ff super grotesk: 15 of 20
An exchange between a colleague and me yesterday morning:
— I was at Barnes and Noble last night and I thought of
you. I saw a kickass book on fonts.
— Oh really? Do you remember what it was called?
— Uh, it was big and blue and had “typography” in large, white
letters on the side.
— Ah, yes. That book is called Typography, and it is
kickass indeed.
And then I made a mental note: Please, Self, you really
must reincorporate “kickass” into your vocabulary, for
your use of it fell to the wayside right about the time you
began to lose interest in Molly Hatchet, Def Leppard, and
Loverboy, and your conversations these twenty years have no
doubt suffered owing to the lack of it.
So last night, when I arrived home from work, I opened up that
kickass, trilingual, ten-pounder, and the first figures on which I lay my eyes
were captioned Drescher, 1936–39, Arabella; Drescher, 1956, Antiqua
505 Bold.
I attempted to decipher the text at the top of the page: no, no, German. To the left: Hmmm, French.
At the bottom: Ah, there we are. I’ll get this damn book figured out yet!
Then, I scanned the bio: Arno Drescher, 1882 to 1971 – I should live so long. Taught at yadda, yadda, et cetera. Fonts: Arabella and
Antiqua 505, just like the examples. But wait – he’s the original
Super Grotesk guy, and there’s no mention of it here. To the fontfont.com info panel I went.
Now I am, generally, a rather even-tempered person, but a nice,
ol’ geometric sans-serif can make me rather giddy and not even a
little insane. House Industries’ Catalog No. 31 – yeah, the
Neutraface one – well, I slept next to it for a month.
This unhealthy behavior had its precedent formed when the
FontFont folks sent me a little brochure nearly four years
ago. It featured, among a few other new faces, FF Super
Grotesk by eBoy’s Svend Smital, and at the time, this font was an
answer to my prayers.
I longed for a Futura with a little flair and flourish, and
Smital’s resurrection of Super Grotesk provided exactly
that. It boasts more than a smattering of standard and unusual upper- and
lowercase ligatures; it contains a nicely drawn set of text
numerals; and it includes a less geometric, alternate a and g.
Here’s a sample.
Drescher’s association with Super Grotesk strengthened in
2001 when Bitstream released Drescher Grotesk BT, by
Nicolai Gogoll. It lacks the bells and whistles of Smital’s
design but is available in twice as many weights as well as
a cut with an enlarged x-height.
With such splendid variants on the canonical form as
FontShop’s and Bitstream’s interpretations
of Drescher’s Super Grotesk,
DTL’s and Font Bureau’s (recently expanded)
cuts of Nobel, and now House Industries’
Neutraface, not to mention The Foundry’s
digitized archetype itself, it is truly a – what’s the word – oh yes, a
kickass time to be a geosans lover.
22-March 2003
high point of the day
Compose, check, check again and once more, close eyes and pray, and then
hit “send.” Kaboom!
(Stagehand cues Alamogordo test film.)
Broadcast email: Such raw, awesome power; such reach, such breadth. A chorus
of dings and clicks; chairs swivel and eyes train. Read receipts
flicker up the screen like ocean over the bow of the Titanic, and replies
constitute second, third, and fourth waves, battering, and ultimately puncturing,
my hull.
“I look forward to your training course.”
“I will be out of town that week. Could you offer your course on another date?”
“I do not have time to attend. Could you just send the PowerPoint deck?”
(Exit protagonist. Fade to black.)
17-March 2003
psychic squabble
Ego: ...you know, Indie Fonts – it’s that book featuring the work of
independent type foundries. I simply haven’t had the time to scrutinize
it like I should. Do you two think you’re up to the task? Now as usual,
I’m taking the weekend off. Let’s see what kind of progress you can make
by Monday morning...
Id: Independent? Foundry...? Ha! Two great big anachronisms, where type is concerned.
Nobody’s independent anymore, and foundries no longer exist. And to feature the
work of these so-called independent foundries in a book? Catalogued schmaltz, I say!
