New at Pentagram
Michael Bierut and Marian Bantjes Go Rococo
The Seduction symposium poster designed by Michael Bierut and Marian Bantjes for the Yale School of Architecture is currently on view at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum as part of its Rococo: The Continuing Curve 1730–2008 exhibition. The show examines the lasting impact of the Rococo period in design of the last four centuries; the poster, with the sinuous lines of Bantjes’ calligraphy, is one of twelve objects chosen to represent the 2000s. The exhibition remains on view through 6 July 2008.
Kit Hinrichs at the Type Directors Club
Kit Hinrichs will present “Art as Type, Type as Art,” a master class at the Type Directors Club in New York. Kit will share his personal typographic influences and discuss how to utilize the emotional power of type in one’s design. The seminar includes an introduction and reception on the afternoon of Friday, 25 April followed by a full day’s class on Saturday, 26 April. Details and registration info here.
An Evening with Jonathan Hoefler
Pentagram’s London office was delighted to welcome members of the Typographic Circle on the evening of Tuesday, 8 April for a lecture by the typographer Jonathan Hoefler, a long-standing collaborator and friend of Pentagram.
As half of Hoefler & Frere-Jones, Jonathan has established a reputation as one of the world’s preeminent type designers. His talk, which coincides with a trip to London to act as a judge for the D&AD awards alongside Domenic Lippa and Harry Pearce amongst others, was used to introduce Typographic Circle members to his approach to typography.
Domenic Lippa, a former chairman of the Typographic Circle and an organiser of the talk, said of the evening: “It was great to be able to host an evening for the Typographic Circle, who I still help out with, but to be able to do it with such a good friend of Pentagram as Jonathan made it all the more enjoyable. It was a lovely evening.”
Hoefler & Frere-Jones have collaborated with Pentagram on several projects, including the design of typefaces for the New York Jets and Lever House.
The Typographic Circle is a not-for-profit organisation run entirely by volunteers which formed in 1976 to bring together anyone with an active interest in type and typography. Alongside a regular newsletter and a calendar of lectures and social events, all members receive free copies of the award-winning Circular Magazine, designed by Domenic Lippa. Full membership information can be found on their website.
Michael Bierut Talks Typography with ‘The Atlantic’
In a video interview with The Atlantic, Michael Bierut talks about typography, including Stanley Kubrick’s favorite font, the cover design of The Catcher in the Rye, and the link between phototypesetting and Free Love.
The interview accompanies an article about typography by Virginia Postrel in this month’s issue.
‘Helvetica’ Out Now on DVD
Helvetica, the documentary by Gary Hustwit that includes interviews with Michael Bierut and Paula Scher, amongst others, is released today in a special edition DVD that boasts over 90 minutes of extended interviews with the film’s featured designers. Order from the official Helvetica site and you’ll receive two buttons and save $5 off the list price of $24.99.
Pentagram 2008 Typography Calendar Now Available
Kit Hinrichs has designed Pentagram’s 2008 Classic Typographic Calendar using twelve typefaces designed by typographer Matthew Carter including Walker (originally designed in 1995 for the Walker Art Center), Snell Roundhand (a 1966 revival of 17th century English writing master Charles Snell) and Galliard (a 1978 anthology of Roman and Italian styles of French punch-cutter Robert Granjon). “I wanted to bring a new awareness of typographic design through this calendar,” said Hinrichs. “Typefaces are pervasive in our daily lives in everything we read and see around us and yet most people are oblivious of them or the circumstances in which they were created. We can gain a new perspective on our world by studying the origin of typefaces. I hope the calendar will encourage a new sensitivity to the importance of typeface usage and the work of Matthew Carter.”
The calendar is available in two sizes, a supersize 33-by-22 inch version suitable for wall hanging and a smaller 18-by-12 inch version appropriate for desk use. Both versions are available in the US and UK at kenknight.com. The price of the supersize calendar is $36 and the smaller desk and wall calendar is $22. (Prices do not include shipping.)
New Work: Circular Fifteen
Domenic Lippa has designed issue fifteen of Circular, the magazine of the Typographic Circle, a not-for-profit organisation run entirely by volunteers which formed in 1976 to bring together anyone with an active interest in type and typography.
Lippa has a long-standing relationship with the Typographic Circle, previously acting as its chairperson for two years. Circular Fifteen is the eighth issue of the magazine Lippa has designed in as many years.
Paula Scher’s Sketchbook
Moleskine notebook with illustrations by Paula Scher.
Earlier this summer Paula Scher participated in Detour, an exhibition at the Art Directors Club in New York presented by Moleskine. The exhibition featured 70 Moleskine notebooks filled by various designers, architects, artists and writers. The raison d’être for the exhibition was to introduce the new Moleskine City Notebooks, announce the launch of the accompanying Cityblog and raise money for the non-profit foundation Lettera 27. Now Moleskine has posted video of the participants paging through their books. Paula’s is filled with 14 whimsical fonts she drew while on an airplane and sitting by the sea in Jamaica. Other participants included Dave Eggers, Cynthia Rowley, Lou Reed, Terence Conran, Tom Sachs, Carin Goldberg and Yves Behar. A tour of the notebooks is possibly in the works.
Sign of the Times
Pentagram-designed New York Times sign recently installed on the paper’s new headquarters.
Last week, the Times Square district gained its latest sign as the logo of the New York Times was installed on the Eighth Avenue facade of its new Renzo Piano-designed headquarters tower.
But what looks like a simple sign—if a 110-foot-long logo set as a 10,116-point version of the newspaper’s iconic Fraktur font can be called simple—is actually an intricate assemblage of nearly a thousand separate custom-designed pieces, each a painted extruded aluminum sleeve a little more than three inches in diameter.
The story of how and why Pentagram came to design the sign after the jump.
Out Today: 'Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design'
Today marks the publication of Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design, a collection of writings by Michael Bierut from Princeton Architectural Press.
The 272-page hardcover book brings together twenty years of essays on subjects that range from New York’s faulty “Push for Walk Signal” buttons, to the disappearance of the AT&T logo, to the implications of Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire for interaction designers. Many of the pieces first appeared on Design Observer, the popular blog that Michael edits with Jessica Helfand and Bill Drenttel, including favorites like “Designing Under the Influence,” “I Hate ITC Garamond,” and “The Road to Hell: Now Paved with Innovation!” Seventy-nine Essays also includes pieces that appeared elsewhere and pieces that have never been published in other collections, like “Waiting for Permission,” “How to Become Famous” and “Ten Footnotes on a Manifesto.”
Michael’s writing is marked by its accessibility, its wit and its almost maniacal eclecticism. For instance, a survey of the entries under the letter “D” in the book’s index turns up, among others, Jacques Derrida, Stuart Davis, design by committee, Cameron Diaz, Walt Disney, Dr. Strangelove, Mort Drucker, Marguerite Duras and W.A. Dwiggins. If you seek a design book that navigates with aplomb between French semioticians, typographers, movie stars and Mad magazine cartoonists, Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design is the one for you.
While the book has no pictures, Abbott Miller’s design provides its own form of visual interest. Each essay is set in a different typeface, and readers can attempt to make real or imaginary connections between essay subject and font selection. We can guess why the essay on AT&T is set in C.H. Griffith’s Bell Gothic (it was designed in 1938 for the Bell Telephone Directory) or why the essay about Stanley Kubrick is set in Paul Renner’s Futura (it was reportedly the director’s favorite typeface); the rationale behind other selections may be a bit more obscure, or even completely nonexistent.
Michael points out that the list cover price of $24.95 works out to less than 32 cents per essay. “Design books are luxuries, especially for students,” he says. “I hope that this one provides something for everyone, at a price that anyone can afford.”
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