A friend once jokingly told me that what I really do is mine extinct arts for parts to use in modern things, like going to the scrapyard to pick up bumpers, quarter-panels and dashboards off of Datsuns and Ponies to build a shiny new Ferrari. I still kind of grin at that, but I certainly do spend a lot of time looking at old things and imagining ways they would work today. This shiny new Ferrari here is called Bibliophile, and it contains scrap heap parts from various pages by Louis Prang, the Prussian-American printer and publisher who inspired my Prangs fonts. This is my second engagement with the late 19th century man, and it’s quite a bit more intricate than just an italic Didone with a connected lowercase. Bibliophile marries Round Hand calligraphy with Italian capitals, two styles not often relayed in the same alphabet, but work together beautifully when combined well. When you combine them well with a few long-practised tricks of the trade, then mix in a few trusted features from my previous work over the years, you get my usual crazy exuberance, like 17 different shapes for the d, 21 different forms for the y, endings, beginnings, swashes, ornaments, and so on. It’s no secret that I can get carried away when I’m so consumed by an idea. — Bibliophile comes in 2 weights, each of them with over 900 glyphs covering all the latin languages. Bibliophile also comes with a bold weight, something I’m always reluctant to do with something as adventurous and complex as the structure of this historical mashup. But I couldn’t chase away the idea of increasing the contrast while maintaining the hairlines in a lowercase this narrow. Part of it was the curiosity about the outcome, and part was the sheer challenge of it. I think it turned out OK. Words set in either weight will show delicateness and elegance, and the more time you spend inside the font and micro-manage the setting, the more ways you will find to magnify either. Bibliophile can be as muted or luxurious as you want it to be. This is the kind of alphabet that fits well in fashion marketing and high-end packaging, from the very subdued to the super-exquisite. Enjoy the gleaming new vehicle made with freshly polished old parts.

Coming Together contains over 400 glyphs and is supplied as a single, cross-platform OpenType font. All glyphs are accessible using OpenType-savvy applications, Unicode-savvy utilities, the Character Map utility on Windows, and FontBook on Mac OS X. Nearly 400 designers contributed to “Coming Together”: Adam Humphries, Aditi Dilip, Adrien Midzic, Afraa Gutub, Al Insan Lashley, Alan Lima Coutinho, Alaric Garnier, Alejandro Cabrera Avila, Alejandro Lo Celso, Alejandro Paul, Alessandro Segalini, Alex Cameron, Alex Coblentz, Alexander Trubin, Alexandre Freitas, Alexey Murashko, Alicia Jabin, Aline Horta, Allison Dominguez, Amanda Postle, Amy Brown, Amy Papaelias, Anderson Maschio, Andrea Emery, Andres Perez, Andrew Boardman, Andrew Jesernig, Andrey Furlan, Andrij Shevchenko, Ann Tripepi, Antonio Gutierrez, Antony Kitson, Anushree Kapoor, Anya Cam, AP303 Estudio Design, Becky Krohe, Beejay, Ben Mitchell, Benjamin K. Shown, Benjamin Varin, Brad McNally, Brad Nelson, Bradley Trinnaman, Brady Baltezore, Brandon Horne, Breck Campbell, Brian J. Bonislawsky, Brian Jaramillo, Brian Jongseong Park, Brian Mueller, Brock French, Bruce Rodgers, Bruno Pugens, Bryan Angelo Lim, Buro Reng, Caitlin Martin-Frost, Calou, Carlos Fabián Camargo Guerrero, Carlos Vidal, Cayo Navarro, Cesar Puertas, Chank Diesel, Charles Williams, Chris Lozos, Chris Trude, Christophe Badani, Christy Lai, Claes Källarsson, Claire Coullon, Claudio Piccinini, Colby Cook, Craig Eliason, Cristina Pegnataro, Curve Doctor, Dan DiSorbo, Dan Liggins, Dan Rubin, Daniel Justi, Daniele Capo, Dav(id Hubner), Dave Bailey, Dave Cohen, David Jonathan Ross, David Sudweeks, David Thometz, Dawn Mercurio, Delve Withrington, Diana van de Blaak, Didier Mazellier, Diederik Corvers, Dino Santos, Dmytro Pobiedash, Donald