Search this site

The conversation you’re about to hear is the second episode recorded live at RGD’s DesignThinkers Toronto 2023 conference. I sat down with Eleni Beveratou, Creative Director of Typeface Design Studio, Dalton Maag, after she gave her keynote address entitled ‘Typography in Digital Environments and Future Technologies’. In this episode you’ll learn how Eleni went from hating type in school to realizing its utmost importance, leading her to find her niche and complete a Master’s degree in Typeface Design. Eleni walks us through how experienced readers read and how this informs typeface choice, as well as assessing accessible type through the helpful metrics of legibility, readability and likeability. Eleni explains why choosing simpler characters over more complex shapes are not always better for accessibility, as well as how using type in digital environments must be carefully considered, particularly the differences in light mode versus dark mode. Finally, you’ll learn the ‘basics’ that Eleni wishes she knew early in her career. This episode was recorded live at DesignThinkers Toronto 2023 as part of a guest lecture series in GCM 230 - Typography in Fall 2023 at The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University. Let's listen in… Photo Credit: Eric Forest, RGD DesignThinkers Toronto 2023 Photo Credit: Eric Forest, RGD DesignThinkers Toronto 2023 Photo Credit: Eric Forest, RGD DesignThinkers Toronto 2023 About Our Guest: Eleni Beveratou is a typeface designer from Athens, Greece who works as Creative DIrector for Dalton Maag in the UK. While working toward her MA in Typeface Design from the University of Reading, she developed an interest in the science of reading for the partially sighted. Her research and findings were published in Digital Fonts and Reading by World Scientific. At Dalton Maag, Eleni has worked on projects with brands such as Airbnb, Oracle and Facebook. Music: A Little Shade by HoliznaCC0, Licensed Under CC0 1.0 Universal Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

For the first time in almost 170 episodes, I recorded live with guests in the same room, which was a completely new, different and exciting experience. The episode you’re about to hear was recorded live at RGD’s DesignThinkers Toronto 2023 conference soon after our guests, Peter Bil’ak and Kevin King, gave a talk entitled ‘What is Good Design and can Typography have a Positive Impact on Society?’. I had a wonderful time speaking with two minds who blend technical, creative, and human connectedness brilliantly and I sincerely thank them for sitting down with me for the conversation you’re about to hear. In this episode you’ll learn about the Netherlands-based type design company, Typotheque, and you’ll hear from two of its team members (Peter and Kevin) and the way they work with language and give shape to language. You’ll also hear a lot about the North American Indigenous Syllabics Project and the book that Typotheque recently published, celebrating the rich linguistic and typographic diversity of Indigenous languages in North America. You’ll hear a high level overview of the syllabic writing system used by many First Nations and Inuit communities, as well as the way that type is an important part of the visual culture. You’ll better understand the ways that traditional tools influence shapes of letterforms and how Kevin got started drawing syllabic forms for his work with Indigenous type revitalization and perseveration. Finally, you’ll learn how cognitive psychologists work on the Typotheque team to inform typeface design, including a recent typeface release from Typotheque (called ‘Dash’) and its scientific origins. I gained so much from this conversation and I hope you will too. This episode was recorded live at DesignThinkers Toronto 2023 as part of a guest lecture series in GCM 230 - Typography in Fall 2023 at The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University. Let's listen in... Some links that might be helpful as well that we mentioned during the converation: Proposal to Encode 3 Additional Latin Characters for Wakashan and Salishan Languages to the Unicode Standard Typotheque North American Syllabics Proposal to encode 16 additional characters to the Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Typotheque North American Syllabics Proposed changes to the representative glyphs of the Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics code charts Typeface design beyond a single script by Peter Bil'ak Designing Fonts for Two Billion people by Peter Bil'ak Regional forms of Devanagari (Survey Report) by Héctor Mangas Afonso Devanagari – The Makings of a National Character by Karthik Malli The Typotheque Syllabics Project (English Version) Photo Credit: Eric Forest, RGD DesignThinkers Toronto 2023 Photo Credit: Eric Forest, RGD DesignThinkers Toronto 2023 About Our Guests: Peter Biľak works in the field of editorial, graphic, and type design. In 1999 he started Typotheque type foundry, in 2000, together with Stuart Bailey he co-founded art & design journal Dot Dot Dot, in 2012 he started Works That Work, a magazine of unexpected creativity, in 2015 together with Andrej Krátky he co-founded Fontstand.com, a font rental platform. He collaborates with the choreographer Lukas Timulak on creation of modern dance performances, and together they started Make-Move-Think.org, a foundation for interdisciplinary artistic collaborations. Peter is teaching at the Type & Media, postgraduate course at the Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague. Member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale). Kevin King is a typeface designer, typographer, calligrapher, and type researcher based in Canada. After working at Toronto’s Coach House Press and Canada Type, he completed his Master’s degree in Typeface Design with distinction at the University of Reading in 2018. His work focuses on font support and research for minority languages, working directly with Indigenous communities in North America to support their language revitalization and preservation efforts. Through his work collaborating with Typotheque, he has contributed to reforming the text standardisation for the Unified Canadian Syllabics in the Unicode Standard through character additions and representative glyph revisions. In conjunction with his type design work, he maintains a calligraphy practice, teaching workshops and lecturing on both subjects in Canada and Europe. Music: A Little Shade by HoliznaCC0, Licensed Under CC0 1.0 Universal Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