Superego: Guided by instinct, as usual, Id. Please explain yourself.
Id: Let’s begin with independent, shall we? Well, everybody and his dog is selling
their wares on possessiveadjectivefonts.com or is hooked in through the Creative
Whatever, which in turn is arm in arm with the granddaddy of them all. (Singing:
Do you know the way to San Jose...?) Besides, you do know that independent is just
a euphemism for small, don’t you? That’s right, in this context, independent simply
implies secretly wishing one’s enterprise were bigger. Independent – such a noble
thing to be in these organic-eatin’, hybrid-drivin’, tree-huggin’ times of ours.
And foundry! Sheesh, foundry harkens back to the days of punchcutters and matrices
and casters and such. Making type these days means a couple of kids sittin’ around
in their underwear playing connect the dots with Bézier curves. And a book to show
these types in? Have these Indie people ever heard of the Internet?
Superego: Completely irrational, and not funny in the least. Let me cross-examine you;
where were you last Friday afternoon?
Id: Huh? Whaddya mean?
Superego: Were you not along for the ride with Our Master?
Id: Hey, I’m predestined to be unconscious most of the time and you know it. Not fair!
Superego: Let me refresh your apparently nonexistent memory. Master drove over
to the Chank Company to pick up the Indie Fonts book. The company is headquartered
in the beautiful, old California building in Northeast Minneapolis – a converted
warehouse – not in some shiny, sterile office complex in the suburbs. This is
independent. Master was then greeted by Chank himself, book in hand, and the two of
them had a dandy chat over large lattes. When was the last time John Warnock met Master
for coffee and handed over a book? This is what it means to be independent. Chank then
proceeded to show Master some of his fonts in said book, fonts
whose development and production were dictated neither by the whim of the
disinterested wealthy who sit on corporate boards nor by the rising and falling
fractions of a share price, but rather, by personal interest and passion.
This epitomizes independence! And as for type foundry, did you bother to
check the glossary in the back of the Indie Fonts book? No, because you’re
illiterate and entirely preoccupied with carnal desire. It says, “Literally,
a place for the manufacture of type...in modern terminology, a designer or
company that creates and/or distributes digital typefaces may...be called a
type foundry.” To your penultimate point, we have no evidence whatsoever
that Gutenberg did not set the 42 line bible in his underwear. (You had to
mention underwear, didn’t you.) Besides, I don’t care whether Chank drew
Chunder in his underwear or Matthew designed Miller completely naked! You’re
obsessing on nomenclature and missing the point as a result. Finally, to
address your tired, old, screen vs. print argument, try as you might to
keep up with the happenings of independent foundries and to stay abreast
of their new releases, not to mention marking the appearance of new foundries
themselves – well, it’s an undeniably Sisyphean task. Not all independent
foundries have websites, and those that do are largely limited to displaying
their typefaces as GIF images. Are you really fully satisfied by a collection of GIFs?
Id: Me? I’m never satisfied! Heh heh...
Superego: Get serious! People who use type print. And people who consider
purchasing a typeface will scrutinize a sample – far preferably a printed
one – before spending the money. There simply is no substitute for high-resolution,
printed output. You’ve taken a look at the book; honestly, did you ever see
the faces of LettError, Psy/Ops, and Test Pilot Collective look so good?
Id: Um, no. But...
Superego: But nothing! The work of independent type foundries needs and
deserves to be celebrated, collected, and catalogued for the simple reason
that it is done in a spirit of independence – free from all the constraints
that corporations and their trappings can impose. Look around you – type is
everywhere. On everything from street signs to cereal boxes, from storefronts
to solicitations. And much of the best of that type was produced by independent foundries.
Id: Alright, alright, you’ve convinced me. Shiny gold star for you. But we’ve
still got a book to read.
Superego: Indeed we do – let’s get on with it! Now, what did Master say? Oh yes,
“Let’s see what kind of progress you can make by Monday morning...”
13-March 2003
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