Category: News

It is a bit embarrassing to admit, but in my mind’s ear, Paul Luna and Paul Shaw have somehow merged together. Now, I do really know the difference between these two eminent men: Paul Luna is a typography professor at the University of Reading, and a master theorist and practician. Paul Shaw, on the other…

Every so often, I hear from friends that they miss the old Typographica website. I don’t miss it at all; rather, I suspect that its editor has something big up his sleve for the future. Rather, I miss Daidala.com. Jon Coltz was one of the typographic voices I enjoyed most on the web. Daidala was…

A few weeks ago, Claus Eggers Sørensen tweeted about purchasing a used copy of James Moran’s Stanley Morison: His typographic achievement (1971). Anyone who wants to bring about my financial ruin should just pretend to order all sorts of books on the Internet, and then tweet about them. Following the old monkey see, monkey do…

As a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, I have to put on my RISD hat now and again. Today is one of those days. For what seems like ages, I’ve bothered with a school here in Germany. Specificially, I have been irked by their most-recent rebranding. Today, I saw the school’s name…

Typeface design in Germany during the twentieth century was a field populated by giants. Arguably, in no century before, and in no country elsewhere, were so many designers creating so many quality typefaces for the printing, communication, journalism, and advertising industries. The facts of Germany’s turbulent twentieth century history played large roles in many German…

I just got word of a new typography competition from the Communication Arts staff. Communication Arts are organizing it themselves. Among other things, there is a type design category. Plus, the jury includes Stephen Coles. If you put Stephen’s name in a press release, I will almost always repost it (this is the only hint…

Yesterday, I received a strange e-mail to my typeoff.de address from someone named Jason. The sender’s email address was so long and cryptic that I assumed it was just another piece of spam. However, the subject matter of the e-mail was somewhat topical. Here is what Jason had to say: You have a very tiny…

TypeOff.’s European readers may not be familiar with ESPN. The Entertainment Sports Programming Network is a cable station in the US that broadcasts a number of athletic events. ESPN is sort of a “presence” on the American media landscape, to say the least. Many TypeOff. readers may also not be aware that Team USA’s first…

Hey! Munich now has an Otl Aicher Street—Otl-Aicher-Straße, in German. Otl Aicher (1922–1991) was one of the leading graphic designers in post-war Germany. I could write up a short and spiffy biography, but instead I’d rather just link to Wikipedia. The city of Munich just named a street after him, which I think is a…

Via TypoJournal’s Twitter feed, I just learned that Hessian Secretary of State Kramer has presented Professor Hermann Zapf with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, commonly referred to in German as the Bundesverdienstkreuz, or Federal Cross of Merit. This means that Prof. Zapf has received one of his nation’s highest civic…

On his flickr-stream, Michael Bundscherer has posted a few photos from the 20 April 2010 Typografische Gesellschaft München event. Olaf Leu was the evening’s main speaker. He’s on a book tour, promoting Bilanz: Die ersten 20 Jahre im Beruf (1951–1970) [link for purchasing]. I was sort of the opening act, giving a 15-minute presentation of…

During the next two months, I’ll be presenting at several events. Here’s a run-down: 19th Berlin Typostammtisch May 6, 2010 Pecha Kucha night, “ten things I hate about typography class” For the Berlin Typostammtisch’s second annual Pecha Kucha night, up to 12 of the city’s typorati will present on short topics for exactly 6 minutes…

For the past three semesters, I’ve worked as a part-time instructor at University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt, Germany. Even this brief description makes my role sound more significant than it is; I just offer a single class in typeface design. During my first two semesters, this class met one day per week. This semester,…

Back in 2001, I bought a copy of Kurt Weidemann’s massive (and massively-awesome) Wo der Buchstabe das Wort führt: Ansichten über Schrift und Typographie for 56 Marks. That was only about $25 at the time; the dollar had yet to fall against the Euro. Shortly, thereafter, I moved back to the United States. I shipped…