that more accessible to the clients and students who come here. The type industry shouldn’t be a closed door.”
– James Fooks-Bale

This is something I know a lot of folks in the type industry have been thinking about. How do we start expanding the industry to new markets and opportunities without losing the heart and craft of it all? This article from the AIGA does a good job of highlight Monotype's view of the issue and what can start to be done about it. Also, I wish my name was Fooks-Bale.

An absolutely captivating short from the New York Times that has stuck with me all week. I dare you to look away. 

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This Week from the Desk

Tazugane Gothic was released this week as a "Japanese Humanist Sans Serif Face". This is the first Japanese font family for Monotype. It's a sharp looking offering in 10 weights that continues the trend of globalization for Monotype. View the full family page here. 

The famed design and object trade show held in Paris every year happened this week. It was filled with the cutting edge of everything from furniture to jewelry to pencils to kitchens.... the list goes on.  It's worth taking a look at the exhibitors, articles and highlights coming out of the international affair. 

Kaibosh, an eyewear brand designed by Snask, now has the top spot for best original branding project of the year. There's so much to this, it's fun, and effective design. Love it. Brand New's profile shows it best. 

Its a symphony of parts! Typofonderie's Prosaic is a constructed sans serif family in 9 weights and italics that offers a welcome counterweight to the foundry's broad and traditional French repertoire. It's introduced to us as a "postmodern vernacular sans serif" with some images of it's theories to boot. It feels very designed, digital almost, but I think that's where its charm comes from. 

A closer look a the work of Spencer Fenton. Slick is right. (via It's Nice That)

RoandCo Tumblr

If you're looking for a new superbly curated stream of images, look no further, RoandCo is here. 

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THIS WEEK FROM THE DESK

Briefcase Type released a new sans this week: BC Novatica. It's a handsome sans of generous proportions and minute digital details. It features a few rather radical letterforms like the lowercase n alternates. Check out the full face on their site here! 

Thomas Jockin has started publishing a little video series he calls "Fontributes" focused on typography-related curiosities posted with accompanying Medium articles. Its really more of a visual podcast. This one on The Role of Lowercase in Typefaces is a good start. 

Scott Dadich's Makin' Moves, and Movies.

Famed design editor writer and figurehead Scott Dadich made news recently for leaving Wired completely to pursue new projects.  Well, It didn't take him long thereafter to announce that he was starting a firm... 

...And if that wasn't enough, he dropped this news-bomb this week; he's got a show premiering on Netflix in February about profiles in design. He, along with a full Wired crew, pulled together some very good names to evaluate the state and power of design. Yes please. Watch the trailer for the show above.

Mark Simonson Joins TypeNetwork

The legendary Mark Simonson has joined the growing community of independent foundries, presenting his entire library of fonts from the prolific Proxima Nova to his more character-packed lesser known fonts. This is a good get for Type Network. 

The lauded and exquisite Ikko Tanaka (1930-2002) would have turned 87 over the weekend, and it's been noticed in the design world. I think Tanaka's work has been having a little more resurgence in the past few years as it was so far ahead of its time to begin with. AIGA's Eye on Design took a moment to recognize the designer's work with this post of poster pick by Steven Heller. There are a lot of go-to examples of Tanaka's work out there, but this book poster is a studio favorite. 

"In a landmark decision announced in Tokyo yesterday the Japan Sanitary Equipment Industry Association – a consortium of nine major plumbing manufacturers that includes Toto, Panasonic and Toshiba – agreed to standardise the iconography used on control panels for toilets."

I'm all for clearer iconography, I think this is a pretty good, and entertaining, move. Thanks for the lighthearted pick-me-up news story! via It's Nice That.

Release: Kinetic Type by NM Type

NM Type, also known as María Ramos and Noel Pretorius, released a very handsome sans geared towards the art world. It seems like 'just another sans' at first but with a closer look it quickly becomes clear that this is much more than that. It showcases some original character design, and looks as though it was designed with multi-media in mind. Plus, the mini-site makes for a very well made presentation. Visit Kinetic Type. 

