litherland

Design + type + text. Solidarity forever. Views are my own.

Header set in Proxy Condensed (https://vault.commercialtype.com). Avatar: Tesla Dynamo by Nikola Djurek.

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nprofile1qqszw0xy8ezj72zhd7dnv7s49994ft37frwp8n6dpggg2dkyl79ma6spz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dssj7xea

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nos.lol

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npub1yu7vg0j99u59wmumxeap222t2jhrujxuz0856zsss5mvfluthm4qlawnmz

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Last Notes

2026-05-23 15:59:16 GMT

Now that variable fonts are no longer new(s), it’s fascinating to reread this article about Twin, from 2003 https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/24/technology/is-it-about-to-rain-check-the-typeface.html?unlocked_article_code=1.klA.bqnu._LmRwwO4pyWA&smid=url-share

2026-05-22 23:22:11 GMT

OH “a serif workhouse font” 🤔

2026-05-20 23:41:38 GMT

“The typeface was commissioned by GQ in 2001, after asking Monotype to create a sans-serif font…”
🤦‍♀️
https://patch.com/massachusetts/woburn/new-look-launched-historic-woburn-type-setting-business

2026-05-18 15:07:46 GMT

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@nprofile…cqgf @nprofile…8l0h Yay!

2026-05-18 14:34:46 GMT

The world needs more of this loopy energy :)
https://www.fonts.xyz

2026-05-18 11:42:44 GMT

I love collaboration – working *with* – and the Alphabettes book is nothing if not a testament to collaboration, on so many levels.
Huge thanks to @nprofile…8l0h and Nina Paim for involving me in this project; huge thanks to Amy, Nina, Tereza Bettinardi, and Susan Bond for being wonderful to work with; and huge thanks and much love to my Alphabettes sisters ❤️
I just learned that the book is now available from one of my favorite book purveyors: Draw Down!
https://draw-down.com/products/alphabettes-soup-feminist-approaches-to-type

2026-05-14 20:09:12 GMT

Oh, wow. In which, as usual, DJR is a mensch: https://letterformarchive.org/news/the-small-foundry-fund-for-type-west

2026-05-08 19:11:48 GMT

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@nprofile…x4rn @nprofile…j9ph 😁

2026-05-08 15:52:50 GMT

I love this book from @nprofile…x4rn ❤️
but I will say that as a fairly petite woman, it is physically difficult for me to read & maneuver it 😅
https://letterformarchive.org/shop/lettres-decoratives

2026-05-04 16:10:11 GMT

“The AI & Big Tech industries’ will to power is among the proximate causes of the US’s accelerating descent into autocracy. ‘AI’ is both the motivation and the instrument of authoritarian consolidation.”
https://techpolicy.press/tech-policy-is-on-the-front-line-of-fascism-vs-democracy-pick-a-side

2026-04-28 12:44:38 GMT

So-called AI is an environmental issue, a labor issue, and an ideological issue. That’s it. I will die on this hill. We should push back as much as we can.

2026-04-26 16:27:44 GMT

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@nprofile…qecv Seriously!

2026-04-26 15:49:28 GMT

I remain extremely bummed out that I lent my copy of Roger Excoffon et la Fonderie Olive to someone years ago (can’t remember to whom) and it is just simply unfindable anywhere now.

2026-04-21 20:50:02 GMT

“There is a particular relief that comes with finding your niche. Not the market segment kind. The kind where the granularity of your thinking stops registering as excessive and becomes, simply, the floor.”
I *love* this dek.
A cogent and exquisitely written recap of the Fontstand conference by Mikina Dimunova: https://fontstand.com/news/design-news/the-granularity-of-origin-fontstand-in-berlin

2026-03-30 15:07:31 GMT

👀
https://coopertype.org/events/typographic-signals-phototypesetting-as-a-new-form-of-writing

2026-03-29 16:27:31 GMT

I occasionally (often?) talk about stuff that is not exclusively type-related. But for me type is so integral to absolutely every aspect of life that it never occurred to me not to be interested in and curious about everything.

2026-03-24 15:48:32 GMT

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@nprofile…lel8 @nprofile…mj28 💯

2026-03-24 15:11:25 GMT

This morning I got a notification from Mastodon via email, subject line: “Updates to our terms of service.” My body automatically tensed up, because usually this portends enshittification, but then I relaxed: https://typo.social/terms-of-service/2026-04-01
Thank you, typo.social team 👏
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/116/284/785/652/378/655/original/d60c03c331d69dee.png

2026-02-26 23:19:27 GMT

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@nprofile…8clk Well said.

