ALL THINGS TYPOGRAPHIC | JANUARY 2014

>> The Best of 2013

>> U&lc Retrospective: Reinventing Tables of Contents

>> Test Font Choices Quickly in InDesign CC

>> The 5 Best Punctuation Marks in Literature

>> TDC Type Legends: Ed Benguiat (video)

>> Bring Gourmet Typography to your company or organization

The Best of 2013

In the world of fonts, January is a month of lists. Whether they're called Best of, Favorites, or Best Sellers, they all enable designers to see what's new, what's hot, and what's trending. But no matter what they are called, they are all worth a looksee, as they provide an opportunity to take note of any typefaces that catch your eye, appeal to your typographic aesthetic, and seem suitable for your next project or two. Read on...

U&lc Retrospective: Reinventing Tables of Contents

The 1950's were the gateway to a brave, new world in typography ushered in by the transition from metal typesetting to photocomposition. These were ground-breaking and transitional times in the history of typography and design due to changes in technology that allowed for total control (and increased speed) over the setting of type, which in turn heralded in a new era of expressive typography. Read on...

Test Font Choices Quickly in InDesign CC

David Blatner was playing around with the Font menu inside the Control panel and accidentally discovered something... perhaps everyone knows this already, but hey, check it out... If you hover your cursor over a font in the list, that font becomes highlighted, right? But here's the cool part: If you press either Command or Option (that's Ctrl or Alt in Windows-speak) InDesign actually applies that font to any text you have selected on your page. Read on...

The 5 Best Punctuation Marks in Literature

Good writing involves obsessing over punctuation marks. It's 1 a.m., you've got a 5,000-word piece due the next day, and for the last twenty minutes you've been deliberating about the use of a semicolon versus a period in a single sentence. As a rule, the effect of all that obsession is subtle, a kind of pixel-by-pixel accretion of style. Once in a while, though, a bit of punctuation pops its head up over the prose, and over the prosaic, and becomes a part of a tiny but interesting canon: famous punctuation marks in literature. Read on...

TDC Type Legends: Ed Benguiat

Type Directors Club (TDC) is producing a series of short videos, appropriately named Type Legends, with each featuring an interview with a legendary type designer. The first in this ongoing series is with the charismatic and iconic Ed Benguiat. In the interview (which I had the honor of conducting), this 1989 TDC Medal Winner tells tales of being a drummer, a cleavage retoucher, and ultimately, and a type designer. Watch video here...

Bring Gourmet Typography to your company, school, or organization!

The Type Studio offers Gourmet Typography Training, a customized series of workshops and seminars on all aspects of typography for graphic designers, type designers and visual communicators of all levels.

Gourmet Typography Training teaches and demonstrates the expert-level typographic skills and aesthetics that are rarely taught in schools or fully understood by professionals. Fill in the gaps in your typographic know-how and learn how to "see" type like you've never seen it before.

Training workshops are customized for groups of any size and designed to fit your specific needs. Sessions are scheduled for your convenience - daytime, evenings or weekends. We will design a program customized for your particular requirements.

These are some of the groups that The Type Studio has worked with:

AIGA Boston
AIGA Philadelphia
AIGA Atlanta
AIGA Orlando
TDC (Type Directors Club)
Time Inc. | Essence Magazine
Hachette | Grand Central Publishing
MeadWestvaco
Toll Brothers
Hagerty Insurance
SAS Analytics
Whole Foods
Harlequin Books
Integrated Marketing
Fisher-Price
Hasbro
GO Transit | Toronto
Nationwide Insurance
London Life
Alliance Atlantis
RGD Ontario
HOW Design Conference
UCDA Conference
TypeCon

Read more about onsite training here:

Let us know if your group is interested. For more info, email or call me at 203.227.5929. Ilene

"I want to thank you for the great workshop last Friday. You dusted off and reinforced all of those typographic rules that I have, and have not, lived by in all my years as a graphic designer."

"Your down-to-earth approach to type made the session breezy and fun, and I couldn't help but visually re-spacing all the headlines I had the time to linger on during my bumper-to-bumper drive back to home. Thanks again for reigniting my spark for type!"

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NOTE: In opposition to my constant typographic badgering, you might notice the lack of

smart typographic conventions in this emailing, including smart quotes, en and em dashes. This is due to the limitations of the email marketing service currently being used.