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THIS WEEK FROM THE DESK

This is refreshing and original branding and design work for the physical world. I like that it is not just a web-ready sans serif put in a grid... it uses type and imagery well to bring a new sense of character to the brand. Well done. via BP&O. 

Frank Griesshammer released Source Serif 2.0 this week. It's a modern classic, and I'm really happy to see that Frank keeps building into it. It's an open source font from Adobe, and Frank writes about that and so so so much more in this post on the TypeKit Blog. Much love for this work. 

Lars Muller Publishers latest gem is a monograph of German printer and Graphic Designer Dafi Kuhne's work to date. It looks stunning, Dafi's work is enviable. This is the kind of book that you could sit with for a long long time and still discover new things in. Buy it on the Lars Muller site. 

FontShop published their Best of 2016 list. The first of several lists I'm sure to come out summating the year that was in font releases, this list is specifically filled with FontShop's best and brightest sellers. The well-designed feature page is worth checking out. 

Friends of the studio Charles & Thorn have upped their online work-showing game with a new home for their exquisite lettering and design work. 

Came across the Blueprint this week: a little weblog collection of interviews focused around the idea of working together and managing communication in business and client relationships. It's all put on by Teamweek, a group scheduling platform, so it makes sense. Its got a few profiles and interviews worth reading.  

David Johnathan Ross is back at his type wizardry in classic fun fashion with his latest variable font release Fit. It's a cheekily named font that literally fits into any line width by making textbook use of the power of variable fonts. The specimen pages are great because you can literally change the line width of the specimens and watch the variable fonts work right before your eyes. 

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THIS WEEK FROM THE DESK

HAPPY NEW YEAR 

This list of books to get in 2017 is excellent. Needless to say I'll be putting a few of these on the shelf this year, starting first and foremost with the Harry Pierce book. Here's to a year filled with books! 

Modern graphic design housed in a dynamic web experience, yes please. The work out of french studio Spassky Fischer is worth a quick study. 

In Memoriam: Karl Gerstner

Karl Gerstner passed away on New Years day at the age of 86. Gerstner was a Swiss typographer and graphic designer who embodied the title of Commercial Graphic Designer. His prolific amount of work and cultural impact will be affecting the world of design for decades and decades to come. 

“Just as [Friedrich] Dürrenmatt disguised literature as detective stories, so I created everyday art without forcing people into museums,” —Karl Gerstner

The topic of emojis will seemingly never leave us. In some ways their importance is incredibly misunderstood with much more to be discussed and talked about, but at the same time talking about emojis seems so played out and unexciting. Will Hudson and Alex Bec take an hour or so to dive into the much maligned topic on the It's Nice That podcast. Worth a listen. 

In Memoriam: John Berger

John Berger is THE pioneering critic and author in how we see and understand art and design and everything visual. His seminal text "Ways of Seeing" changed how we would make art and talk about the world of visuals forever. He died on New Years Day at the age of 90. I believe his New York Times obituary was one of the best depictions of his life. If you feel like really getting lost for a little bit, check out his four part series based on his book on youTube:

This next weeks issue of Billboard magazine is ultra-fun, always a fan of a good typographic cover.  These two can never do enough typographic work. (I wish there was a larger image available on the internet!)

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Hello, 2017

A video posted by Badson Studio (@badsonstudio) on

Hello 2017. It's really nice to finally meet you. 

There's a lot to look forward to in the next 365 days. We're very excited about all that this year has in store. We won't say TOO much about all of the goings on, but we can say that we are PUMPED to be growing and expanding and creating more than ever before this year.

We're looking forward to new typeface releases from the Badson Type Foundry, more fun products in the Shop, and of course, more great collaborative work with our killer clients. Of course, it certainly won't be a year without its challenges, but we say "Bring 'em on!". We're looking to be more productive and devoted to what makes Badson great: quality and empowering products delivered with style and an informative world of content. 

Stay up to date with all things Badson by following us on Instagram, Twitter, or Ello!

We hope everyone had a wonderful New Years; lets all go do some good. 

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