Inspired by Design, a blog by Tom Lewek.

Jon Contino does some outstanding hand-drawn type work, and a great new website to showcase it all. I can’t get enough of it.

I dribbbled this a few days ago, but wanted to give it a quick mention here as well. I started the design for what will become a new blog to document my process in drawing typography. On the blog, I’ll focus mainly on producing new work and gaining feedback or critique by any interested parties, but also post inspiration and tips I’ve learned along the way.

My ultimate goal is to become proficient is drawing my own type, studying the ins-and-outs of type anatomy and styles, while eventually developing my own font families.

It will be quite an undertaking for me and a new direction I’m very excited about.

Lately it’s been such an overwhelming fad to simply take all of your inspiration from retro 50’s-style packaging, as showcased on sites like Grain Edit. Maybe Don Draper is to blame? However, in the sea of copycats and drones, the work of Dustin Wallace (aka Wallace Design House) definitely stands out from the bunch — great textures and great type.

It’s always a treat when my favorite foundry releases a new type family. Last week, Hoefler & Frere-Jones introduced Ideal Sans, “a handmade typeface for a machine-made age.”

“Setting aside the easy pursuit of digital perfection, Ideal Sans favors handmade forms that help it achieve different goals: warmth, craftsmanship, and humanity.”

I have watched the documentary Helvetica by Gary Hustwit a couple times now, mostly because it reminds me that there are others around the world as passionate about these things as I am. 

Amazing collection of Movie Titles by designer Christian Annyas.

So about that redesign of FontFont.com? Here’s the real-deal, you’ve seen it here first, sneak peak into the homepage layout. Click on the image for a larger view.

You know you’re way too deep into typography when you get excited about the long awaited redesign of FontFont.com, the typeface library by Erik Spiekermann’s FontShop International. Check out the cool little portal tool to “browse” the new design.

Great, easy to understand explanation of the difference between a typeface and a font by Jon Tangerine and the evolution of the term font.

“So these days, even people who understand clearly what the word “font” means have been known to use it to just describe a variant like Georgia Italic, or Helvetica Bold Condensed Oblique without reference to a particular size. That seems like a fairly logical evolution of the term to me.”

Don’t know how I stumbled upon this but wow, check out the type work by this dude on his Flickr set.

Amazing type and illustration work by the multi-talented Jeffrey Docherty.

A playful logo for a relaxing weekend, however I can’t remember the designer.