Typographically, the start of the decade was marked by the emergence of the ‘mega family’. These were massive typeface families, often featuring dozens of weights and variations. Hoefler & Frere-Jones[typography.com] were the most prolific exponants of these mega families. What would start off as a handful of weights would soon balloon into seemingly endless character sets with all manner of widgety features. Other, much more sinister, type foundries such as ITC and Monotype started re-releasing older typefaces as slightly redrawn mega families at a rate of knots. Poor old Univers saw several expansive revisions of itself. In the case of Christian Schwatz‘s set of typefaces for The Guardian[commercialtype.com], what started off as a simple commission spiralled out into a wide range of variations on a core family with the Guardian typeface ending up as a Slab version, a Sans Serif version and a more commercial spin-off that came to be known as Stag.
Guardian Egyptian, 2005
In direct contrast to this a number of smaller independent design studios began building portfolios of bespoke typefaces that were never intended for commercial sales and would be religated to the archives once a the project they were developed for had run it’s course. Non-format[non-format.com] became core expotants of bespoke typeface culture, creating more and more twisted forms out of the pre-existing heavily geometric typefaces they obviously loved. Heroine, a one off typeface in several weights that produced for Very Elle magazine, was the pinacle of this. A2/SW/HK[a2swhk.co.uk] were also creating bespoke typefaces for particular projects that were then shelved once the projects lifespan was over. There are signs that they may start to release more and more of their designs though after the release of New Railway Alphabet[newrailalphabet.co.uk]. NRA is a revival of a classic British typeface originally designed in the 50s by Margaret Calvert, whom A2 called upon to help in redrawing it for modern audiences. After his long association with David James Associates and AnotherMan magazine, Gareth Hague has been free to release the typefaces that built this magazine title’s profile into the serious fashion biannual bible it is today under the banner of the Ano range of typefaces [alias.uk.com].
Former location of the Boronia Village Newsagency. Ah, I remember it well. :)
I have a confession. I’ve fallen out of love with newsagencies. This is a big deal for me. Ever since I was a kid, regularly mooching up and down the luxuriously wide aisles of the Boronia Village Newsagency, the humble newsagent has always been my first stop when heading out. It’s the first place I seek out whenever I am travelling. Friends will tell you I have a hard time going past one without stopping by. I’m particularly embarrassed to recall a Christmas walk one year through an atmospherically empty London town, with my partner at the time, that included a brief diversion when I spotted a newsagency that looked like it was open, only to discover the staff were just using a quiet day to shuffle some shelving around. See, embarrassing, huh. But then the local newsagency has always been my compass and my guide. This is no longer the case.
007 I Disappear When I Sleep It’s only been a few weeks since the last one, but the The Antimix Modern Disease Mixtape is back again! Consider this yer extra special limited run bonus edition. This time around the Antimix podcast features a couple of Saturday Night In classics as well as the usual eclectic jumble of new and not-so-new tuneage including Fox[YouTube] / Ratatat[ratatatmusic.com] / Let’s Wrestle[stolenrecordings.co.uk] / Wavves[wavves.com] / White Noise[delia-derbyshire.org] / Liza Minnelli[YouTube] / Teeth[soundcloud.com/t3eth] / Adeem & Shalem[winnersneversleep.com] / Babes in Toyland[YouTube]. Some artwork with your podcast, sir? Just grab the pic above.
Dima Barbanel[dimabarbanel.com] must be one of the busiest designers in Russia. Not only does he help produce amazing layouts for ace magazines such as Секрет Фирмы[kommersant.ru/sf] (okay, so I hadn’t heard of this business mag until just this week but I’m already trying to work out how to get me mitts on a few copies), Interni[internirussia.ru] (the Russian version of the Italian interiors magazine) and more familiar names such as Russian editions of Playboy, FHM Collections, Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar. He also runs possibly the world’s only ‘International Post Garduate Editorial Design and Creative Thinking Course’ (Phew! What’s that abbreviated I.P.G.E.D.C.T.C. … damn, that doesn’t spell anything) [masterskaya.dimabarbanel.com]. See what I mean. Busy. The proof is in the pudding though and just a passing glance at the work of Dima, and the designers he chooses to collaborate with, shows how exciting and refreshing their take on editorial design can be.
The process of making a magazine can seem a little mysterious even to those in the midst of putting one together. That’s why I wanted to share this process with you dear readers. You can now view, what we in the biz call, a ‘flatplan’ showing you pages from LineRead #3 online anytime, right here… [linefeed.me/lineread-03]. What do you mean you’ve never heard of LineRead? Go forth and educate yoself here [presspublish.info] and here [magcloud.com]. And since you can now see everything that’s going on, feel free to pipe up with any comments, suggestions or knit picky errors you’ve spotted (I’ll apologise in advance for any snipey responses to errors, I do appreciate people pointing them out, honest). I just had an idea already! Maybe I could ‘crowdsource’ the sub editing on this one. That’s a bad idea isn’t it. I’m stepping away from that one right now. Anyways…
Typographically, the start of the decade was marked by the emergence of the ‘mega family’. These were massive typeface families, often featuring dozens of weights and variations. Hoefler & Frere-Jones [typography.com] were the most prolific exponants of these mega families. What would start off as a handful of weights would soon balloon into seemingly endless character sets with all manner of widgety features. Other, much more sinister, type foundries such as ITC and Monotype started re-releasing older typefaces as slightly redrawn mega families at a rate of knots. Poor old Univers saw several expansive revisions of itself. In the case of Christian Schwatz‘s set of typefaces for The Guardian [commercialtype.com], what started off as a simple commission spiralled out into a wide range of variations on a core family with the Guardian typeface ending up as a Slab version, a Sans Serif version and a more commercial spin-off that came to be known as Stag.
