hese are a few highlights from The Inland Printer dating back to 1898. The Inland Printer was a leather-bound trade catalog distributed around Chicago and New York to various print and publishing houses. It featured the latest and greatest printing technologies and services available in 1898; Linotype printing machines, steel engraved ornaments, and a variety of printing, folding and cutting machines, not to mention my favorite part, the advertising for the various printing and engraving companies featured in the book, like the samples above for instance.

Naturally, these scans don’t do justice to the originals so I must first give a nod to the high-quality inks and paper used in this publication. After 112 years, the prints and pages throughout the book are holding up quite well and are still very bright (the Ault & Wiborg prints look like they came off the press yesterday).

I used to work with rare books and I’ve always loved them. I like thinking about the old school punch cutters, printers and artists who labored to create them, so this catalog is actually a really nice insight into their world. I can just imagine them going over these pages, seeing all the new possibilities. Maybe getting inspired by the amazing metallic blue Silk-Tone ink sold by the horribly-named Taknecke Bros & Jr. Schneemmann company, or drooling over a bunch of new machines and their modern time saving methods.

As for us, at least we have this glimpse into the past, but more than that, our past as designers. If we were doing what we do right now, but in 1898, typographers would be punch cutters, vector masters would be engravers (wood, steel, zinc), and Photoshop wizards would be doing lithographs and halftones. So this catalog must have been like the Internet for them. Or a chunk of it. Viewed offline.

I’m pretty much way down with Electric City Engraving Co, so I’d say if I were transported through time 112 years into the past, I’d have to get into the halftone scene. But I’m also interested in engraving on wood so I’ll have to incorporate that somehow. I don’t know. The possibilities were as endless then as they are today.

random pages from the raw shark texts

xperimental type as a medium has never gotten old. From expressive Russian posters to the Dada movement, or even going further back to Lewis Carroll, we have a rich history of manipulating the written word to achieve new ways of communication. Although most of our contemporary examples exist within art communities and design circles, the concept has nevertheless found its way into more than a few mainstream formats.

Here are three examples of experimental text in novels that recently caught my eye. I’ll be straight up with you here, I haven’t read any of these books (although I’ve started the Raw Shark texts), but as you take a look at their interiors, I’m sure you’ll see why I want to.

House of Leaves is a horror story of sorts, seemingly about a house that is larger on the inside than on the outside. I just love the insane amount of text manipulation and design here. One really cool aspect for example, is throughout the book, the word house is printed in blue. The type ranges from simple romans to old school typewriter faces, with plenty of handwritten and illustrated letters throughout.

What can be said about David Mamet that hasn’t already been said? Playwright, author, screenwriter and director. However, Wilson comes right out of left field for any fan of his typical work. Taking place in the not-too-distant future, the internet crashes and humanity has lost its memory, leaving only downloaded material from which to reconstruct their history.

I’ve included Wilson in this post because of its excessive use of footnotes which take on a life of their own, sometimes taking up entire pages.

I’ve saved the best for last. Where House of Leaves uses the experimental format exclusively, The Raw Shark Texts is the most free of extravagance and uses only a minimal count of text and type experiments, and as far as I can tell, only appear within the specific and significant actions that take place in the book. The plot – plot used loosely here, revolves around an amnesiac searching for his past while on the run from a ‘conceptual fish’ that feeds on human memories. It’s quite interesting so far with well-deserved comparisons to the cerebral styles of Haruki Murakami and Paul Auster.

ntelligence in Lifestyle or IL is a relatively young Italian magazine about contemporary passions and consumptions. It premiered in September of 2008, and like T Magazine, the style supplement of The New York Times, IL is the supplement to the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 ORE. The design takes inspiration from Swiss formalism, fashion magazines, and popular Italian & Northern European periodicals from the 70s. As for the content, I only wish I could read Italian. For now, I’ll just pore over the layout, typography, and infographics—oh my, the infographics—I’m a huge fan of Feltron—but egad, these ones are amazing.

Francesco Franchi, one of the art directors for IL, archives all the covers and various interiors on his Flickr feed, and you can view them in much higher resolutions. I couldn’t quite figure out the serif font used throughout the magazine, and Francesco was kind enough to identify it for me: Publico, released under the foundry Commercial Type and designed by Paul Barnes, Christian Schwartz, Kai Bernau, and Ross Milne. It’s sexy and elegant and not nearly as ubiquitous as say, Helvetica or more recently, Archer.