Next on our journey hearing from those in industry who make space for others through community-building, we have Katie Johnson and Ilana Griffo, the tag team behind Goodtype. After running their own successful art businesses, the two artists met via DM and joined forces virtually from their homes in New York and Texas. They share a drive to help other artists pursue their passions and take the fear out of business, because they believe everyone deserves to love their job. In this episode, you’ll hear about Goodtype, about Katie and Ilana's creative processes and about the not often talked about world of 'art licensing'. You'll learn about the duo's take on group work and the key ingredients they believe are necessary to engage in a successful partnership. Katie and Ilana also give advice to students about careers in graphic design, as well as specific and actionable advice for portfolio-building and curating. Finally, the duo share info about Katie and Ilana's new book project where you'll hear it here first! This episode was recorded as part of a guest lecture series in GCM 230 - Typography in fall 2023 at The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University. Let's listen in... Thank you Katie and Ilana of the Goodtype community! The community coming up in the final episode is Canada's Home for Graphic Designers and a community I'm closely connected with, the RGD! Stay tuned… About Our Guests: Katie Johnson and Ilana Griffo are the tag team behind Goodtype. After running their own successful art businesses, the two artists met via DM and joined forces virtually from their homes in New York and Texas. They share a drive to help other artists pursue their passions and take the fear out of business, because they believe everyone deserves to love their job. Links: Goodtype instagram, Katie Instagram, Ilana Instagram, Ilana TikTok, Typecast, Website, The Kernference Music: Oopsie Doodle Master by John Bartmann, Licensed Under CC0 1.0 Universal Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

We are 23 days away from 2024 and with me today are two fantastic Toronto-based makers with calendars for us to enjoy all 366 days of the year ahead. With me, I have Ana Rita Morais who is a Portuguese-born, Toronto-based academic, educator, and administrator. She is the Associate Dean of the School of Design at George Brown College where she works closely with faculty and students across twelve academic programs. She's passionate about pedagogy, research, calendars, and her English Bulldog Rosie. I also have Phoebe Todd-Parrish is a Canadian artist, printmaker, and educator. Phoebe is a part time faculty member in the Department of Visual Studies at The University of Toronto Mississauga/Sheridan and sole proprietor of Flycatcher Press, a print studio that specializes in letterpress, screen printing, and relief print in the Queen West neighbourhood of Toronto. In this episode, you'll hear from these two incredible minds about their calendars, yes, but the conversation is so much more than that. You'll better understand Ana Rita and Phoebe's unique creative processes and sources of inspiration, when they know when they've reached the finish line in their creative work, and you'll hear really great advice for creatives who look back on their old work with dread (aka most everyone). Links to six other incredible calendar projects can be found in the show notes at talkpaperscissors.info. Let's listen in... Notable Links Discussed / Other Fab Calendar Projects (curated by our guests): Karel Marten’s Every Day is a New Day Colophon Foundry Calendar Fedrigoni 366 Poketo Spectrum Calendar Anything by Risotto Studio Bright Press LEGO Letterpress Calendar Pictured Above: Phoebe Todd-Parrish's (Micro) 'Obsolete' 2024 Calendar Pictured Above: Ana Rita Morais' (Macro) 2024 Calendar About Our Guests: Phoebe Todd-Parrish is a Canadian artist, printmaker, and educator. Phoebe graduated from the Master of Fine Arts Printmaking program at the University of Alberta in 2018. Prior to moving to Edmonton, she lived in Toronto where she completed an undergraduate degree in Visual Arts and English Literature at York University, followed by her MA in English from York University in 2016. She has shown her work nationally and internationally, and has received accolades and awards for her research such as the Joseph Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship. Currently, Phoebe is a part time faculty member in the Department of Visual Studies at The University of Toronto Mississauga/Sheridan and sole proprietor of Flycatcher Press, a print studio that specializes in letterpress, screen printing, and relief print in the Queen West neighbourhood of Toronto. You can learn more about her studio, publications, and workshops forthcoming on the Flycatcher Press website. Ana Rita Morais (she/her) is a Portuguese-born, Toronto-based academic, educator, and administrator. She is the Associate Dean of the School of Design at George Brown College where she works closely with faculty and students across twelve academic programs. While in this role she was the recipient of Eastern Canada's 2021 RGD Educator Award. Currently, she runs Pay Design Interns (an ongoing database of the companies and studios across Toronto that are committed to paying design and creative interns), is the Principal Investigator on a multi-year NSERC CCSIF funded project in partnership with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and a former member of the Board of Directors at The ArQuives. Ana Rita holds a Doctorate from the Communication and Culture Program at Toronto Metropolitan University where she produced a SSHRC-funded research-creation project, me-dérive: toronto— an augmented reality counter-archive of Toronto's historical urban environments. Overall, she's passionate about pedagogy, research, calendars, and her English Bulldog Rosie. Music: One Cool Minute - Loyalty Freak Music, Licensed Under CC0 1.0 Universal Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

