From the monthly archives:

January 2010

Typekit

by Dan on January 29, 2010

Over the next few days (likely weeks/months) I’m going to be experimenting with Typekit to use a slab serif typeface for headlines on The Casual Optimist.

At the time of writing, you should be seeing the ‘logo’ and ‘tagline’ at the top of the page displayed in the beautiful Adelle by TypeTogether.

I would love some feedback on Typekit (is it intrusive?) and the typeface (is it an improvement?), so let me know what you think in the comments. Cheers.

{ 5 comments }

Dan Mogford’s de Bonos

by Dan on January 28, 2010

Earlier this week, London-based graphic designer Dan Mogford kindly alerted me to a series of fresh Edward de Bono covers he designed for the Penguin UK:

At the BPPA book cover panel last night, David Gee was lamenting publishers’ current predilection for blandly neutral Malcolm Gladwell-esque covers for certain kinds of popular nonfiction, and so I’m really glad that Dan (and Penguin) decided to go in the completely opposite direction.  I really like the slab serif (the rather lovely Stag by Christian Schwartz, Dan tells me), bold colours, and light-bulb motif they went with here.

Is it just me or do they have a certain Milton Glaser-like quality?

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Under the Covers: Reviewing the Covers of 2009

January 27, 2010

Tonight is the BPPA‘s annual review of the best and worst book covers of the year. Sadly Alan Jones, Senior Designer at HarperCollins Canada, had to drop out at the last minute and is being replaced by Boy Wonder David A. Gee (interviewed here) and umm… me. No, I’m not quite sure what they were [...]

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Midweek Miscellany

January 26, 2010

The Backwards Novel Seen Backwards by Tom Gauld. I also love Tom’s Lost Fairy Tales for a promotional concertina booklet made by his agent Heart (surely there’s a full length book to be had here?). Ways of Reading from A Working Library: Every book alights a path to other books. Follow these paths as far [...]

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Something for the Weekend

January 23, 2010

Slim pickings in a week in which book nerds obsessed about the implications of the rumoured Apple tablet (and PS – if anyone else describes it as the fucking ‘unicorn’ it’s clobberin’ time…), while in a completely unrelated move (snarf!), Amazon announced it was going to allow iPhone style apps to be uploaded and sold [...]

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