Beekman, Dries Wiewauters, Duncan Bancroft, Ed Hoskin, Eddy Ymeri, Edineide Oliveira, Eduardo Manso, Eduardo Rodríguez Tunni, Eero Antturi, Eli Castellanos, Elias Bitencourt, Elias Stenalt Werner, Elman Padilla, Emery Miller, Emily Leong, Emily Maher, Enrico Limcaco, Eric Frisino, Eric Stine, Erik Brandt, Espen, Evan Moss, Evangeline Rupert, Fabiane Lima, Fabio Foncati, Fabrizio Schiavi, Farbod Kokabi, Felipe Lekich, Francisco Martin, Frank Riccio, Frans van Bellen, Gary Holmes, Gautam Rao, Gayle Hendricks, Gene Buban, Georg Herold-Wildfellner, George Aytoun, Gerd Wiescher, Giles Edwards, Gist Studio, Glen Barry, Glenn Parsons, Goro Mihok, Grace Engels, Grant Alexander, Grant Hutchinson, Greg Smith, Gunnar Swanson, Gustavo Machado, Hans Nieuwstraten, Harold Lohner, Hilary Salmon, Hillary Fayle, Hrant H Papazian, Hugo Gallipoli, Ian Drolet, Ian Lynam, Ilona Kincses, Isac Corrêa Rodrigues, Ivette Chacon, Ivo Federspiel, Jacques Le Bailly, Jae-hyoung Choi, Jaime Vasquez, James Edmondson, James Grieshaber, James L. Stirling, James Lukens-Gable, James Martin, James Ockelford, James Puckett, Jarbas Gomes, Jarett Knuth, Jason Adam, Jason Robinson, Javier Suzuki, Jay Chu, Jayson Zaleski, Jean Francois Porchez, Jeff Fisher, Jeff Jarvis, Jeffrey Vanlerberghe, Jelmar Geertsma, Jennifer Clarke, Jennifer Rutherford, Jens Kutilek, Jerry Allen Rose, Jess Latham, Jesse Ragan, Jessica Page, Jesvin Yeo Puay Hwa, Jim Ford, Jim Lyles, Jim Rimmer, Jin Ping, Jo De Baerdemaeker, Joachim Muller-Lance, Joanna Abbott Moss, Joe Francis, Joe VanDerBos, Joel Vilas Boas (J85), John Downer, John Flanagan, John Foley, John Langdon, John Lopez, John Lyttle, John Skelton, Johnny Dib, Jonathan Hughes, Jonathan Pierini, Jos Buivenga, Jose Luis Coyotl Mixcoatl, Juan Acosta, Judd Crush, Judith Lee, Julie Johnson, Julie Oakley, Julie Thomas, Juliet Shen, Jumin Lee, Jurgen Weltin, Justin Callahan, Justin Chodzko, Karel Piska, Karen MacKay, Karin Eberhardt, Karin van Soest, Karla Perez, Katie Parry, Katie Snape, Katri Haycock, Katy Brooks, Kelley Garrard, Kelly Redling, Kent Lew, Kevin D’Souza, Kevin J. Boynton, Kevin McDermott, Kim Arispe, Kokin, Kristen Caston, Kristen Hartman, Kristian Möller, Kristians Šics, Kyle Jones, L Bollinger, Lan Huang, Larry Van Dyke, Laura Ricker, Laura Worthington, Laurel Wilson, LeAndrea James, Lijklema Design, Linda McNeil, Lise Barreto, Louie Crumbley, Louis Duchesne, Luke Dorny, Luke Stouffer, Madison Cramer, Måns Björkman, Marc Salinas Claret, Marcus Leis Allion, Marcus Parker, Marcus Sterz, Marie-Anne Verougstraete, Mark Simonson, Martin Majoor, Matheus Barbosa, Mathias Forslund, Matt Desmond, Matt McInerney, Matt Millette, Matthew Jerauld, Max Kisman, Michael Browers, Michael Bundscherer, Michael Cina, Michael Doret, Michael G. Adkins, Michael Hernan, Michael Paul Young, Michael Wallner, Miguel Catopodis, Mikael Engblom, Mike Jarboe, Mike Petschek, Miriam Martincic, Moira Sheehan, Monica Pedrique, Nacho Gallego, Naomi Atkinson, Natanael Gama, Nathanael Ng, Neil Fox, Neil Patel, Neil Summerour, Neil Woodyatt, Ngoc Ngo, Nguyen Pham, Nicholas Curtis, Nicole Hudson, Nicole Sowinski, Nicolien van der Keur, Nina Stössinger, Noah Scalin, Ojasvi Mohanty, Oleg Macujev, Olivia Choi, Ong Fang Zheng, Pata Macedo, Patrick Gallagher, Patrycja Zywert, Paul Hunt, Paul Langman, Pedro Moura, Pedro Paz, Per Ohlsson, PJ Onori, Premm Design Ltd, Rae Kaiser, Rafael Carozzi, Rafael Cordeiro, Rafael Neder, Randy Jones, Ray Larabie, Raymond Forbes, Ressa McCray, Ricardo Esteves, Ricardo Martins, Riccardo Sartori, Richard Kegler, Richard Miller, Rob Keller, Roballo, Rose Coplon, Roy Rub, Rudo van der Velden, Russell McGorman, Ryan Rushing, Ryan Thorpe, Sander Neijnens, Sara Cross, Scott Boms, Scott Fisk, Sergio Jimenez, Shi-Min Chin, Sílvio Gabriel Spannenberg, Soohyen Park, Sorin Bechira, Stanley Friesesk, Stefan Hattenbach, Stefan Kjartansson, Stephen Lay, Steve Harrison, Steve Marsh, Steve Matteson, Steve Mehallo, Steve Zelle, Steven Bonner, Steven