On Handwriting and Memories

When I want to share something with someone these days, I send a quick email or a tweet. My time is often limited and my attention pulled in multiple directions so I’ve come to value the quickness and ease of communicating by digital means.

Yesterday though, my mom sent me a recipe hand-written by my grandmother who passed away some time ago. Even though she sent it by email, the minute I saw my grandmother’s handwriting a flood of memories came to me about her – her sizable collection of shells, the tiny Keds she wore, her love of a particular shade of green that pervaded the interior decor of her home and the game Boobytrap I used to play only at her house. All of that, from just her handwriting.

Her writing style was utilitarian and deliberate probably stemming from her days as an elementary school teacher. Certainly nothing remarkable. Those letterforms were uniquely her own though – a combination of her culture, how she learned to write, her personality, career, age and all the other aspects that create a person’s distinct hand.

In a world saturated with digital messages often conveyed by an assortment of repetitive and preselected typefaces, writing creates a direct link to the person and not just the content. Send out those tweets and status updates, but don’t neglect to write it down every now and then.

PS: Ginny’s Buckwheat Cakes Recipe
— ND

Tags:  Buckwheat Rules  |  Handwriting  |  Nicole

Remembering 2011, Previewing 2012

It’s 2012 already but before we say goodbye to 2011 entirely, there were tidbits from the last 365 we don’t want to forget. And while we’re at it, we’ve included a preview of typefaces slated for release in the New Year.

Seravek in iBooks
The 1.5 update to Apple’s iBooks app included several new typefaces, our Seravek among them. Of the seven type choices within the app, Seravek is the only sans serif.

Read more about the new fonts in iBooks:
Apple Updates iBooks App with Nighttime Reading Theme, New Fonts, More on MacRumors
Version 1.5 Improves Typography in iBooks on iPad and iPhone on the FontFeed
FontSwap in iBooks on BoingBoing

Anchor at the Walker Art Center
Like MoMA’s acquisition of several typefaces last year, the exhibition Graphic Design: Now in Production currently on view at the Walker Art Center highlights typefaces as significant cultural artifacts in their own right. Anchor was featured among a number of other typefaces as further evidence of the emerging role of designers as producers.

Five Long Years
After five years of tweaking, polishing and refining, we finally pressed the launch button on Nicole’s typeface Elena. A stand out moment after the release was having a small role in this. Up next for Nicole? A display font loosely inspired by the rhythms of the brush marker.

1% for the Planet
As members of 1% for the Planet, we donate one percent of our yearly sales to non-profit organizations working to improve the environment. This year we lent our support primarily to local organizations like the Will Steger Foundation, the Midtown Greenway Coalition, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness and the Sibley Bike Depot. Our one non-local exception was the Washington-based Sea Shepherd.

One year on: Webfonts and Capucine
October 6 of 2010 marked the launch of our webfonts program making 2011 our first full year with webfonts on offer. And the report so far? Roughly 38% of fonts purchased on our site were either webfonts or webfont/desktop combinations.

Alice’s typeface Capucine also celebrated its first year post-release. We were delighted to see it featured in the inaugural issue of Codex. Of course, seeing it used for what Alice originally intended – as a typeface for magazine listings – in the November issue of Seattle Met also made our list of wonderful things.

Henry B. Weimelt
We were surprised to learn this year that Eric’s great grandfather, Henry B. Weimelt, was a passionate letter maker when not working his shift at the local Post Office. For years, relatives told tales of his after-hours letter work but it wasn’t until this year that his collection of hundreds – if not thousands – of handcrafted letters were uncovered and gifted to Eric. After sorting through the collection though, Henry’s intentions remain a mystery. What were the letters used for? Why did he make them?

The collection is relatively large so we’ve decided to just dive in and slowly work our way out. We’ve posted one half of one small box on our Flickr account. Stay tuned as we uncover more in the coming year.

On Deck for 2012
And last but not least, a good deal of 2011 was spent focusing on releases for 2012. In the New Year Eric will release his 12-font family Chrono followed by the boisterous display companion to Klavika, Klavika Display.

2012 also marks our ten-year anniversary. Thank you for ten wonderful years (officially in June) and here’s to ten more. All our best in this new year!

Tags:  Anchor  |  Capucine  |  Chrono  |  Elena  |  Henry B.  |  iBooks  |  Klavika  |  Klavika Display  |  New Year  |  Seattle Met  |  Seravek  |  Walker Art Center

Meet the Stack

It took me five years to develop Elena. During that time, my constant companion was what we have taken to calling ‘the stack.’ Standing roughly a foot tall, the stack is a chronological collection of laser prints used to test Elena.

