Rian Hughes’ 15th collection of fonts, “112 Hours”, is entirely dedicated to numbers. Culled from a myriad of sources – clock faces, tickets, watches house numbers – it is an eclectic and wide-ranging set. Each font contains only numerals and related punctuation – no letters. A new book has been designed by Hughes to show the collection, and includes sample settings, complete character sets, source material and an introduction. This is available print-to-order on Blurb in paperback and hardback: http://www.blurb.com/b/5539073-112-hours-hardback http://www.blurb.com/b/5539045-112-hours-paperback From the introduction: The idea for this, the fifteenth Device Fonts collection, began when I came across an online auction site dedicated to antique clocks. I was mesmerized by the inventive and bizarre numerals on their faces. Shorn of the need to extend the internal logic of a typeface through the entire alphabet, the designers of these treasures were free to explore interesting forms and shapes that would otherwise be denied them. Given this horological starting point, I decided to produce 12 fonts, each featuring just the numbers from 1 to 12 and, where appropriate, a small set of supporting characters — in most cases, the international currency symbols, a colon, full stop, hyphen, slash and the number sign. 10, 11 and 12 I opted to place in the capital A, B and C slots. Each font is shown in its entirety here. I soon passed 12, so the next logical finish line was 24. Like a typographic Jack Bauer, I soon passed that too -— the more I researched, the more I came across interesting and unique examples that insisted on digitization, or that inspired me to explore some new design direction. The sources broadened to include tickets, numbering machines, ecclesiastical brass plates and more. Though not derived from clock faces, I opted to keep the 1-12 conceit for consistency, which allowed me to design what are effectively numerical ligatures. I finally concluded one hundred fonts over my original estimate at 112. Even though it’s not strictly divisible by 12, the number has a certain symmetry, I reasoned, and was as good a place as any to round off the project. An overview reveals a broad range that nonetheless fall into several loose categories. There are fairly faithful revivals, only diverging from their source material to even out inconsistencies and regularize weighting or shape to make them more functional in a modern context; designs taken directly from the source material, preserving all the inky grit and character of the original; designs that are loosely based on a couple of numbers from the source material but diverge dramatically for reasons of improved aesthetics or mere whim; and entirely new designs with no historical precedent. As projects like this evolve (and, to be frank, get out of hand), they can take you in directions and to places you didn’t envisage when you first set out. Along the way, I corresponded with experts in railway livery, and now know about the history of cab side and smokebox plates; I travelled to the Musée de l’imprimerie in Nantes, France, to examine their numbering machines; I photographed house numbers in Paris, Florence, Venice, Amsterdam and here in the UK; I delved into my collection of tickets, passes and printed ephemera; I visited the Science Museum in London, the Royal Signals Museum in Dorset, and the Museum of London to source early adding machines, war-time telegraphs and post-war ration books. I photographed watches at Worthing Museum, weighing scales large enough to stand on in a Brick Lane pub, and digital station clocks at Baker Street tube station. I went to the London Under-ground archive at Acton Depot, where you can see all manner of vintage enamel signs and woodblock type; I photographed grocer’s stalls in East End street markets; I dug out old clocks I recalled from childhood at my parents’ place, examined old manual typewriters and cash tills, and crouched down with a torch to look at my electricity meter. I found out that Jane Fonda kicked a policeman, and unusually for someone with a lifelong aversion to sport, picked up some horse-racing jargon. I share some of that research here. In many cases I have not been slavish about staying close to the source material if I didn’t think it warranted it, so a close comparison will reveal differences. These changes could be made for aesthetic reasons, functional reasons (the originals didn’t need to be set in any combination, for example), or just reasons of personal taste. Where reference for the additional characters were not available — which was always the case with fonts derived from clock faces — I have endeavored to design them in a sympathetic style. I may even extend some of these to the full alphabet in the future. If I do, these number-only fonts could be considered as experimental design exercises: forays into form to probe interesting new graphic possibilities.