2026-02-26 22:00:32 GMT

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@nprofile…8clk See, I think finding the right font *should* feel like searching for a needle in a haystack—that’s the joy of it! And you learn to see and think and discern along the way.

2026-02-26 17:18:12 GMT

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Rolled out on the MT flagship site and on MyFonts. Haven’t had the stomach to try yet.
https://www.myfonts.com/pages/ai-search

2026-02-26 17:18:12 GMT

“Monotype’s AI Search replaces the limited filters, tags, and endless scrolling of conventional font searches with natural language prompts for improved font search and discovery across Monotype’s diverse library of 250,000+ fonts from Monotype and its 4,500+ foundry partners.”
https://www.monotype.com/company/press-release/monotype-launches-ai-search-transforming-font-search-and-discovery-conversational-ai

2026-01-09 03:53:48 GMT

Kinross on Mosley: https://hyphenpress.co.uk/2026/01/07/remembering_james_mosley/

2026-01-04 14:51:17 GMT

Links are lateral and expansive. And generous. The increasingly corporate, consolidated, walled-garden, artificially “intelligent” spamnet feels vertical and closed.

2025-12-17 19:51:16 GMT

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“In recent years, Monotype Imaging has tended to grow primarily through acquiring font rights, but has struggled to come up with market-leading, original products or services.”
https://automaton-media.com/en/news/japanese-game-font-services-aggressive-price-hike-could-be-result-of-parent-companys-alleged-ai-failu/

2025-12-12 17:03:23 GMT

The best thing I’ve read about the Calibri v. TNR hullabaloo https://agyei.substack.com/p/another-low-for-liberal-design

2025-12-10 23:45:29 GMT

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Update: https://automaton-media.com/en/news/game-font-provider-who-replaced-380-annual-license-plan-with-20500-plan-reconsiders-move-following-countless-inquiries-from-japanese-game-developers
(A temporary reprieve, at least?)

2025-12-10 14:53:42 GMT

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@nprofile…t9uc The field is vast; here, I’m talking about enumerative bibliography (a list of works, with their publication details) rather than descriptive bibliography, which has to do with the material conditions of book production.

2025-12-09 15:40:02 GMT

When I was in graduate school we had to take an entire semester-long seminar on bibliography. Even as an undergraduate, I always constructed my bibliography as I went along—it’s like cleaning while you cook—so that it wouldn’t be overwhelming at the end. But the reality, I have learned, is that few people do this!

2025-12-04 15:32:39 GMT

Just accidentally stumbled upon this text from Johns Hopkins on their switch to open-source type families. But they’ve commissioned a custom slab.
“We faced several challenges with the distribution and usage of our licensed typefaces. For instance, our contracts with Monotype, Type Tailors, and Type Network heavily limited typeface use on websites and prevented use on mobile apps, digital marketing communications, and third-party cloud software, such as Canva and Marq.”
https://brand.jhu.edu/blog/introducing-open-source-brand-typefaces/#phase-2-spring-2026

2025-12-04 14:13:44 GMT

Oh come ON! https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/brands-embrace-pantones-2026-color-of-the-year-cloud-dancer-white/

2025-12-02 18:52:40 GMT

$380 → $20,500
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/american-company-is-overcharging-japanese-devs-for-japanese-language-fonts

2025-11-21 00:01:06 GMT

“I believe that type drawing is a somewhat easy skill to acquire.”
Maybe it’s not too late?
https://type.today/en/journal/jbl

2025-11-18 22:31:18 GMT

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@nprofile…6fq7 @nprofile…5sxt I have an idea, Stephen; I’ll email you!

2025-11-04 14:57:53 GMT

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@nprofile…mla0 Excoffon’s specimen designs are among my all-time faves https://oa.letterformarchive.org/item?workID=lfa_type_0070

2025-11-04 14:21:15 GMT

Oh hell yes.
https://www.futurefonts.com/hex/shop-sans

2025-10-20 13:07:42 GMT

Tfw you want a book, but it appears they won’t/can’t send it to the United States 😔
https://editions-b42.com/produit/echo-delay-reverb/

2025-10-08 20:25:55 GMT

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@nprofile…mjt5 I love @nprofile…qx50’s, of course. I also love XYZ’s newsletters (plural! they send out two separate ones). There’s no formula. Be yourself! Experiment!
That’s really the big lesson from Erik’s newsletters imho: Just be yourself and it’ll be okay.