Other things I love about IL:

• Cover design consistency
• The cutout of the IL logotype on the cover
• The perfect combination of serif and sans serif type
• The use of color as part of a theme, complementary to the content

I just want to dismantle the whole thing and hang the pages up as framed art.

assimo Vignelli is known for designing many things. In following Adolf Loos‘ dictum, Vignelli believed that a designer should be able to design everything from “the spoon to the city.” Vignelli was one of seven designers that founded one of the most successful agencies in the 60s called Unimark International. Soon after Unimark dissolved, he co-founded another agency with his wife Lella under the name Vignelli Associates where he still works today. His body of work extends beyond graphic design to package design, furniture design, and most notably, the design of the New York City subway signage with Bob Noorda. Vignelli’s style adheres to the modern tradition which embraces minimalism, geometric forms, and grid-based design.

This isn’t anything new, but last January, Vignelli released a free ebook called The Vignelli Canon that can be downloaded from his website. From what I’ve noticed, minimalism, typography and grid-based design seems to be more popular than ever. With new designers constantly emerging, I thought it’d be appropriate to re-introduce the book as a must-read. Vignelli said his intent was not to reduce design to a bunch of rules despite his highly opinionated advisories, so if you are a designer just starting out, take the Canon with a grain of salt.

The book is divided into two sections, The Intangibles, and The Tangibles. The first involves ideas such as semantics, syntactics, pragmatics, and discipline. The second discusses things like paper sizes, grids, typefaces, and layouts. The Tangibles section is filled with a lot of helpful information, and emphasizes the importance in grid-based design. If you are looking for a more in-depth study on grids, I’d recommend visiting The Grid System, a resource put together by Antonio Carusone of AisleOne.

Overall, the canon is a nice ebook to keep around, particularly if you’re a student. If you’re interested in reading more Vignelli, I’d suggest Vignelli From A to Z, or Lella and Massimo Vignelli.

ou might remember the amazingly awesome and in-depth essay that Paul Shaw wrote about The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway in late 2008 for AIGA Voice. I admit to having the unread article open in my browser tab for what seemed like days, perhaps even an entire week before deciding to dig into it. It was long, particularly long for online reading, split into nine informative pages. When I had finally devoured all the words and images, I wanted to read it again. And so I was very pleased to learn that Shaw had released a limited edition book which is “an expanded, annotated and profusely illustrated version of the acclaimed essay originally written for AIGA Voice. It takes into account new information and is supplemented by comprehensive notes, a bibliography and a chronology of the New York City subway system.”

Preface (click to zoom)

An excerpt from HelveticaSubway.com:

“There is a common belief, reinforced by Gary Hustwit’s documentary film Helvetica, that Helvetica is the signage typeface of the New York City subway system. But it is not true—or rather, it is only somewhat true.

Helvetica is the official typeface of the MTA today, but it was not the typeface specified by Unimark International when they created the signage system at the end of the 1960s. Why was Helvetica not chosen originally? what was chosen in its place? why is Helvetica now used? when did the changeover occur? Helvetica and the New York City Subway System answers these questions and then goes beyond them to look at how the subway’s signage system has evolved over the past forty years. The resulting story is more than a tale of a typeface. It is a look at the forces that have molded a signage system.”

Transportation Signage Systems in the 1960's (click to zoom)

The NYCTA and Unimark International (click to zoom)

Aside from the history of Helvetica and the New York Subway System, author Paul Shaw has quite an interesting history himself. Trained as a historian with degrees from both Reed College and Columbia University, he’s spent the last three decades as a graphic designer specializing in letterforms. Currently, Shaw teaches calligraphy and typography at Parsons School of Design and history of graphic design at the School of Visual Arts. Blue Pencil, Shaw’s own blog is an excellent resource for his writings on various topics on design history and typography. Only slightly tangential, but nonetheless important to note about Blue Pencil which makes the reading all the more interesting:

“I chose the name Blue Pencil for the blog because my original intention in establishing it was to post lists of errors—factual, orthographical, typographical, etc.—I have been increasingly finding in the various books I read. Many publishers have abdicated their responsibility to properly edit and proofread the books they issue. Since they are unwilling to take on these essential tasks, Blue Pencil will do it for them—post facto.”

