NICOLA GINZLER

Senior Graphic Designer
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Forgotten Font Friday

Dwiggins hand-drawing letters

A lovely type-related article from Atlas Obscura, chroniclers of the strange and wonderful. The Lost Typefaces of W.A. Dwiggins The pioneering designer created dozens of fonts, only a few of which are still around today. By CARA GIAIMO for Atlas Obscura

Fonting While Female Font Friday

Golly gosh, folks, this Sunday, March 8 is International Women’s Day! Isn’t it neat that they let us ladies have a whole day to ourselves? And a whole month to ourselves too? One out of twelve is just nifty! In any case, I thought I’d celebrate the day’s novel status with some typography for this, […]

Fourth-Dimension Font Friday

This font will make your brain hurt Oxymora is a typeface that evokes the twisting, non-Euclidian geometry of MC Escher’s artwork By Carl Franzen (Birgit Palma/Cargo Collective/Inspiration Hut) Impossible, twisting geometric artwork abounds across the internet (see The Verge‘s logo for one prominent example). So it seems high time that someone made a similarly reality-defying font. […]

Found Font Friday 2

Not to be confused with my post Found Font Friday 1, the tale of a bitter turn-of-the-20th-century rivalry which led to economically valuable—and artistically priceless—metal type being flung into London’s River Thames, to be recovered only after a lapse of a hundred years. This post deals with matters cheerier, cheekier, and altogether less grim. From […]

Famous Font Friday

3M logo

Ever wondered what all the world’s most famous companies’ fonts are? Yes? Congratulations! You are a type nerd who will probably enjoy this fascinating info! No? Give it a look anyway, you might get hooked on letterforms in spite of yourself. Famous Logo Fonts A look at most popular fonts used in the logos of […]

Future Font Friday 1

A handy how-to to make any word look like it’s from [cue theremin music] THE FUTURE! Via Dave Addey at Typeset in the Future. I’ll be watching his blog for more posts on sci-fi type.  How To Make Your Text Look Futuristic We’ve already seen how Eurostile Bold Extended is spectacularly effective at establishing a movie’s timeframe. But if […]

Future Font Friday 2

A gloriously obsessive examination of the typography in 2001: A Space Odyssey. This post stars Albertus, City Medium, Eurostile Bold and Bold Extended, Futura, Gill Sans, Microgramma, Spartan and Univers. Please also see my post Future Font Friday 1. Now, over to Mr. Addey: 2001: A Space Odyssey – Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi masterpiece – seems an […]

‘F is for Fox’ Font Friday

Alphabet with characters made up of animals

This lovely animal alphabet was created by Marcus Reed, a UK-based illustrator and designer. You can buy prints of the alphabet here. Each letter is represented by a drawing of an animal whose name begins with that letter, in the shape of the letter.

Phony Font Friday

Louis Vitton bag

Part three of five articles concerned with spotting fake Louis Vuitton merchandise. This cool font-related piece is about the font and spacing of the characters in the signature heat-stamped label. Mostly the signals of an authentic label are subtleties of spacing, alignment, and character shape. Font geeks, pull up a chair! Spotting Fake Louis Vuitton […]

Phonic Font Friday

 A great site, http://typophonic.com/, exploring the typographic art of the phonograph record. c. 60s. Thanks to my pal Vil Arias for sending me this pic.

Flesh Font Friday 2

A

From A Beautiful Book: On Books, Streets & Migrant Footprints:  A beautiful alphabet, from Anus to Tarsals. An anatomical alphabet, made for William Cowpers Myotomia reformata. London 1724  

Fingerprinting Font Metrics Font Friday

AE Æ glyphs

These University of California, Berkeley researchers studied a method of compromising web user privacy, “fingerprinting” of online text: using font glyph* measuring techniques in various browsers to decipher text. (More pages, or buy the ebook or paperback, at books.google.com. Not to be confused with my post Fingerprint Font Friday.) *Loosely, a typographic unit

Fortean Font Friday

Fortean Times cover 058 - July 1991

Fortean Times is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularized by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing (from 1991 to 2001) and then I Feel Good Publishing (2001 to 2005), it is now published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. As of December 2014, its circulation was just under 14,300 copies per […]

Fabric Font Friday

Framed piece of fabric with names and descriptions of fonts

I saw this framed fabric at Britex Fabrics in San Francisco. Britex is an amazing emporium of all things fabric, from single buttons to $200-a-yard sequinned loveliness. Yes, I know, I should get a bunch of the font fabric and upholster my house in it!

