Frankenstein meets Frankenfont

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, reinvented from fragments of PDF fonts by the team at Fathom Information Design in Boston.
A team of visual storytellers from Fathom lead by data-viz wiz Ben Fry, recently recreated the entire text of Frankenstein using characters and glyphs from over 64,000 PDF documents obtained through internet searches. Precisely 55,382 different glyph shapes were extracted from 347,565 fonts in the PDFs, which were then coded and sequenced to fill all of the 342,889 individual letters found in the Frankenstein text. What emerges from this DNA-like sequencing is a new Frankenfont creation formed from font fragments by Fathoms' Fry and friends.
      The story opens with the display of the most common characters such as Arial, Helvetica and Times New Roman. As the story of the Frankenstein monster evolves, so does the text which is coded to completely devolve into grotesque shapes near the end. Familiar glyphs and fonts merge into obscure scripts; non-Roman fonts begin to appear; and even typefaces morph into pictograms. This Frankenfont transformation becomes the perfect metaphor for Shelley's classic tale of the deformed monster Frankenstein. 

While most books are typically designed to interpret the authors' words with little fanfare and with an obedience to convention as Stanley Morrison once put it, Fry's new Frankenfont edition plays with our sense of order, and the traditional design principles such as consistency, navigation and readability go entirely out the window. As a teacher of book design and typography for many years, I strongly advocate these principles of convention to my students. Afterall, books have been successfully published in this manner for over 500 years. Despite this endorsement, I'm also a big fan of innovation and experimentation in books. In Fry's edition of Frankenstein, a hallmark of book design and innovation has been reached with this conceptual approach to text layout.
      As a timely sidenote to this story, the topic of a frankenfont came up in my classroom just 2 weeks ago when Kevin Larson from the Advanced Reading Technologies Department at Microsoft, was speaking to my students about readability studies of various typefonts and individual characters. Larson is a text enthusiast and has published many studies on the science of word recognition and legibility of characters. The suggestion of a frankenfont was mentioned in jest as one which could build upon the best characters of many fonts in order to achieve greater legibility. The next day, my student Susan Schumacher added a post on our class Facebook page with a link to Fathom's new Frankenfont edition of Frankenstein.
      Copies of the Frankenfont project can be purchased in paperback or hardback editions on Blurb with all profits given to Donors Choose to buy books for students. Incidently, Ben Fry was recently awarded a National Design Award in Interaction Design in June from the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. 

All of the nearly 5500 unique words to be found in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. (Click image to expand). The key to any great novel is to put them all in the right place ; )
:: Thanks to James Gaddy of Co.Design for packaging this story so nicely.

Beyond Words

I realize this video project from Facebook's Creative Director Ji Lee is making the rounds everywhere, but yes, it is that good. You can see the stills of his visual puns at his website, Please enjoy. Or, get the print edition. This time the book is just as good as the film.
:: Thanks Nici!

A Fountain of Blackletter Text

A very unusual title page from a German text, dated 1676. It is said to be an early example of concrete typography, and it can be yours for only $450 on eBay. 

Heavenly Typography

Some people see faint outlines of unicorns in the heavenly constellations and others see dogs, or the canis minor. Yet Mr. Jehoshaphat Aspin looked up and saw a celestial type studio in the stars with a unicorn (monoceros) jumping over it. I wonder if this is where the term Jumpin' Jehoshaphat came from?
       This work is from Urania's Mirror: Monoceros, Canis Minor and Atelier Typographique, an 1825 set of lovely celestial cards (etched by Sidney Hall) accompanied by A Familiar Treatise on Astronomy, and included in the Heavens exhibit at the US Library of Congress.
:: From Trialsanderror's great Flickr site.

Typdography

Typdography from my student Cynthia Johnston. I am very pleased to be sharing some of Cynthia's design work on Letterology once again. In early February I featured a post on some of her beautiful watercolor illustrations for a redesign of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. Recently she released this set of 4 typographic dog postcards you see here as a self-promo for the Portfolio Show at school next week. Each card features the artful arrangement of letters which not only illustrates the breed of the dog, but spells the name of the pup in just one typestyle as well. She designed a lovely package design for the notecards, which at this time is just a one-of-a-kind. I am encouraging her to produce and sell this as a boxed set soon. She claims to be already working on a bulldog as her next subject. Watch Cynthia's website for more updates and I will provide more details as I know them. 

       Below are photos of Cynthia's completed design of Kafka's dark story of Gregor's morphing into a giant insect creature. Her intention was to reformat  Metamorphosis as a children's story which was in itself, quite a challenging metamorphosis. Because of the scale here, some of her details may get lost on you, but she included some wonderful patterns of bugs on the endpapers, on the wallpaper, and even on the dress of Gregor's sister. To view more of Cynthia Johnston's design and illustration work, click here.

