Stephen Coles

They’re usually shown as proud, fearsome creatures, but this depiction seems more realistic. In an awkward stance, gagging as he presents his rainbow wings and oversized talon, Gary is rightly uncomfortable with the whole affair.

Image found at the always enchanting BiblioOdyssey.

Shot this on my way out of Copenhagen. Bless the Danes for putting a big window on the back of their subway trains. I recommend clicking the HD button and then Full Screen one next to it.

Back from a trip to Berlin, Copenhagen, Malmö, and Stockholm. Many photos will go up soon, but first, my pal Peter Bruhn caught this moment of his son Adrian letting me join in on some construction with vintage Plasticant. Believe it or not, I was once that blonde.

I am not a great singer. There are few tunes that I will belt out without fear of embarrassment or retribution. Two exceptions: Morrissey and Salt. Here is the latter: the best song and one of the best scenes in one of the best films of all time. It doesn’t get much better than Bricusse and Newley.

Youtube users Elora, j00ntje and missbeccymay singing "I WIll Always Love You" as performed by Whitney Houston. Mixed by Ray Fenwick.

Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Randy Newman at first annual Farm Aid benefit concert. Photograph by Deborah Feingold. Courtesy Corbis.

What a weird and beautiful mix of dudes. I think I liked the photo better before I knew the context. It was intriguing, like any old party snapshot captured late at night on someone’s back porch — except that this particular party is full of music legends.

It reminded me of this pic:

For no reason other than it’s a nostalgic shot of four people I love, just hangin’ out. And also, they are musical legends too.

O Lucky Man! (1973) by Lindsay Anderson and starring Malcom McDowell is, among many things, an allegory for the pitfalls of capitalism, an avant-garde Forrest Gump, and a musical with performances by Alan Price, formerly of The Animals.

Also starring Rockwell.

Sorry for the shaky shot. That's about as good as I could do with an iPhone and The Palsy.

Tonight, on the eve of California Supreme Court hearings, I marched for the causes of equality and peaceful, respectful protest; and on behalf of my 4 siblings — all active LDS churchgoers, and all opposed to Prop 8. James, Matthew, Marilee, and Deanne: I love you and I'm proud to be your brother. Wish you could be here.

Corii sent me this record of human life as seen by a camera set on a sushi conveyor belt. It is great. Can’t think of a better way to capture candid reactions to the unusual and, for those who don’t notice the camera, an authentic documentation of everyday life. Imagine the joy of the geniuses who set it in motion when the digicam made that final turn and arrived safely in front of them, video captured.

During James’ move we found an unopened poster tube that was mailed to him and me in 2006. The handwriting was unmistakably Dad’s but was strangely neat and clear compared to other things he’d written at the time he was affected by Lewy Body Disease. We opened the tube to reveal eight travel posters he and Mom must have collected during their travels to Europe in the '60s.

Mom and Dad in the Swiss Alps, Fall 1963

Props to Sean “Spud” Keane.

The animated CV of Michael A. Charles. Also of Garson Hampfield, Crossword Inker, and Sea Water Bliss. Props to Gaela.

Oh...

yeah!

Went to San Jose’s massive but forgettable flea market a few weeks ago. Wish it was more like this one.

Her Morning Elegance
Directed by: Oren Lavie, Yuval & Merav Nathan
Photography: Eyal Landesman
Featuring: Shir Shomron

Perhaps inspired by:

After I lounge around a while, soaking in the online inauguration festivities, I’ll be cleaning up Oakland with other Day of Service volunteers. Get on up! Celebrate and serve!

My pals Jineui and JLT just returned from Korea with a New Year gift, their adoptee Olivia. I asked him what it feels like to be a dad:

it feels really, really, really, really good. pretty much better than anything else ever. even better than a really good sandwich, a MAGIC sandwich.

Ok, that’s pretty convincing. Maybe I'll reconsider my long-held stance against having kids of my own.

Carrie Fisher on her relationship with Paul Simon:

We once had a fight (on our honeymoon) where I said: “Not only do I not like you, I don’t like you personally!” We tried to keep the argument going after that but we were laughing too hard.

Paul is on the unfortunate list (with Woody Allen) of artists whose work I love but who are not very lovable. I like them, but I don’t like them personally.

On my list of good artists who are actually good people too? Alan Alda. David Byrne. Gene Wilder.

Here’s a smokin’ performance by Pacific Gas & Electric, a band I just met online 10 minutes ago thanks to my friend Norm (go read about his new book on airbrush art and buy it — you will not be disappointed). Oh glory, there is so much to love about this video — from the sheepish trumpeter, to the guitarist who tears up a great solo despite being physically impaired by an abnormally tiny head and gigantic afro, to the creepy glare from the keyboardist who only gets a shot on camera in the last minute and really makes it count.

High-end UK dealer Vintage Seekers is offering an expertly curated selection of mid-century posters featuring ski resorts throughout the Alps and other destinations. These are all uncommon original prints and the price tags reflect that fact. Those of us without the budget for these classic works of advertising art will have to admire them via our computer screens. Fortunately, VS has supplied us with a few larger images for an even better view. Twelve of our favorite posters are below — click to enlarge.

