I was going to delete this spam comment (which I’ve received twice now) without remark—

Author: Francisco Quia-ot
E-mail: francisco@datastyling.com
URL: http://www.datastyling.com

Comment:

SUBJECT:
Hire our employee for only $590/month (6 days/week/8:00 am - 5:00 pm).

MESSAGE:
Welcome at datastyling.com

Having an appealing and eye catching book cover design and a book interior design that is consistent with the cover will really make a difference in the success and marketability of your book. We look forward to hearing from you and creating a beautiful book cover and/or interior for you.

Please email(francisco@datastyling.com) for more details.

—but then I thought, Wait, maybe this company actually exists.
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A few weeks ago, I got a wild hair you-know-where to join AIGA, “the professional association for design.” I figured I’d join for a year, go to all the NYC events, participate as much as I could stand, and then reup only if it seemed valuable.

So I poked around on the AIGA and AIGA/NY websites to refresh my memory on what they do, and then I went to the membership sign-up section. And then my wild hair totally unkinked itself.

$295 a year? Oh, never mind. I guess I’m not serious about design, after all.
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I suspect that designers who use Neuland or Lithos as an approximation of the Africanesque are being unimaginative at best, and jingoistic at worst. —Jonathan Hoefler

This article by Rob Giampietro of Giampietro + Smith has been around for a while—having originally been published in Letterspace in 2004—but I didn’t see it until Brian Feeney blogged it, so maybe you haven’t, either.

Since I read it, about three weeks ago, I’ve been noticing these typefaces everywhere (though slightly less often than I spot Papyrus), used in exactly the way Giampietro describes. Quit it, people.

Today is your last day to buy Dino dos Santos’s typefaces at 50 percent off, but you have an entire month to scoop up goodies from House Industries at a discount.

Sale items include Neutraface, which I’ve had to work with several times and been annoyed by (something about unthoughtful OpenType setup—two jobs ago; I’ve forgotten now), but which some people like the look of, and Chalet, which I remember there being a lot of buzz about when it came out.

What I’m most interested in, though, is Paperback by John Downer (whose TypeCon presentation was one of the ones that made me cringe painfully; but I’m sure he’s very good at designing type). I first read about this when I was designing a lot of swill, and it sounded to me like a useful typeface to have.
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Now playing, on an Interweb near you: another piece by the delightful Vanessa Davis. To see it uncropped and without my added headline box, visit the story page: Fertility Rites. It’ll stay on the home page until Thursday morning.

I can’t imagine how rubber cement—and its attendant erasers and thinners (oh, how I love those cans!)—could ever go out of circulation, and I can prove that I’ve used a type gauge pretty recently (in fact, I’ve been meaning to go buy a new one; and a loupe), but I’m still charmed by Lou Brooks’s The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies.

I ran across my erasing shield from high school drafting a few months ago. I could probably use that when erasing ill-considered proofreading marks. And I’d certainly have a “Pantone Thing” if I could afford one.

How many items exhibited in the museum have you owned?

(Via pica + pixel.)

Photo: Drafting Tools by Generation X-Ray / Paul; some rights reserved.

The day I got back from TypeCon, maybe two minutes after I stumbled into the office, a coworker asked, “What’s the font that’s used on highway signs?”

Um . . . Um . . . “I should know this, but I don’t.”
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to glut yourself on Dino dos Santos’s typefaces at half price.

The sale ends on Tuesday. Run!
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“I love Quark, but . . . at some point you gotta stop hitting yourself on the head with a hammer.” “Calli means ‘good’ and graphy means ‘writing,’ so calligraphy means ‘beautiful writing.’ Isn’t that neat?” Because some users don’t know how to type curly quotes instead of straight ones, you should make fonts whose straight quotes are the same as the curly ones—are you !@#$% kidding me? Cabarga talks softly, is clever with Illustrator. Elements 3E signed by Bringhurst! Hotels with lousy Internet must die. Many pretty Mexican typefaces. Anything is interesting for only twenty minutes—almost.