Wulf, Stuart Brown, Stuart Ford, Stuart Sandler, Sue Zafarana, Sulekha Rajkumar, Susan Surface, Tanya T Stroh, Taylor Loman, Ted Ullrich, Teja Ideja, Tena Letica, Terrance Weinzierl, Theo França, Thiago Martins, Tiffany Wardle, Tim Whalen, Titus Nemeth, Tom Plate, Tom Rickner, Tomato Košir, Tomi Haaparanta, Travis Kochel, Troy Leinster, Tyler Heron, Type Mafia, Vanessa Robertson, Veronika Burian, Victor Esteves, Victor Zuniga, Viktor Nübel, Viviana G, Wellinton Reis, Wilson Thomas, Wolfgang Homola, Xavier Dupre, Xerxes Irani, Zvika Rosenberg These designers represented the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Croatia, Czech Republic, El Salvador, England, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Siberia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Ukraine, United States, Venezuela, Vietnam

An American Scotch remixed in 27 fonts Mencken has twenty seven styles, divided into three widths, three optical sizes, romans and italics. Generally, optical size typeface families belong to a same common construction. It falls into the same category of type classification, while presenting different x-heights or contrasts. Mencken is unique because it is designed according to different axis and optical sizes. Firstly, Mencken Text is a low-contrast transitional typeface, designed on an oblique axis, asserting horizontal with featuring open counters. Its capitals follow Didots to better harmonize the rest of the family. On the other side of the spectrum, Mencken Head (and narrow variations) is designed on a vertical axis, high contrast, in a contemporary Didot style. The Mencken is therefore a typeface answering to different sorts of uses, whose design is different according to its uses: from oblique axis in small size to vertical axis in large sizes. Vertical proportions (x-height, capitals height, etc.) were calibrated to be compatible with many Typofonderie typeface families. Lucie Lacava and I followed the idea launched by Matthew Carter few years ago for some of his typefaces intended for publications. From Baltimore Sun’s project to Typofonderie’s Mencken It is a bespoke typeface for American newspaper The Baltimore Sun started at the end of 2004 which marks the beginning of this project. The story started with a simple email exchange with Lucie Lacava then in charge of redesigning the American East Coast newspaper. As usual, she was looking for new typeface options in order to distinguish the redesign that she had started. At the time of its implementation, a survey of the newspaper’s readers has revealed that its previous typeface, drawn in the mid-1990s, was unsatisfactory. The Mencken was well received, some reader responses was particularly enjoyable: “It’s easier to read with the new type even though the type is designed by a French.” Why it is called Mencken? The name Mencken is a tribute to H. L. Mencken’s journalistic contributions to The Sun. According to the London Daily Mail, Mencken ventured beyond the typewriter into the world of typography. Because he felt Americans did not recognize irony when they read it, he proposed the creation of a special typeface to be called Ironics, with the text slanting in the opposite direction from italic types, to indicate the author’s humour. Affirming his irreverence, the Mencken typeface does not offer these typographic gadgets. Henry Louis Mencken (1880 — 1956) was an American journalist, satirist, cultural critic and scholar of American English. Known as the “Sage of Baltimore”, he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the twentieth century. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians and contemporary movements. Creative Review Type Annual 2006 Tokyo TDC 2018