Sadly, after a couple of studio moves, the current stack only dates back to 2009. Luckily, 2006, ’07 and ’08 are somewhere. Test documents never get thrown away, only stored absentmindedly awaiting future serendipitous discovery.

Long hours were consumed poring over each and every test document to continually refine the typeface. Some tests are set in stone like the archetypal ‘a b c’ run through. Others are created on the fly to test a particular character, language or typographic convention. Sometimes, they’re just gibberish.

Whatever happens to the stack in the end (shoved into a box and stored in the basement?), it’s a tangible testament to the effort and thought process of a typeface.
— ND

Tags:  Elena  |  New Releases  |  Process  |  Test Documents  |  The Stack

New Release: Elena

We’re pleased to announce the long-awaited release of Elena from type designer and Process Type Foundry partner Nicole Dotin. Designed specifically for text and extended reading, Elena is a contemporary text face well suited for magazines, books and editorial design. Pairing the inspiration of the broad-nibbed pen with a desire for a modern page color, Elena is a face of economical proportions, moderate x-height and spare details.

Available in Regular and Bold with accompanying Italics, each style of Elena is replete with the necessary features one would expect for proper text work like small caps, case sensitive forms and a diverse range of numeral styles including those specifically for small caps. Basic versions start at $39 and full versions at $75.

Tags:  Elena  |  New Releases  |  Nicole  |  Serif  |  Webfonts

Type at the Minnesota State Fair

The first Minnesota State Fair was in 1859, and since then (with just five exceptions due to wars and polio outbreaks), it has been held every year at the summer’s close. Facing this bittersweet farewell, Minnesotans choose to go out with a bang, bringing together a sensory-bombarding celebration of food, fun, agriculture, industry, art, music, history and overall indulgence.

We three at Process Type Foundry packed up and hit the fairgrounds with cameras in hand to capture the explosion of type and lettering (both terrific and terrible) to be found.

From practical tags and signs showcasing Minnesota’s best crops, to the showy stands of the food vendors, the hand-lettered ephemera in the Fair’s historic Heritage Square and the glittering gaudiness of the Midway, we certainly weren’t disappointed.

Tags:  Field Trips  |  Found Type  |  Minnesota  |  Signs

From the Stacks: Berthold Type Foundry Specimen

As type designers we naturally have many type specimens stashed away in our collection, though very few of them manage to elevate type beyond the typical waterfall showings and text settings. There are exceptions of course, but the latest addition goes the extra mile.

With its gorgeous layouts and ersatz ads, we can’t help but appreciate this specimen from Berthold Type Foundry, numbered “525B”. Find many more mid-century (no specific year is given) specimen layouts after the jump.

Tags:  Berthold  |  From the Stacks  |  Specimen

Free Bryant webfont upgrade

The desktop version of Bryant, our warm and modern take on the geometric sans serif, features stylistic alternates that have been unavailable in our webfont packages  – until now! Due to popular request, we’ve now made this typographic flexibility available, giving you more ways to use Bryant 2, Bryant Compressed, and Bryant Condensed on your site.

While stylistic alternates are becoming easy to access in desktop applications that support OpenType, browser support for these features online is still, for the most part, on the horizon. This means that translating this feature to webfonts requires taking a few more steps.  We have broken the stylistic sets into separate font files to allow access to these special features on the web with @font-face or Typekit.

Already have a webfont license for Bryant 2, Bryant Compressed or Bryant Condensed? Just log in and go to “My Account” to view your recent orders and re-download Bryant to receive your free upgraded stylistic sets. If you are using Typekit to display Bryant on your website, you should find the new options in your font library.

Tags:  @font-face  |  Bryant  |  Bryant Compressed  |  Bryant Condensed  |  Webfonts

In Use: Capucine and Anchor Pair Up in Seattle

Seattle Met, a magazine covering the local scene in Seattle, WA, has been using Anchor and Bryant Compressed since May, when designer André Mora came on board. But it was for the summery July issue, with its focus on farms, foraging and other foodie adventures that Mora paired Anchor with the agile Capucine, named after the French word for the Nasturtium flower.

As the newest addition to our family of typefaces, it’s great to see Capucine being put to use here in a way that showcases its flexibility, from display headlines to captions.

See more photos of Capucine in use here.

Tags:  Anchor  |  Capucine  |  Seattle Met