Hamza El-Falah

  1. Viewing All "typography" Posts

  2. The Design of a Signage Typeface

    Ralf Herrmann, on the design of his signage typeface Wayfinding Sans Pro:

    So I set off, driving thousands of miles across Europe to explore the legibility of these signs and typefaces, first hand. Once I even ended up in a holding cell at the border crossing to Norway, because the customs officers just wouldn’t accept that someone would drive all over Europe simply to take photographs of traffic signs.

  3. Avant Garde

    Promotional pieces for a documentary film about Herb Lubalin’s typeface Avant Garde. (Click to enlarge.)

  4. Space Invaders

    Farhad Manjoo, on Slate:

    Can I let you in on a secret? Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.

  5. Vintage Railroad Logos

    A gorgeous collection of railroad logos that shows the design evolution from the 1800s to 2000.

  6. So you think you can kern?

    A really fun kerning game that pits your kerning skills against professional designers. Bonus points for their baked in iPad multitouch experience.

  7. Adobe Acquires Typekit

    From the Typekit blog:

    Just a few moments ago, Adobe’s CTO Kevin Lynch took the stage at their annual MAX conference and explained the company’s Creative Cloud strategy. Part of that announcement is very big news for us: Typekit has been acquired by Adobe.

    Smart move by Adobe, looking forward not back. Here’s hoping everything I love about Typekit stays the same, and this just gives the team at Typekit the freedom do bigger and better things for web type.

  8. Gotham: Type Specimen

    Click to enlarge.

  9. Saul Bass Title Sequences

    A collection of stills from most of the movie title sequences created by Saul Bass.

    “PROJECTIONISTS - PULL CURTAIN BEFORE TITLES”.

    This is the text of a note that was stuck on the cans when the reels of film for “The Man With the Golden Arm” arrived at US movie theatres in 1955. Until then the credits were referred to as ‘popcorn time.’ Audiences resented them and projectionists only pulled back the curtains to reveal the screen once they’d finished. Saul Bass’ powerful title sequence for “The Man With the Golden Arm” changed the way directors and designers would treat the opening titles.

  10. The details are not details

    A look inside of the level of detail that goes into Hoefler & Frere-Jones’ fonts. Amazing.

    In the middle of Gotham, our family of 66 sans serifs, there is a hushed but surprising moment: a fraction whose numerator has a serif. So important was this detail that we decided to offer it as an option for all the other fractions, a decision that ultimately required more than 400 new drawings. Why?

    As you’ll read below, it’s something that we added because we felt it mattered. Even if it helped only a small number of designers solve a subtle and esoteric problem, we couldn’t rest knowing that an unsettling typographic moment might otherwise lie in wait. We’ve always believed that a good typeface is the product of thousands of decisions like these, so we invite you to join us on a behind-the-scenes look at some of the invisible details that go into every font from H&FJ.

  11. Lost World’s Fairs

    What an exciting time to be a web designer. Want to see the state of the art in web design and Typekit fonts? Check out Lost World’s Fairs. Each of the projects is amazing, but Frank Chimero’s Atlantis is quite stunning.

  12. What I’m Working On: Grenadier

    Some of the signage for Grenadier - the new outdoorsman line – has some text hand painted by one of our in-house designers. As the line grew, I decided to digitize the letters and compile a typeface, filling in missing glyphs, and expanding the line to include all numbers, letters, capitals and punctuation. It’s a work in progress, but a significant time saver.

  13. Mad Men typography

    Mark Simonson takes a deep look at the typography of Mad Men and finds a surprising amount of the type is set in fonts that either weren’t around in the early 60s or weren’t yet popular in the US.

    Then there is the Gill Sans (c. 1930) problem. Gill is used quite a lot in the series, mainly for Sterling Cooper Advertising’s logo and signage. Technically, this is not anachronistic. And the way the type is used — metal dimensional letters, generously spaced — looks right. The problem is that Gill was a British typeface not widely available or popular in the U.S. until the 1970s. It’s a decade ahead of its time in American type fashions.

    And the fact that they use Arial in the end credits just makes the Hulk inside me want to smash.

  14. A short history of the Ampersand

    A short history of the ampersand.

    Ampersand usage varies from language to language. In English and French text, the ampersand may be substituted for the words and and et, and both versions may be used in the same text. The German rule is to use the ampersand within formal or corporate titles made up of two separate names; according to present German composition rules, the ampersand may not be used in running text. In any language, the ampersand’s calligraphic qualities make it a compelling design element that can add visual appeal and personality to any page.

  15. Ampersand Blog

    A website entirely devoted to the ampersand. Be still, my heart.

  16. Stamps

    A collection of postage stamps designed by type designers.