Vette Letters are thrilled to add maverick designer Dirk Uhlenbrock to the family, with the release of VLNL Bromfiets. Bromfiets (the Dutch word for moped) is a ‘holiday child’, the basic idea coming from a stop at a road junction in the Dutch coastal province of Zeeland. The Dutch signage, the black and white rings of traffic light poles, the symbols for brom- and snorfiets have always appealed to Dirk. While on vacation in Zeeland the first scribbles and digital drafts were created, always in mind that the typeface had to be striking, clear and friendly. The end result is more than that, a strong and instantly recognisable font with a matching dingbat weight full of icons and arrows. Stencil fonts have always interested Dirk, the informal character and the possible universal use as a paint- or spray-stencil on a wide variety of surfaces makes this type of font so interesting for me. The technically necessary dissolution of closed font contours always ensures a special aesthetic: What’HAT and HOW MUCH has to be removed or left, in order to make words easy to read and to avoid a fractal impression. Dirk Uhlenbrock has been working as graphic designer and illustrator in his hometown Essen, Germany for over 30 years. Always interested in typedesign he got in contact with Fontographer in 1996 and started to create and distribute loads of free fonts through his online platforms ‘Eyesaw’ and ‘Fontomas’. A bunch of these type experiments have been extented on request to complete fonts. Still located in Essen in 2009 Dirk started his second owner-based business erste liga büro für gestaltung - ersteliga.de

Whassup y’all! Me and my bros got this li’l gang together: we is Ringo, and we got da bling, yo! We is da typeface family for ya all! We got some real sweet stuff for ya, some nice characters. We got all ’em OpenType features like fractions and proportional figgers, we even got da cubic root, man! And check out da question mark, man, is real sweet. And the ampersand, yeah! I luv ’em ampersands. Now my brothers over here got some light action for ya, and they got some real bold action for ya. We got some nice foxy curves goin’ on, some nice tension, and some nice relaxation. My bro Light over here is kind of like the subtle guy, ya know. He’s in for the female fans, ya know. Heh! Hell, yeah! And man, we speak like 84 languages: we speak the German, and the French, and the Spanish, and we speak the Polish, and the Czech, and the Hungarian, and we even speak Shambala and Swahili and Rundi, and we got some Esperanto thing as well for ya. And check out my bro Black right over here, he’s like the action superhero, man! He’s got impact, man! Yeah yeah, but you know, my bros Regular and Bold are the real deal. Them is like da word of da street, man! Like da word of you, and you. And we got a message for y’all: life is hard, life is real, but you should work your mojo, be smooth, be nice, chill. We got all them kerning pairs, and all them weights, and we got ’em alternate letters. So check us out, yo!

The Novera family is a sharp geometric sans in ten weights plus matching italics, available in two versions – Modern and Classic. It has a contemporary, approachable and multifunctional yet characteristic design, that comes with an extensive glyphs set of 1000+ glyphs per font, meeting all typographic demands. The Design Vertical terminals, circular shapes and angular apexes – Novera truely breathes geometry! But the concept goes beyond the application of rational geometry. The intension was to create a highly legible family suitable for every day usage inspired by the work of Paul Renner, Eric Gill or Jakob Erbar, combining the geometric with the human and the functional with the unconventional. Although Novera is inspired by the past, its appearance is unmistakingly modern. Modern vs Classic Novera is available in two versions - Modern and Classic - born from the same source file but with different characters set as default. This creates subtle but effective distinctions such as the double-storey a (Novera Modern) which is optimized for legibility in longer text paragraphs, as opposed to the single-storey a (Novera Classic) which allows a purely geometric appearance. Another distinguishing feature are the ascenders on Novera Mondern, which extend above the cap height for an elegant presence, compared to the ascenders on Novera Classic, ending at the cap height, for a compact and helvetica-flavored look. Novera Modern was intended for usage in body copy, whereas Novera Classic was planned for headlines, short paragraphs or logos, but both versions can be used vice versa too, of