Through Lines 092

Pass the Ball is such a fantastic piece of work full of so many fun and delightful moments by an incredible group of animators. Bravo!

• I've seen the metaverse – and I don't want it. The last line is entirely the sentiment I feel about all of the metaverse, NFTs, web3 blah blah blah.
• “…we fear our vulnerability in relation to leaders whom we must trust? To imagine that they would injure us to advance their self-interest is disturbing, even frightening. Instead, we choose to doubt ourselves.” Oof.
• “In his unfailing aversion to design trends and the influence of contemporary mass culture — which he viewed as an obstacle to original thinking — Gill was a rebellious and uncompromising design revolutionist” Design as a profession will always be something more than what I’d call cake decorating because of Bob Gill.
• As someone who works in this world, I find it increasingly hard to argue with Clive Wilkinson on the state of the workplace utopias that tech companies build.
• Workers are not a problem to be fixed, work culture is. Yes I am linking to an article from Teen Vogue. Let’s not start on the mindf**k of tech performance reviews.
• Related to the above, “Reclaiming our time is an act of sovereignty over our lives, deserved by everyone.” We all have a right to find time to be lazy — in fact, we need this to survive.
• “We conveniently ignore the fact that it is the environment that we have built that has proven to be so deadly for people.” 100% this.
• I guess I missed this last September, but such good news to learn René Cera’s Pied Pipers All is returning to its home at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto.
• Been there, done that. Thanks for sharing this Ivan.

Notable Type Releases

• Such odd timing that the same week I finish a book by the same name, DarkMatter from Altiplano type is released. An interesting contrast of vernacular forms crossed with Tschichold’s radical geometric experiments. One of the more fundamentally interesting releases I’ve come across in a while.
• Erik Marinovich’s NuForm Type foundry launched this week. Look at those beauts!
• I’d really like to find an excuse to use Orbikular from CoType Foundry for something. Anything really. The alternate lowercase e is mmmm, chef’s kiss.
• Narwa, new on FutureFonts goes all in on the Koch influences but is taking it all somewhere interesting. Will be watching this one.
• James Todd is a man who knows his craft and just happens to makes good type. Oculi, which just got a nice update this week (and another name change) is no exception.
• Heavy stencil fonts are cool, but it’s when you end up with something like Pensum Stencil from TypeMates and those middle, intermediate weights… that’s when you have my attention.
• Alder Road from Beasts of England (aka Simon Walker) is jumping to the top of my wishlist. Those all cap settings… swoon!