Faces of Funtoosh

“The whole of man is in the alphabet.”
— Victor Hugo

“Letters have a mysterious and cabalistic quality that has been recognised at least since Roman times. As the building blocks of words, and thus of languages, their magic has inspired artists throughout the ages. The illuminated initials of medieval manuscripts, ranging from Romanesque exuberance to Gothic excess, paved the way. Here were not only biblical scenes but mythical beasts and human figures that were the direct precursors of the zoomorphic and anthropomorphic alphabets of the Renaissance and later. Ornamented letters presented historical and mythological events, romantic landscapes, trees, flowers, buildings, clowns, devils, naked figures, street cries, children and every kind of animal.”

— The Animated Alphabet, Hugues Demeude, 1996, New York

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Cooking with Peter Pauper Press

My connection with the Peter Pauper Press cookbook series started during the first years I was living in California.
I recall the first time I found a book from the collection was at the Recycle Bookstore in San Jose, CA — one of the best second-hand bookstores in the Bay Area. During the years living in California I found so many great books in this bookstore and they also have two great cats.

Recycle Bookstore, Ender the cat taking care of business and my friend Calvin browsing through books, San Jose, CA. Photos by Frank Grießhammer

The first book I got was Simple French Cookery. I was in awe: from the colour combination to the type choice and the effective and simple illustrations.

Simple French Cookery (1958)

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Alphacrit: January 18, 2019

This special session of Alphacrit will focus on Indic scripts, specifically Devanagari and Odia. Kimya Gandhi and Alessia Mazzarella will review in-progress typefaces of four lucky participants seeking feedback on their work. Sol Matas will moderate to ensure a smooth crit. Read on to learn more.

Kimya Gandhi is a type designer from Mumbai with a passionate interest in Indic scripts, specialising in creating new and innovative Devanagari typefaces. Kimya is a partner at the type foundry, Mota Italic, with her husband Rob Keller. She divides her time between designing and teaching typography and type design at various design institutes in Mumbai. After graduation, Kimya gave herself two years to decide if she wanted pursue type design professionally, it’s been 7 years since and she is very happy that she did.

Alessia Mazzarella is a senior type designer at Fontsmith. After receiving a BA in Graphic Design from Central Saint Martins and a BA in Graphic and Multimedia Design from Sapienza (University of Rome), her interest in type design led her to the Typeface Design MA program at the University of Reading. She graduated with distinction in 2013. Alessia is interested in the technical and multi-script aspects of typeface design.

What to expect: Four people will present their in-progress typeface, each receiving approximately 10 minutes of feedback. The entire session will last about an hour. Participants will have the benefit of sitting in on the other critiques as well. To keep it focused, we suggest presenting either a single weight of a typeface or come prepared with a specific question about a multi-weight typeface. Specimens need to be ready a couple of days before the session so plan ahead!

When & where: Friday, January 18 at 6:30 pm GMT (UTC +00:00) via video conferencing.

Who can participate: This session is open to everyone, of any skill level, and the four spots will be drawn lottery style. Preference will be given to underrepresented groups and people who haven’t participated before. Underrepresented groups include, but are not limited to: women, people of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ individuals.

How to apply: Fill out this form https://goo.gl/forms/dvHmo8QYt7NYSJuj2

It asks for some very basic information, like your name and email address. Nothing you can’t handle.

Applications due by: January 10, 2019

Questions: Still have questions? Drop us a line at crit@alphabettes.org.

A visit to the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia

Even though I had lived in Kuala Lumpur for about 8 years previously, I had never visited the Islamic Arts Museum before. That was a time of my life before I started really getting into typography. In fact, until my friend, Sareh Heidari, told me about the museum, I didn’t even know it existed. But it’s now one of my favourite museums, and I’m so glad it’s almost in my backyard (almost, sort of).

Islamic Art Museum Malaysia

The temporary exhibition I managed to catch was Al-Tibb: Healing Traditions in Islamic Medical Manuscripts, which really showcased the Islamic Golden Age.

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Treats treats treats!

If you, like me, need some last minutes gifts or just want to make some sweet treats for the dark times, we have collected some traditional regional recipes to celebrate winter solstice.

Discussion starter was this curious apparatus I once bought in the Czech Republic but never got around to try to use. Veronika Burian was able to identify them as the iconic Vosí Hnízda – Czech rum beehives – she knew and helped with translation of the recipe: “1 žloutek = 1 egg yolk. The last 4 things are for the filling, and 240 gr of crumbled biscuits, not flour. They are super lecker!”
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Our 2018 (Type-Centric) Holiday Gift Guide

calligraphic gift tag sample

Ho Ho Holler type friends,
The holidays are fast approaching and we ’bettes wanted to give you some gift inspiration for the festive season.

I (Nicole Arnett Phillips) am particularly enamored with this amazing new project by Aussie letterer Jess Cruickshank, her Christmas Calligraphy Drive is an effort to raise funds for the Asylum Seeker Resource Center. Through this website, you can order gift tags personalized with names written in beautiful calligraphy. This lovely penmanship is for a great cause, 100% of gift tag sales will be donated. But shipping is in Australia only (unfortunate for those of use further afield)!

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