Take one kern pair of individually talented characters occupying different code pages on the same OpenType planet. That’s one tangle of a typographic metaphor if ever there was one. Next, toss them into a creative Thunderdome where collaboration, unexpected plot twists, and smack talk are equally useful as both tools and weapons. Oh, this is going to be good.
Read between the leading and you should be able to extract a salient point. Typographers are still designers. They are influenced and formed by their environment, culture, personal experiences, and toolsets — just as much as any creative. These influences become unavoidably embedded in the work they produce. However, there is often an elusive, mysterious quality to typeface design that borders on the dark arts. There is also the quirky, jargon-laden language of type. Adjust your side-bearings. Recalculate that em-square. And for heaven sake, please place your nodes at the extrema. Such talk may imply that type design is for the privileged few. There have even been rumours circulating that strange, undulating devices known as ‘French Curves’ are still in use, being applied to blank sheets of paper in the hope of enticing new characters to appear, as if by magic, upon its surface...
It’s nothing like that, I assure you.
This is the first time that two accomplished typographers have competed head-to-head and layer-by-layer in a match. Although Peter Bruhn in Malmö, Sweden and Mark Simonson in Saint Paul, Minnesota are separated by nearly half a planet, they share a similar, clean typographic aesthetic. Techniques may differ, unfamiliar tools may be employed, but the fundamentals are as sound as an extra bold slab serif. Surely their decision to throw a little FontLab into the mix will be liberating, exhilarating, and quite possibly, exasperating for both parties.
Ok boys, get your glyph on.
Peter designs distinctive typefaces and runs the Fountain type foundry from the top floor of a turn of the century building in Malmö, Sweden. He readily admits to being “obsessed” with typography and enjoys browsing through second-hand shops for vintage type catalogues and specimen books. When he’s not flexing his creative muscles, Peter enjoys cooking for his family, drinking wine, making music, watching movies, and reading exhaustively ... which actually makes it sound like he’s retired.
Based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Mark specializes in lettering and type design under the highly appropriate Mark Simonson Studio banner. He has designed dozens of popular commercial typefaces, but is also known for his pitch-perfect essays “The Scourge of Arial” and “Typecasting: The Use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in Movies.” A little known fact about Mark is that he’s also the proprietor of Mark’s Very Large National Lampoon Site.
Grant photographs suburbia, creates interfaces, parses fonts, noodles code, appreciates compunabula, and sweats the details in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys black coffee, low-bit electropop, vodka martinis, geometric sans serifs, Chuck Taylor hightops, Speyside single malts, juggling, and the smell of a freshly tarred roof. Grant was one of the founders of Veer and is currently head glyph monkey at Typostrophe.
Tickets | Archive | Blog | The Crowd | HQ
Hello, friends, please note we've compiled the 2010 preseason into one easy-to-watch video along the lines of our Season Two video. When will Season Three start? What surprises await? Season Ticket Holders will find out first, and tickets don't cost a dime!
Oliver Reichenstein of Information Architects in Tokyo submits the final volley (Oops I just accidentally typed "vinyl folly!") Our humble document has clocked over 21,000 miles today, and almost that many layers. Thanks for joining us for this and all our preseason matches. Sign up for free Season Tickets to be the first to find out about our regular season!
Here's a list of the players for today's Around the World in Ten Layers match. There is no coin-flip for today but that doesn't mean The Ref isn't busy.
Don't forget to sign up for Free Layer Tennis Season Tickets to get the scoop on the regular season, which starts later this year. Plus who knows? Maybe you'll get a chance to show your stuff in a Qualifying Match.
Subscribe to the LT RSS feed.
Layer Tennis is presented by Adobe® Creative Suite® 5
© 1999-2010 Coudal Partners, Inc. All Rights Reserved | Privacy | | Clients | 
CP RSS Feed