Join this exciting team of passionate, type-loving art directors in their live webinar, Creating concept-driven, one-of-a-kind type solutions, on Thursday, April 12, 1PM EDT as they deconstruct some of their most innovative work, and inspire — and even dare — you to think out of the box.

NOTE: This webinar will be available OnDemand on Monday, April 16.

I sat down with James and asked him how this megafamily came about. You can read this fascinating interview here, including his comparison of typeface design to martial arts, of which he is a xingyi chuan practitioner.

These are some additional questions I posed which were not included in the TypeTalk column:

Q. How has the OpenType technology changed what is possible when designing digital script fonts?
A. Well, OpenType programming allowed me to included automatic beginning and ending forms, which helped me keep a simple connecting logic. What I do see happening though is that OpenType has created a sort of “arms race” as to who can include the most alternates the most swashes, the most of everything, and frankly it makes me not want to participate in script font development. In a way, I don’t even consider Insouciant a script, since it has a very modest set of alternate glyphs.

Q. What or who are some of your greatest influences?
A. The Photolettering One Line Manual of Style was the greatest influence in my career. That book and, of course, Ed Benguiat. I took a magic marker comp lettering class from Ed and during that class he gave away some things. I receive the One Line Manual. I poured over that book, it taught me typeface classification and got me so excited about letter forms it was my type design education. Adrian Frutiger’s Type, Sign, Symbol was also a huge influence on my self-education as a type designer.

Ed was hugely important to me. Not in the fact that he taught me how to design type, he didn’t, but that in meeting him, I saw that you could have a career drawing letters if you were good and perhaps a little lucky. Taking that “Indicated Lettering” class with Ed at SVA changed my life.

Q. Your library has quite a variety of typestyles, and seems to be growing at breakneck speed. What is your philosophy?
A. I’m trying to create a library of type designs, that are mine, that all work together, and that can replace any standard historical style. I have geometric sans, grotesques, didots, scotch roman, moderns, oldstyles, informal, postmoderns. Soon I’ll be adding a rounded sans family named Social, and I’m working on a Latin. I draw type everyday, and because of that my technique improves and I can work faster and faster.

Q. What are some of your own favorites from your library, and why?
A. I suppose my favorite type design is whatever one I’ve just finished. And then it is the one I’m just starting. It’s a funny thing when you finish a typeface family. You work for months on this thing, you know that it is never going to be perfect, at some point you have to stop. You stop, you release it, and then… You get this overwhelming impulse to start again. Crazy really.

Q. Your site is quite beautiful, and almost a work of art in itself with reference to the overall design and color palette, which is unusual for a type foundry.
A. My good friend Charles Nix of Scott & Nix developed the color palette. Charles is a great book designer and a great type designer when he has the time. He designs all of my ads and specimen sheets. My website is designed and built by another good friend Chris Andreola of adcStudio.

Q. Is there such a thing as the “New York school” in type design?
A. I don’t think there is such a thing. I think in the 60s and 70s there was a New York Style in graphic design, but today, no. There are so many talented type designers working in New York (actually most of them are in Brooklyn) their work is so varied, I don’t think you could put a “style” name on it.

Q. Anything you want to add?
A. I think that’s it.

1. Jeff has been designing logos for over 35 years.

2. Jeff usually doodles logo design concepts on whatever is nearby.

3. The work of Jeff Fisher LogoMotives is featured in over 160 books.

4. Jeff has been speaking, teaching and making presentations about design and self promotion for over a decade.

5. Jeff is the author of Identity Crisis: 50 Redesigns That Transformed Stale Identities into Successful Brands.

6. Jeff’s first book, The Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success, is available as a PDF on CD.

7. The design of the Jeff Fisher LogoMotives identity was a ten-year process.

8. Jeff’s passion, and primary form of therapy, is gardening.

9. Jeff collects advertising figures, salt and pepper shakers, cookie jars, teapots, vintage pitchers and cowboy memorabilia.

10. Jeff Fisher’s alter-ego, Toots Caboose, is beginning his fourth year as a member of the Portland Rose Festival Character Clown Corps.

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Check out What “type” is your logo? Jeff’s live webinar to be presented March 22, 2012 and available for your OnDemand viewing pleasure on March 26th, 2012.

We just finished Gerard Huerta‘s amazing webinar. We had a great turnout and Gerard gave an awe-inspiring, drool-worthy presentation.

Here are some of the questions (and Gerard’s replies) that were not answered in the webinar:

Q. Was inking done on tissues and what tools were used? Quills, brushes, technical pens?

A. Vellum (Canson Vidalon, Denril) was secured over the tissue and inking was outlined with a Rapidograph-style pen using templates or ellipse guides and French curves. The inking was then filled in with ink with a brush. The corners were scraped to form a sharp edge. You could also use gouache to white-out the corners.

