the history of visual communication

(grandjean's mathematical drawings for his romain du roi)

the history of visual communication is a lovely, fantastically rich site that "attempts to walk you through the long and diverse history of a particular aspect of the human endeavour: the translation of ideas, stories and concepts that are largely textural and/or word based in a visual format." it does a pretty good job (to put it mildly).

it takes a viewer through rocks and caves, ideograms, the alphabet, the printing press, all the way through the computer. AND it's loaded with beautiful images. enjoy!

michael bierut talks type

a nice little interview with michael bierut, originally with an article by virginia postrel in the atlantic. enjoy!

(and i'll try to be better about posting again, i promise.)

oh, and by the way...

our first round of prints (with the theme of "firsts") are now up at redblackbrown. check 'em out!

paul rand

because who can't glean some insight from paul rand???

city neighborhoods

though i know that these fantastic typographic maps by jenny beorkrem have been all over the blogs, i love them dearly. and i'm hoping she might just design one for our lovely twin cities...

but until then, boston, brooklyn, chicago, manhattan and san francisco are available for purchase here.

whose type says change?

it's super tuesday, so here's a little piece from sam berlow and cyrus highsmith on what they think the type says about the candidates (even those who have dropped out).

from boston.com.

typographic illustration

very cool bits of illistration over at ni9e. set to music, so it's even better.

obsessing

i have become slightly obsessed with archer, the newest release from hoefler & frere-jones. the ridiculous number of weights available make it so versatile: it holds up well in body copy and it's gorgeous in large sizes too. i am especially in love with the thin and hairline weights.

i can't wait to get my mitts on this one.