Alpensonderzüge, Germany
Otto Ottler, 1936
German Railway System

Zugerberg
Martin Peikert, 1948
Gebr. Fretz AG, Zurich

World Skiing Championships, Czech Republic
Kovar, 1969
International Ski Federation

Zermatt, Switzerland
1964
Swissair

St. Moritz
Enis, 1955
J.C Muller, Zurich

Sun Valley, Idaho
Sheets, 1956
United Air Lines

Crans Montana, Switzerland
Hans Erni, 1987

St Moritz Piz Nair
Martin Peikert, 1948
Wolfsburg A.G, Zurich

Ski Colorado
Gates, 1957
Colorado State Winter Sports Committee

Norway
Claude Lemeunier, 1957
Norwegian State Railways and the Norway Travel Association

Niederösterreich, Austria
1950s
Christoph Reissers Sohne, Vienna

Les Diablerets, Switzerland
Martin Peikert, 1949
Klausfelder S.A., Vevey

A few more favorites.
See the rest at Vintage Seekers »

See also: A Trip to Europe, 1963

Director Jeremy Konnor was clearly inspired by “American Look”, the 1958 film by Chevrolet, in this music video for She & Him’s “Don’t Look Back”. See both videos below.

We saw this news over a year ago, but HUH reports that the iconic house from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” is still for sale. The 4 bedroom, 5,300 sq. ft. landmark was designed by A. James Speyer and David Haid in 1953. The price is now reduced to $1,650,000. Not bad for a historic landmark of modernism just outside Chicago.

As a refresher, have a look at the scenes from the movie that featured the building, and the incredible 1961 Ferrari 250 GTO California that lived in the separate garage.

Via Motorator

Stella Artois consistently produces amusing, cinematic ads and their latest combines two of my loves: wood panels and control panels. Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola co-directed this spot in which the set is the star.

Can anyone ID that table? It’s got a base like a Nelson, but not quite.

Via my pal Leila and AgencySpy.

Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA) is an auction house that specializes in modern art, design, and furniture with an emphasis on works by important 20th century artists, designers, and architects. LAMA’s 50th auction on October 17, 2010 promises a strong selection, most of which has never traded hands until now.

The auction will include a variety of classic modern designs from Hans J. Wegner, such as a set of six “Wishbone” or “Y” chairs, a “Peacock” chair, a “Sawback” rocking chair, a pair of daybeds, a high-back rocking chair, a rare drop-leaf desk, a credenza, and a “Papa” Chair.

Peter Loughrey, founder and director of LAMA, has been dealing in Wegner designs since 1989 and has seen these pieces change in value and popularity. We asked him about the pieces in his October 17th auction.

“These are all mass produced items. However, each of these designs was crafted at a very high level for mass produced furniture. Out of all the pieces we are selling in the auction, only the “Papa”, “Peacock” and “Wishbone” can be bought today as a reproduction. The reproductions are far more expensive than the originals, which is a clear sign that their market value is very reasonable.”

Drop Leaf Desk
Model no. 305
Designed 1954
$3,000‐5,000

Peter says that of the pieces being offered in the auction, the drop-leaf table is the most rare design.

“The drop-leaf desk was not always available in Wegner catalogs from the period and was likely a more expensive item, therefore fewer of them were ordered by American buyers.”

Papa Chair
Model no. AP19
Designed 1951
$4,000–6,000

The “Papa” chair does not include an ottoman, which most of the time is more desirable, however this clean, restored example, could probably be purchased for half price because of that sole reason. The estimate for this “Papa” chair is $4,000–6,000 and the starting bid usually starts at half the low estimate.

“Right now, people place extra value on original condition with the ottoman, so this is a great piece to live with and sit on everyday.”

In his 60-year career, Wegner designed over 200 different chairs, in addition to daybeds, tables, and desks, which were very prolific and captured the essence of the Scandinavian aesthetic, which is still prevalent in many interiors today.

“What is extraordinary about these designs is their ubiquity, and that the market has taken them for granted. All these designs are excellent candidates to actually use in your daily life. None of these pieces are so precious and rare, that merely using them might lower their value.”

Rocking Chair
Designed 1951
$2,000–3,000

For more information regarding the October 17th Modern Art & Design auction, LAMA, and Peter Loughrey, visit lamodern.com.

Photos courtesy of Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA).

See more Wegner pieces in the MCM Gallery »

A couple of years ago, we featured the “Teak Cabinet of Curiosity”, a sewing box with some unusual swinging drawers. Since then, that model or similar — always without a design or maker credit — has made several appearances on eBay, both in Europe and the U.S. So it’s not very rare, but I’m still quite enamored with it.

Since then I’ve run across several other types of mid-century sewing boxes, each with its own clever way to store and reveal its contents, be they needles and string, or paints and brushes. Here are three favorites.

Red Felt Box — Delicate and unique. I haven’t seen anything quite like this one.

Tripod Box with Swinging Drawers — Still available!

Rolling Box with Removable Tray — Still available!

Want to see more? Bookmark the Sewing Boxes page in the Gallery. We’re always keeping an eye out for these lovely little storage pods. What would you store in them? Tell us in the comments below.

AMC’s “Mad Men” is not only one of the best dramas on television, it also debuted with perfect timing, at a moment when America’s fascination with mid-century style was at a fever pitch. Three years later, as Season 4 premieres, the frenzy for furniture and fashion of the 1960s is still hot.

In celebration of tonight’s episode, let’s take a look at the show’s immaculate, award-winning production design. Starting with Don Draper’s office.

Set in the early 1960s, nearly every shot of “Mad Men” is filled with objects from an era rich with new ideas, a time when modernism was still fresh, yet more mature than its early years — on the brink of going mainstream.