Q. What was the technique used to remove the notched areas in the watch dials? Are the removed areas templated or done on an individual basis?

A. The notched areas are drawn that way. Appropriate points are placed and handles pulled to achieve the desired result.

Q. With the amount of hand lettering artists practicing their craft, how would one expand the diversity of one’s hand lettered typography?

A. You can start by buying books with collections of different lettering styles: orange crate art, cigar art, old tin can packaging, and George Bickham’s Universal Penman. I find that books with older work have more interesting lettering styles. Also, collections of album art from the ’60s and ’70s are a great source of lettering.

Q. How do you know how much and shape of the notch?

A. This is really trial and error. For screen you can do easy jpeg tests to size. For print you have to do tests and view them to size.

Q. What do you do for advertising and marketing yourself?

A. I have a web site, but most work is word of mouth (being recommended) and clients who return to you.

Q. How has the industry changed regarding lettering design?

A. I think there is less of it as more fonts become available and fewer people learn how to draw. It is the drawing that creates uniqueness in lettering and fewer people coming out of art schools are learning to draw. Also, people aren’t being educated that this discipline exists. People often ask me what font something is when it seems obvious that it is hand lettered.

Q. When selecting color for the National Guitar Museum logo, do you pick the Pantone colors? And what about process and web equivalents?

A. Yes, I pick them, and, yes, usually there is a CMYK and RGB version of the file.

Other comments:
You are legit. Thank you for sharing all of this. Amazing.
Thank you for sharing: illuminating, generous!

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This webinar will be available as an OnDemand session on Monday, March 12. It will be accessible to those who attended free of charge, and can also be purchased and viewed by those who missed it. Check out the teaser video if you have not seen it!

Ilene

As promised, here is a list of the Web font resources mentioned in the webinar, plus one that I added after-the-fact:

Fonts.com Web fonts
Typekit
Font Bureau Webtype
Extensis WebINK
Fontdeck
Typotheque
Google web fonts
FontShop Web FontFonts
Myfonts Web fonts  (not mentioned in the webinar)
The League of Moveable Type
TypeFront
FontGear’s FontPad Server

Stephen Coles, typography writer and critic, wrote in after the webinar to emphasize the importance of browser previews when selecting Web fonts, as the most efficient and reliable way to test performance, especially on Windows. “Browser previews are currently available from fonts.com, myfonts.com, and typekit.com offer decent preview screenshots,” he says. Read his commentary on Web fonts here.

Thanks, Ilene

Once you have viewed this webinar, I am open to your comments on this blog. The world of Web fonts changes every day with new information, updated technology, as well as additions and changes to the world of Web font providers, services, hosts, and the like. So turn (your mind) on, tune in (to this webinar), and (don’t) drop out of the exciting, ever-changing world of Web technology which will rock your universe, typographically speaking.

I received such a great response to this latest TypeTalk column that I added a downloadable PDF of the chart upon the request of several readers. You can download it here, but I suggest going to the article for the full explanations as well as to download.

Klaus Heesch, my cohost, did an amazing job of introducing the session, as well as troubleshooting a slight sound glitch we had in the middle. Giving Webinars is a lot more than knowing your subject matter, preparing informative and engaging visuals, and a giving a lively delivery. You are at the mercy of microphone, digital sound and internet connection issues, with a lot of other variables that are out of one’s control. It takes a calm yet quick-thinking person to address any problems on-the-fly and assist in making a quick recovery.

Another challenge is that the presenter is virtually speaking to their computer alone in their office trying to sound animated, entertaining, and enthusiastic about the subject matter, without a live audience. It’s a little odd at first if you’ve never given a Webinar before, but having given a dozen or so myself, I was not unfamiliar with the process, and strived to make it sound as if I was presenting to real people, just of the virtual kind.

Having said that, the presentation went really well and got a lot of nice comments. But we did have a slight static problem in the middle, at which time Klaus interrupted the presentation so I could remove my microphone, change some audio settings, and then pick up where I left off. Since these are live performances, there is always the possibility of things happening beyond one’s control, just like any live stage, radio, or internet event. But I managed to stay calm while we resolved the problem, which only took a few seconds, and move forward.

The question and answer session was informative and a lot of fun, with a humorous contribution by the noted typographic illustrator, and future presenter, Gerard Huerta. The Q&A not only helped answer questions, but allowed for a more personal connection with the audience which was great!

All Webinars will be recorded and availabIe for viewing OnDemand, which included this past session, which is available here. This is an important aspect of the TypeCast program as it allows us to reach a broad audience, at their convenience, and in any time zone. I, personally, am very excited to be able to offer the kind of information and personal contact that I have only been able to give, up until now, in person in classes, workshops, and conferences.

We have a lot of great Webinar topics planned, as well as some talented, exciting guest presenters, including Gerard Huerta, Jeff Fisher, Jill Bell, James Montalbano, Jim Parkinson, Trevett McCandliss & Nancy Campbell, and a lot more. The next session is The 10 Worst Type Crimes on Thursday, January 12, So stay tuned, and sign up to stay informed if you have not already.

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After giving our premiere Typecast Webinar, Troubling Typesetting Mysteries: Solved at last! I heard from a respected colleague, Adobe Certified Instructor Scott Citron who offered several additions to the information presented.

• Paragraph Composer vs. Single-Line Composer Paragraph Composer looks at the entire paragraph when determining line breaks, not just three lines backwards and forwards.
• Changing Default Settings The best way to change default settings is to update the Basic Paragraph style with no docs open. Otherwise, changing the settings outside the Basic Paragraph Style will give you a plus (+) on the Basic Paragraph forever. By the way, quitting InDesign after changing your Basic Paragraph styles is not necessary.
• Hidden (Invisible) Characters I always advise users to leave Hidden Characters on. The reason this is important is because this way you can make sure that the end of paragraph mark (or pilcrow) is selected. Also, seeing Hidden Characters like tabs, soft returns, multiple spaces, and so forth will inform designers about why their text is behaving in a given way.
• To highlight a paragraph, click the Type tool four times anywhere in the paragraph, which will include the pilcrow. Don’t drag to highlight paragraphs, which makes it easy to miss the pilcrow and wind up with uneven line spacing.
• Command-Option-Q used to clear all character overrides, but does no longer. Go to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts > Product Area > Text and Tables and look for Clear Character Overrides. Make your own. I used Control-Option-Command-Q and set Context to Text.

By the way, Scott will be presenting several TypeCast Webinars, so stay tuned.

Have a very healthy, happy holiday and New Year, and I look forward to seeing you, virtually of course, in the coming year!

Ilene

What causes this? The most common explanation is that we don’t read letter-by-letter, but rather by word shapes, which are in part created by the position and frequency of ascending and descending characters. But in all cap settings, such word shapes are lost, making it more challenging, and slower going, to read. Some recent research has disputed this ‘word shape’ explanation, but it is widely acknowledged that all cap settings are more difficult to read than lowercase. What we read most often (mostly lowercase) is what we read more easily.

The notion that we read by word shapes, as illustrated above, is widely cited, though not universally accepted.

So when, if ever, is it appropriate, or even desirable, to use all capitals? The use of all cap settings for running text (differentiated from abbreviations, acronyms, company names and other branding functions, etc.) can seem appealing because of the symmetry and emphasis it creates. But unless you are setting only a few words, such as very short headlines, subheads and phrases, readability will suffer.

All cap text is more difficult to read than primarily lowercase settings, as can be experienced in the above examples.

Another notion in favor of the use of upper- and lowercase vs. all caps, is that lowercase takes up less space. Because more words can be put on a line, a block of copy looks shorter and seems like less material to be read.

These cautions regarding all caps hold even more true for emails and other uses on the Web (including blogs, comments and other types of postings), where it is considered SHOUTING, which is unprofessional and a sign of poor etiquette (or, netiquette).

So the next time you are tempted to set text in all capitals, weigh the pros and cons, and consciously make your decision to use all cap settings — if at all — sparingly.

Typographic Typos
Steer clear of these common type crimes:
☐ Eliminate double word spaces between sentences
☐ Replace dumb quotes (including apostrophes)
☐ Check inch and foot marks (primes)
☐ Use hyphens, en- and em-dashes properly
☐ Avoid fake scaling, embolding and slanting
☐ Avoid computer-generated (fake) small caps
☐ Use all cap text sparingly
☐ Beware of all cap swash settings
☐ Size type appropriately (both text and display)

Spacing and alignment
Good visual balance and alignment contribute greatly to professionally set typography.
☐ Avoid poor justification
☐ Avoid tracked out lowercase
☐ Make sure kerning is even and tasteful
☐ Apply hung punctuation / optical margin alignment
☐ Check for proper vertical and horizontal alignment
☐ Use tracking appropriately, as necessary
☐ Check for appropriate word spacing and adjust as necessary
☐ Align initial letters properly

Refinements
The devil is in the details, so use these points as a guide to first-rate typography:
☐ Adjust bad rags
☐ Avoid too many hyphens in a row
☐ Avoid widows and orphans
☐ Use appropriate figure style and spacing
☐ Use diagonal fractions if possible, especially in OpenType
☐ Fine-tune size, position and spacing of bullets
☐ Fine-tune position and spacing of ®, ™ and © symbols
☐ Adjust glyph positioning as necessary

This article is excerpted from fy(t)i: Typographic Checklist, courtesy of Monotype Imaging.