The Fate of the Unimark System (click to zoom)

The book design is a joint effort by Paul Shaw and Abby Goldstein, published by Blue Pencil Editions. Curious colophon aficionados: Printing is by Capital Offset of Concord, New Hampshire and binding by Acme Bookbinding of Charlestown, Massachusetts. Typefaces used are AG Oldface and Monotype Grotesque.

Subway has received praise from many venerable design professionals, even Massimo Vignelli himself (one of the founders of Unimark International). His comment was quite adorable: “Paul, Did I tell you that your report is terrific? That is the final statement on the subject. Hugs, Massimo”

Helvetica Infiltrates the New York City Subway System (click to zoom)

For those of you who, like myself, couldn’t get enough of the online essay and wanted more details and higher resolution photos, order this book. Yes, it will cost you $95, but with its 273 illustrations and painstakingly meticulous research on the esoteric subject, it’s well worth the investment. Also, there’s only a limited run of 500 copies (400 of which are for sale).

ell, we’ve finally reached the end of 2009. Cue 2010, a new decade. A year of progress and innovation. A year of growth and new ventures. We’re very excited to have reached this point, and we’re looking forward to many more years to come. Thanks to all of our family, friends, clients and colleagues who have supported us thus far. Without you, we would not be here. Let’s all celebrate this new year with open minds & open hearts while moving toward a better future.

Happy New Year, from Colorcubic.

Absolutely love this. Found on Studio GloriusVandeVen. This reminds me of an older post we did on Takenobu Igarashi and three-dimensional type.

“The Alphabet consists of several buildings located near our studio in Amsterdam Slotervaart. T-shirts with this alphabet can be ordered on www.sleezysleeves.com.”

e’re all guilty of it. Popping bubble wrap, I mean. Over at Blackbird, they’ve taken that concept and made it useful in the form of a huge 47″ x 18″ calendar set in Helvetica Neue. The only trouble is actually allowing yourself to pop only one bubble per day. Not quite sure if I could manage.

UPDATE (12/23/09): I just found the online bubble calendar game where you can digitally pop bubbles to your heart’s delight.

f there exists a magazine that embodies all my interests, Qompendium would be it. For those who care about etymology, Qompendium is derived from Latin compendium. My initial attraction to this German-produced publication was its stunning exhibition of minimalist design, layout, and typography, but I was even more delighted to discover well-curated art and highly-intelligent writing on subjects like philosophy, art, culture, and science. The creative director and editor-in-chief Kimberly Lloyd is of course behind this, the same woman behind the award-winning M-Publication.

The cover is simple yet enticing, made of gray textured board cover. The only colored graphical element displayed is a foil stamped oozing cube (I have quite a thing for cubes myself). By centering the barcode directly beneath the logotype, it’s as if they’ve made the optical representation of data (and commercialism) a natural part of the design. The interior is equally as gorgeous, combining various finishing techniques and paper stocks with single and full color printing methods. I particularly love the cyan ink against the warmth of the pinkish tea-washed pages.

In Volume One, the editorial board celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Mission and examines the rich diversity of the NASA archives. Even more awesome is the unabridged interviews including one from Nick Sagan, son of late Carl Sagan where he answers questions on science, religion and artificial intelligence. In the realm of fashion, there’s also a brand editorial section comprising of designers such as Alexander McQueen, Jean Paul Gaultier, Prada, Issey Miyake, Narciso Rodriguez and many more.

I’d like to render my own closing statement, but the publication already captured it all too well, and I’m afraid I have to borrow their line: “Certainly, Qompendium is a well-curated, timeless, highly collectible book-like read for the disillusioned rational yet aesthetically intrigued fountainhead, who is at all times in search of fertile thinking ground.”

Photos via MagCulture and Qompendium.

ound this piece while digging through our copy of Graphis Annual 85 / 86. Designed by Yasuo Itou of the Tac Co. Agency; This package was designed for the Japanese gift company, Zeniya. I love the minimalism and use of negative space to fill in the type. Designs like these always inspire me, and remind me that as a designer, I can keep things monochromatic and simple, and still convey intelligent design.