Of course, not everything we see in “Mad Men” was produced in the ’60s, as Production Designer Dan Bishop explains:

We wanted to make sure it wasn’t a textbook study of mid-century modern America — as Matt specifically pointed out, look around your own house, does everything exist from 2007 or do you actually have stuff lying around from the ’80s?

Property Master Scott Buckwald elaborates:

… there are a lot of things that are holdovers, especially for the older generation. Their cars could be from the early ’50s. You have to watch out for the misinterpretations and prejudices you might have about the era. It’s also very easy to try to jam everything that was introduced in 1960 all into one episode. You have to space it out a little bit. ’Cause everything that was developed in 1960 didn’t happen in one day.

We also don’t want to create a historical anachronism by putting a 1962 typewriter or transistor radio in, so we try to watch that, unless, creatively we just decide it’s a good way to go. Otherwise, we keep ourselves locked to April of 1960.

Don Draper’s Office

Set decorator Amy Wells was responsible for the decor. Many of the pieces are originals, like the Eames Executive Chair (see it at DWR), others are reproductions. Wells was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered in anticipation of the Season Three premiere.

Wells, oddly enough, is one of the few people on the Mad Men staff old enough to remember the era the show depicts. But she doesn’t just rely on her memories when she’s decorating a kitchen or a swanky office; she’s got a vast library of vintage catalogs and decorating books.

“One of the best references — we just used it this morning for the size of a baby blanket — is the Sears catalogs and the Montgomery Ward catalog,” she says. “They’re so specific, and they have all these items. And then I have every decorating book from the late ’40s through the mid-’60s. So Better Homes & Gardens — you know, all those decorating books that came out every year — I have all of those.”

Wells also revealed in the NPR interview her budget: $25,000 per week/episode. I imagine that’s increased since last season.

Time-Life Executive Chair (ES 105)
Eames
FD-146 Chair
Hvidt/Mølgaard-Nielsen
Boxy set
Simplaform/Futurama

Don’s office was gently remodeled between the pilot and subsequent episodes. The simple leather chairs were replaced with cane-back pieces (possibly Hvidt/Mølgaard-Nielsen), and the desk lamp went from Bauhaus to ’50s twin. Don’s all-teak Danish modern desk from the pilot was a beauty with its backside display shelf (lonely and bare) but it was replaced with something that was much more common in an American office at the time: a larger Knoll or Steelcase, with metal legs and an overhanging surface.

The drab walls of the pilot office get the biggest upgrade: rich wood paneling. Dan Bishop says in a special feature of the Season 1 DVD that the panels are real walnut (stained in the typical way), but creator Matthew Weiner thought it as too cold, so they added a red dye.

Boxy Sofa
Simplaform
unnamed sofa
Jydsk Møbelværk
Goetz Sofa
Herman Miller

The lounge area of Don’s office is anchored by a Boxy sofa, armchair, and coffee table from Futurama, a Los Angeles shop that reproduces vintage designs. (Thanks to Javi!) The Futurama sofas are manufactured by Simplaform and are inspired by Jydsk Møbelværk and Milo Baughman. If you like this look, don’t forget Autoban’s Box and Herman Miller’s Goetz.

And oh, that steel ashtray on a pedestal … the roulette cigarette dispenser … they make even non-smokers dream about decorating their pads with smoking accessories.

What sort of desk will Don Draper grace in the new agency? Maybe we’ll find out tonight. In the meantime, the Mid-Century Modernist “Mad Men” Furniture series will continue. In the next installment we’ll step outside Don’s nest and explore the rest of Sterling Cooper’s former offices and the new digs of Season 4’s Sterling Cooper Draper Price.

Read more:
Props Gallery with commentary by Property Master Scott Buckwald
Collectors Weekly interview with Buckwald
Interior Design interview with Amy Wells

Interested in items for sale that are related to pieces mentioned in this post? Mad Men Furniture Gallery »

This week, London’s Rocket Gallery is launching a collection of nine pieces from the mid-century master Jens Risom. The release is the result of a four-year collaboration between Risom and gallery owner Jonathan Stephenson who hosted the first ever retrospective of vintage Risom pieces in 2007. Stephenson says their shared beliefs — “that good design can change lives, and beautiful, well-made objects should be accessible to everyone” — facilitated the partnership. However, it wasn’t until he introduced Risom to Sean Sutcliffe and Terence Conran at Benchmark, a UK company specializing in handmade furniture, that “he was sure we could produce a product that would meet his exacting standards.” Rocket and Benchmark have jointly secured the European rights to re-issue Risom’s 1950s and 1960s furniture designs.

Risom, who was born in Copenhagen in 1916, describes himself as a Danish-born, American designer, not a Danish designer. His father Sven Risom was an award-winning architect and Risom says he lived with wonderful design for years before he “really got into it professionally.” He attended the School for Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen where he became close to Hans Wegner, one of the few designers whose furniture he has in his own home. He trained under Kaare Klint, the principal founder of the furniture school at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In 1938, he left for the United States where he thought he’d have a better chance of making a name for himself.

Stephenson says the move was born out of Risom’s tremendous ambition. “He was such a good businessman, and he always says he left Denmark partly because there was so much competition there. He wanted to be a very big player in a much bigger market. His aim was to get good furniture into the hands of every American.”

In fact, Risom describes the size of the market when he arrived with bemused dismay. “I came here without really knowing how impossible it was for a furniture designer to get going, because there was no furniture design in the United States. There was no acceptance of contemporary design or architecture. It’s true, there was nothing going on at that time. You could have looked for a furniture designer and you wouldn’t have found one. I was very, very early and it was fortunate,” he says.

