neutraface slab

Just when we thought neuratext could get an better, they hit us with neutraface slab!


From fine print and red ink in corporate annual reports to huge three dimensional signage, Neutraface has become the definitive designers' workhorse. Now this geometric juggernaut boasts even more font firepower with the addition of the Neutraface Slab family. Neutraface Slab features five display weights, four text weights with italics plus a unique stencil style that work together like a typographic symphony or can stand alone like accomplished soloists. Just like its sans-serif counterparts, Neutra Slab Text includes small caps, seven figure styles and a host of other sophisticated OpenType features that have been integrated in a single seamless package. The complementary display weights afford an uncompromising statement that can range from thin and delicate to bold and bombastic.

intelligent design

There is no design without discipline. There is no discipline without intelligence.

— Massimo Vignelli

design is nothing without research!

I never design a building before I’ve seen the site and met the people who will be using it.
— Frank Lloyd Wright

This is sooo true!

Good design must be defined by appropriateness to audience and goals, and by its effectiveness, not by its adherence to Swiss design or the number of awards it wins.
— Drew Davies

Memoriam font

I think I'm in love! This font is everything I love about typography. It's bold, sexy-chic and masterfully crafted!





It was was originally commissioned for the December 2008 “memorial” issue of New York Times magazine. Canada Type’s Patrick Griffin drew a luxurious calligraphic poster font loosely based on ideas found in the foundry’s Jezebel and Treasury typefaces. A great success with the editors and designers, Memoriam ended up being used all over the magazine instead of just the cover. Memoriam contains a lot of alternates, which are distributed across three separate fonts for the PostScript and TrueType formats. Memoriam Pro, the OpenType version, combines all three fonts plus some extras, in one OT-programmed file.

Paul Rand on the Play Instinct

Q: What is the play instinct?

A: It is the instinct for order, the need for rules that, if broken, spoil the game, create uncertainty and irresolution. ”Play is tense,” says Johan Huizinga. “It is the element of tension and solution that governs all solitary games of skill.” Without play, there would be no Picasso. Without play, there is no experimentation. Experimentation is the quest for answers.

Q: You design as though you were playing a game or piecing together a puzzle. Why don’t you just settle on a formula and follow it through to its logical conclusion?

A: There are no formulas in creative work. I do many variations, which is a question of curiosity. I arrive at many different configurations-some just slight variations, others more radical-of an original idea. It is a game of evolution.

Q: Then, the play instinct is endemic to all design?

A: There can be design without play, but that’s design without ideas. You talk to me as if I were a psychologist. I can speak only for myself. Play requires time to make the rules. All rules are custom-made to suit a special kind of game. In an environment in which time is money, one has no time to play. One must grasp at every straw. One is inhibited, and there is little time to create the conditions of play.