Flesh-Free Font Friday

Skeletons! A classic Halloween visual. Here’s a skeleton font from a new-to-me source: home machine embroidery. How the embroidery works: you install software from a website or disk and it tells your home embroidery machine—your enhanced sewing machine or dedicated device—how to make the letterforms or designs. This alphabet was developed by trishsthreads.com and is […]

Flesh Font Friday (NSFW)

Full alphabet

From designboom: a series of ethereal photographs by greek artist anastasia mastrakouli utilizes the nude human form to highlight the dialectical relationship between anatomy and visual art. each image is the product of an experimental performance, rendered as a composition of a silhouette and surface while conforming to the shape of the english alphabet. cut […]

Foot Font Friday

"All Is Fair in Love and War" foot tattoo

A lot of people seem to get type tattoos on their feet. Judging by images online, most of the tattoos are on women, and are inspirational (“Live Laugh Love,” or a serotonin molecule labeled “Stay Positive”). Some are foot-specific (“These feet are made for dancing”) and a few are names (“Amanda”). Many of them use the […]

‘F is for The Flash’ Font Friday

A is for Captain America

Alphabet created by Simon Koay, from SimonKoay.com: Superbet ‘Superbet’ is a typographic exploration of alphabet design by reimagining each letter of the alphabet as everyone’s favourite superheroes and supervillains. Each letter has been created with inspiration from characters who share that same initial in their name.These would be great for kids, or as CNet put it, “perfect for any bedroom wall or […]

Fleuron Font Friday

A fleuron, or flower, is a decorative typographic character. The category of fleuron includes some characters that are not floral in design. Also known as a printer’s flower or floret. Flowers are in a category of characters known as ornaments or type ornaments. Scroll down or jump to here for a short essay on fleurons.   […]

Faëry Font Friday

Ok, so this is a total cheat. Today’s Font Friday is “font” as in “fountain”: in this case, a font created and guarded by faeries. I came across the poem when I was looking for font-related words that start with “f,” and I thought it was interesting.

Fenotype Foundry Font Friday

Fenotype Font Company is the type foundry of Finland-based type designer Emil Bertell. Bertell started Fenotype in 2012 and has designed hundreds of typefaces since then. You can see all his fonts at http://www.fenotype.com/font/fontpage.htm and download the free ones there. Below is a short article from MyFonts, where Bertell’s commercial typefaces are available. His typefaces there are […]

Font Technologies Font Friday

Parametric fonts: Diagram of capital "A"

This article, from SmashingMagazine.com, explicates the concept of parametric fonts. The concept has been around for 40+ years but it has novel applications in web type design. How Font Technologies Will Improve the Web PARAMETRIC FONTS (original article) Words are the primary component of content for the web. However, until a short while ago, all […]

Freaky, Frightening, Fantastic Font Friday

"The Vault of Horror" comic book cover

A fun look at “scary” typography in the pop-culture occult over the last 125 years or so: Ouija boards, comic books, TV shows, and movies. Original article is here.

Feline Fabric Font Friday

This charming fabric of acrobatic kitties was created by designer Elena Naylor and is available by the yard at Spoonflower, a great print-on-demand fabric company. Spoonflower has a wide range of fabrics available, from chiffon to heavy cotton twill to lycra (full list below). I reference them in my post How to Make a Tea Cozy […]

Forgotten Font Friday

Dwiggins hand-drawing letters

A lovely type-related article from Atlas Obscura, chroniclers of the strange and wonderful. The Lost Typefaces of W.A. Dwiggins The pioneering designer created dozens of fonts, only a few of which are still around today. By CARA GIAIMO for Atlas Obscura

‘Forgetting the Point of a Website’ Font Friday

Block of blurry, unreadable type

An excellent rant from a developer who’s sick of designers using “cool” but unreadable web fonts. Written in 2012, so many advances have been made since then towards getting cool type to be readable (e.g. Google Fonts), but the point stands. Web font rant, forgetting the point of a website This is just a rant […]

Multinational Typeface, Letters Based on National Flags

Multinational flags type

From ad agency GSK Unit @Grey Singapore. Much has been written and said about the needs of our global economy. In fact: heated debates have and are still taking place about the dichotomy of global vs. local. Here’s our take on it all: when you set up a new hub to work with the rest […]

Foreign Font Friday 1

Devanagarish font

These foreign-look fonts explore the different shapes and rhythms of non-roman type, in a roman font. All are available here.