It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that these letter shapes are familiar. They have the unmistakable color and weight of Cooper Black, Oswald Cooper's most famous typeface from 1921. What should be a surprise is that these letters are actually from George Auriol's Robur Noir (or Robur Black), published in France circa 1909 by the Peignot foundry as a bolder, solid counterpart to its popular Auriol typeface (1901). This face precedes Cooper Black by a dozen of years and a whole Great War. Cooper Black has always been a bit of a strange typographical apparition to anyone who tried to explain its original purpose, instant popularity in the 1920s, and major revival in the late 1960s. BB&S and Oswald Cooper PR aside, it is quite evident that the majority of Cooper Black's forms did not evolve from Cooper Old Style, as its originators claimed. And the claim that it collected various Art Nouveau elements is of course too ambiguous to be questioned. But when compared with Robur Noir, the "elements" in question can hardly be debated. The chronology of this "machine age" ad face in metal is amusing and stands as somewhat of a general index of post-Great War global industrial competition: - 1901: Peignot releases Auriol, based on the handwriting of George Auriol (the "quintessential Art Nouveau designer," according to Steven Heller and Louise Fili), and it becomes very popular. - 1909-1912: Peignot releases the Robur family of faces. The eight styles released are Robur Noir and its italic, a condensed version called Robur Noir Allongée (Elongated) and its italic, an outline version called Clair De Lune and its condensed/elongated, a lined/striped version called Robur Tigre, and its condensed/elongated counterpart. - 1914 to 1918: World War One uses up economies on both sides of the Atlantic, claims Georges Peignot with a bullet to the forehead, and non-war industry stalls for 4 years. - 1921: BB&S releases Cooper Black with a lot of hype to hungry publishing, manufacturing and advertising industries. - 1924: Robert Middleton releases Ludlow Black. - 1924: The Stevens Shanks foundry, the British successor to the Figgins legacy, releases its own exact copies of Robur Noir and Robur Noir Allongée, alongside a lined version called Royal Lining. - 1925: Oswald Cooper releases his Cooper Black Condensed, with similar math to Robur Noir Allongée (20% reduction in width and vectical stroke). - 1925: Monotype releases Frederick Goudy's Goudy Heavy, an "answer to Cooper Black". Type historians gravely note it as the "teacher steals from his student" scandal. Goudy Heavy Condensed follows a few years later. - 1928: Linotype releases Chauncey Griffith's Pabst Extra Bold. The condensed counterpart is released in 1931. When type production technologies changed and it was time to retool the old faces for the Typositor age, Cooper Black was a frontrunning candidate, while Robur Noir was all but erased from history. This was mostly due to its commercial revival by flourishing and media-driven music and advertising industries. By the late 1960s variations and spinoffs of Cooper Black were in every typesetting catalog. In the early- to mid-1970s, VGC, wanting to capitalize on the Art Nouveau onslaught, published an uncredited exact copy of Robur Black under the name Skylark. But that also went with the dust of history and PR when digital tech came around, and Cooper Black was once again a prime retooling candidate. The "old fellows stole all of our best ideas" indeed. So almost a hundred years after its initial fizz, Robur is here in digital form, to reclaim its rightful position as the inspiration for, and the best alternative to, Cooper Black. Given that its forms date back to the turn of the century, a time when foundry output had a closer relationship to calligraphic and humanist craft, its shapes are truer to brush strokes and much more idiosyncratic than Cooper Black in their totality's construct. Robur and Robur Italic come in all popular font formats. Language support includes Western, Central and Eastern European character sets, as well as Baltic, Esperanto, Maltese, Turkish, and Celtic/Welsh languages. A range of complementary f-ligatures and a few alternates letters are included within the fonts.