course. Alternate Characters To maintain neutrality and a modern appearance, the standard character set largely dispenses with idiosyncratic forms. This is in contrast to the alternative forms with the gill-like lowercase letters g and t as well as a traditional shape of S and the German ligature t/z, which traces back to old German spellings. Also inspired by German poster designs from the early 20th century are the elongated i-dots and dieresis-dots that can create eye-catchers in headlines or logos. By the way, both versions, Novera Modern and Classic, can be created via stylistic set 1, 17 and 18. Opentype Features and Symbols The family comes with many opentype features to support modern typesetting. This includes ligatures, different number sets or alternative shapes for texts set in all caps. If you like arrows and other shapes, you will love Novera! The family has a built-in extensive symbols-set including 48 different arrows and various geometric shapes or icons. Weights With its 40 styles and 1000+ glyphs per font, the Novera family covers all thinkable design scenarios from branding to web, app or editorial usage. It blends in perfectly in text heavy paragraphs with its mid-weights like Light, Regular, Medium or Bold or stands out like a monument in headlines and posters with its extreme weights like Thin, ExtraLight, Black or Ultra. Testfonts If you like to test the fonts before buying the full version, please follow the link below. Please note, all test fonts are available for evaluation purposes only and contain a limited character set! A commercial license for the full version must be purchased separately. Please send a mail to contact@renebieder.com for more information. Download the test fonts here: https://www.renebieder.com/test-fonts

Before Bodoni, there was Didot. With the publication by Francois Ambroise Didot of Paris in 1784 of his prospectus for Tasso’s La Gerusalemme Liberata, the rococo typographical style of Fournier de Jeune was replaced with a spartan, neo-classical style that John Baskerville pioneered. The typeface Didot used for this work was of Didot’s own creation and is considered by both G. Dowding and P. Meggs to be the first modern face. Three years later, Bodoni of Parma is using a very similar face. Just as Bodoni’s typeface evolved over time, so did that of the Didot family. The eldest son of Francois Ambroise Didot, Pierre, ran the printing office; and Firmin ran the typefoundry. Pierre used the flattened, wove paper, again pioneered by Baskerville, to permit a more accurate impression and allow the use of more delicate letterforms. Firmin took full advantage of the improved paper by further refining the typeface introduced by his father. The printing of Racine’s Oeuvres in 1801 (seen in our gallery image #2) shows the symbiotic results of their efforts, especially in the marked increase in the sharpness of the serifs when compared to their owns works of only six years earlier. It has been suggested that one reason Bodoni achieved greater popularity than Didot is the thinner hairlines of Didot were more fragile when cast in metal type and thus more expensive for printers to use than Bodoni. This ceased to be a problem with the advent of phototypesetting, opening the door for a renewed interest in the work of the Didot family and especially that of Firmin Didot. Although further refinements in the Didot typeface were to come (notably the lower case ‘g’ shown in 1819), we have chosen 1801 as the nominal basis for our presentation of HiH Firmin Didot. We like the thick-thin circumflex that replaced the evenly-stroked version of 1795, possible only with the flatter wove paper. We like the unusual coat-hanger cedilla. We like the organic, leaf-like tail of the ‘Q.’ We like the strange, little number ‘2’ and the wonderfully assertive ‘4.’ And we like the distinctive and delightful awkwardness of the double-v (w). Please note that we have provided alternative versions of the upper and lower case w that are slightly more conventional than the original designs. Personally, I find the moderns (often called Didones) hard on the eyes in extended blocks of text. That does not stop me from enjoying their cold, crisp clarity. They represent the Age of Reason and the power of man’s intellect, while reflecting also its limitations. In the title pages set by Bodoni, Bulmer and Didot, I see the spare beauty of a winter landscape. That appeals to a New Englander like myself. Another aspect that appeals to me is setting a page in HiH Firmin Didot and watching people try to figure out what typeface it is. It looks a lot like Bodoni, but it isn't!