New Typography Blog
Regular readers will know that I’m quite a big fan of typography. I’m often tempted to post more about typography on this blog, even posting images of typography that I photograph regularly. But then I had a brain wave (well, not a brain wave, really–just an obvious idea): post all the typography-geek stuff on a blog devoted to the topic.
So off I rushed and bought myself ilovetypography.com. I’ve been working on a WordPress theme for some time. I’ve always like the Grid Focus theme which I’ve modified for this very blog, and I had started developing my own to replace it. However, I decided to use my new theme for my new typography blog. It’s unimaginatively called RedsilWP (suggestions for a more inspiring, go get ‘em name on a postcard, please).
Actually the new blog is only 95% complete, but I wanted to “get it out there” to elicit your comments, criticisms and suggestions.
I’ll still be posting here on the subject of typography, but the more in-depth and/or more obscure pieces, and my own photos of type in everyday use will be posted on ilovetypography.com.
Would love to hear your suggestions on the design and content. And, if you have an image of “type you like” (I like the sound of that, so I’ll use it as a section within the new blog), then be sure to submit it!
25 Comments, Comment or Trackback
Randa Clay
It’s a beautiful design! Congrats on the new site- looks like it will be a hit. I will add it to my links roundup post tomorrow.
Aug 9th, 2007
johno
Thank you, Randa. That’s quite a compliment coming from you.
Aug 9th, 2007
Tara: Graphic Design Blog
Your new blog is a good idea.
I would like to read about new fonts that have been released (good ones) and trends in typography. It is so easy to fall in to a trap of sticking with your favourite fonts especially when time is tight, so suggestions of different types of fonts for different jobs could be an idea eg. nice corporate fonts etc, modern serifs (I always find these a nightmare to find).
Aug 10th, 2007
johno
Tara
Good suggestions. I’ll keep you posted.
Aug 10th, 2007
Randa Clay
Can I ask, out of curiosity, why you set your feeds to partial instead of full?
Aug 10th, 2007
LaurenMarie - Creative Curio
I agree with Tara, I hope you’ll give us some guidance on finding appropriate fonts to use in different situations. I would also love to learn about the process of choosing a good typeface. I know a little, but I’m sure you could explain it more in depth. And maybe along those lines, distinguishing different typefaces. I remember a while ago on your post about Plantagenet Novus, you were saying how it looks related to Baskerville. I have no idea how you came to that conclusion! Please tell!
Looks like you’ll be profiling some big type designers. That’ll be fun!
Aug 10th, 2007
johno
Randa
Good question. However, I’m not sure why. Would you recommend full feeds? And, if so, why?
Lauren
I shall do my best. In future, if I compare a typeface or opine that one face is related to another, I shall explain why, and provide examples–I never thought of doing this before (just took it for granted), so thanks.
Aug 11th, 2007
Randa Clay
Absolutely, full feeds are the way to go. When one is subscribed to a blog it can be annoying to have to click through to the site just to read the article. It’s just an extra, unnecessary step. I want to read your content and for the most part, I want to read it in my reader. That’s why I subscribe to feeds, so I don’t have to jump around from tab to tab, site to site. I want to read it the most efficient way, because I have a LOT of feeds to get through. I’m more likely to read a blog’s entire article if it’s a full feed, and if I don’t “know” the person, I am likely to unsubscribe after a while. I would never unsubscribe from your blogs because of the partial feed. I’ll bet you’ll have a higher retention rate with your subscribers if you switch to full feeds.
Aug 11th, 2007
johno
Randa
You make a convincing argument. I’ve now changed to full feeds. Than you.
Aug 11th, 2007
Randa Clay
Wonderful!! Thank you!.
Aug 11th, 2007
LaurenMarie - Creative Curio
I can’t wait to read more on your typography blog. I’m excited to learn all you have to teach! Do you mind if I add it to my blog roll??
Aug 12th, 2007
johno
Lauren
Yes, of course. Thank you.
Aug 12th, 2007
kat
awesome idea! I’m a HUGE fan of typography too. Can’t wait to check out your new blog. But, I must ask…how do you have all this time to blog? Just keeping up with one blog is hard enough for me.
Aug 13th, 2007
johno
Kat
Thank you. I hope you’ll be a regular reader. When do I find the time?