Divina Proportione is based from the original studies from Luca Pacioli. Luca Pacioli was born in 1446 or 1447 in Sansepolcro (Tuscany) where he received an abbaco education. Luca Pacioli was born in 1446 or 1447 in Sansepolcro (Tuscany) where he received an abbaco education. [This was education in the vernacular (i.e. the local tongue) rather than Latin and focused on the knowledge required of merchants.] He moved to Venice around 1464 where he continued his own education while working as a tutor to the three sons of a merchant. It was during this period that he wrote his first book -- a treatise on arithmetic for the three boys he was tutoring. Between 1472 and 1475, he became a Franciscan friar. In 1475, he started teaching in Perugia and wrote a comprehensive abbaco textbook in the vernacular for his students during 1477 and 1478. It is thought that he then started teaching university mathematics (rather than abbaco) and he did so in a number of Italian universities, including Perugia, holding the first chair in mathematics in two of them. He also continued to work as a private abbaco tutor of mathematics and was, in fact, instructed to stop teaching at this level in Sansepolcro in 1491. In 1494, his first book to be printed, Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita, was published in Venice. In 1497, he accepted an invitation from Lodovico Sforza ("Il Moro") to work in Milan. There he met, collaborated with, lived with, and taught mathematics to Leonardo da Vinci. In 1499, Pacioli and Leonardo were forced to flee Milan when Louis XII of France seized the city and drove their patron out. Their paths appear to have finally separated around 1506. Pacioli died aged 70 in 1517, most likely in Sansepolcro where it is thought he had spent much of his final years. De divina proportione (written in Milan in 1496–98, published in Venice in 1509). Two versions of the original manuscript are extant, one in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, the other in the Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire in Geneva. The subject was mathematical and artistic proportion, especially the mathematics of the golden ratio and its application in architecture. Leonardo da Vinci drew the illustrations of the regular solids in De divina proportione while he lived with and took mathematics lessons from Pacioli. Leonardo's drawings are probably the first illustrations of skeletonic solids, an easy distinction between front and back. The work also discusses the use of perspective by painters such as Piero della Francesca, Melozzo da Forlì, and Marco Palmezzano. As a side note, the "M" logo used by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is taken from De divina proportione. “ The Ancients, having taken into consideration the rigorous construction of the human body, elaborated all their works, as especially their holy temples, according to these proportions; for they found here the two principal figures without which no project is possible: the perfection of the circle, the principle of all regular bodies, and the equilateral square. ” —De divina proportione

Burgues Script is an ode to the late 19th century American calligrapher Louis Madarasz, whose legendary pen has inspired schools of penmanship for over 100 years. His talent has caused some people to call him “the most skillful penman the world has ever known.” I use the word ‘ode’ in a colloquially ambitious manner. If I was an actual poet, my words would be about things I desire but cannot attain, objects of utter beauty that make me wallow in humility, or people of enormous talent who look down at me from the clouds of genius. But I don’t write poems. My work consists of letters drawn to fit together, that become an element of someone’s visual poetry. I am the poet’s assistant, so to speak. Once in a while, the assistant persists on what the subject of the poem will be. And occasionally, the poet gives in to the persistence. I hope you, visual poet, find my persistence justified in this case. The two main sources for Burgues were the calligraphy examples shown in Zaner Bloser’s The Secret of the Skill of Madarasz: His Philosophy and Penmanship Masterpieces, and C. W. Jones’s Lessons in Advanced Engraver’s Script Penmanship by L. Madarasz. These two references were the cornerstone for the concept I was trying to work with. I did have to change many of the letters in order to be able to produce digital calligraphy that can flow flexibly and offered the user a variety of options, while maintaining its attractive appearance. To this end, many ligatures and swashes were made, as well as full flourished sets of letters for use at the beginnings or endings of words and sentences. All of this has been tied together with OpenType and tested thoroughly within today’s standard design and desktop publishing software. After working with digital scripts for so long, at one point I thought that Burgues Script would become a bit of a chore to complete. I also thought that, like with most other scripts, the process would regularize itself after a while and be reduced