2025-10-02 16:34:27 GMT

“James Mosley’s lectures on the history of letterforms were delivered in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication over many years. They represent the sequence of lectures given by Prof. Mosley to students over the course of one academic year. In 2020–21, they were recorded as still images with voice-over. Following Prof. Mosley’s death in August 2025, the Department is pleased to make the recordings generally available in agreement with the Mosley estate.”
https://youtu.be/lBfDu3McE3k?si=NnkgNXcgXx06fwe6

2025-08-28 13:31:20 GMT

What they say / what they mean
http://sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2025/8/20/a-dictionary-of-ai

2025-08-24 02:53:45 GMT

“Usually, the feds will subpoena a tech company to obtain data on social media users. But in the case of Mastodon—a decentralized social network—the FBI can apparently straight up seize an entire server copy containing thousands of users' data.”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/watch-out-fediverse-users-the-fbi-can-seize-a-mastodon-server

2025-08-04 19:58:10 GMT

“Perhaps the main purpose of architecture is to provide surfaces for typography.” :D That is a wild statement, but frankly I’m inclined to agree. I also agree that “letters in the public space are exciting!”
I think Erik may have broken some news with the announcement of the LettError Office for Public Lettering :)
https://buttondown.com/letterror/archive/news-ltr-no-18-big-type/

2025-08-02 18:25:55 GMT

“Hospitals, newspapers, rental apartments, and toy stores have wildly different business models. But to a private equity firm, they’re all the same.”
https://newrepublic.com/article/198351/private-equity-scam-destroys-livelihoods

2025-07-17 18:11:59 GMT

“That the program was shared between the disciplines of art (which housed visual design) and computer science acknowledges typography’s expansive links to consideration of aesthetics, style, culture, history, perceptual psychology, industry, technology, communications, and entrepreneurship.”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S240587262030068X

2025-07-12 16:58:32 GMT

“Where our first conference was themed around the visual experiences of writing, this one focuses on visual engagement – subtly shifting the emphasis towards active participation in practices, processes, traditions and acts of writing.”
https://viewsproject.wordpress.com/writing-as-visual-engagement/

2025-06-26 14:44:32 GMT

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@nprofile…y2ut I know! Good food, good architecture, good signage, good people.

2025-06-26 14:39:21 GMT

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@nprofile…y2ut Yes! (Still casually daydreaming about moving there tbh.)

2025-06-26 13:03:17 GMT

Here’s a much better piece on the visual thinking behind the Mamdani campaign https://www.curbed.com/article/zohran-mamdani-campaign-logo-graphic-design.html

2025-06-24 16:43:34 GMT

I’d also like to recommend XYZ Type’s Backround Layer newsletter; the current one, by Ben, is really good https://backgroundlayer.xyztype.com/archive/background-layer-9/

2025-06-23 13:45:08 GMT

You really should sign up for Erik’s perfect newsletter, if you (inexplicably) haven’t already.
https://buttondown.com/letterror
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/732/972/540/739/200/original/3d8b7509c9b71f29.png

2024-09-29 18:10:08 GMT

Does anyone know if there’s a name for the local, seemingly spontaneous names of things? For example, in the town where I grew up, there was a one-block-long street that everyone called “Cruddy Street.” But its official name was 11th Avenue. Near where I live now, there’s a flight of city steps whose official name is (I think) the 214th Street City Steps. But everyone calls it “Wine Alley” because of the mulberries that coat it in June. What do we call these names?

2024-08-24 13:21:07 GMT

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@npub1mwm…qehc Out of reach for most people in the US.

2024-07-29 14:14:45 GMT

“We are a two trillion $ company. Please work for free.” No thanks.
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/870/184/506/338/161/original/ef6b47eb6503e9f8.png

2024-05-27 13:02:47 GMT

I just remembered that I had EvB’s fish stickers in my phone. I can’t remember when he made them or how I got them, but anyway 🐟
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/513/185/496/922/772/original/f55e17c53107f51f.jpeg

2024-05-26 13:17:45 GMT

Optima has always been one of my favorite typefaces. Send tweet.

2024-05-16 12:44:15 GMT

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@npub1urz…39sc Always! Numerals are such fun playgrounds.

2024-04-26 12:13:12 GMT

When did universities become hedge funds? Serious question.

2024-04-23 10:23:55 GMT

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@npub1urz…39sc Thanks!

2024-04-22 15:25:13 GMT

For my birthday, I bought myself…fonts! (Well, I licensed them.)

2024-04-09 12:09:45 GMT

“There is no greater threat to the typography industry than Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc, or Monotype for short.”
https://abcdinamo.com/news/the-future-of-type
I agree (I’d add that the threat is private equity more generally) and I’m still not sure why boycotts haven’t been discussed more seriously. I’ve been chided for being naive for bringing this up, but decades of political activism have taught me that boycotts work.

