Designer Jelte van Abbema was a winner at the Dutch Design Awards and the accompanying €10,000 Rado Prize in part due to his piece “Symbiosis,” a font created with e.coli bacteria. One could say this could be a nasty computer virus!
Van Abbema created the font by stamping bacteria into paper, and then placing the paper in a jury-rigged incubator, which provided the right humdity and warmth for the organisms. As they multiplied and died, the resulting fonts changed color and shape. As van Abbema says, bacteria “transforms the image to something new,” creating something that is literally alive, changing every minute without ever being tended.
This one’s for the typography nerds: In a follow-up to last year’s excellent short “Font Conference,” the loopy gang at College Humor gives us “Font Fight!,” a violence-filled showdown between two typeface gangs–one led by Helvetica, the other by Helvetica’s “shameless impostor,” Arial. The ending features a surprise cameo by perhaps the most evil font of all.
You may take them for granted, but a quality typeface is almost like a functional work of art – and yes, they’re still generally craftted by hand. I suppose April isn’t too late to discuss last year, so without further ado: Typographica lists their favorite typefaces of 2008.
Sensationalism aside, it’s significant that the ever-increasing quality in type design these days — dubbed by some as the new “golden age” of type — has caused this year’s list to supersede previous lists in many ways.
