”What a wonderful thing!” – People from around the world, gathered in Berlin to listen on people from around the world, talking on the subject: Typography…

This years edition of Typoberlin was a 3-day extravaganza  of thrilling talks, lectures and discussions of the freely interpretated subsubject Image. Pioneers, nerds and generally highly respected designs and innovators gave each of there contributions – Ranging from biographical presentations of what the individual had created through a lifetime, to problemsolving on specific typographical issues over presentations of interesting individual projects.  Below you can get an overview of some of the highlights:

 Monotype collection poster, created på ‘Ed’ Benguiat – who stressed to point: that it’s all right to steal inspiration as long as the person you are stealing from is dead… :)

Stefan Sagmeister (sagmeister.com) talked about different client productions…

… and his personal project www.thingsihavelearnedinmylife.com – working creatively with his diary and him self as his main source of inspiration.

Christian Schwarts (christianschwartz.com)  talked about his work on the typeface Giorgio for the New York Times Magazine, and his collaboration with Speakerman (no picture, since the photopolicy of this blog is not to distrbute pictures of work, from people whose wicked plan is to laminate the earth …)

Kim Haemin (kimhaemin.info) – A young Korean programmer and artist, showed some of her work that explored experiences that connected our different ways of sensing, through touch, seeing and listening… Cool shit!

“That’s all folks!”

Here are some other interesting links:

fuenfwerken.com

odedezer.com

www.fabrica.it

»We went to DGH (Den Grafiske Højskole) and all we saw was Typography«
- A very interesting day, with all the heart desires of different approaches towards the use and the creation of typography. Ranging everything from Amsterdam drug packaging to the creation of a type that was based on the philosophical idea of the word ‘neutral’.

Wonderful

During last week’s Copenhagen screening of Helvetica, the director Gary Hustwit asked all graphic designers to raise their hands. A fairly large number of hands were not raised. It is hard to say if these belonged to very cool graphic designers who couldn’t be bothered, or if they were the hands of non-graphic designers (like Hustwit) who just happened to like type. Fact is that BBC World recently reviewed the Helvetica-film, that MoMA currently runs a very successful exhibition to celebrate Helvetica’s birthday and that the danish newspaper Politiken had an article on Helvetica last saturday…

Is typography becoming some sort of general hobby? Something to be discussed at dinner parties and on first dates in the future? Will »what kind of music do you like?« be followed by »tell me about your favorite typeface«? The film Helvetica certainly describes how graphic design and typography has been adapted by non-designers, and how it is used to express individuality and identity as on myspace.com.

The film features (among others) Wim Crouwel and Massimo Vignelli looking very pleased with themselves and their careers. But as they flick through their excellent helvetica-based design from the 60s, it is hard not think that their clients were much easier to seduce and persuade than today’s clients. That Crouwel and Vignelli were respected as specialists in a way that is sadly no longer guaranteed. Today we discuss size, colour and composition with our clients, but will we be discussing x-heights, terminals and ascenders in the future?

The article »You know the type (you just don’t know it)«, written by non-graphic designer Nils Thorsen:

Cleo

When designers are working with text, they are often working with types and not as much with the form of the text. Many modern writers, on the other hand, are working intensively with the text form, though they are not concerned with types – and neither with visual aesthetics. So, perhaps there is a room for mutual inspiration?

One example is the author Per Højholt. This weekend I fell over the collected poems of Højholt. Actually, it was published a year ago, but this weekend was the first time I noticed it.

One of Højholts famous poems looks like this:

Each line in the poem says: ”solen se dens vældige horn mælken fryser i sin karton” (the sun see its immense horn the milk is freezing in its box), but the letters are placed on top of each other in a staggered arrangement. Hereby the text is a form which depth changes depending on how you view it. Hereby Højholt violates a central writing rule, i.e. that letters must follow each other successively, and by deforming the language this way the poem is actually emphasizing that rule.

The poems of Højholt made me think of another author, Simon Grotrian. He has written the peculiar and concretistic poem “Svaner set gennem tårer” (Swans seen through tears):

Well, admitted! Neither Højholt nor Grotrians solutions are very pretty, and as writers they are probably more interested in literature than in visual aesthetics.

But perhaps one or two of their ideas can be applicated for some design solutions?

Below is a small example, where I think it is done carefully and with success.

The stage play Kærlighedshistorier (Love stories) on the theatre Aveny-T is presented on this site. On the screen shot above the (red coloured) title Kærlighedshistorier forms a rectangular box. The box ends out in/behind the red shirt of the female artist on the bottom of the site.

The theatre name and logo to the left is placed in a 90-degree angle, and the lower arms of the female artist are rotated the same way, while the upper arms are positioned perpendicular to this general line.

And furthermore the text AVENY-T forms an arrow as a part of the company logo to the left.

This way the text angle and form is in harmony with the overall layout - without the text just being placed in squared boxes.

