Glass & Glyphs, Bright lights & books

View this email in your browser

Hi, Type, Print & Lettering Lover! Hope you've had an ace August...

If you're in SEQ this month, September & October, you'll start to see the simplified screenprint version of my #letterpress love letter to Brisbane popping up around the city for Brisbane Open House... (Top image above the letterpress edition on heavyweight trace, and below a detail of the screen printed BOH tote).

This Month I spoke with local creative Sara Mazzoni at Shillington about my typographic journey, being a Human vs. Designer, the benefits of self-initiated work and tips for finding balance as a creative.

"There is a real freedom in working analogue—you can’t strive for perfection—instead, working slowly with these old-school mediums you’re getting hands on and just trying to learn and be better."

The response to the feature has been tremendous, and I have appreciated hearing other designers creative stories with vulnerability, creative confidence and how others balance design with the other aspects of their life.

My studio moving sale on the TYPOgraphJournal ends this month so if you want to pick up a copy for AUD $10 each jump over to the store before the 1st of September...

I hope you enjoy the curated selection of readings/musings and eyecandy below. Wishing you all the very best from a gloriously bright blue winter day in Brisbane and I will be in touch again soon.

ps. I am taking a break from posting next month as I do the final pack & ship of the print pavilion to NZ. But I will be back with a bumper collection of Musings in October!

Speculatype goes beyond making an original contribution to knowledge

Rather than question what a letter 'should' look like, Barry ambitiously explores what letters 'could' look like, establishing a radical model, where the designer actively erodes their preconceived expectations of typographic form.

A wonderful resource for calligraphic hands... The Zanerian Manual is one of the most comprehensive books ever to exist containing information about Zanerian Engrosser’s Script, Ornamental Penmanship, and American Lettering. (Available to download for free here).

The Visual History of Type is to present an accurate picture of every stage of its development

Luke Tonge reviewed: The Visual History of Type by Paul McNeil which is set to drop September 1st - I cant wait to get my hands on a copy of this book! I preordered via the Nile (Type lovers down under can order from the Nile or Booktopia for free shipping)

Typography & Thyme: the first printed herbals; I love typography explores the design of books dedicated to describing herbs and plants and their properties

Entirely different but also a lovely book about plants. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to greenify your space, you need this new book in your life.

Expedition Press wins American Book Award! Passings by Holly J. Hughes, letterpress printed and bound by Myrna Keliher (expedition press) was recognised among excellent company Learn about the award and see this year's winners and if you don't have this beautiful book yet, pick one up here.

Tales of the Handmade Book - When we think of a handmade book we often think of one-off artist editions, but Tara Books has found a way to produce beautiful, handmade books thousands of times over, in multiple languages and editions.

It has been a couple of years since I featured Maciej Polczynski in volume 03 of TYPOgraphJournal so I caught up with him to find out more about his recent work, love of type, inspirations and experimental approaches.

Typographic exercises in word play by Chris Clarke

‘The experience to design is really liberating — the limitations imposed by having just the one character set means the posters intelligence and playfulness must come through the word play and typographic placement.’

‘Great Ideas-y’ Theo Inglis interviews design luminary David Pearson about typographic book covers, innovation and idea generation in the design of books

Creatives share how they deal with burnout, shock and overwhelm

The latest collection from extraordinary routines is an important read for any designer "What creative person hasn't ended up in a fucking puddle on the floor?" – Kate Berry

From the Mill's Natasha Vermeulen profiled by Design Assembly; I am loving Natasha's lettering and illustration work so it is ace to see and hear more about her process ahead of Christchurch's Adobe Creative Jam

'a' is for awesome! Launching his new website - Designer Gabriel Benderski set a challenge to create as many lowercase 'a' with a square counter shape on a 3x3 grid. Result: 255 a's check out the video (and website) here

"Books are a place." Q & A with David Campbell; Senior Designer at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) "Almost all of my book design work is for catalogues or art books, so there’s no need to look elsewhere for inspiration. The projects come with an artist’s visual language or set of concepts, or a strong curatorial premise, all of which serve as the guiding principle and main inspiration for the book. "

Head over heels in love with Bethany Heck's new Font Review Journal website - the investigation behind each face is tremendous, Bethany's writing is super accessible, honest and fun. Check it out for yourself!

Linotype Master Drawings - Once threatened by dispersal, over 60,000 letter templates from the British Linotype company now have a home at Letterform Archive.

Sol Matas profiles Francisco “Pancho” Gálvez Pizarro for typographica Text typefaces establish creative boundaries by challenging designers to strike a balance between legibility and aesthetics. So when we find a typeface designer who thrives on playing within these limits, we need to pay attention.

Design, Build, Test! How do you create a custom font family for the BBC? Lukas Paltram, creative director at Dalton Maag, explains the process from research to testing.

Issue 94 of Eye magazine has been released with 8000 unique covers designed by MuirMcneil. The type special, uses two typefaces, TwoPoint and TwoPlus, and HP Mosaic (and indigo print) technology to create the individual covers. Check out this gif to see the system in action!

Typetasting's Sarah Hyndman is collecting data for her next book with a new font census. Keen to find out 'Which font matches your personality profile?' Participate in the typeface personality experiment!

A font deck; Want to learn about fonts? Try playing poker with the Font Deck, a pack of cards designed to help users learn the finer points of typography and font design.

I want to give a big shout out to Typism which is fast approaching! The new conference site is live - book your spot for the event and the amazing workshops / sideline , meet the speakers and get to know all the details you need to plan your lettering, surf holiday on the Gold Coast! All attendees will recieve some letterpress love from me in the goodie bags.

If you're further afield and cant make it to surfers paradise next month, I highly recommend checking out the betterletters site for a UK , Europe and US round up of events.

Learn the basics of making custom fonts with Wayne Thompson

This intensive course covers letter construction, principles of proportion legibility, and stroke contrast, character sets, metrics, kerning and generating fonts.

The Salon Electric, Open daily from 25 Aug | APDL, level 2, The Design Lounge will be luminescent when we flick on the lights for The Salon Electric, a celebration of neon signs in Queensland and the Asia Pacific. The exhibition explores the process of making neon, its relationship to night life subculture and its latter-day resurgence in contemporary design.

My "Let our words spill" print features as part of "The Salon Electric" exhibition as local Neon artist Michael Blazek created a typographic neon frame for his copy of this print!

Printings most celebrated Pilgrimage is on this November 3, 4 and 5, 2017 Now in its ninth year, the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum annual Wayzgoose Type Conference hosts designers, printers, typographers and letter geeks of all stripes from across the globe.

Winter Has Come (Calling all Game of Thrones fans!)

This Sophie Mo x Bella Schilling: a pop-up exhibition inspired by the GoT series, celebrating pen & ink illustration and calligraphy.

Whiteman Park Print Shop will host WA's inaugural Wayzgoose - Saturday 28th October will be an action packed day, with guest speakers, press demonstrations, hands-on print activities for all participants, a print exchange, and the premier official screening in WA of Pressing On, the Letterpress Film. Register Here.