Fruitcake Font Friday

Oxfam 2011 Holiday Campaign by Jessica Hische For the 2011 holiday season, Oxfam International enlisted the beautiful lettering and illustration work of Jessica Hische. Besides all of the excellent typography and witty messaging, these ads encourage donations for a wonderful cause. Oxfam consists of multiple international groups that partner and campaign for resolving poverty and […]

Fantastic Four Font Friday

From fontmeme.com: “Fantastic Four font” here refers to the font used in the poster title of Fantastic Four, which is an American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics of the same name. The film was directed by Tim Story and released in 2005. The font used in the title for the theatrical release poster […]

Fungus Font Friday

Great shimeji mushrooms font from handmadefont: Mystical mushrooms create interesting letter figures, bringing an original atmosphere to an illustration. Super food can create super designs, give it a chance. Mushroom font is made of high-resolution photos and contains letters, symbols and numbers. Every letter has a transparent background ready for placement in your design. Mushrooms […]

Found Font Friday 1

Doves type letter "e"

Printing blocks for a typeface called Doves Type have been discovered in the River Thames, London. By Rachael Steven from CreativeReview. Not to be confused with my blog post Found Font Friday 2. Image taken by Sam Armstrong, courtesy of The Sunday Times. Scroll to the bottom to see a short video by the BBC […]

Filament Font Friday

Tesla Font, a Free Font “The inspiration for this typeface was found in the circuitry of lightbulb filament and wiring intricately crossing paths.” DOWNLOAD TESLA ALTERNATE HERE

Follicle Font Friday

Kind of disgusting, but cool. An Eccentric, Wacky Typeface Created With Hair By Loke Shi Ying from DesignTaxi Amsterdam-based designer Monique Goossens has recently created a fun and wacky typeface out of human hair. This interesting typeface is constructed out of strands of hair gathered together. Each clump of hair is shaped to form a […]

Font Film Font Friday

See also Film Fonts Friday 1; Film Font Friday, Wes Anderson Edition; (Bond) Film Font Friday; and (Oscar) Film Font Friday An homage to Times New Roman, a typeface designed for The [London] Times in 1931 and used everywhere since. From the Unquiet Film Series. https://www.dandad.org/awards/professional/2015/branded-film-content-entertainment/24476/the-times-unquiet-film-series-times-new-roman/

Feuilles Font Friday

Oratorical Type, An Alphabet Made out of Carved Books From Laughing Squid by EDW Lynch

Flying Font Friday 1

Also see my post Flying Font Friday 2, about typeforms found in butterfly wings. Why the Same Three Typefaces Are Used In Almost Every Airport From Gizmodo by Alissa Walker Wayfinding signage is an invisible network draped upon our public places. And that network has to work especially hard in airports when we’re lost, hungry, […]

Fish Food Font Friday

Dion Star’s Marine Debris Typeface is made from sea debris that has washed up on the shore in England. One day while walking along the beach in England, Dion Star stumbled across a little green clothespin. Being a graphic designer, Star immediate realized that this pin was more than just a bit of litter that […]

Federal Font Friday

Samples of Courier and New Times Roman

By Tom Vanderbilt from a February 2004 article on Slate.com: Courier, Dispatched: How the Federal Government—more specifically, U.S. State Department—put the kibosh on the typewriter font. In late January [2004], an announcement from the U.S. State Department generated certain chatter along the generally indiscernible diplomatic-typographic axis. This was the news that as of February 1, […]

“Hanging by a serif” by John D. Berry

"Hanging By A Serif" book cover

A big shoutout to my friend John D. Berry, whose book Hanging by a serif has just been released. Click on the pages for a closer look.       Hanging by a serif A few words about designing with words Text & design by John D. Berry A small book of epigrams, insights on the […]

Fearsome Font Friday

Gun and blood spatter

In celebration of the SyFy network’s world-class, glorious horror movie “Sharknado” (see my previous post, ‘”Sharknado” saves the Summer!’), today we have three fearsome fonts guaranteed to strike terror into the hearts of all who behold them.

Free Font Friday!

"Oswald" font with sample type

OSWALD is a new free font from fontsquirrel.com, available as an OTF download. It was designed by excellent and prolific typographer Vernon Adams (other fontsquirrel fonts, newtypography.co.uk blog). Oswald is a strong condensed sans serif with Light, Regular and Bold weights as well as an all-caps Stencil style. It looks good in headlines and in […]

Install Google Fonts on Windows or Mac for Faster Web Browsing

Google Fonts download interface

Windows/OS X: Google is now offering a convenient way to download Google Fonts, its 1,000+ collection of free, open-source fonts, to your desktop. Not only will your downloaded fonts sync to Google, they’ll also help load websites faster if they use those fonts. Although there are other ways to download Google Fonts to your computer, […]

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