Maze of Minds » Typography

Jason Santa Maria – On Web Typography

Tomas — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 09:02:30 +0000

In this Build talk, famous designer Jason Santa Maria teaches us to look at typefaces with a discerning eye, different approaches to typographic planning, how typography impacts the act of reading, and how to choose and combine appropriate typefaces from an aesthetic and technical point of view. A must-see video for all web designers.

Also don’t forget to check other videos from Build talk on Vimeo.

Typography and Lettering in the Old Town of Vilnius

Tomas — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:02:05 +0000

The idea to write this post came from many “live” typography examples in various blogs from all around of world. I’m quite a big fan of “live” typography posts. It’s always interesting to see what kind of typography you can find in others cities. Letters tell the story about the city history, culture and age.

So today I will give you an opportunity to have a look at the ”live” typography examples from the beautiful Old Town of Vilnius. If you love typography and have never been in Vilnius I think you’ll find this post interesting.

If you have a post like this and want to share it, send me a link to your blog. I would love to see it.

If you want to know more about Vilnius you can read it here and here.

Free Fonts #3

Tomas — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 07:35:17 +0000

For this week I have only few fonts to share with you. Nevertheless, these are still good and usable typefaces. I’m sure you’d agree that it’s quality not quantity that matters.

1. Novocento – Download

Novocento is an uppercase-only font family inspired by european typographic tendencies of the first half of 20th century. You can use this font face for headlines, visual identities or short sentences. Created by graphic designer Jan Tonellato.

2. Quattrocento – Download

Quattrocento Roman is a Classic typeface with wide and open letterforms, and great x-height. Also it has good legibility for body text at small sizes and tiny details that only shows up at bigger sizes make it also great for display use. It’s available for web use in Google font library.
Quattrocento is created by amazing self-taught type designer Pablo Impallari who has also designed the famous Lobster font. Check his website for more high quality fonts.

3. UNIK2 – Download

Unik2 is the updated version of Unik made in 2009 by DavidisCreative from Fonts of Chaos. If you are unfamiliar with Fonts of Chaos, it is an open type foundry founded in 2011. They produce alternative free typefaces for experimental graphic artwork. Although Font of Chaos still are young and fresh they have already created seven interesting and unique typefaces. So if you are looking for more fonts like Unik2 for your artwork you should definitely check their website.

PBS Arts: Off Book on Typography

Tomas — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 06:17:20 +0000

PBS Arts: Off Book is a web-based series that explores cutting edge art and the people that make it. The 13 episode series focuses on the process, motivation and meaning of a new generation of artists. A new episode of Off Book launches every other Wednesday on PBS Arts.

In episode 2 of Off Book, typeface designers Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones outline the importance of selecting the right font to convey a particular feeling. Graphic designer Paula Scher talks about building identity in messaging, while Eddie Opara uses texture to create reaction. Infographic designers Julia Vakser and Deroy Peraza map complicated data sets into digestible imagery, mixing color, graphics and type.

You can follow PBS Arts: Off Book on http://pbsarts.tumblr.com/

Free Fonts #2

Tomas — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 09:48:07 +0000

This week’s selection of free fonts. Most of them have only one weight but it’s still useful to have them in your collection.

Important! Be sure to read the license of each font before using them for commercial projects.

1. Zil Slab – Download

Nice semi-slab-serif font. Kind of looks like famous Museo. Created by Igor Fonseca.

2. AleksandraC Vintage – Download

Beautiful font created by Aleksander Shevchuk.

3. Egypt 22 – Download

Egypt 22 is an experimental and geometric font from Practice Foundry. The reason the font is named “Egypt 22″ is because it explores the concept of symbols in languages. Created by Designer Ivan Kostynyk.

4. RBN2 – Download

RBNo2 is a new gothic sans-serif font designed by Rene Bieder for Fontfabric. Light and Light Alternative versions are for free, however if you want to have whole family you have to pay. Full family will include Light, Regular, Bold, Black and Alternative.

5. Vinegar – Download

Beautiful serif font from type designer Tjarda Koster aka Jelloween from Netherlands. She has been making fonts since late 2005. And I’m really impressed by the quality of her work. You can download most of Tjarda fonts for free, so check her portfolio for more.

6. Jokal – Download

Jokal is a hand-crafted serif font by Bold Perspective.

7. Moksha – Download MAC Download PC

Grunge font created by Eduardo Recife from Misprinted Type.

Free Fonts #1

Tomas — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:46:08 +0000

To help you save some time and money I decided to start a series of posts about free fonts. Every week I will share a list of fonts that are worth looking at. So, have a look at this week list.

Note! I provided the links to download the fonts from Maze of Minds blog, but don’t forget to visit authors’ pages for more stuff and give them credits that they deserve.

1. Weston Regular & Light All Caps – Download

WESTON is a new rounded slab-serif font designed by Pavel Pavlov for FontFabric type foundary. Free version comes in regular & light all caps.

2. Sheep Sans Regular & Bold - Download

Sheep Sans is a sans-serif font created by Álvaro Oveelha from Brazil. Font has regular and bold weights.

3. Piron V.2 Regular & Stencil - Download

Beautiful font from “typedepot“, a small type design studio from Bulgaria. Piron V2 comes with improved letter forms and widths. Letter spacing and kerning were significantly improved too. Also you will find more characters in this version.

4. Banda Regular – Download

Banda is a semi-serif typeface characterized by a tall x-height and rounded semi-serifs. Although it was first designed as a display typeface Banda quickly evolved into more complex type consisting of 7 weights plus italic. This font is also created by typedepot. Free version has only one weight, regular.

4. SD Georgia Light - Download

SD Georgia Light was designed by Justin Rotkowitz from Florida, United States. This font is specially tweaked for high-density offset printing, also can be used for web.

6. Sansus-Webissimo-Regular – Download

Sansus Webissimo web font is ideal for website designers and bloggers. Designed by Sergiy Tkachenko from Kremenchuk, Ukraine. If you like it, check out his portfolio on behance for more free fonts.

7. Designosaur Italic - Download

Second font from Sergiy Tkachenko portfolio that caught my eye.

8. DUNN Regular & Bold - Download

A modular geometric typeface from Typodisiac independent modern type foundry from Istanbul, Turkey. The letters are created by modifications of only rounded rectangles. Free version has light, regular and bold weights.

9. BUGG - Download

Strong, experimental typeface created by Emilio Correa from Mexico. Free version has one weight.

Robin Nicholas, Creator of Arial Typeface, Comments On Web Fonts

Tomas — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:22:38 +0000

Video of Robin Nicholas, creator of Arial, discussing his creative inspirations, favourite typefaces and thoughts on the evolution of fonts.