The final stop on our journey hearing from those in industry who make space for others through community-building, we have the Association of Registered Graphic Designers. I'm closely connected to this organization, having volunteered on the Education Committee since early 2021. And it's with immense gratitude that I sit on RGD's Board of Directors as VP Education, a volunteer position I've held since April 2023. With me today is Executive Director, Hilary Ashworth, and RGD's President, Nicola Hamilton. In this episode, you’ll hear about the RGD: what it is and why to get involved. You'll learn about different membership levels, different professional opportunities and more about the amazing community of design folks from coast-to-coast who make the organization such a valuable one to be part of. Finally, you'll hear some exciting new initiatives for 2024 and beyond! Let's listen in... About Our Guests: Hilary Ashworth has been Executive Director of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) since 2009. In her role, she oversees all RGD operations, including strategy, finances, staffing, membership, public relations, advocacy, communications, sponsorship, programs and events. As RGD’s Communications Coordinator over 19 years ago, Hilary organized the inaugural DesignThinkers Conference (now with over 2,300 annual participants), edited the first edition of The Business of Graphic Design: A Professional’s Handbook (now with over 25,000 copies distributed in 3 editions), and coordinated Canada’s first national salary survey for graphic designers (now in its 14th edition). Starting with the RGD as its first full-time employee, Hilary has seen it grow to a full-time staff of 8, an active volunteer roster of over 200, and Membership of over 4,000. Hilary speaks regularly to graphic design students and educators about the RGD. She has served as Treasurer on the Board of the Design Industry Advisory Committee (DIAC), a not-for-profit, cross-disciplinary design think tank and research group, and has taught at Centennial College. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in history from the University of Toronto. Nicola Hamilton RGD (she/her) is an award-winning editorial designer. For over a decade now she’s been art directing and designing magazines. She’s worked on publications like The Grid, Chatelaine, Air Canada’s enRoute, The University of Toronto Magazine, Best Health and Precedent Magazine, to name a few. In July 2022, Nicola took her love of magazines to a whole new level, by opening Issues Magazine Shop. A bricks-and-mortar clubhouse, and magazine retailer, celebrating the people and projects keeping print alive. Nicola has been an active Member of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers for much of her career. In April 2020, she stepped into the role of President where she advocates for the value of design and the power of community across the country. Nicola's photo by: Shlomi Amiga Music: Oopsie Doodle Master by John Bartmann, Licensed Under CC0 1.0 Universal Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

Next on our journey hearing from those in industry who make space for others through community-building, we have the living print legend, Amos Paul Kennedy Jr.! Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. is an American printer, book artist and papermaker who has been puttin’ ink on paper since 1949. In this conversation, I chat with Amos about creative living and making, as well as his community printing space in Detroit, Michigan: The Pile of Bricks. Amos ran a workshop a number of years ago at my institution, The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University, which I unfortunately wasn’t able to attend so our paths never crossed. But several of Amos’ posters hang in the halls of the building in which I work and I have had the great fortune of admiring them consciously — and delightfully subconsciously — for years. In episode 163: Podcasting in Printmaking with Hello, Print Friend’s Miranda Metcalf, you heard Miranda mention that a conversation with Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. was on her list of conversational highlights. By coincidence, I had the interview you’re about to hear scheduled a few days after having spoken with Miranda and I’m so grateful for the time with Amos and the conversation that ensued. In this episode, you’ll hear how Amos describes himself and his work, his entry point into printing and his counter-cultural (wise!) advice of setting low-expectations. You’ll also hear Amos’ experimental approach to making multiples, the way in which his signature printing process was born, and how systemic injustices can negatively impact creative living and making. Finally, you’ll hear about Amos’ labour-of-love community printing space in Detroit, Michigan: The Pile of Bricks. Let’s listen in… *Diana's creative musings about creativity, inspired by my conversation with Amos. As human beings, we are ALL creative — humans all check off the 'YES!' box. Instead, the creative experience is a nuanced sliding scale based on a variety of factors that look different from year-to-year, month-to-month, day-to-day, minute-to-minute. WE ARE ALL CREATIVE BEINGS. Thank you Amos for leading the way for creative, experimental makers. The community coming up in the next episode is one of the largest typography, lettering and calligraphy hubs on the Internet: Goodtype. Stay tuned… About Our Guest: Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. is an American printer, book artist and papermaker who has been puttin’ ink on paper since 1949. Music: Oopsie Doodle Master by John Bartmann, Licensed Under CC0 1.0 Universal Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

Next on our journey hearing from those in industry who make space for others through community-building, we have the newly-launched Canadian Typography Archives (CTA) with board member, Sam Archibald. Sam Archibald is a founding board member of the Canadian Typography Archives, owner and creative director of Shortstop, and founding director of Pride Advertising & Marketing (PrideAM). Born in Vancouver, British Columbia and living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, his bi-coastal experience informs his tendency to look at all sides of a problem. He enjoys the creative process, impactful advertising, great typography, and curling up with a good book or reality TV show. In this episode, you’ll hear about the impetus that lead to the Canadian Typography Archives, as well as the driving force behind it. You'll hear about the uniquely Canadian perspective missing from type history books and how the archive plans to fill in the gaps now and in the future, including the goal to include diverse representation. In and around the 15-minute mark, Sam describes the significance of one of the pieces in the archive and you can find the link here: 'Corner of the city' - Mono Lino Typesetting, Herb Graab, 1963. This episode was recorded as part of a guest lecture series in GCM 230 - Typography in fall 2023 at The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University. Let's listen in... Links: Canadian Typography Archives (CTA) https://canadiantypography.ca/ info@canadiantypography.ca or sam@canadiantypography.ca Link to CTA ad piece discussed in the