The range of his work is stunning: from the corporate-yet-friendly logo for London’s Oyster card to exuberant script lettering and powerful handwriting fonts. His best sellers are versatile sans-serifs such as Houschka and Chevin, the latter of which is ubiquitous in the UK as Royal Mail’s corporate typeface. A recent series of sweeping updates has catapulted several of his fonts back onto our Hot New Fonts list. He has a soft spot for the letter ‘g’ — hence the name of his foundry, G-Type. From book covers dripping in blood to the most realistic script face on the market — here is the Nick Cooke story, told in his own words.
In recent months we’ve been on something of a tour around northern Europe. We’ve taken in Sweden, Siberia, the Netherlands, Germany and now, with another sharp turn towards the top of the map, we’re back in Sweden to meet someone whose enthusiasm for getting in early with the latest technology is matched only by his immersion in the historical techniques of broad nib and black ink. A recent flurry of releases, published through the Stockholm foundry T4, belies the conventional idea that retirement equals a quiet life. Born in 1924, Bo Berndal is now in his seventh decade of typographic activity, resulting in over 200 published typefaces. Amazingly — or perhaps not — making type is still his favorite pastime today.
He’s probably Germany’s most prolific type designer. He worked at international advertising and packaging design agencies before setting up shop in Munich, Germany. Just the same, he likes to go diving in Hawaii or can be found browsing the Paris flea market for samples of handwriting and lettering. Meet Gert Wiescher, a man of the world.
The Parachute foundry from Athens, Greece, had been on our wish list for a while when, about a year ago, they replied to our gentle poking with a whole-hearted “yes”.
It does not happen very often that we interview designers right after they’ve signed up with MyFonts, and we’ve never interviewed a group as large as Fontyou. But then, the subject of this month’s Creative Characters interview is not your average type design studio. The Paris-based initiative has an ambitious plan: finding new ways to design and produce fonts. Using online tools, Fontyou establishes fruitful relationships between people with complementary skills — lettering artists, type designers, font technicians, and more. The outcome: something that’s greater than the sum of the parts — collaborative font designs with originality, quality, and character.
If the output of Japanese foundries represented on MyFonts is anything to go by, Nagoya must be the number one font city in Japan. Not only has Ray Larabie established his Typodermic foundry here; it is also home to Flat-It, one of our most prolific microfoundries specializing in lively retro and script fonts. Flat-It is run by Ryoichi Tsunekawa, who also created two specialist labels — Prop-A-Ganda and Holiday Type — to celebrate and market letterforms inspired by… well, propaganda and holidays. His taste is eclectic, his skills are remarkable, his production is huge. Meet Ryoichi Tsunekawa, architect of display fonts.
This month’s Rising Stars are a diverse little gang, but they have one thing in common: they are all convincing examples of the sophistication of today’s typographic technology. Whether it is the virtuosity of connecting scripts such as Maestro and Liza, the fantasy of Mussica or the versatility of multi-weight fonts such as Organic or Geogrotesque Stencil: today’s typefaces often unite aesthetic appeal with functional cleverness.
With Spring comes a staggering number of new releases to the MyFonts catalog. While the first few months of the year are often a time for accelerated releases from many of our established foundries, the last few months have brought us not only several dozen notable new releases from MyFonts staples, but over a dozen new designers as well, all of whom we are very excited to welcome.
Welcome to another jam-packed issue of In Your Face! This quarter, we have more new type than ever, both from new foundries as well as from designers who are already established with MyFonts. Highlights abound — from full-featured multi-weight/width sans-serif families to some of the most original display type in the world — and we are certain that you'll find plenty of useful bits and pieces to add to your type library.