Risom was ahead of his time. When he applied at at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), an interviewer could not imagine what kind of job Risom hoped to find. Risom laughs when he says he started his furniture career working as a textile designer for Dan Cooper, a well-known interior designer.

Cooper introduced Risom to many of the New York architects and designers who would champion his work. He describes the “young guys who were always coming by for a drink” as similarly discouraged about America’s unwillingness to embrace modernism.

“They were always crying in their beer because there weren’t any customers and no one would buy contemporary things,” he says. But, it was this new generation of architects — always architects — that encouraged him.

“Interior decorators were only interested in more traditional design and old things and making things look old. Anything new or contemporary especially from Europe, especially from Scandinavia, they didn’t want it,” he says.

Designed in 1949, the iconic T 539 Magazine Table appeared in the first comprehensive Jens Risom Design catalogue.

Risom, who believes one can reshape public taste with time and education, persisted. He asked craftsmen in his neighborhood — German and Italian furniture makers — to make his designs. He sold pieces directly to “the young men hanging around Mr. Cooper’s”, who went on to become some of the country’s most influential architects and designers. Risom participated in a number of high profile collaborations. One was with Hans Knoll, for whom he designed 15 of the 20 pieces in Knoll’s first collection, before starting his own business, Jens Risom Design Inc. (JRD) in 1946.

Risom felt it was important to maintain control over not only the design elements of the company, but also the manufacturing. The introduction of his 1955 catalogue states: “Everything is designed and manufactured by us. Having the planning, engineering, and production all under one roof is very important, we think. It guarantees uniformity and continuity of style.” Hardly the detached designer with a sketchpad, he was on the factory floor every week and supervised day-to-day production. His obsessive pursuit of perfection in both form and function delivered enormously successful products. By the time he sold the business in 1970 to the Dictaphone Corporation, it was the third largest furniture company in America.

Jens Risom catalogs and literature.

While trolling eBay, Stephenson discovered Risom, who was relatively unknown in the UK since the sale of JRD. He was looking at furniture and a round label on the bottom of a chair caught his eye. It was Risom’s original typographic logo. Stephenson says the design of the label inspired him to explore Risom’s work.

“His obsession with presentation and detail reminded me of my own,” he says. Moreover, this passion and discipline extended into every aspect of Risom’s business. “He wasn’t just involved with the design of the furniture, he was involved with the design of the whole company, from the selection of materials to the finish of each piece, the advertising campaigns, all the publicity, slogans, the logo, everything. He was quite an early example of that kind of comprehensive corporate identity.”

Stephenson began seriously collecting Risom pieces in 2005. After he accumulated more than a 100 examples of original designs, he phoned Risom at his home in New Canaan, Connecticut and introduced himself. He explained Rocket was interested in holding a mini-retrospective of Risom’s work.

Risom agreed, saying, “England has always been very close to my heart, in part because there was always more acceptance of modern design there than here in my own country.”

Jens Risom visits Jonathan Stephenson at Rocket in 2006.

The two began making plans, and in 2006, Stephenson flew to the United States to meet with Risom and others involved in the exhibition. Risom says, “I am very impressed with Jonathan’s courage; he is very knowledgeable and understands good design. It is a very warm affair when you find the right people.”

Stephenson says it was clear from that outset that Risom was interested in getting some of his designs back into production. His original pieces were getting harder and harder to get a hold of.

With a dwindling supply of vintage pieces, a number of companies approached Risom about reissuing his designs. Stephenson says they were turned down, “Jens’ standards were extremely high. He wasn’t confident that the quality was going to be upheld and felt that the manufacturing was going to go off to China or the Far East or whatever. He really wanted to know that the furniture was being made to the same standard that his own factory used to make it.”

Stephenson was also keen to move toward furniture production but couldn’t find anyone to make the product he needed until a meeting with Sean Sutcliffe and a visit to the premises of Benchmark in Berkshire.

“It became clear this was perhaps the only company in England capable of making Risom’s furniture to the required standards, in solid sustainable woods,” Stephenson says.

The U 620 Bench is another iconic Risom piece, designed in the early 1950s.

Benchmark is one of a handful of furniture companies left in the UK. Not only are they committed to “excellence in design, materials and craftsmanship” but also to keeping the skills and industry of furniture making alive in England. Stephenson already knew that Benchmark was exactly the right company to make the furniture, but the decision was finalized when Risom’s son Sven visited the Benchmark workshops to see the craftsmanship for himself. According to Stephenson, the younger Risom said, “The factory is exactly like my dad’s old factory, just smaller.”

When asked what makes Risom’s work so relevant and sought after, Stephenson says, “I keep coming back to how functional his pieces are, how down-to-earth. There is nothing frivolous or gimmicky about them. His work is practical but still has enormous elegance. There’s nothing unnecessary about it.”

Out of production since 1959, Benchmark and Rocket bring the simple, timeless U 431 back to life in oak or walnut with fabric or leather upholstery.

He considers Risom’s furniture perfectly positioned for a 21st century revival. “The mid-century furniture world has come through its love affair with Danish furniture and is looking for the next trend to study and appreciate. Risom trained in Denmark, but took his skills and outlook to the United States where he created furniture that was a fusion of Danish craft and American modernism. His revival is well underway in the United States and in Europe it has started keenly. Market-wise, his vintage pieces have risen sharply in value over the last three years and so it is ideal timing to offer new re-issued pieces of Risom furniture,” Stephenson says.