episode (‘Corner of the city’ - Mono Lino Typesetting, Herb Graab, 1963) https://www.canadiantypography.ca/archives/items/corner-of-the-city-mono-lino-typesetting-herb-graab-1963 Gibson https://canadatype.com/product/gibson/ https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/gibson Canada Type https://canadatype.com/ Rod McDonald's ATypeI 2017 talk "Type Night in Canada" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=912biidkX5I Cartier https://www.fonts.com/font/monotype/cartier-book/story https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/the-man-who-gave-canada-its-own-typeface-finally-gets-his-due/article_fe89b79d-8a55-541a-87bf-cfa7a4595a1f.html Sam Archibald https://shortstop.agency sam@shortstop.agency **Extra Credit - Alcuin Society ’23 Lecture Series This is a more recent talk that Rod did on some of the work that you can find in our Phase 1 collection now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quc1qx_vyTk Thank you Sam and the Canadian Typography Archives! The community coming up in the next episode is lead by a living legend in print. I had the immense pleasure of speaking with the one and only Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. where we chat about the community he's created in Detroit, Michigan, The Pile of Bricks, among many, many other topics in and around creative living and making. You won't want to miss this one! Stay tuned… About Out Guest: Sam Archibald is a founding board member of the Canadian Typography Archives, owner and creative director of Shortstop, and founding director of Pride Advertising & Marketing (PrideAM). Born in Vancouver, British Columbia and living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, his bi-coastal experience informs his tendency to look at all sides of a problem. He enjoys the creative process, impactful advertising, great typography, and curling up with a good book or reality TV show. Music: Oopsie Doodle Master by John Bartmann, Licensed Under CC0 1.0 Universal Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

I met Tom at DesignThinkers Vancouver in May of this year where he was facilitating an illustration workshop. After the day’s events, he and I chatted about our shared passions for podcasting and teaching, which led to the episode you’re about to hear. Mr. Tom Froese is an award-winning illustrator, teacher, and speaker. He loves making images that make people smile. Tom’s is known for his lively maps, characters and scenes, created with expressive shapes, bright colours, and printmaking-inspired textures. Since 2013, Tom has worked for brands and businesses all over the world. Esteemed clients include Yahoo!, Airbnb, GQ France, and The Wall Street Journal. He graduated from NSCAD with a Bachelor of Design (honours) in 2009. Tom is a Top Teacher on Skillshare, where over 120,000 students (and counting!) have learned his unique and accessible approach to commercial illustration. Tom has been invited to present workshops and talks to creative audiences across the US and Canada, including ICON, Skillshare, and DesignThinkers. In 2022, Tom launched Thoughts on Illustration, a podcast about showing up and growing up as a commercial illustrator. In this conversation, Tom shares his professional origin story and early influences, what it means to ask the right questions of your creative work, how he uses constraints, as well as handling criticism of one’s creative work. Tom and I share teaching lessons we’ve each learned over the course of the last decade and you’ll hear what’s next for Tom’s work. Let’s listen in… About Our Guest: Mr. Tom Froese is an award-winning illustrator, teacher, and speaker. He loves making images that make people smile. Tom’s is known for his lively maps, characters and scenes, created with expressive shapes, bright colours, and printmaking-inspired textures. Since 2013, Tom has worked for brands and businesses all over the world. Esteemed clients include Yahoo!, Airbnb, GQ France, and The Wall Street Journal. He graduated from NSCAD with a Bachelor of Design (honours) in 2009. Tom is a Top Teacher on Skillshare, where over 120,000 students (and counting!) have learned his unique and accessible approach to commercial illustration. Tom has been invited to present workshops and talks to creative audiences across the US and Canada, including ICON, Skillshare, and DesignThinkers. In 2022, Tom launched Thoughts on Illustration, a podcast about showing up and growing up as a commercial illustrator. Tom works from his backyard studio in the village of Yarrow, British Columbia, just outside of Vancouver. He lives with his wife, Amanda Froese, their two highly creative daughters, and the family cat, Blueberry. Tom is an Aspiring Dog Person and has agreed to share his living space with Bobby the Costco Doodle. In his spare time, Tom loves to get outside and run. Music: Weird Science by John Bartmann, Licensed Under CC0 1.0 Universal Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Episode Artwork: Tom Froese Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

Oliver of Pimp My Type is back and he’s here to talk untapped typographic potential! In this conversation, Oliver explains what ‘typographic colour’ means, tried and true techniques for emphasis, prioritizing optical distance in typesetting (using one’s gut and not just math!), as well as the role intentionality plays in the process. Oliver also demystifies the characteristics of display type that make it different from text type, the advantages of variable fonts for both digital and print design, as well as use cases for baseline grid. The conversation even strolls into Comic Sans and books featuring Disney Princesses. Above all else, prepare for lots of actionable strategies to harness type’s power! Link to the wedding invitation video/article https://pimpmytype.com/wedding-invitation/ Link my review of Shantell Sans (Comic Sans Alternative): https://pimpmytype.com/font/shantell-sans/ Readability Group accessible typefaces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8IOqUl1zII Let's listen in... About Our Guest: Oliver Schöndorfer is a UI & app designer from Austria. He's not an UX ninja unicorn rockstar, but he's hopelessly in love with everything type, runs a UI design business and does typographic consulting for international clients. Oliver’s vision is to make the world more beautiful and diverse through typography. To share his knowledge and passion, he launched the YouTube channel Pimp my Type, offers online courses, and gives workshops. Oliver also runs the weekly Font Friday Newsletter, writes articles, speaks at conferences and podcast, to make the world more readable, one paragraph at at time. Music: Weird Science by John Bartmann, Licensed Under CC0 1.0 Universal Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