to a mechanical habit. Surprisingly, and fortunately for me, this did not happen. The past holds as many surprises as the future. Madarasz’s method of penmanship was fascinating and challenging to translate into the strict, mathematically oriented language of the computer. It seems that the extremely high contrast of the forms, coupled with the required flow and connectivity of such lettering, will always be hard work for any visual artist to produce, even with the aide of a powerful machine. I can only imagine what steady nerves and discipline Madarasz must have had to be able to produce fully flourished and sublimely connected words and sentences on a whim. When I think of Madarasz producing a flourished calligraphic logotype in a few seconds, and try to reconcile that with the timelines of my or my colleagues’ work in identity and packaging design, the mind reels. Such blinding talent from over a hundred years ago. Burgues is the Spanish word for Bourgeois. In the end, I hope Burgues Script will serve you well when a flourished word or sentence is required for a design project. One of the wonders of the computer age is the ability to visually conjure up the past, serving both the present and the future. With Burgues, you have a piece of “the most skillful penman the world has ever known,” at your service. Burgues received important awards such as a Certificate of Excellence TDC2 2008 and a Certificate of Excellence at the Bienal Tipos Latinos 2008.

Compendium is a sequel to my Burgues font from 2007. Actually it is more like a prequel to Burgues. Before Louis Madarasz awed the American Southeast with his disciplined corners and wild hairlines, Platt Rogers Spencer, up in Ohio, had laid down a style all his own, a style that would eventually become the groundwork for the veering calligraphic method that was later defined and developed by Madarasz. After I wrote the above paragraph, I was so surprised by it, particularly by the first two sentences, that I stopped and had to think about it for a week. Why a sequel/prequel? Am I subconsciously joining the ranks of typeface-as-brand designers? Are the tools I build finally taking control of me? Am I having to resort to “milking it” now? Not exactly. Even though the current trend of extending older popular typefaces can play tricks with a type designer’s mind, and maybe even send him into strange directions of planning, my purpose is not the extension of something popular. My purpose is presenting a more comprehensive picture as I keep coming to terms with my obsession with 19th century American penmanship. Those who already know my work probably have an idea about how obsessive I can be about presenting a complete and detailed image of the past through today’s eyes. So it is not hard to understand my need to expand on the Burgues concept in order to reach a fuller picture of how American calligraphy evolved in the 19th century. Burgues was really all about Madarasz, so much so that it bypasses the genius of those who came before him. Compendium seeks to put Madarasz’s work in a better chronological perspective, to show the rounds that led to the sharps, so to speak. And it is nearly criminal to ignore Spencer’s work, simply because it had a much wider influence on the scope of calligraphy in general. While Madarasz’s work managed to survive only through a handful of his students, Spencer’s work was disseminated throughout America by his children after he died in 1867. The Spencer sons were taught by their father and were great calligraphers themselves. They would pass the elegant Spencerian method on to thousands of American penmen and sign painters. Though Compendium has a naturally more normalized, Spencerian flow, its elegance, expressiveness, movement and precision are no less adventurous than Burgues. Nearing 700 glyphs, its character set contains plenty of variation in each letter, and many ornaments for letter beginnings, endings, and some that can even serve to envelope entire words with swashy calligraphic wonder. Those who love to explore typefaces in detail will be rewarded, thanks to OpenType. I am so in love with the technology now that it’s becoming harder for me to let go of a typeface and call it finished. You probably have noticed by now that my fascination with old calligraphy has not excluded my being influenced by modern design trends. This booklet is an example of this fusion of influences. I am living 150 years after the Spencers, so different contextualization and usage perspectives are inevitable. Here the photography of Gonzalo Aguilar join the digital branchings of Compendium to form visuals that dance and wave like the arms of humanity have been doing since time eternal. I hope you like Compendium and find it useful. I'm all Spencered out for now, but at one point, for history’s sake, I will make this a trilogy. When the hairline-and-swash bug visits me again, you will be the first to know. The PDF specimen was designed with the wonderful photography of Gonzalo Aguilar from Mexico. Please download it here http://new.myfonts.com/artwork?id=47049&subdir=original