In his 94th year, Risom is also optimistic about the collaboration and happy to sate a world hungry for his designs.

“As far as I am concerned, England is a charming country and I like to work with them, and that is what we’re looking forward to doing with Rocket,” says Risom. “I hope people will come to see it. I hope people will come and take advantage of sitting in the chairs and using the tables and cabinets because it’s all designed very much for contemporary people, us, you and me, to use and live with.”

A preview of the Jens Risom collection will be held at Rocket on Thursday, 1 July from 6–9. The exhibition will run between the 2 July – 4 of September. The furniture can be viewed at jensrisom.com and will be available in select outlets. International inquiries welcome. The gallery is open Tuesday to Friday, 10–6 & Saturday 12–6.

Photos copyright Paul Tucker, courtesy Rocket Gallery

Welcome to the new Mid-Century Modernist. Before you even enter the doors, it’s clear things have changed around here.

First, the obvious: the façade. With the expert help of my partner in bloggery, Chris Hamamoto, we’ve widened the site and enlarged the images. A grid view makes entries easier to traverse. Categories were rescued from obscurity, given a sensible hierarchy and placed at the top of the structure. (Expect these to expand in the near future.) The new Selected space at the right shines a spotlight on our favorite items. And at the bottom of each entry, related posts and eBay items beckon you to explore further. In short, three years of existing content is completely tidied up and refurbished.

But what’s truly new is the addition at the back of the house. The Gallery is a curated showroom of the most interesting items from the mid-century modern era — for both sale and research. You can browse by tags denoting categories, materials, designers, and color. For this first release, it’s filled with items from eBay. The mega auctioneer is still one of the best ways to find affordable, original mid-century pieces online, but scoundrels and mislabeled items abound, making it difficult to seperate treasures from trash. We do the sifting for you, selecting the best items by hand every day.

Special thanks to Laura Serra for her tireless work updating legacy posts to the new format, to Daniel Pennypacker for his code wrangling, and to Christian Schwartz for designing Neutraface Slab, the typeface adorning our new transom. All other type is set in FF Dagny, designed by Örjan Nordling and Göran Söderström and served up by Typekit.

Though we’re now open to the public, our work is far from done. The beauty of the web is that a construction project is never finished. Follow the RSS feed or Twitter and keep an eye on the site for more developments in the near future. In the meantime, make yourself at home and let us know what you think. Our mailbox is open.

A BT637 calendar clock by Pierre Bodet, produced in the ’70s. Here’s the patent (PDF). It sold on eBay today for nearly $400.

This tasty bit of eye candy for flip clock fetishists brought to my attention the piece that was probably its inspiration: the Dator 5 designed by Gino Valle and manufactured by Solari Udine in the mid- to late ’60s.

A Solari Dator 5 in blue

And as luck would have it, a generous Dutchman, Raymond Van Orsoy de Flines, has published video of the Dator 5 and its dateless cousin, the Cifra 5, in action. Witnessing all the noisy mechanics whir as it changes from one month to the next only makes my lust for this marvel grow deeper.

There are more followers of Valle’s design in production today, including this wide range by Homeloo, but they clearly lack the spirit of the Solari Dator 5 or even the Bodet model.

Here’s another beautiful example of a Bodet flip clock, this one with months in English.

Finally, Adam Dorrell shot the innards of his Dator 5, noting the leap year function and blithely commenting, “This is why it’s great. No one would make a clock like this today. It would be cheaper to use ICs and a clock chip.”

Solari is still a key producer of those fantastic split-flap displays seen in railway stations and airports. In fact, such displays are often called “Solari boards”. Thanks to Luke McKenzie for the info, who notes:

Sadly, like most mechanical things that are awesome to behold, they easily fall into disrepair, and reliable, versatile, dull electronic signs are driving them to extinction.

Roger Excoffon (1910–1983) was the most talented French type designer of the 20th century and probably the most prolific in the whole of French typographic history. Being an admirer of Excoffon’s work myself I was happy to see that 2011 has brought a sudden re-appreciation of his work in the form of no less than two biographies, along with an interesting take on Mistral (called Nouvelle Vague) and Zizou.

In the words of designer Christian Schwartz, Zizou is his attempt to “draw Antique Olive from memory”. The name Zizou is a clever and witty reference to the city where Excoffon was born: Marseille.

When Antique Olive was released in 1960 it was regarded as the French answer to the rise of the highly successful neo-grotesques of the time, most notably Univers and Helvetica. It is interesting to notice that this style, and in particular Helvetica, has seen a gigantic re-appreciation (or rather over-appreciation) during the last five years.

Will a similar thing happen to Antique Olive? Probably not, since it is too outspoken in comparison to its contemporaries. A prime characteristic of Antique Olive is its play with balance and imbalance thereby breaking conventional rules for stroke contrast. Excoffon believed that by deliberately thickening the most important parts of a letter it would gain legibility.

Zizou appears to have swapped this radical idea for a return to a more conventional stroke contrast. Some critics might argue that means the design was watered down, but that’s too easy. Zizou immediately conveys this very specific Antique Olive atmosphere in a manner that is unique and highly suitable for today’s design. It does its job beautifully and admirably in the tightly tracked headlines of FastCompany which has exclusive rights to the typeface.

Now let’s hope 2012 will bring us more spiritual successors to Excoffon’s legacy executed so well.