Name: Impact Release Date: 1965 Designers: Geoffrey Lee Classification: Transitional Sans Serif Display Owned By: Monotype Imagining Holdings Inc. Claim to Fame: The typeface synonymous with the Internet and meme culture Ah, Impact. The typeface who launched a thousand meme formats. If you’ve been anywhere on the internet in the last 15 years I’m sure you’ve seen this typeface plastered onto a slew of different images, sporting its iconic white fill and black outer stroke. But where did this relic of modern culture get its start, and how did it become the memetic juggernaut that we all know today? I’m Cameron, your guest host for today’s podcast, and let’s embark together onto the journey of an unlikely typeface who found its way from humble origins in Mid-Century England and became the de facto typeface for Internet culture. Believe it or not, but the story of Impact starts all the way back at the end of World War II, where after years of violence and social turbulence, people yearned for structure, routine, and sense of normal. Once the dust settled, in swept modern Swiss style design trends, which favour bold, geometric forms and objective clarity and made waves as an escape from the chaos and ambiguity of war. While this movement spawned other iconic typefaces like Helvetica, by the 60s the style had been riffed upon and exaggerated to many logical extremes, creating a trend of bold, condensed and industrial fonts which road on the coattails of this post-war cleanliness and simplicity. Needless to say, these trends led the way for the birth of new typeface that was bracing for impact. Originally released in 1965, Impact was created by British designer Geoffrey Lee, who hand carved the initial font into metal. Born in Wimbledon in 1929, at a young age Lee had been a member of the Royal Air Force, and by 1950 had found work at an advertising agency which kick-started his career in design. Throughout his life, Lee worked as a Type Director and Design Consultant at various companies across the UK, eventually teaching at the Manchester College of Art and London College of Printing. Along the way he worked with and developed type solutions for many typographical technologies as they rose and fell from relevancy, from carving metal type such as Impact, to the Linotype machine and eventually the Macintosh. Visually, Impact is a sans serif typeface with a high x-height relative to its cap height, and shorter ascenders and descenders to boot. Its thick vertical strokes are contrasted with the noticeably thinner horizontal strokes, and the typeface pairs basic geometric shapes and right angles with more natural curves and unified counters to create a bold, condensed, and surprisingly legible display type that, as the name implies, Lee hoped would have a big impact in his time. Lee designed Impact for a type foundry known as Stephenson-Blake, though the typeface didn’t start with the name recognition and popularity that it has today. Stephenson-Blake mostly used the font for their own marketing materials, and valued the boldness and simplicity of the typeface for how legible it was over images…more on that later. In its time, Impact faced plenty of competition from other typefaces with visual similarities, most notably Helvetica Inserat, Univers Bold Condensed 67, Franklin Gothic Extra Bold Condensed, and Placard Bold Condensed. Unlike these typefaces, Impact had not been designed with a type family in mind that would inherently pair well with it, and had to stand on its own merits. So how did Impact become so commonplace all these years later? Well, it turns out that Impact’s lukewarm reception was actually its greatest strength. You see, Stephenson-Blake was quite the old fashioned company, and continued prioritizing metal typecast type production while other foundries started work on the newer technologies of phototypesetting and even digital typesetting. As a result, they started to falter and disbanded their type foundry operation, selling many of their typefaces, including Impact to their competitor, a little type foundry known as Monotype. Enter the home computer. In 1992, Monotype made arguably the most important decision in Impact’s history by licensing the typeface to the one and only Microsoft as a default font included in the Windows operating system. During Microsoft’s meteoric success in the 90s and near monopoly during the introduction of the home computer system to middle class households, Impact became notable as one of the few typefaces the average person could be able to both recognize and use in day-to-day operations. Whenever someone needed to design a poster in Microsoft Word to advertise their bake sale or to help find their missing pet, the striking Impact became a top typeface for the job. In 1996, just over 30 years since Impact’s humble origins with Geoffrey Lee, Microsoft and the World Wide Web Consortium included Impact on their list of “core fonts for the web”, in part thanks to its inclusion on Windows 98, which made up close to 90% of the Operating System market at the time. Suddenly, Impact had carved its place not only onto nearly every home computer but had weaved its way into becoming a standard of the Internet itself. But even then, it’s greatest success was yet to come. So hey, I’ve got a question for you—I can haz cheezburger (ew)? In 2007, this was the text was written in Impact over the image of a smiling British shorthair cat, and it made Internet go wild. This was the image that brought image macros, or memes with text captions overlaid onto photos, into the mainstream, and of course, Impact was the typeface at its centre. Thanks to our cheeseburger-focused feline, dozens of meme generating websites cropped up, allowing users to put text over their own favourite Internet memes, including beloved characters like Bad Luck Brain, Overly Attached Girlfriend or Scumbag Steve. Look, I’m not going to pretend this era of Internet Comedy always holds up in hindsight, but Impact was the definitive default font for most of these meme templates, and remains at the heart of internet culture at the time, continuing into today. Unlike other core Internet typefaces like Arial Black or *shudder* Comic Sans, Impact benefits from being incredibly legible over busy elements like images, making it perfect for these memes and macros. As a display typeface, it is both eye catching and legible, but won’t hold up for large bodies of text, suiting the short and quippy nature of