As seen below, this is a general design-line on the theatres website.

And on the front page it gets even better. Here the text in the coloured hearts is rotated and stresses the somewhat “nervous” layout.

Additionally the logo is moved to the upper right corner, and forms a line with the head and shoulders of the female artist. And lastly it symbols an arrow through the green heart – as placed by Cupid.

/Maate

If there is a place where graphic designers go when they die, it must look like The Neon Museum Boneyard on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Behind a fence on a large site on Boulevard North, The Neon Museum keeps retired, damaged neon signs in all shapes and sizes. A part of the collection has already been restored to its former glory, and put on display in the Freemont Street in Downtown Las Vegas. But as the non-restored leftovers sit there awaiting paintjobs and repairs, they form a graphic designer’s wonderland too amazing for words. Giant letters and odd shapes are casually stacked against one another - some have fallen over, the bulbs are broken or missing and the paint is peeling off. Most of these signs will properbly never shine again. Though the Boneyard has been visited many times before, it is hard not to think of it as a hidden, unknown treasure. It has the melancholic beauty of a closed down, forgotten funfair, making it very special indeed.

The Boneyard can be visited by appointment only. The good people of The Neon Museum will give you a tour of the site, but feel free to fall behind exploring the paradise on your own. By special arrangement (and money) the site can be used as a backdrop for films and fashion shoots. If you are ever in (or near) Las Vegas - don’t miss it!

www.neonmuseum.org

Clea, Vegas

Hey everybody in Copenhagen (and vicinity),

this might be short notice but tonight there’s going to be an event at Republikken on Vesterbrogade, if you want see and hear some nice work come and take part.
Sweet Talk is happening in Dublin, New York & Copenhagen.
Just to get an idea here are some pictures for you to view

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Here is what Richard Seabrooke from Sweet Talk has to say about it:

WHAT IS SWEETTALK?_
SweetTalk started over a year, and 17 editions, ago to encourage stimulating conversations about Design, Illustration, Motion Graphics, Fine Art, Animation, Photography and all those excellent disciplines in between that make up the fantastic creative world around us.

SweetTalk is about seeing the people LIVE onstage who practice these disciplines best… Pioneers, Legends and forthright thinkers. They are there so you can hear them firsthand in a relaxed, enthusiastic atmosphere,not a stuffy cold conference style format. People who attend get to make up their own minds on what the speakers have to say about their work and working process. We try as much as possible too not to tax the patrons, preferring to charge the minimum amount to cover costs and keep this going, something that has stood as we’ve moved out of Irish only editions to the UK, Scandinavia and now the States…
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SWEETTALK 18. COPENHAGEN
Candy in association with Tiger Beer present Sweettalk 18, Copenhagen.

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 8TH 2007.
Venue: RUMMET IN REPUBLIKKEN. 24 VESTERBROGADE. COPENHAGEN.
Admission: 75DKR. Tiger Beer reception from 7pm, first speaker 8pm.
Limited edition treats for early arrivers!

Speakers:
Bleed (Norway). http://www.bleed.no
Martin De Thurah (Denmark). http://www.dethurah.dk
Ingen Frygt (Denmark). http://www.ingenfrygt.dk

Hope to see you there
- Shaft

The Art of Type is a panel discussion about typography from Extensis, go and listen now!

“This year at the Macworld Conference and Expo, we hosted a number of expert font panel discussions at our booth on the show floor. The discussions turned out quite well, and for those of you who were unable to make it to the show, we’re happy to report that we recorded everything!”

Chris Bolton is a Finnish designer, not only does he make interesting work, but so is his site: It is built on xml and xsl styleshees, making it quite fast to update and in a logical way too.

Letter by Circle is founded by Dante H Carlos, and you will like it.
Outlandish is photography creation house for young Belgian talent, not to be mistaken by the Danish music group.
Hey that’s my pencil there

Last but certainly not least check out Tony vs Paul, they really are rivals huh?!

- S

nice work from Dutch firm Werkplaats Typografie…good work but the navigation could probably use a little TLC

- S

This is going to be super interesting for anybody who enjoys quality films, from up-an-coming directors. The Sundance Film Festival is showing their entries online!

Here is what they are saying: “Invited from the same short film program as its namesake event, this exclusive collection of premiere work in short filmmaking premieres first in Park City, Utah — and then rolls-out streaming to you. Free from anywhere in the world.”

And here are the others

Beautiful work from Mario Hugo.

And one of my personal favorite artists Lee Misenheimer from Brooklyn, NYC

Concept & Art Direction from Stockholm(via Newstoday)

- S

If you are a typomaniac then you know Erik Spiekermanns, he just recently updated his blog from German to English. Go check it out, especially under the download section where you can download and view the movies he has made over the years about typographic.

Just to give you an idea of his work here are some of the typefaces he has designed: ff Meta, itc Officina, ff Info, ff Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk.

- S