Well, recently I haven’t posted so much, but usually I write my posts in pencil (terribly old-fashioned, I know) while I’m at my local cafe. Also, I do not watch TV–it’s surprising how much time that frees-up. I also carry a notebook wherever I go, and often write blog post ideas and copy in it.
I now have three blogs (I think that’s enough for the time being): there’s this blog (design), ilovetypography.com and my personal (mostly just photos) blog, MyKagawa
BTW, some great content on your blog. Is that old Apple Logo for real?
Aug 13th, 2007
LaurenMarie - Creative Curio
If you’re looking for topics, John, I thought of something I would find valuable to read. I’m not sure if you’re so much into teaching typography as showcasing it on your new blog, but an article on proper use of punctuation (em vs. en dashes, hyphens) from a designers point of view would be great to read.
Also, along the lines as I mentioned above (but maybe this is a little more clear), how do you identify fonts when you see them on the street? Are there tell-tale signs that each font has? Share!! The difference here would be identifying fonts in general. Above with the Plantagenet Novus and Baskerville, point out similarities between them, how are they “related?”
To make it easy, just teach us everything you know about typography ;p
Aug 13th, 2007
johno
Lauren
I wasn’t thinking about teaching typography, or the elements of typography, simply because I’m not sure that I’m qualified to do so. However, your comment has made me rethink. Rather than sharing what I don’t know, I’ll try to share the little that I do.
The “identifying fonts” question is an interesting one. I have a friend who works in research for one of the big camera producers–she researches the algorithms, etc behind image recognition. I dream about creating a application whereby you upload your sample of type (be it from a street sign, or whatever), and the app attempts to match your uploaded image against it’s database of vectorised fonts; really would be great to have the time to spend on that kind of project!
If you’re ever in a hurry to identify a typeface, then I suggest you sign-up to Typophile; they have a forum of sorts, whereby users upload their type sample–some of those on Typophile are very, very knowledgeable when it comes to identifying even the most obscure typeface.
Many thanks again for you input, Lauren. Always greatly appreciated.
Aug 14th, 2007
Tara: Graphic Design Blog
Hi Johno
http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/ sounds like the sort of thing you are talking about. You upload a scanned image of the font/word and it tries to identify it.
Aug 14th, 2007
johno
Tara
I’ve spent a lot of time on that site, but I never came across that tool. Thanks very much for pointing it out. I’m off to see how accurate it is.
I notice that if that fails, they–like Typophile–have a What The Font Forum where one can post type samples to be identified.
Aug 14th, 2007
johno
Thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions thus far.
I hope that you’ll all join in and submit your photos of type here:
Type You Like.
Aug 14th, 2007
Chris Papadopoulos
Congrats on the cool new blog.
I really like the look of the ILoveTypography site with the word “Typography” in a huge font across the top of the screen. I come from more of a programming background than a graphic design one, so any resources that I can learn more about Typography are very much appreciated.
Aug 21st, 2007
Manuel Martensen
the grid focus theme is nice indeed (have a look at my grid focus site), but i find iLT looks a bit messy atm
the turquoise lines don’t really look right, and the {11 comments} brackets are a bit too much in your face as well, but thats prolly just me
love the idea of iLT though!
Aug 23rd, 2007
johno
Manuel
Your Grid Focus is very clean. I like it.
My initial sketches for iLT were pretty wild, so the version you’re seeing now is pretty restrained.
The comments and curly braces have been received well on the whole. They’ve even been mentioned elsewhere on the web; however, they won’t be to everyone’s taste.
I’m pleased you iLT, however. Thanks for your feedback, and I look forward to seeing you here again.
Aug 23rd, 2007
Manuel Martensen
Thanks John, but i just started to wonder, while switching back and forth between redsil and iLT, why do you start a new blog? Redsil is already filled with typography stuff, why another domain? Or, why not just move the Redsil content to ilovetypography?
Aug 24th, 2007
johno
Manuel
I started the new iLT blog because I wanted to say a lot more about typography, and I want this blog to be a General Graphic Design one–I didn’t want the content to be dominated by one particular discipline.
Interestingly, starting iLT has worked out well. iLT’s readership far exceeds Redsil’s. Perhaps there’s something in focusing on a niche.
Thanks.
Aug 29th, 2007
secret
Looks pretty good so far! I, too, am obsessed with type. Bookmarked.
Oct 12th, 2007
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