most memes quite well. It blew away the competition in this niche usage that allowed it find a home decades after its time, and honestly, as the standard meme font, I think we could’ve done a lot worse. Looking at you Comic Sans. It helps that the standardized, block structure of typeface leaves it nearly monospaced, which reduced if not eliminated kerning issues in most of these automated meme templates. But since Impact was both incredibly legible and freely available on most computers, anyone could replicate these memes and join in on these cultural touchstones, helping evolve them into something we still know and use today. In a way, the peaks and valleys of Impact’s story provide its own meta-narrative on memetic growth, the evolving culture of the internet and beyond, and the ways in which accessibility and constraints can breed creativity. Just as Impact only thrived once it became available for all to use, the collective ownership of memes and the Internet allowed people to build on the ideas of others and create new, entertaining and subversive works unrestrained by copyright. People worked through the limited options on early home computers and used Impact to create their own communities and in-jokes all centred around the same universal typeface, assuredly leaving behind a far greater legacy than Geoffrey Lee could’ve anticipated. Though Lee passed away in 2005, two short years before a cat asking for a cheeseburger would propel his typeface to a new level of internet fame, his legacy lives on. And while Internet culture has evolved past the standard Impact format for image macros, Impact’s…impact on the evolving culture of the 21st century will never be forgotten. Godspeed, Impact, and thanks to you for listening. References Arenas, R. (2020, June 30). The Impact of Impact and why all memes use the same font. Ridge Marketing. Retrieved January 22, 2023, from https://www.ridgemarketing.com/the-impact-of-impact Belotti, T. (2019, March 3). "the impact of impact" typeface advert brochure. Fonts in Use. Retrieved January 22, 2023, from https://fontsinuse.com/uses/25213/the-impact-of-impact-typeface-advert-brochure Brideau, K., & Berret, C. (2014). A Brief Introduction to Impact: 'The Meme Font'. SAGE Journals. Retrieved January 22, 2023, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1470412914544515 Clatworthy, L. (2009, November). Geoffrey Lee (1929 - 2005). Identifont. Retrieved January 22, 2023, from http://www.identifont.com/show?1KY Edwards, P. (2015, July 26). The reason every meme uses that one font. Vox. Retrieved January 22, 2023, from https://www.vox.com/2015/7/26/9036993/meme-font-impact About Our Guest Host: Cameron Mady is a recent graduate of the Graphic Communications Management program at Toronto Metropolitan University. Hailing from Brantford, ON, Cameron thrives on curiosity and exploration, and takes pride in blending ambitious and creative ideas with practical applications. A focused and award winning designer in his university career, Cameron is excited to take on the world of graphic communications and discover what he can offer in a professional environment Music (public domain): TRG Banks - Above the Earth Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

Name: Lo-Res Release Date: 1985 Designer: Zuzana Licko Classification: Modular Sans-Serif Pixel Typeface Owned By: Emigre, Inc. Claim to Fame: Licko was one of the first designers to use a Macintosh 128K to create fonts for the computer as an art form, starting a revolution in digital type and layouts. Certainly, Emigre has been labeled the first foundry to have created original fonts in this way. Let's add some context. The first digital font, designed by Rudolf Hell, was created the same year Zuzana Licko emigrated from Czechoslovakia to the United States with her family, 1968. Digi Grotesk was a bitmap font: fast to use in computer code and fast to change for readability, but needed a new design set for each size, using a lot of computer memory. To this day, any typeface displayed on a digital screen is constrained to the number of pixels that can be manipulated. But back when arcade games first came out in the '70s, designers were limited to just an 8 by 8 grid for each character. Despite all their stylistic mastery, designers had been struggling to make lowercase letters work. Descenders couldn't go below the baseline, pushing up and compressing letters like the lowercase G. Vox claims the typeface in Marble Madness, released in 1984, was the best attempt. Vector fonts were in development over that time, making use of Bezier curves: to be scalable, smaller files that process quickly. By 1985, the Postscript language could connect vector instructions to printers, but still needed bitmap fonts to display on a screen without appearing jagged. The character sets were also limited to 256, requiring a separate expert set for advanced characters, like small caps and ligatures. TrueType fonts were developed soon after, using better curves for cleaner fonts from one file, for screen and print, and in regular, italic, and bold varieties. The learning curve was that while using a vector outline, grid-fitting is key. The pixels that turn on can misrepresent the font, especially when working with a small amount of pixels per grid, when not careful. "Bitmap fonts" (and I say this now in quotes) can now be scaled up if designed in a vector program, though their apparent bit grid never changes, and is best done at whole multiples of any intended small size. To complete the stage for Zuzana Licko, we must go back one year. The first Macintosh computer with a graphical user interface, circa January 24th, 1984, was only 512 by 342 pixels. For comparison, that's a sixth of a 16" Macbook Pro from 2019, even though the Macintosh's screen was only half that size, at 9", and in black and white. Many professional type designers saw that Macintosh as we would in the 21st century—a dinky toy, fun to play with, but relatively useless. Amateurs saw this as an opportunity: the ability to design a page of text using a desktop publisher such as PageMaker, and then print it on a laser printer, without leaving the building. Anyone could be a typographer now, not just long-trained punchcutters. The low resolution of these digital screens created a discrepancy between fine serifs recreated from metal type and clunky pixels. When unprepared graphic designers saw their final printed pages, they objected, waiting for much higher resolution capabilities, although mostly they'd just get much larger screens. In the meantime, leading up to that very busy year, Zuzana Licko interned for her father during