Thanx for the advice, Hrant, and thanx for the response, Coles. Uploaded a flash 4 file. Hope it will do the works. By the way: how do you get those thumbnails/portraits along with the signature data? - do we have to be members of the country club to get those?
Silentmail 1998. An experiment by CalArts Teacher Jens Gelhaar and an old class where he taught type design. I've selected it for my "Letters" book (as I said, probably out before the end of the world). Here's a picture from Roger Walton's "Alphabook":
Sorry for the big gif but I wished to show you how odd this can became with a text face. Note the uncial f. By the way, I love Pumpernickel. I started some ten years ago something very similar, scanning household items and found objects, but I dropped it. Pumpernickel is really prettier than Paul Elliman's Bits, for example (in an issue of FUSE). I would love to work on a collaborative face like Silentmail. I would just try to keep more control (in Silentmail each following student was allowed to look only at the previous six characters and not at the whole).
I don't know Elliman so much, but here's Bits, from FUSE issue 15. I recalled it worse. Actually it's very good as Pumpernickel. It rocks, too. Besides, it's been one of the first (if not the first) face designed with found objects. It has a pretty complete character set, which is unusual for a FUSE face.
Silentmail inspires me a lot. I would like to attempt a cooperative text face, using better starting rules.
Actually your Pumpernickel maybe is less original/flamboyant than Bits, but more readable. My idea with "Gerümpel", the face I started with found objects, was to design a text face with them. You could try this with Pumper... or we may try together.
> [I have two "definitions" of text fonts. One is closer to yours is related to book usage, the other includes experiments which eventually someone could dare to use in text, like my Neoritmo. I talked with Nick Shinn about this and he shares my idea. His Merlin, for example, is conceived as a text face, albeit overcharged with decoration. And I think his intention with Fontesque was the same, although Fontesque really does not work.]
Hrant first (like Women and Child ;) I have not explained myself well. I meant Fontesque does not work if we consider it in what I called faces for book usage. As far as we are in my second and generic category (experiments for someone who might dare to use in text) many faces work at different degrees depending on how much you dare and on the complessive length of the text. An example is the use of Outwest as a textface in Emigre 28. I find it fantastic but it could turn your stomach upside down. And it's not for book usage. So I just meant that, if you're very daring Merlin could even be used in a book but Fontesque probably not. It all depends on the context to me.
For Tor: thank you! I should have to see if objects I found for my old Gerümpel are still there. Then we may extablish proportions and start digitizing and make selections for the lowercases (I always start from the more problematic lowercases). As for the sound project: do you know Voxel by Joshua Distler at Shift?: it's not what you are proposing but it's an experiment linking sound to graphic forms. I have it, Joshua is a friend of mine. You may see Voxel here: http://www.shiftype.com/
About your idea: short sounds but... any kind of sound? I like the idea but I find the found objects one more fun! Send me a private mail from my profile page.
We're glad to have you, T+L. You rock our world. See that thing that says "Edit Your Profile" at the top of this window? Click it. Then add your picture!
17 Jan 2003 — 6:18pm
Please use an older version of the Flash format.
hhp
18 Jan 2003 — 3:15pm
Because you gain nothing, and you lose some audience.
hhp
19 Jan 2003 — 5:38pm
Thanx for the advice, Hrant, and thanx for the response, Coles.
Uploaded a flash 4 file. Hope it will do the works.
By the way: how do you get those thumbnails/portraits along with the signature data? - do we have to be members of the country club to get those?
Regards,
T + L
pumpernickel_specimen.swf (20.8 k)
19 Jan 2003 — 6:34pm
Hi again ...
Here
19 Jan 2003 — 9:55pm
I wanna play that game too!. reminds me of psd tennis and pass the flash file. what I fun idea to do it for fonts
It dosen't look like you guys had any criteria or theme...maybe I'm wrong. How many designers were in on this?
19 Jan 2003 — 11:08pm
I think it's pretty cool, especially when you consider it was a collaborative thing.
hhp
20 Jan 2003 — 4:05pm
> I wanna play that game too!. reminds me of psd tennis and pass the flash file
Aha? what is the "psd tennis and pass the flash file" game about?
> It dosen't look like you guys had any criteria or theme...maybe I'm wrong.
No
20 Jan 2003 — 4:21pm
Hi again ...