Hobo Type

Not that Hobo type. This written language for hobos was a system of symbols developed as a code to help them cope with a difficult lifestyle. Hobo signage was often written with chalk or coal and might include directions, information and warnings such as a dangerous dog or the homeowner has a gun. Three diagonal lines signified it was not a safe place, the cross indicated angel food, which was food served to hobos after a sermon, two shovels indicated work available and a cross with a smiley face with one corner meant the doctor was willing to treat hobos for free.
      In 1889 at the National Hobo Convention, the Tourist Union #63 adopted a concrete set of sixteen ethical by-laws to govern the Nation-wide Hobo Body. Oh what a wonderful world it would be if we all lived by this Hobo Code.
1|   Decide your own life, don't let another person run or rule it.
2|   When in town, respect the local laws and officials, and try to be a gentleman at all times.
3|   Don't take advantage of someone who is in a vulnerable situation, locals or other hobos.
4|   Always try to find work, even if temporary, and always seek out jobs nobody wants. By doing so you not only help a business along, but ensures employment should you return to that town again.
5|   When no employment is available, make your own work by using your added talents at crafts.
6|   Do not allow yourself to become a stupid drunk and set a bad example for locals' treatment of other hobos.
7|   Respect handouts. Do not wear them out, as another hobo will come along who will need them more than you.
8|   Always respect nature, do not leave garbage in your camp.
9|   When in a community camp, always pitch in to help. 
10|   Try to stay clean whenever possible.
11|   Ride your train respectfully. Cause no problems and act like another crew member.
12|   Do not cause problems in a train yard, another hobo will be coming along who will need passage through the yard.
13|   Do not allow hobos to molest children, and expose all molesters to authorities. They are the worst garbage to infest any society.
14|   Help all runaway children, and try to induce them to return home.
15|   Help all fellow hobos whenever and wherever needed.
16|   If present at a hobo court and you have testimony, give it. Whether for or against the accused, your voice counts!
:: Hobo Code is Via Design Facts

The Memory Game

Built Icons Memory Game is the design of Marcel Goehring of Druckwerk, a printing studio in Basel, Switzerland. His game is a set of letterpress printed cards each designed using wood and metal punctuation, letters and ornaments to create numerous images. It includes a fold-out flyer of photos of the impressive actual type lock-ups. Instructions are also included in case you really intend to play the game, but I wonder if it can be as much fun as admiring his type illustrations and craftsmanship. Inquire here if you would like to place an order.

Robot Love

Susumu Eguchi poster for a children's science exhibition in the Tobu department store. From 1969/70 Graphis Annual. 

:: Via Sandi Vincent

Wonderful typographic robot illustration from Leanda Xavian. 

:: Via One Little Bird. 

Ubu Roi: Drame en Cinq Actes. 1982 binding by Georges Leroux, one of the most important French binders of the 20th century. One of 150 copies. The binding is of full vermillion calf featuring relief figures on both panels—the front cover depicting Father Ubu, whose eyes appear to be spinning in his head, the back cover showing Mother Ubu. Both figures have been modeled after 1950-style Japanese robots, and here Leroux has incorporated a series of real gears and clock wheels in the chest cavities of both figures, as well as multi-colored wires, metal widgets, sheet plastic, and marbles. Accompanied by a reproduction tin toy robot very similar in appearance to the ones on which the binding design is based. The Chief Robotman toy is battery powered and in perfect working condition in its original box, which bears a 1950s-style illustration with laser beams shooting out of the robot's eyes. Available from Bromer Booksellers. $50,000. No kidding.

Essay on Sculpture

Concrete poetry by Carl Andre. This appeared in the November 1965 issue of Art in America.
::Via Airform

Moveable Type

More typographic erosion from San Francisco designer Jason Permenter. This is the third in his series, each of which explores the effects of erosion and weathering on the printed word. The text itself is taken from a 1971 essay on experimental typography by the German designer and typographer Wolfgang Weingart, and is set in Adrian Frutiger's Univers typeface. I have reported on his earlier eroding texts in a previous post. Get your copy here before they erode away entirely.
::Thanks SwissMiss!

Typographical Figures

Typographic characters by designer Leanda Xavian, from Athens, Greece.

TypeCycle

Cyclist, graphic designer and silkscreen artist, Aaron Kuehn has created this large 20x13" bicycle typogram print for The Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition. The first edition sold out immediately, and a 2nd edition can now be ordered. Get yours here. You can also download a hi-rez image of his typecycle here and print your own.

Let it Snow Letters & More Letters

These jolly typographic snowflake holiday cards are brought to you by the good folks at 826 Valencia in the Mission in San Francisco—the non-profit organization promoting reading & writing skills of young people that fronts for a pirate supply store. Even pirates enjoy snow and type. Via Felt & Wire.

No Two Snowflake Fonts Alike

Snowflakes are never out of fashion this time of year—unless you have two feet of white cold snow in your front yard. (Beats two feet of water any day.) The people at If/Then in Seattle got tired of seeing the same old faux snowflakes in Carta (Some are alike I guess) so offered up this OpenType assortment of Northwest Bold Flakes (my own name) for free at If/Then. I don't happen to know the good folks at If/Then, but I think it's a generous thing they have done. Afterall, snowflakes should be in the public domain.

For faux snow of another kind, take a look at this flake font below from Kapitza. These snowflakes are much lighter little dendrites—light like Utah fresh powder—and available for a price, because it's fresh powder.

Something For Everyone

Designer In-action Figures from the Wilhelm Staehle Archive of Peculiar Silouettes.















You can purchase these and many other unusual gift items including the Lavendar Clean Get-away Handgun Soap at his eMercantile, The Bizaarium. Great for that hard to shop for type nerd on your holiday shopping list.