the summers, gaining experience on university-standard computers. She designed her first typeface for him, a set of Greek letters for his personal use as a biomathematician at the University of California, San Francisco. She cycled through several programs at University of California, Berkeley, such as architecture, photography, and computer programming, before settling on graphic communications. It was in university that she met her now-husband, Rudy VanderLans. And thus, Emigre was born in 1984, the same year as the Macintosh 128K. Licko was inspired by recent technology. Rather than imitate calligraphy, letterpress, or photoset typefaces, she was driven by the 72 dots per inch dot matrix printer. The limits on design inspired her to create Emigre, Emperor, Oakland, and Universal typefaces. After all, bitmap fonts work incredibly in tiny sizes, with open counters and nothing to fill in or drop out while printing or displayed on screen. They can be bold and take-charge at a headline size. And, though she may not have known it then, bitmap fonts were very popular for video games. Resolution-independent typefaces could be used at smaller sizes, but often were not optimized for reading long paragraphs of text. She knew that her bitmap fonts had a limited life, due to better resolution screens and printers on the horizon. Undeterred, she crafted these fonts using a public domain software for her own satisfaction. She believed the success of a typeface can be defined by experimenting with the capabilities and limitations of emerging technology, along with longevity and influence on other designers. Licko typeset the Emigre magazine as early as Issue #3 in her new collection of fonts. Two important discoveries were made: number one, typesetting digitally was efficient, cut costs, and added design control; number two, people wanted to buy these fonts—often with a typesetting service since Macintosh computers were not as common as they are today in the professional design field. Although Emigre began as a magazine, it continues as a digital type foundry by the name of Emigre Fonts, originally to sell Licko's experimental typefaces. Emigre's growing font collection started as an alternative pop phenomenon called ugly and hard to read, and then reached mainstream by the late '80s, appearing in places like the New York Times and ABC. They paved the way for hundreds of smaller type foundries as one of the first independent digital foundries to use a computer for design and distribution. Licko's stylistic fonts made a huge secondary wave in digital typography. She remained inspired by emerging tech, such as laser printers' smoother bitmaps. By 2002, she had made over 24 typeface families. Internet-wise, 1996 brought in CSS font style rules for web pages. Online typography became super important, which required digital font services. Sadly, the clean and efficient layout early 2000s computers needed was often an afterthought by companies, but the technology inspired Licko to remaster her first latin alphabet fifteen years after its original release. Being bitmap fonts, Emigre, Emperor, and Oakland all used a different pixel count in their bodies at different sizes, also known as the pixels per em space, which is why they are better known renamed as Lo-Res 9, 12, 15, 21, 22, and 28. Surprise? Lo-Res also has a larger character set, such as the Euro symbol. Her goal was to unite her original fonts under one family name, including a bitmap version of Base 9, not previously mentioned. More consistency between character shapes, between style and weight, and capital letter alignment between resolutions were added, along with more size options than the original release of sets (just 9, 10, 12, 14, 18, and 24 points, for example). The font outline was additionally made compatible for Flash. She added some high resolution typefaces, Lo-Res Plus and Lo-Res Minus, inspired by over- and under-exposing, such as when using a photocopier on bitmap work. The Minus typeface was also inspired by Mastertext Light from Rian Hughes. Now, Lo-Res is a digital typeface family, a variable font sitting in the Emigre library of over 600 typefaces, quite a few from other unique designers she wanted to highlight. Bitmap fonts can still be found in unusual places that require efficient, static and affordable electronics, such as microwaves. Licko has described these low-resolution functions as the link between humans and the machines they keep creating. The need for a typeface fitting a computer's display grid is always relevant. These types of fonts during the 1980s and 90s were uncommon in print outside of referencing computers or techno music, but have come back even greater recently because of nostalgia towards video games, such as Pokémon, and websites younger designers grew up using, making these typefaces perfectly readable in their eyes. Current, very popular games use pixel fonts such as Undertale, Deltarune, Five Nights at Freddy's, Stardew Valley, and Minecraft. In fact, the counters in Minecraft's font are similar to Lo-Res 9. Further back in time is repeating itself too. We've used forms similar to a computer's bitmap deep into human history, such as tapestries, tiled mosaics, knitting, and weaving. Christophe Gaudard, a French graphic designer, used Lo-Res in 2007, along with Courier New, for a music festival called Citadelle Électronique. In this flier, he used Lo-Res to produce an embroidery effect. Lo-Res has been used in print as recently as 2023. For all those who attended the Technical Association of Graphic Arts conference this year, Lo-Res 9 Narrow Bold was included prominently in the branding. And, at last, speaking of history repeating itself: at the time of her re-release of Lo-Res, Licko suggested to an interviewer an update in another 15 years for emerging technology like OpenType. Perhaps we'll see more of Lo-Res very soon? I sure hope so! References Adobe. (n.d.). Lo-Res. Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/lo-res Blandino, G. (2021, September 17). The birth of digital fonts. Pixartprinting. Retrieved from https://www.pixartprinting.co.uk/blog/birth-digital-fonts/ Boardly, J. (n.d.). From metal to digital (G. Leonidas & B. Weiner, Reviewers). Google. Retrieved February 5, 2023 from https://fonts.google.com/knowledge/history_of_type/from_metal_to_digital Boffy, P. (2017, November 23). Citadelle Électronique music festival. Fonts in Use. Retrieved from https://fontsinuse.com/uses/18173/citadelle-electronique-music-festival[1] Casual survey to a Discord server about pixel fonts in gaming. (2023, February 3rd). Discord. Retrieved by Rebecca Karton.