Paul van der Laan is a professional type designer and co-founder of Bold Monday. Since 2002 he has been a regular teacher at the Type & Media masters course at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague.

William Morris’ Golden Type, inspired by the founts of Nicolas Jenson, sparked a mania for Venetian types in the 1890s that continued for nearly 30 years. But since World War I the lighter types of “Garamond” and Francesco Griffo have pushed those of Jenson aside. Dieter Hofrichter’s Cala is notable not only as a contemporary Venetian but as one not rooted in the work of Jenson.

Cala has the low stroke contrast and sturdy bracketed serifs characteristic of Venetian Oldstyle types but not many of its idiosyncratic letters. The ‘E’, ‘H’, and ‘Z’ are not overly wide; the ‘M’ does not have double serifs at its apexes; the leg of ‘R’ ends in a serif; and the ‘e’ has a horizontal eye. The head serifs on lowercase stems are flatter and less beak-like than those of Jenson. The counters are larger and more open and the x-height is slightly taller. All of this makes Cala feel contemporary rather than musty.

Fifteenth-century Venetian printers did not have italics. Unlike most Jenson revivals, which have Arrighi-based italics grafted onto them, Cala Italic is a pure Hofrichter invention. It is more French Oldstyle than chancery cursive, though with less inclination. Furthermore, the inclination is consistent throughout the glyph set – another indication that Cala is a contemporary design.

Like most OpenType fonts today, Cala has a large glyph set, which is notable for offering ‘Th’, ‘ty’, ‘ct’, ‘sp’, and ‘st’ ligatures; long ‘s’ and long ‘s’ ligatures; and beyond the usual set of fractions, including 1/5s. There are no alternate forms of letters, other than the long ‘s’. The italic has no swash characters. In other words, Hofrichter has eschewed frivolity in favor of sobriety.

Cala is a quiet design, one that does not call attention to itself. This, coupled with its strong, even color, makes it a perfect typeface for books and other texts requiring a “crystal goblet” approach.

Paul Shaw is a designer and a design historian. He is author of the book “Helvetica and the New York City Subway System” and a contributing editor for Print magazine for whom he co-writes the “Stereotype” column.

I remember the first time I saw Julien. It was in 2010, on a poster from Tipoplakat. At the time I didn’t know that the strong graphics on the poster were from an upcoming typeface by Peter Biľak. I just enjoyed the poster.

In general, geometric typefaces can be really boring and many of them are so incredibly easy to produce with simple copy and paste techniques. So, neither their shapes or their handicraft can easily impress. But Julien is different and I think it’s due to his passion and a strong will to explore the possibility of creating something original – not merely producing a revival.

I love the way Peter pushed the concept to its limit and made something really new and playful. I dont know if I should call it “art” or “type”, and it’s almost ridiculous how many different shapes and variants this typeface has for each letter, but it’s ridiculous in a good way. I almost get the feeling that the whole process of making Julien was an experiment to see how far he could take the concept, and I’m impressed with how far it went.

Julien also takes advantage of one of the most exciting of OpenType features: contextual alternates. By using a pseudo-randomization script, different letters are combined to give the typeface a unique flow. I’ve never seen geometry have this much fun.

Göran Söderström is co-founder of Letters from Sweden and has been designing type since 2006. He is self taught (hence the occasional Autodidakt moniker) and has work published by Psy/Ops, Fountain, and Font­Font. He develops custom type for various clients at Pangea design. In his spare time he cooks a mean curry and spends time with his daughter Siri, who is expected to be the youngest type designer ever. Or curry chef. Time will tell.

Somewhere between the lands of slab, sans serif, and typewriter there lives Outsiders.

In the roman it appears an elegant, sartorial slab, somehow holding itself above all others of its kind, with a bit of typewriterly officiousness, like a crisp, upper-level spy in MI6. But under the cloak of propriety in all of its seven weights, is Outsider’s surprising décolletage: a flamboyant, beautiful italic. Quelle surprise – Outsiders is gay! … or perhaps, more insidiously: French. Yes, during the day Outsiders may be sipping tea and filing precise reports, but at night it takes the Eurostar to Paris to kick up its heels along the Champs-Élysées.

All this to say that Outsiders is versatile. In all seriousness, I have used this font and find that it sets well and creates a block of text that I find very pleasing. But the italic is so pretty, so delightfully charming, that it begs to be used extensively – perhaps as one of two parts in a Q&A, or integrated where both roman and italic play together in a bibliography!

Also, note, that Henrik Kubel makes the best ‘K’s, both upper- and lowercase, in all of his fonts, all weights and styles. Could he be biased?

Marian Bantjes is a designer, typographer, writer and illustrator working internationally from her base on a small island off the west coast of Canada, near Vancouver.

Among recent Grotesque-inspired releases and Hannes von Döhren’s rapidly growing oeuvre, Supria Sans stands out to me as an especially interesting and useful addition.

The design has just the right amount of character to be memorable and unique but also restrained enough to remain thoroughly useful. Bypassing the polished rationality of Neo-Grotesques, it builds upon the hearty solidity of 19th-century faces, a heritage revealed in the curled-in jaws of glyphs like the ‘C’ or the faucet-shaped ‘r’. While some details seem quite charming, the design never gets coquettish. With its blunt inktraps, tight curves, and solid weight, Supria is ready for work.

