Font magazine issue focuses on artists and designers who are "making the rules" through generative art that processes information. It profiles FontStruct, an online platform for creating and sharing modular grid-based fonts. The editor discusses how FontStruct emerged from earlier grid-based design tools and how its integration of creation and community is unique. Future plans include adding new font controls and strengthening the community features.

1. font

2. on
04 Neue
Fonts 09 Foundry
Spotlight 13 Making
the Rules
It’s good to introduce
non-human forces,
be they mechanical
or natural, in order
to invigorate or
question existing
creative processes.
28
I need restrictions to
be creative; it’s when
I have restrictions that
I can perform my ‘art’.
9
10
Ideas can be works of
art; they are in a chain
of development that may
eventually find some
form. All ideas need
not be made physical.
14
2 Font

3. F nt Shop
Rule Makers/Rule Breakers
20 Breaking
the Rules 29 New
FontFonts 34 FontStruct:
Built with Bricks
New
A
of scanning web Where Thoreau wasn’t impressed with
pages and deleting junk email, I change, writing that, “There is an incessant
might sit back and soak in the latest flow of novelty into the world and yet we
entertainment news from Hollywood or tolerate incredible dullness,” curator and
reflect on national opinion with the chatter art critic Glen Helfand finds inspiration.
of pundits and their eternal polls that never Recognizing ours as an age of convergence,
seem to get the story right. I like to think that Helfand focuses this issue of Font on the work
it’s my obligation to the media industrial of a wide cross section of artists and designers
complex to absorb as much information as who are “making the rules” by channeling
possible or risk, like excess carbon dioxide that incessant flow through filters and toward
in the atmosphere, a dangerous buildup the creation of generative art. He convinces
of ones and zeros. us that processing information is not only
Things sure have changed in the last a reflection of our time but a celebratory
decade. When I think about the trajectory of act that can result in beautiful thought-
our contemporary society, with all the tools provoking images and objects. We also
and applications we use to publish, move, focus on six additional projects that feature
and manage information, I’m immediately graphic designers and typographers who
reminded of Henry David Thoreau. I can are “breaking the rules” by using generative
picture him sitting outside his small cabin, concepts to map ideas, from individual letters
quietly meditating on the breakneck speed to complex narratives. Finally, we toot our
of social and economic progress as the last own horn for FontStruct, a new online portal
rays of the day sparkle across Walden Pond. for building and sharing fonts that’s been
Like us, Thoreau was experiencing a profound getting plenty of blog buzz.
shi . His, defined by rapid industrial If it’s true that everything has its proper
expansion and a final push across the frontier; place, then we can rest assured that Thoreau
ours, by the release of the latest smart found his at Walden and those extra ones
phone or praise for the next big viral video. and zeros (and all that they represent) have
But unlike Thoreau, who saw a need to found a comfortable home in Font magazine.
retreat from the rules and systems that were To get started, here are a few simple rules:
quickly reshaping his world, we’ve embraced read, share, and recycle.
ours as solutions to organize physical and
electronic space or to fulfill a personal
identity within the gathering storm of the Editor
data we face every day.
™ ™ ™ ™ ® ® . 3

4. The New
FontFonts
Clan Italic
r&sOs.sÍtd
Netto
. 29

5. And so it gøes on
Hexa
Max
mp ahn Fur a-Berg re e
Chambers Sans
Ô Comptoir des Marchands
Netto
Cavallino Rampan Enzo
tax
Torre pendente di
Tisa
Quadraat® Sans Bold Italic
FAI
’Twas a fri fi ,
Nicht on your , guv’
Unit Rounded
Formal
30 Font

6. ahedron Cube
Trill symbiont
e thet c
Daxline Italic
nte u fi me
Pitu
Pisa
IR PLAY à vous Utility
methin s
Nuvo
Boot loader
Milo
characteristics Polymorph
. 31

7. Meta® Serif , ,
ǽ
1990 , ģ
FF Meta Headline Compressed
Erik Spiekermann made
several attempts at designing
FF Meta Headline Condensed
a companion for his original
Meta, arguably one of
ĵ
FF Meta Headline
the most ubiquitous fonts
of the past two decades.
Colleagues had often asked
FF Meta Hairline
which serif face would best
fit with Meta, and after
∂
FF Meta Condensed & Italic
years of recommending
a variety of suitable faces,
Spiekermann realized that
FF Meta Correspondence & Italic
he should just make his
own serif companion.
Meta & Italic
→ Meta Serif & Italic
E tęʼnđëd
Meta a “The whole Meta system is supposed
4 to solve separate typographic
tąme
@ problems while keeping
¶ . This is not a family
ſ of identical triplets, but sisters and
måŧé €
brothers or even nieces and nephews.”
ţεάm
ů The OpenType version of Meta While the serif design can stand
→ Serif o ers book, medium, bold,
and black weights, each including
on its own in a wide range of
applications, the extra benefit is
italics, , alternate numeral its close relationship to the original
⅝ styles – proportional, tabular, lining, Meta, its sans serif sister. The two
oldstyle – extra ligatures, case-sensitive families can be mixed in the same line,
punctuation, and a range of arrows and and one can be used to accentuate the
other symbols. (The Pro version also other. Using both on the same page
Q
supports Eastern European languages.) adds .
ű
32 Font

8. .
.
!"#$%
!"#$
!"#$%&
o, what exactly is this FontStruct thing?
FontStruct is a free online platform for creating and
There were also a number of comparable projects under
development at about the same time – evidence of a
broader interest in grid-based design tools.
sharing modular grid-based fonts which FontShop
International launched in early April 2008. Really? Who was behind them?
Where did the idea come from? Michael Gianfreda, Lorenz “Lopetz” Gianfreda, and Kaspar
Lüthi at Büro Destruct were working on (Büro Destruct
In many ways, the starting point was really the Meek
Designer) between 1999 and 2003. A tribute to Swiss
(also see page 28), which was my first contribution to the
design of the 1960s, it’s certainly a classic of the genre,
world of grid-based design tools, and initially appeared in
encouraging the user to make a virtue of limitation. Strict
2000. I was relatively new to the world of graphic design,
adherence to a grid, a simple point and click interface, and
having just switched from the programming to the design
a selection of simple geometric shapes to choose from
department at the agency where I was working. I was
were its key ingredients. The ability to export creations
completely ignorant of the world of typography, but soon
in a usable format was also an important feature.
became fascinated by it, and wanted to design a font;
a grid-based modular font seemed like an easy way in. Another inspirational piece of Swiss work was Lineto’s
Lego Font Creator (circa 1999), by Urs Lehni, Rafael Koch,
How did the project come about?
and Jürg Lehni. This was more explicitly a type builder,
I started laying out shapes in Freehand. My lack of but was again based on principles of grid-constrained
experience led to a lot of hesitancy in making creative construction using a palette of predefined shapes.
choices. I kept changing my mind about the forms I wanted
Fast-forward to 2005, and there was BitFontMaker from
to use – should they be spaced out or flush next to each
Japan. (I actually only became aware of this after I first
other, that kind of thing. At some point, I moved from
pitched FontStruct to FontShop in May 2006.) It shares
Freehand to Flash so that I could automate changes, and
many characteristics with FontStruct: one hundred percent
gradually built a tool to cater to my indecision. That’s
online; a simple intuitive interface for grid-based font
where the Meek came from.
creation; a gallery; and downloadable TrueType fonts.
™ . 35

9. I think FontStruct o ers a lot more than BitFontMaker, It feels unique having the creation and editing together
but it’s very well executed nonetheless. with the community features. I don’t think there are many
online applications which integrate both. It’s as if people
So there’s definitely a clear precedent for grid-based
were actually recording music in MySpace or taking
design tools, and a tradition of designers trying to create
pictures in Flickr. There’s a very close relationship between
their own more specialized tools.
the creation and exchange with others.
Perhaps it’s also partly a reaction to the complex
Absolutely. Ask even the most seasoned expert and
interfaces o ered by the likes of Fontlab and Adobe.
they’ll more than likely say they’re still learning.
Yes, it’s good to have – or at least imagine – alternatives, That’s probably what keeps so many people so
whether they are more specialized tools or simply tools interested in drawing and redrawing the alphabet
which defamiliarize the creative process. over and over again. You’re always learning and your
context is always changing.
How does the Meek di er from FontStruct?
Indeed. My main goal when creating the interface was to
The Meek is about tweaking an existing design; I wanted
keep it accessible for beginners but also powerful enough
to do something that was about constructing grid-based
to interest seasoned typographers. I wanted to remove
typefaces from scratch. Also the Meek , and, to a certain
everything that would inhibit a novice. You start with a
extent, the other projects I’ve referenced, are more toys
very simple metaphor – drawing on a grid of squared graph
than tools. There’s an emphasis on playfulness rather
paper – and you don’t have to bother with any specialist
than earnest practical production. The output is of limited
terminology or concepts. More advanced features are
quality and practical value. I wanted to make something
available from menus and with keyboard shortcuts.
that could really stand up as a useful tool to enable
modular type design. The first two months have borne out your vision and
FontShop’s foresight. FontStruct has been unexpectedly
I saw the opportunity, particularly when approaching
popular, resulting in some very high quality work and
FontShop with the idea, to create an online font-sharing
tremendous diversity. Hey, we even got a mention
community around a modular font editor; a kind of
in The New York Times! So, what’s next?
mini-Flickr for fonts, if you will. Font design really lends
itself to the online environment. The file sizes are small, We have a lot of ideas, many of them from the user
and the relatively simple systematic nature of the data community, and we’re adding features steadily. The
make the creation of an online font design tool much more highest priority at the moment is fixing minor bugs and
straightforward than an image, video, or music editor. annoyances, and adding some control over horizontal
metrics so people can define how their letters are spaced.
I’d wanted to pursue the project for quite some time
We also want to bolster the community features, such as
and had initially imagined an o ine application. However,
incorporating proper user homepages.
as Web 2.0 apps continued to get more sophisticated
and powerful, I felt a sudden panic that someone else Are you concerned that free FontStructions devalue
was bound to do this and realized that I needed a partner commercial type and might harm FontShop’s business?
with clout, with typographic expertise. . .
Quite the opposite, actually. FontStruct is fun and easy
Enter FontShop. partly because it is very limited. I think it nurtures not only
the pleasures of type design but also an understanding
Yes. It’s been a great match as far as I’m concerned.
of how much work is involved in making a font and
I’ve e ectively been paid for what I wanted to do in my
why ‘real’ fonts cost money. FontStructions have too many
spare time anyway, with no compromising of the original
limitations (everything has to be based on a grid, there’s
idea. FontShop had an immediate understanding of
no kerning, no hinting, no OpenType features, and so forth)
the potential for an online font-building and sharing
to be any real threat to FontShop’s retail sales.
platform. I think it’s quite brave and forward-thinking
for a font vendor to give people the chance to make
their own fonts for free.
. .
FontShop’s vision for FontStruct really focused on
developing a community site rather than a pure font
editor. Sharing, rating, and discussion capabilities are
all right there in the browser.
36 Font

10. !"#$%&
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,
Featured FontStructions include
Epiorque Joined, SlabStruct Too,
Ransom Note, Tight, Bolt, Texture
(shown within the FontStructor),
and Tristeak Ribbon.
. 37

11. kol' -fon(t)
Font is published by FontShop Outputs from Meek , courtesy Balance™ and Scribble™
of Rob Meek Balance marked the beginning of
149 9th Street, Suite 302
FontFont designer Evert Bloemsma’s
San Francisco, 94103
decade-long exploration into readability.
1 888 - Its peculiar horizontal stress and four
1 415 252 1003 2 Typeface sketch courtesy of Tomáš Brousil, weights of equal widths put it in a class
Suitcase Type Foundry of its own. Scribble is inspired by
www.fontshop.com the era of pre-digital composition and
2/3 Other images credited below an ironic play on the design truth that
sketches are often more pleasing than
the computer-processed final.
4–8 Images © their creators
Amos Klausner www.fstopimages.com
Stephen Coles Object photography courtesy of the 21 Boris Müller: Poetry on the Road,
LiveSurface® Layered Image Library™ 2002–2008
& www.livesurface.com Images courtesy of the artist
Conor Mangat
22 Cinthia Wen: Hours, 2003
www.mangatelier.com
Image courtesy of the artist
14 Sol LeWitt: Incomplete Open Cubes, 1974
23 Marek Walczak: Noplace, 2007
Michael Pieracci Painted wood structure, gelatin silver
Images courtesy of the artist
prints, and drawings on paper
"× "× " 24 Benedikt Groß: Seelenlose Automaten,
( . cm × . cm × . cm) 2007
Glen Helfand
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Images courtesy of the artist
www.stretcher.org Accessions Committee Fund: gi of Emily
L. Carroll and Thomas Weisel, Jean and 26 Catalogtree: Typopath . , 2002
James E. Douglas, Jr., Susan and Robert Image courtesy of the artists
Tamye Riggs Green, Evelyn Haas, Mimi and Peter Haas,
Eve and Harvey Masonek, Elaine McKeon, 28 Rob Meek: Meek , 2007
www.typelife.com
the Modern Art Council, Phyllis and Images courtesy of the artist
Stuart G. Moldaw, Christine and Michael
Murray, Danielle and Brooks Walker Jr.,
Erik Spiekermann and Phyllis Wattis. Airport™ and Tisa™
www.spiekermann.com © Estate of Sol LeWitt /Artists Rights Airport is the Lineto studio’s tribute
Society ( ), New York to the charm of displays, freight
waybills, and boarding passes. The
15 Brian Eno: Million Paintings Gateway™ fonts are based on the
© Scott Beale and laughingsquid.com electronic display systems at Tegel and
Schönefeld airports in Berlin. For Tisa,
Paragraphics, San Rafael, 15 Roxy Paine: Erosion Machine, 2005 Slovenian designer Mitja Miklavcic set
www.paragraphicsinc.com Stainless steel, rubber, felt, glass, out to create a more subtle and dynamic
galvanized steel, silicon carbide, slab serif. He succeeded, earning the
electronics, dust collector, reclaimer, Type Directors Club’s Certificate of
robot, and air Excellence in Type Design for 2007.
' "× '× ' "
© Roxy Paine, image courtesy
of James Cohan Gallery, New York
15 Roxy Paine: Erosion Machine Stone # Nuvo™
(Crime Statistics), 2006
Over 30 years’ fine printing experience, During a stay in Paris, the elegance
Limestone and extravagance of French magazines
combined with the newest eco-friendly
technologies. Proud to be a certified "× "× " inspired Siegfried Rückel to create
Green Business and the first -certified © Roxy Paine, image courtesy a typeface of his own. The result isn’t
printer in the San Francisco Bay Area. of James Cohan Gallery, New York nearly as ostentatious as his muses,
yet is sublimely usable for editorial
16 Danica Phelps: Stripe Factory Sample design in its own right. Nuvo has
for Sister ( , stripes), 2007 a so calligraphic touch with a set of
Watercolor, gouache, and pencil alternates that o er stylistic versatility.
on cut paper mounted to wood panel
"× "
Cert no. SCS-COC-00781
Image courtesy of Sister, Los Angeles
17 Lee Walton: Angels vs Boston –
Game Series, April 22, 23, 24, 2008
Ink and paint on paper
"× "
Printed with -free and
100% vegetable-based inks. Image courtesy of Lee Walton
and Kraushaar Galleries
18 Alex Dragulescu: Spam Architecture Series
Images courtesy of the artist
© 2008 FontShop International. All rights 19 Mark Napier: Spire, 2007
reserved. All trademarks named herein remain Image courtesy of the artist
the property of their respective owners. The views
expressed herein are solely the opinions of their
respective contributors, and do not necessarily
represent the viewpoint of . The contents of this
publication may not be repurposed or duplicated
without express prior written permission.
.
%
38 Font

13. FontShop
149 9th Street, Suite 302
San Francisco, 94103
1 888 toll-free
1 415 252 1003 local
www.fontshop.com