[2] Designhistory.org. (2011). The birth of digital type. Retrieved from http://www.designhistory.org/Digital_Revolution_pages/EarlyDigType.html Emigre. (n.d.). Emigre: About. Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://www.emigre.com/About Emigre Fonts. (n.d.). Lo-Res: A synthesis of bitmap fonts [Type Specimen]. Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://www.emigre.com/PDF/Lo-Res.pdf[3] January 24, 1984: The Apple Macintosh computer goes on sale. (2022, January 24). Vintage Everyday. Retrieved from https://www.vintag.es/2022/01/1984-macintosh.html Lo-Res in use. (n.d.). Fonts In Use. Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/2026/lo-res McClelland, R. (n.d.). Zuzana Licko: Type designer & innovator. Github. Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://ryanmcclelland.github.io/zuzana_licko/zuzana1.html MoMA. (n.d.). Oakland. Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/139320 Rubinstein, R. (2002). Emigre: essays - Eye magazine (UK). Emigre. Retrieved from https://www.emigre.com/Essays/ZuzanaLicko/Eye2002 Vox. (2020, April 6). The 8-bit arcade font, deconstructed [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5NiAoT3xsY About Our Guest: Rebecca Karton is, and always will be, a print enthusiast. With so many stories and paths for exploration, diving deep into historical context can push boundaries in the present! Rebecca believes in ethical and accessible uses of technology to further the graphic communications field. Music (public domain): TRG Banks - Above the Earth Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

Name: Barlow Release Date: 2007 Designer: Jeremy Tribby Classification: San-Serif Owned By: Google Font free licensed font Claim to Fame: The typeface that was named in honour of internet pioneer and activist, John Perry Barlow From the Middle Ages to the Middle East, from Futura to Freight. Join me on a journey across the type universe and go where no designer has gone before. Welcome to an incomplete history of type. The feature typeface of this episode is Barlow. Born October 3rd, 1947 in Cora, Wyoming. John Perry Barlow was an American poet, activist, songwriter, cattle rancher, and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation or EFF for short. Let's take a look at who exactly John Perry Barlow was and how the modern San-serif typeface was named after him. He grew up on his family's cattle ranch in Wyoming, and later attended school in Colorado where he befriended Bob Ware, who would be the future guitarist for Grateful Dead. After completing his degree in Comparative Religion, Barlow began writing lyrics for Grateful Dead. In the late 1980s, Barlow began using the internet as a frequent poster on the well, an online community. He eventually started taking interest and posting about the US Secret Services series of raids that were intended to combat computer hacking, believing that people's constitutional rights were being violated. Barlow together with Mitch Kaur and John Gilmore founded the EFF. The EFF provided legal aid for a number of cases involving music, copyright, trademark law, and anonymity relating to cyberspace. In 1996, the Communications Decency Act attempted to place prohibitions on internet speech, which prompted Barlow to write a declaration of the independence of cyberspace. In which he argued that cyberspace should be freed from outdated notions of property expression and identity. In 2007, engineer and designer for EFF Jeremy Tribby and artistic director Hugh Dondre, realized they shared an attraction for the fonts inspired by DIN engschrift. Together. They recognized that there were no good open source versions available and after stumbling upon the engschrift grid online, Tribby manually sketched what would be the beginnings of Barlow, a font named after the co-founder of EFF as a tribute to his lasting impact on his life's work created in San Francisco, California. The modern sans serif is optimal for readability over long distances and draws inspiration from the visual style of California public sharing qualities with the state's car plates, highway signs, buses, and trains. Barlow is visually slightly rounded and low contrast, and is a part of the grotesque font Super family. It embodies a geometric design that is intended for efficiency and speed of reading. Barlow is a part of the Google fonts free licensed font, familiars and APIs for use with CSS and Android, which is licensed under the open font license and can be used for products and projects, whether it be print, digital, commercial, or other. The typeface comes in standard, semi condensed, and condensed in addition to nine different weights. It is also adapted in italics and all widths and weights for a total of 54 styles. After doing some research, I found that Google Fonts provides real time statistics on the usages of Barlow, including that it has been used over 704 million times over the last week. It's featured on more than 750,000 websites, and the top countries that use this font are the USA, South Africa, and Turkey. In 2018, Barlow sadly passed away, leaving a lasting legacy in that he devoted his life to making the internet into “a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice. Accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth, a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs. No matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity” After learning about John Perry Barlow's life and the impact he made on cybersecurity, I understand why Tribby named this font after him. I personally love using Barlow in my artwork when applicable and feel that it brings a certain modern vibe to any paper or creation. It is easy to read and not to shade Arial or Times New Roman, but I prefer using Barlow over them for this reason. I always knew each font had a story, but actually researching and understanding the decisions behind each curve makes you feel a real connection to it. I hope you were able to learn more about the Barlow typeface and the inspiring story behind its name. Thank you for listening to this episode of an Incomplete History of Type. See you next time. About Our Guest: Vittoria is a recent graduate from Toronto Metropolitan University's Graphic Communications Management program, specializing in inclusive packaging design. She is passionate about creating innovative designs while fostering collaboration with diverse professionals. She enjoys traveling and exploring different cultures to help further enrich her work and broaden her design perspective. Music (public domain): TRG Banks - Above the Earth Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash