Our Zeitgeist tagged with “Typography”
We had a recent situation where a client wasn't versed in design language and we failed to interpret. In this particular situation,
the kerning (space between letters) came into question. Actually, the design had been kerned, but it was re-kerned and resubmitted only to have it returned with the same comment. As a designer being able to take criticism is a required skill, but there is no guarantee that a client has the vocabulary to communicate the issue. Resolution finally came when we switched to the telephone and were able to ask the client to point out the problem, it turned out that the “letter spacing issue” was that the “f” and “i” were touching.
It was a ligature.
To us, it was design love and attentiveness; to them, it looked like an error. We were speaking different languages. The fact that the client did not know what a ligature was flew under our radar, but had we stepped back from their initial comment and considered its context we may have saved time and irritation for us all.
So why hasn't the ligature passed into the realm of common visual vernacular? Why don't they feel as natural to clients as layouts designed with the
golden ratio? One reason ligatures have not saturated the designscape is that in recent history many typefaces did not included them, so the designer had to choose to change faces, or create them by hand. However, with the dominance of OpenType, this seems to be a problem of the past as many typefaces are equipped with a large variety ligatures. Another force working against the pervasiveness of the ligature is the designer’s nightmare–the dreaded word processing program. Fortunately, fixes have been created for Pages and you can now choose to “use ligatures” and Microsoft Word 2010 has added support for OpenType ligatures, (for help enabling them you can find a tutorial
here).
Technical functionality is not the only hinge when it comes to ligature use; personal taste is also a factor. To some, the use of ligatures is on par with the choice of serif or sans. With roots in early writing, some see ligatures as carrying a certain rare elegance, adding class and refinement to text. On the opposing side, some view them as antiquated, traditional and superfluous. Lovers of the ligature will argue that they are not merely ornamental, but efficient, replacing two letters with one and simultaneously increasing legibility–exuding the modern ideals of form following function.
Ligatures are a decision that every designer must make for themselves. To me, they are something special; so efficient, so thoughtful, so graceful, so salacious–and when I come upon them in life, I can’t help but smile, as I imagine two letters making love.
So we pose the question to you, are ligatures an element of typographic style you cannot live without? Should we as designers come together and create guidelines for their use? Or, are they archaic and a tradition that needs updating or better yet, to just go away?
[post_title] => To love a ligature
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[post_excerpt] => The ligature: music to your eyes or an outdated typographic nuisance?
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http://webexpedition18.com/articles/typography-tutorial-a-primer-on-ligatures/
http://www.fontshop.com/glossary.php?ltr=k
http://ampersandampersand.tumblr.com/archive
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The ligature: music to your eyes or an outdated typographic nuisance?
Posted by: Dana Deschene on Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
Categories: Design, Fun, Industrial Brand, Learning, Pop Culture, Technology, Typography, Uncategorized, We love | 2 Comments »
Dear Eric,
It was very nice to speak with you recently and learn of your nomination of our friend Jim Rimmer for the Order of British Columbia. As you know, I was the Executive Officer with the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada who nominated Mr. Rimmer for a Fellowship within GDC—our highest honour in the nation within the profession of graphic design. I did so in order to recognize and bring honour to this man and his remarkable achievements and contributions to our profession and industry.
I am convinced that Jim Rimmer is one of Canada’s living national treasures, and one of the finest British Columbians I have ever had the pleasure to meet. He’s so much more than the designer, illustrator, printer, publisher, and one of the few remaining typography and letterpress craftsmen alive today. He has been a teacher, a mentor, a kind friend, and inspiration to a very long list of printers, type designers, publishers, students, teachers, design firms, type foundries, and book lovers throughout his long career—a career that has lasted six decades and is still going strong.
Mr. Rimmer is an example of what dedication to a craft can accomplish. He is an amazing, creative, faithful traditionalist, but managed to remain relevant by fearlessly embracing new technologies that may have seemed at the time to render his previous training obsolete. Yet all the while he has managed also to keep alive the craft of hot type, hand-cut prints, letterpress lithography. Jim’s books and prints feel good, they smell good, they read well. His books are cherished by many as not only things to read, but things to admire and enjoy. Jim is one of the only remaining masters and should be cherished.
But that’s not the only reason I feel Jim deserves recognition. Jim has inspired many young people to rediscover the craft behind his type, prints and books. He has inspired numerous generations of designers; designers who now work as the visual storytellers of culture. Those creative professionals are now spread across this land and across the world, each of them remembering the lessons that this quiet man who showed them the way. The way it used to be done: by hand. But also showed them how the skills of that craft are relevant today in this fast-paced world of computers and digital media. The day we lose Jim Rimmer will be a sad day indeed, but he will leave behind a lasting legacy and an army of design practitioners better for having known him.
And to know Jim Rimmer personally is truly a pleasure. He’s such a generous and humble character, always respectful, encouraging and kind, often going to great lengths to help others with no need for credit or recognition. Many have described him as a maverick, a renegade even, quietly following his own path. And that too is a great quality that many British Columbians can proudly relate to.
I am humbled when I consider Mr. Rimmer’s history and contributions as both a craftsman of old as well as an innovator with creative genius, and wish to enthusiastically support your initiative in nominating him for the Order of British Columbia. He is a shining example of what the caliber of person I wish British Columbia to be known for.
Note: The typeface this letter is composed in is Jim Rimmer’s Albertan, named after his lovely wife Alberta, which he first hand-engraved for his private press in 1980. It’s still as wonderful a face now as it was nearly 30 years ago.
We miss you Jim.