Despite this crafty atmosphere though, its rolled-up sleeves don’t get uncomfortably sweaty. Apart from older roots Supria also appears informed by recent, softer approaches to sans-serif design, and steers clear of the sharp, sometimes clumsy vintage chic recently en vogue. With its idiosyncracies tamed just enough, this design is firmly anchored in a contemporary context. There is definitely no smell of mothballs here, but rather a fresh breeze of menthol. I’ve found Supria to feel decidedly fresh, especially when set in text, and more clear and angular than its details might suggest in large display settings.

A design that harmoniously balances such diverse stylistic factors promises to be excitingly versatile. This, along with Supria’s impressive range of styles, including a Condensed variant and the all-too-rare choice of two italics (a curly Italic – likely too cute for some applications – and a more rigid Oblique), makes it an attractive candidate for more complex typographic projects too. A winner at the 2011 TDC2 competition, Supria Sans altogether strikes me as a convincingly versatile, mature, and well-conceived face.

Nina Stössinger is a graphic/typographic/type designer based in Basel, Switzerland. She spends her days writing and designing for web and print at her own studio and many of her nights designing typefaces.

After a long hiatus (inexcusably skipping 2009 and ’10) we’re back with our annual review of the year in type.

The idea is simple: I invite a group of writers, educators, type makers and type users to look back at 2011 and pick the release that excited them most. The reviews range from the academic (like Paul van der Laan on Zizou or Jens Kutilek on FB Alix) to the theoretical (such as Jan Middendorp on Agile) to the personal (like Carolina de Bartolo who reviewed Calibre and Periódico after firsthand experience with a redesign of WIRED magazine) to the playfully unexpected (Microsoft’s Si Daniels praises Apple Color Emoji) to the exclamatory (Matthew Butterick on Neue Haas Grotesk).

This is not a juried contest. The result isn’t necessarily the “best fonts of the year”, or even those most used or ballyhooed. But these 50 selections do capture a pretty accurate snapshot of where type design is now, and where it’s headed.

If 50 seems like a lot, consider the thousands of new releases that didn’t make the list. The general public’s interest in typography continues to grow, and with that comes hundreds of new designers who are dabbling in or starting new careers in type making. Our list of honorable mentions represents only a small slice of the new fonts published in 2011.

As always, the other clear trend is new technology. By the end of 2008, we could finally declare OpenType the default font format. Three years later, in the wake of the @font-face declaration, there are new formats and new substrates as destinations for type design. Yet, in contrast to OpenType’s glacial adoption rate, webfonts are poised to take hold quickly, sparked by intelligent delivery platforms (pioneered by Typekit in 2009), early adoption by major foundries (led by FontFont), and screen-specific font design (like Font Bureau’s RE series).

The unexpected benefit of the new webfont era for an effort like this one on Typographica – it becomes easier to judge a typeface more fairly. Despite type’s long history in print, a font made today will likely be seen on screen far more often than on paper. I’ve always lamented that critics and users usually judge typefaces only on screen, not in their “proper” medium. But in an age in which we read more on screen than in print, maybe this isn’t a universal problem anymore. Of course, now font makers need to rethink the way type is made and rendered, but we’re already seeing progress there.

This year’s list wouldn’t be possible without Chris Hamamoto’s enduring design, Billy Whited’s proficient coding, Laura Serra’s image wrangling, able proofing by Matthew Coles, and, of course, all the contributors. We’re also grateful to FontFont for the newly updated FF Quadraat and Process for Anchor, typefaces that make writing and reading on the web a pleasure. Thank you!

The “Typefaces of 2011” image uses Salvo and Acta.

Doko’s name was generated automatically. Designer Ondrej Jób was only sure of how the name should sound, and – based on a small number of variables – he wrote a Python script that finally created the name he was looking for.

This is not the only thing that makes Doko unique. Doko’s features are drawn from various fields of inspiration, including comics and cartoons, illustration, and hand-lettering. The letter proportions (big head on a small body) are a direct reference to cartoon characters. In the italic styles, especially in the decorative swash caps, the nod to brush lettering is clearly visible.

As this project was started in the Type & Media master program at KABK in The Hague, Jób created extensive documentation where he states the goal of designing a serif typeface, but also plans to “have some fun” along the way. He clearly succeeded. Doko is, indeed, a serif typeface, and every letter is witness of the fun Ondrej must have had drawing it – the vigor they carry in their curves is quite evident.

Doko is a fresh take on the classic four-style type family model – pairing a Book and a Bold weight with their matching italics. Being a deliberate decision, this reduction is nice. For constructing a basic typographic hierarchy, Doko will go a long way.

Doko comes with a host of typographic niceties, such as the mentioned titling capitals, different figure styles, and a load of ligatures. Additionally, many alternate characters exist, emphasizing the playful nature of the family. By design, Doko is suited for many applications. One such fertile field is editorial design, where short paragraphs of text are combined with big headlines that can show off its illustrative features. Doko is also an excellent choice for packaging, especially if the appetizing swash caps are used. (Who wouldn’t love Doko Cereal, Chocolate, or Cream?)

Tânia Raposo is a freelance designer, dividing her time between Portugal and the US. She got her graphic design education from ESAD.CR Caldas da Rainha, and a master’s degree in typeface design from Type & Media at KABK Den Haag. Tânia has shared her passion in workshops and lectures on type design and lettering in Portugal, Germany, and the UK.

Frank Grießhammer studied Communication Design at HBKsaar in Saarbrücken, Germany and at ISIA Firenze, Italy. He received a master’s degree in typeface design from Type & Media at KABK Den Haag in 2010. After working for FontShop International in Berlin, he joined the Adobe Type Team in 2011.

