Googles Web Fonts

I am continually amazed at the endless projects that Google supports or creates to streamline our interaction with technology. You would not normally expect the single most powerful technology company to care about such small details as the limited selection of web-safe fonts.
In May 2010, Google announced that it would begin to supply not only free fonts to use online in the style of TypeKit, but also that it had created open-source software Google Font API, which is how you use the fonts. Google is hosting all the fonts for you, so the greatest thing about it is not having the download the font ever. You can download the font if you want to see how it looks while you are designing your website. This is what the code will look like in your html file:

Google created a font department to make available new fonts and develop this new venture. You can see the current list of available fonts here. Googles Web Font Loader uses javascript to ensure that the experience is consistent across all platforms.


The great thing about Google is how much money they can throw into a venture like this. The main reason why people aren't using alternative fonts is because of all the red tape surrounding the licensing of fonts and the cost associated with hosting them on the cloud. Instead of trying to find a way to host existing fonts, Google simply created its own copyright-free font list. It's quite possible that people learning web design 10-20 years from now will have no concept of web-safe fonts. If you donate money for your download, Google turns it over to font developers as incentive to create better fonts for the service. The technology is available; learn about it and start making your website a little moe interesting.

Live The Language

EF - Live The Language - London from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

EF - Live The Language - Barcelona from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

EF - Live The Language - Paris from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

Some awesome commercials about studying abroad. Heavy with type on top of the entire video and they are all shot great also.

Frank Chimero - The Shape of Design

Frank Chimero - The Shape of Design from Build on Vimeo.

I watched the whole video and was super excited about posting this, but then I did some research and found out that it came out like 2 months ago. Hopefully you haven't seen it yet. This is an awesome talk about the shape of design, and if you don't want to watch the whole thing at least watch the first few minutes where he tells the story of the $10,000 non-profit website...it's really great. More to come with Frank Chimero, he is writing a book "The Shape of Design" this month and for a few more months and hopefully will be out in the summer. Can't wait!

Center of Attention

Simon Foster put together a collection of vintage record labels at Center of Attention. The collection contains some really great ones, mostly from the 60's and 70's. Throughout the selection are some great "graphics" with amazing color, the aging of the pieces make the color in them that much better as well. The type faces also are the main point of most and really the most intriguing of them all. Just the way that they are set really just give off the vibe of a totally different era. And who could forget about the shit printing jobs on all of these which really make them cool...who knew that that would be cool now and we would be trying to emulate that?

Time well spent.

Hello, it's Robert

Since I am home sick today and kind of frustrated about it, I've decided that I am going to post some great Type and Design websites that have caught my attention as of late. Hopefully you will find them as enjoyable as I have.

Fontroduction is a small website with some very useful introductory type info.

http://ianobermuller.com/fontroduction.html


This is Peter Saville's official website. He is one of my heros, and is the brilliant mind behind many of Factory Records' album covers and posters from the 1970's to the early 1990's. He has been in the process of building a new site for quite a while, but this one is still
very fun to explore.

http://www.btinternet.com/~comme6/saville/

Here are some of the typefaces he has designed over the years.
http://www.btinternet.com/~comme6/saville/fonts.htm

Here are nice nice Type resources fromt he good people at smashing magazine.

30 Fonts To Last A Life Time
http://justcreativedesign.com/2008/03/02/30-best-font-downloads-for-designers/

40+ Excellent Freefonts For Professional Design (Free is always good)
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/11/08/40-excellent-freefonts-for-professional-design/

60 Excellent Typefaces For Corporate Design
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/20/60-brilliant-typefaces-for-corporate-design/


Sorry about this, but for some reason I can't add hyperlinks or do anything to the html.
You will have to copy and paste the links to your address bar instead of just clicking on them.

50 years of typography in album art

Music and art tend to go hand in hand. Visual art is often made in response to music and vice versa. Album art is a clear example of this time tested relationship between sight and sound. The use of typography on album covers is utilitarian it often times is also a visual land mark of the style and trends in art at the time it was produced. Accordingly, this article creates a time line of the last 50 years through typographic album covers showing the progression of time, music, typography and art. (This website also offers tutorials on how to achieve typographic effects from the album covers).

Letterpress and Another Game!

Letterpress Poster Printing from Joshua Gerken on Vimeo.

I was always curious about the idea of creating posters and prints using a letterpress. I have never even seen a letterpress in person before, and didn't fully understand the process. This video shows the creation of a simply typographic poster using a letterpress so I was able to see how all the parts of movable type would go together for a print.

I found another game I wanted to share. The Rather Difficult Font Game. You have to guess the correct font. This game is a great time consumer! Good luck!!

Stefan Sagmeister on time off

The above video is a brief example of some of the experimental type that Stefan Sagmeister is known for doing if you were not familiar with it. The main reason reason for this article, is not necessarily his time at work but rather his time spent relaxing. Kind of hard to believe that a graphic designer is praising not working but it seems to be pretty successful. Stefan gave a lecture for TED about his experience on taking time off in relation to design.

Hand drawn type, pencil lines, and good music. Jay Ryan is an amazing poster artist.

Eric Speikermann Rules.

Graphic design can change your life from Edenspiekermann on Vimeo.