2024-03-01 15:44:32 GMT

This is a tough one. I was an editor at A Book Apart for more than a decade, and it was the honor of a lifetime. We left everything on the field, all of us, always. We sweated the details. I loved everyone I worked with, from my colleagues to all of the authors.
What an honor. Thank you, everyone. ❤️
https://www.getdrip.com/broadcasts/980319841/3e433208c98dc54ebd321

2024-02-22 18:35:15 GMT

For those who haven’t seen it yet, Jan Gerner (Yanone) has started a fundraiser to help type designer Hasan Abu Afash and his family evacuate Gaza. Chip in if you can! https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-type-designer-hasan-abu-afash-from-gaza

2024-01-05 19:44:47 GMT

I wonder how many italic-first designs there are in the world? (I don’t mean italic only, but families where the italic has been designed first.) 🤔
Anyway I already loved the italic, and now here’s the roman, featuring sans serif caps mixed with a serif lower case.
From Tim Ripper and Paul Barnes, based on Miller & Richard’s News Bill Italic
https://vault.commercialtype.com/vault/punch

2023-12-19 15:20:54 GMT

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@npub1urz…39sc I can’t help but be struck by the similarities between this and the writing/editorial process. The proof (proofreading) is your last line of defense. If you’ve done all the work you’ve needed to do until that point, then the proof should go quick. If it doesn’t – and it occasionally doesn’t, shit happens – then that’s an indication that you probably haven’t followed the best workflow.

2023-10-31 16:32:23 GMT

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@npub1urz…39sc I totally would if I had ever been able to afford to buy an ATF specimen 🙃

2023-10-31 14:30:29 GMT

It’s cold in here 🥶

2023-10-25 15:31:08 GMT

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@npub1urz…39sc @npub15tu…5v8d Yes, yes, I knew it! I read it at the time, will read it again. My brain is a sieve 🤦‍♀️

2023-10-25 15:25:16 GMT

Has a book (or an article) ever been written about “neutrality” in typeface design? Am I forgetting something that has already been published? 🤔
Neutrality seems doomed to failure, yet consistently remains an ideal, it seems to me.
I just find that interesting and would not mind reading something that traced the history and lines of development of this concept.

2023-09-29 16:36:08 GMT

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@npub1jzp…72dw It’s mind-boggling how much unpaid labor academics are expected to do. Letters of recommendation, peer reviews, grant proposals…

2023-09-29 16:07:13 GMT

What?
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/hggc-explores-4-billion-sale-of-typeface-firm-monotype-1.1977866

2023-09-20 19:35:05 GMT

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@npub1jzp…72dw Lovely Rex! ❤️

2023-09-13 14:28:14 GMT

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@npub1swg…yl4f Yes. I smell private equity.

2023-09-13 04:59:32 GMT

I wonder (a) who makes things like this and (b) who buys things like this.
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/111/056/071/479/933/942/original/467f5068427d5ca9.png

2023-08-27 16:24:16 GMT

1. I love the word “artificer”
2. I love that plumbers used to concern themselves with lettering
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/110/962/495/632/445/592/original/01befcdb700ab1f6.jpg

2023-08-23 21:36:05 GMT

A favorite moment in Ethan’s new book describes the unabashed and utterly grotesque caste system of the contemporary workplace.
https://abookapart.com/products/you-deserve-a-tech-union
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/110/941/072/948/245/937/original/4caa9635f56a2f77.png

2023-08-23 18:00:19 GMT

Ngram Viewer is so useful that I’m surprised it hasn’t been sunset yet ;)
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/110/940/229/105/574/573/original/92ce59f5bfbd2eba.png

2023-08-06 02:28:31 GMT

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@npub1xqv…230r I thought about that! Would that be a jerk move?

2023-08-05 23:06:50 GMT

Okay. Except how can you ever know with certainty what something you’re designing will be used for? I’m currently editing a book that uses primes (er, or *should* use primes) but we’re going with straight quotes because the otherwise beautiful primary typeface that has already been selected does not have primes.

2023-08-05 17:23:55 GMT

Some typefaces have glyphs for primes and double primes, but not all do. I know that common usage tends to compress straight quotes and primes, i.e., most people just use straight quotes when they *mean* primes. Do you (type friends) think there is an increasing tendency *not* to design primes? Is it considered a waste of time? For me primes and straight quotes are very different things, but I totally get that most people probably don’t think about the difference.

2023-07-16 18:24:18 GMT

Three of the best marketers I know—DJR, Erik van Blokland, and James Edmondson—are precisely not marketers.