Plenty of Fish in the C

And other things we have been liking the past few weeks…enjoy!

by Jay Fleck

by Nicholas Stevenson - a logo for the band Foxx Bandits

this free font – as well as a list of others collected by smashing magazine.

Typography Sketchbooks

Weighing in at just over 3 pounds and 350 pages – Typography Sketchbook features the doodlings of nearly 120 designers & typographers from their personal notebooks – including Erikk Spiekermann, Milton Glaser, Maira Calman & Paul Shaw. Each designer also has a mini-essay included along with their sketches.  It seems to us to be the perfect fix to inspire & chase away the winter blues.

Type Meets Home

Designed by Linus Dean. A graphic designer with a passion for making floors awesome.

This Australian designer has created a collection of bold, striking wool rugs we love.

You can see the entire collection here.

Font Dropper

Our friends at Extensis & WebInk have a new product you may have hear of called FontDropper 1000  - a drag & drop web font tester.

To get started:

1. Drag a bookmarklet (like the one shown here) to your browser bookmark bar
2. Go to a web page & open the FontDropper 1000 bookmarklet
3. Drag-and-drop fonts from the bookmarklet onto any live text on a web page. You will see the text background highlight and then you can drop the font. The font will apply to the text and you can use the Tools tab to change font style properties.
4. Reapply the same font to more of the page text either repeat the drag-and-drop actions or click-drag-clone the font from the previously changed text area. Just click-hold your cursor in the text area and then drag to the new text area. The font-face will be applied.

For you visual learners, you can get a better idea of how it works here.

FontGenius 2.5

CHARLOTTE, NC – FontGear Inc. announced today the release of FontGenius for Macintosh v2.5.

FontGenius is a font identification utility for Macintosh.

FontGenius examines pictures and identifies typefaces of any text within a picture. Using advanced recognition technology, FontGenius will produce a list of likely fonts that match selected characters within an image, and will generate character previews of the matched fonts. Using the matched results, a search can be performed on the internet or your own Mac to locate, download, or purchase matched fonts.

Version 2.5 new features include support for searching WebINK web fonts by Extensis (www.WebINK.com), ability to seach your own Mac for matched fonts, and a new Favorites window for storing search results.

* FontGenius requires Mac OS 10.4 or higher and runs on both PPC and Intel Macs.

* A free demonstration version can be downloaded from www.FontGear.net

* FontGenius is available for $39.99 (Single User License)

* The update is free for existing FontGenius customers.

* FontGenius can be ordered and downloaded from our website at www.FontGear.net using a major credit card, or by calling 1-800-583-2917.

Yes/No Sculpture

Today is art appreciation day, & we are loving this brilliantly crafted sculpture we found by Markus Raetz.

Ready, Set, Start DIY-ing

Here’s a little something different for the FontGear blog.

Dudes, this isn’t just a craft for the ladies, this is for you, too – make your own amperstand – or any other letter, really.

Find the tutorial here.

Live the Language

To help promote studying abroad, EF International Language Center, with director Gustav Johansson made a series of short typography driven films that explore seven different cities. Albin Holmqvist was the lucky designer brought on board to create the type overlays – each clip is beautifully crafted & captures through both the videography & type the essence of these seven cities.

Masking Tape Typography

This series of photos were created for an article in the New York Times emphasizing character. The word in each photo reflecting a different character traits (zest, grit, self-control, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism and curiosity).

Photographs were taken at KIPP Infinity middle school in New York & designed by Stephen Doyle using only masking tape. The video below shows you a bit of how he created the massive letters.

 

Graphic Design for Kids

Here’s a novel idea: for the youngster that seems to be showing a bit of interest in type or graphic design, Pamela Pease’s book, Graphic Design for Kids, explores its history, problem-solving & critical thinking methods in a fun & appealing way.

The book features tabs, flash cards, pull-outs, pictures & symbols to appeal to children with different learning styles as well.

Part of a larger collection of books by Pease called Design Dossier.