With the Alda project, Berton Hasebe took on the challenge of designing a type family whose members not only shift in weight, but also in their quality of expression.

Analyzing how typefaces change their tone of voice across their weights, and how certain properties (robust, elegant, sturdy) are automatically assigned to certain stroke widths, he devised a weight system that incorporates a transition from rigid to smooth.

Bringing together so many parameters in a cohesive concept, Alda seems like the perfect Type & Media project, which is where its design was first conceived. In his documentation booklet, Berton talks about the desire of learning “as much as possible” in the one-year master course, and therefore assigned himself this very intensive graduation project.

The bold extreme of Alda was drawn with the properties of the broad-nib pen in mind, giving it a strength and sturdiness, characterized by angular joints and heavy serifs. Hasebe refers to this style as having the tension of bent metal, which is easy to see.

The light weight, however, as is especially evident in the italic, is very fluid, referencing the tension of a rubber band. The elegant, refined appearance comes from the underlying construction derived from writing with a pointed nib.

The regular style presents a middle weight between the two extremes, and – refreshingly – was not simply interpolated. Instead, it borrows features from either of the two extremes and tones them down just enough to make for an excellent type to be used in running text. The light and heavy weights clearly have their strengths in display settings, but I can also see them used in conjunction with the regular weight. Of course, Alda has everything you need in a modern text typeface, like different figure styles, ligatures and small caps. With this set of features, I see Alda performing outstandingly in the fields of advertising and publication design, especially magazines.

Frank Grießhammer studied Communication Design at HBKsaar in Saarbrücken, Germany and at ISIA Firenze, Italy. He received a master’s degree in typeface design from Type & Media at KABK Den Haag in 2010. After working for FontShop International in Berlin, he joined the Adobe Type Team in 2011.

Maximiliano Sproviero’s Reina starts with Bodoni and Didot and adds aspects of Spencerian script and the work of Herb Lubalin. The results are stunning – magnificent and graceful.

Sproviero has demonstrated his love of calligraphy in earlier work, such as Breathe (2010) and Parfait Script (2009–2010), but Reina is his most ambitious project yet, boasting 12 separate fonts. That is, three optical weights (12, 36, and 72) and an Engraved weight, plus two sets of Words (common words found in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, each enclosed in a calligraphic cartouche), a set of ornamental Capitals, and a set of Flourishes. It’s clearly a labor of love, which Sproviero completed at the ripe old age of 24.

OpenType technology, of course, has allowed script and calligraphic typefaces to come back in a big way. The Pro versions of Reina – with their alternate glyphs, contrasting thick and thin strokes, swashes and flourishes – make this typeface soar.

Personally, I am especially smitten with Reina’s Engraved set, which is beautiful and refined. Combine it with the Words and Flourishes components and you have a complete headline kit. I recommend checking out Reina’s PDF specimen to get a mouth-watering glimpse of Reina’s possibilities.

Ricardo Cordoba is a graphic designer based in Brooklyn, New York. His interests include typeface design, book cover design, and poster design. Ricardo is a frequent contributor to Typographica and also a contributing Quipsologist.

Chartwell is a set of three fonts that together create a remarkable set of tools for creating bar, line, and pie charts. It uses OpenType ligatures to perform its magic – a series of numbers can be transformed into clean, perfectly rendered graphs, as you type.

In use, the fonts are pretty straightforward, and though it’s an overused phrase, it does feel rather magical: you type numbers, it creates graphics. The formatting for all three fonts is to type the numbers as a sum, with the numbers separated by plus symbols: 20+40+10+30 for example. The fonts have a set of basic numbers and letters (resembling a compressed Trade Gothic) you can use with ligatures turned off to type in and check your numbers. Turning the ligatures on transforms your numbers into charts, and demonstrates just how many glyphs these fonts contain – up to 10,000 in each style.

Each of the fonts has a set of specific features and capabilities. Chartwell Lines creates sparkline-style graphs, while Chartwell Bars creates stacked bar charts. It’s Chartwell Pies that most feels like magic though. Like the other two, it works in whole number increments, from 1–100, but what’s interesting is what happens when you go over 100. Anything up to 100 and you get a single pie chart, go over 100 and the remainder starts a new pie chart, and again at 200, 300, and so on. Magic! Seeing a font interpret your numbers to create graphics like that is pretty remarkable. With Chartwell Pies you can also add a letter to the end of your sum to transform the pie into a ring – ‘A’ for a small hole in the pie, ‘Z’ to transform it into a hairline circular chart.

For all three fonts, you can set each number in a different color and it’ll be reflected in the chart.

Chartwell is the first in a new category of fonts that use ligatures to transform text into graphical representations while leaving the text itself untouched. In terms of a milestone it’s similar to the move from expert fonts to incorporating standard ligatures and swashes into the one font file that OpenType first enabled. The methodology does require you to type in a particular format which slightly limits its flexibility, but the promise is clear: the potential to transform data into graphical forms without losing the original text. It’ll be useful in all areas of publishing, if only to relieve the chore of creating basic graphics. For the web, however, it could be transformative: instead of icons and other indicators as bitmap pictures, they’re glyphs, stored in the right unicode slots, and selected as ligatures for particular words or abbreviations.

Aegir Hallmundur is a type-obsessed web and graphic designer living and working Brighton, England. He also runs The Ministry of Type, a website mainly about type and sometimes calligraphy, illustration, architecture and photography.