Bartenders as social status

From an NYT article on having bartenders at your party, even in tiny little flats.

In my opinion, if you don’t have a bartender at your party, you’re a loser, said Dustin Terry, who lives a floor below Ms. Argiro and said his job was to get models and Saudi royalty into hot clubs. The bartender brings class and sophistication.

If you can’t afford to hire a bartender,he added, you shouldn’t be having a party.

Ugh. What a bunch of pretentious twats. That said, credit to the bartenders for putting up with them and taking their money.


Capucine typeface released

Capucine Sample

Presenting a wonderful new typeface from Alice Savoie, entitled Capucine, available exclusively from Process Type Foundry. The typeface is available in both traditional format and for use on the web.

Capucine defies traditional categorization, it sits in a genre we are drawn to as users of type: a face with distinct personality able to straddle the worlds of both text and display with ease.

I had the honour of knowing both Alice and Nicole Dotin (from Process Type) in my year at Reading and love that Capucine has finally reached a publication point. Capucine looked beautiful three years ago, but I imagine the perfectionist in Alice wanted everything to be just right. Congrats to both Alice and Process Type on the release. I look forward to using the typeface at some point in the near future.


The Titillium typeface project

Titillium sample

Titillium is an open typographic font and the subject of a didactic course project at Accademia di Belle Arti di Urbino.

The aim of the project is the creation of a collective fonts released under OFL to be promoted and shared through a web platform. Each academic year, a dozen of students are working on the project developing and solving problems. The type designers interested in the amendment or revision of Titillium are invited to cooperate or develop their own variants.


Reverting to Type exhibition

Reverting to Type

The Standpoint Gallery in London is having a letterpress exhibition during the next month or so. The exhibit, curated by Graham Bignell of New North Press and Richard Ardagh, will showcase how the printing technique is being reinvented for modern times.

Reverting to Type aims to highlight the pioneers at the helm of the current resurgence of interest in letterpress; from computer-based designers with a desire to ply a craft with a tactile immediacy that has been lost with moderntechnology, to traditional presses finding a new way to revitalise their design output.

This is definitely on the list of things to do during my last couple of weeks in England. See this pdf release for more details about the show, including the final list of contributors.