[photo credit Robert McCamant/The Caxtonian]
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Jim Rimmer died last week and I really wasn’t sure I wanted to post anything online after writing a tribute post for my recently deceased friend Leo Obstbaum. Losing people takes the wind right out of your sails. Then I found the foll [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
Categories: Design, News, Typography, We love | No Comments »
The concept behind Typekit harnesses @font-face but protects the font files on a separate server. The designer/developer/client would purchase a license (per site? per month?) to use the font. With an expected to launch sometime this summer, the major draw back seems to be the issues surrounding the storage of the font information on a different server from the website. (required to satisfy DRM licenses) The anticipated problem with this surrounds the issues associated with the uptime (and downtime) of this font server. No server is up 100% of the time, it just doesn't happen. But what happens when this server goes down? Potentially all websites linking to this central database will lose their font definitions.
Sharing code snippits on a central server hasn't presented a prohibitive problem in the past as the
jQuery library,
CSS Resets and other snippits are all available hosted on a central server and used on major sites world wide and downtime hasn't presented itself as a problem. Although we might be comparing apples and oranges between Google's servers and Typekits. Time will tell. Certain some exciting developments for sure!
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http://encosia.com/2008/12/10/3-reasons-why-you-should-let-google-host-jquery-for-you/
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Big news in the web world as Typekit was launched last week. For those of you who missed news of the launch, it serves to bridge the copyright issues associated with the CSS3 Property @font-face (hotly debated issue among foundries and deve [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
Categories: Design, Interactive, Learning, Websites | No Comments »
Ever used the WhatTheFont website to determine what a font is? You see a picture and just NEED to know what that obscure font is. Well what happens if you’re out and about and see one on a restaurant menu, or an ad on the bus? Well gr [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
Categories: Design, Fun, Interactive | 2 Comments »
It’s like Communication Design class all over again. Take a peek at these sexy pieces for the Grammy’s “Celebrate the Music That Made Us” campaign. The portraits of select artists (Rihanna, Stevie Wonder, Coldplay, [...]
Posted by: Steph Co on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
Categories: Art, Design, Inspiration, Music, Typography | No Comments »
Dutch design firm SPRANQ has developed a new typeface that incorporates their concern for the environment. Ecofont is a typeface similar in look to Vera Sans, but resembles Swiss cheese in its makeup. The aerated font uses 20% less ink to p [...]
Posted by: Alex Leynes on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
Categories: Design, Pop Culture, Sustainability, Typography | No Comments »
Here’s a little treat for users who spend hours finding just the right typeface. Flipping Typical is magical. An online tool that give you the ability to enter a word or phrase and view the different variations using fonts in your com [...]
Posted by: Steph Co on Thursday, January 8th, 2009
Categories: Tips, We love | 1 Comment »
I love books — beautiful books not the ones with shabby covers. I must admit that sometimes I buy a book for its cover rather than for its content. I don’t lend my books easily, they look too cool on my shelves. And I love Penguin [...]
Posted by: Mathilde Salvert on Friday, December 12th, 2008
Categories: Design, Illustration, Inspiration, Printing | 1 Comment »
Buenos Aires isn’t the first place I think of when I consider type foundries, but Studipos has some brilliant fonts. Check em out.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, August 29th, 2008
Categories: Design, Typography, Websites | 2 Comments »
This comes from vaults of something I thought I shared a few weeks ago, but it must have slipped through the cracks. Check out this piece on ABC news taking a look at the fonts used by the “remaining” US Presidential Candidates [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
Categories: Typography, Video | No Comments »
I stumbled on a great piece on ABC news that analyzed the US potential nominees for President (back when there were 3…. ohh wait… Hillary still things that she’s in this thing!) according to the typeface they chose for the [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Thursday, June 5th, 2008
Categories: News, Typography | No Comments »
Adobe and the AIGA have teamed up to package 500 commonly used fonts aimed at design students making the transition to professional life. Creating a font library can be daunting and when you’re just starting in a career assembling the [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Thursday, March 27th, 2008
Categories: Education, Typography | No Comments »
The browse started at
Design*Sponge, as it usually does. Visually I was taken in by the post on Mucca Design's re-branding of
Butterfield Market (btw mucca design was recently profiled in
HOW magazine). I was totally enamored by the elegance and sense of history that has been expressed via type, pattern, layout & colours in this re-brand. So off a browsing I went.
Enticed by the tastes of
Mucca Design I moved on over to their website. Drool. Their ability to meld vintage, hand made, and modern is well nothing other than brilliant. And guess what...this studio has it's own type department! Recently a few of Mucca Design identities have been showcased in
Steven Heller &
Gail Anderson's book New Vintage Type. So of course I had to go check out the book and I'd be stupid not to seeing as Steven Heller's invloved in it!
If you want to know more about New Vintage Type head on over to
DT&G typography to read the review. Or if you're more impulsive why not
buy it right away.
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With some time to spare and a little bit of curiosity I found “New Vintage Type” a book that I am now in need of getting my paws on. So how did I find this gem of a book?
Posted by: Claire Alexander on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Categories: Branding, Design, Fun, Inspiration, Typography, Uncategorized | No Comments »
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Keming. I give this about a week before it’s used industry wide. And it’s available as a t-shirt.
Posted by: Andrew Ball on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
Categories: Pop Culture, Typography | 2 Comments »
This blog has sure gone stale, hasn’t it? I wonder if we have any readers left? We sort of suck, you’re right. Anyway, I’m still blogging, which is ironic as I used to be the lame infrequent blogger at IBC. Here’s a [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, February 7th, 2008
Categories: Design, Film, Fun, Pop Culture, Typography | 1 Comment »