And now with picture! (
20 Jan 2003 — 5:12pm
Hello Jared,
The
21 Jan 2003 — 3:16am
Hello Stephen,
This is cool. Do you know of any other typo experiments like this?
T
24 Jan 2003 — 1:48pm
Silentmail 1998. An experiment by CalArts Teacher Jens Gelhaar and an old class where he taught type design. I've selected it for my "Letters" book (as I said, probably out before the end of the world). Here's a picture from Roger Walton's "Alphabook":
24 Jan 2003 — 1:54pm
Sorry for the big gif but I wished to show you how odd this can became with a text face.
Note the uncial f.
By the way, I love Pumpernickel. I started some ten years ago something very similar, scanning household items and found objects, but I dropped it. Pumpernickel is really prettier than Paul Elliman's Bits, for example (in an issue of FUSE).
I would love to work on a collaborative face like Silentmail. I would just try to keep more control (in Silentmail each following student was allowed to look only at the previous six characters and not at the whole).
28 Jan 2003 — 4:09pm
Hello Claudio,
Thanx for the kind response and for an inspiring post in general :-)
Your post got me surfing the net to find something about Paul Elliman
29 Jan 2003 — 10:40am
Thank you, Tor.
I don't know Elliman so much, but here's Bits, from FUSE issue 15. I recalled it worse.
Actually it's very good as Pumpernickel. It rocks, too. Besides, it's been one of the first (if not the first) face designed with found objects.
It has a pretty complete character set, which is unusual for a FUSE face.
Silentmail inspires me a lot. I would like to attempt a cooperative text face, using better starting rules.
29 Jan 2003 — 10:45am
Actually your Pumpernickel maybe is less original/flamboyant than Bits, but more readable. My idea with "Gerümpel", the face I started with found objects, was to design a text face with them.
You could try this with Pumper... or we may try together.
29 Jan 2003 — 11:21am
Claudio, exactly how do you personally distinguish between Display and Text fonts?
hhp
29 Jan 2003 — 11:31pm
> [I have two "definitions" of text fonts. One is closer to yours is related to book usage, the other includes experiments which eventually someone could dare to use in text, like my Neoritmo. I talked with Nick Shinn about this and he shares my idea. His Merlin, for example, is conceived as a text face, albeit overcharged with decoration. And I think his intention with Fontesque was the same, although Fontesque really does not work.]
30 Jan 2003 — 7:45am
Woah! thanx for the upload of
30 Jan 2003 — 8:13am
> Fontesque really does not work
How do you decide this?
What are the technical thresholds?
hhp
30 Jan 2003 — 9:30am
Hrant first (like Women and Child ;)
I have not explained myself well. I meant Fontesque does not work if we consider it in what I called faces for book usage.
As far as we are in my second and generic category (experiments for someone who might dare to use in text) many faces work at different degrees depending on how much you dare and on the complessive length of the text.
An example is the use of Outwest as a textface in Emigre 28. I find it fantastic but it could turn your stomach upside down. And it's not for book usage. So I just meant that, if you're very daring Merlin could even be used in a book but Fontesque probably not.
It all depends on the context to me.
For Tor: thank you!
I should have to see if objects I found for my old Gerümpel are still there. Then we may extablish proportions and start digitizing and make selections for the lowercases (I always start from the more problematic lowercases).
As for the sound project: do you know Voxel by Joshua Distler at Shift?: it's not what you are proposing but it's an experiment linking sound to graphic forms. I have it, Joshua is a friend of mine. You may see Voxel here:
http://www.shiftype.com/
About your idea: short sounds but... any kind of sound? I like the idea but I find the found objects one more fun!
Send me a private mail from my profile page.
Cheers!
18 Jan 2003 — 12:05am
Why, Hrant? It's easy enough to download. Works fine here.
Fun, Tor. I especially enjoy the 'G' and 'M'.
19 Jan 2003 — 9:49pm
We're glad to have you, T+L. You rock our world.
See that thing that says "Edit Your Profile" at the top of this
window? Click it. Then add your picture!
20 Jan 2003 — 4:29pm
Tor, if you're itching to do this type of project again, I'm sure you'd have no shortage of response here in recruiting collaborators.
If you have a fresh idea on how a group of people could design a collaborative typeface, by all means, let's hear it.
Did you ever see our Smaller Picture project?
21 Jan 2003 — 12:06am
One attempt at typographic baton passing: Chinese Whispers.