iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 25/09/2026

Come on, let us mix Arial and Helvetica. Or do you fear the ancient prophecy?

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 09/09/2026

I do wonder how long we can keep this ball in the air.

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 07/09/2026

Another strong contender in the shudder olympics:

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 13/08/2026

(Aren't there a couple of One Key Scenes in that one? If it's the one toward the end, I feel that's important to preserve as an early, impossibly pure, must-have-been-grown-in-a-laboratory, example of Mansplaining.)

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 08/08/2026

❤️. And, how has no one done a book that collects hundreds of one-page essays in which designers talk about the notions of “design” that they grew up with?

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 08/08/2026

That's wonderful! (And joinery-only — so great. One of the things I love about Japan.) My dad also taught me what he knew, but as a theatrical set designer, everything he built was non-functioning, and designed to be viewed from one side only, from 30' away, and taken down in six weeks. 😄

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 08/08/2026

But if the woodworking bug continues to bite, take a class! You'll have access to someone else's jointer and planer (and dust collection, and expertise), and can knock out some impressive things in a short time. Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking is my haunt, & Makeville in Brooklyn is great.

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 08/08/2026

I hear that; nearly everything I've made in the past three years is from Baltic Birch Plywood, too (because it's shop furniture.) Working with hardwood is less about "patience" than tooling (plywood arrives flat, hardwood needs to be milled), and design (wood moves, plywood doesn't much.) →

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 07/08/2026

(Isn't three years enough for even 12/4 walnut? There's always the kiln option, which will also dispatch any critters inside…) Signed, Sitting On A Pile of 8/4 and 5/4 Butternut From A Tree We Took Down, And I Still Haven't Hooked Up The Jointer

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 07/08/2026

Love it! Working with the tools you make yourself is one of the great joys in life. Now tell me more about this desk! Photos?

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 02/08/2026

It's so hard to work with at a sewing machine. Still, never gonna give it up, though it never lays right down.

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 17/06/2026

Splendid S.A.D.B.! I was going to guess Red-tailed Hawk as well. (That little ⓘ button in your Photos/Camera app might be helpful here: it’s often, though not always, illuminating.)

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 31/05/2026

I just can't believe it's 2026 already and we haven't come up with a better plural for "moose." I mean, honest to god, what are we even doing

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 29/05/2026

I didn't even get as far as the mode, because my mind, unbidden, rapped the title to the rhythm of ”Left My Wallet in El Segundo”

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 29/05/2026

The final act of the blackletter mystery — with, additionally, some unpublished work that I couldn’t help but share 🙂 hflr.io/eginvy5

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 29/05/2026

“I meant ‘gallimaufry’ as in ‘congeries!’”

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 06/05/2026

I still think “Bezozes!” has potential as a minced oath

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 06/05/2026

This looks like a Google Lens translation

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 26/04/2026

On the relationship between ethics and the AI business: a cogent and thoughtful perspective from the always-great Paul Ford. My gift link, to share on your own channels: www.nytimes.com/2026/04/26/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | This Is How We Get Moral A.I. Companies

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 13/04/2026

Ah yes — that’s “historical contemporary fiction (literary)”, as opposed to “historical contemporary fiction (modern)”

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 12/04/2026

If offered as a distinction from the contemporary historical fiction novel, we must demand “contemporary contemporary fiction novel”

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 05/04/2026

My favorite blurb of the movie was from the FT, which declared it "worryingly erotic"

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 01/04/2026

And friends, if you haven't read her “Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries,” hop to it. It is such a delight. www.amazon.com/Word-Secret-...

amazon.com

Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries

Amazon.com: Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries: 9781101870945: Stamper, Kory: Books

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 01/04/2026

Aha! @korystamper.bsky.social’s new book arrived today, and the week ahead is suddenly immeasurably brighter!

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 30/03/2026

3. Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken:” written to mock an indecisive friend, now interpreted as salute to individualism

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 30/03/2026

2. “Funeral Blues” by W. H. Auden (“Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone”): written to satirize the exploitation of tragedy for political gain, now quoted earnestly at funerals →

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 30/03/2026

What else belongs on this list? 1. “Schrödinger's Cat:” invented as a send-up of Bohr and Heisenberg, now invoked as a demonstration of quantum mechanics →

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 24/03/2026

I wonder who else it's said that about?

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 18/03/2026

I'm going to be mightily disappointed if they don't respond to each one with “yup, it’s a bug”

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 05/03/2026

Today I learned that Cambridge University has published high resolution photographs of their collection of Baskerville punches. Cue the revivals!

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 27/02/2026

One of the great logos, achieving everything that we hope for: it’s meaningful, recognizable, relevant, practical, reproducible, memorable, and fun. RIP, Jean Widmer. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/a...

nytimes.com

Jean Widmer, Designer of Celebrated French Graphics, Dies at 96

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 26/02/2026

In December, I casually sent a vacation photo to Paul Lukas, a friend and fellow obsessive, because it had an inverted “H” that I knew would give him a giggle, or vex him, or both. Two months later, amazingly, these 2,000 words: www.inconspicuous.info/p/h-bomb-a-f...

inconspicuous.info

H-Bomb: A Frank Lloyd Wright Typographic Mystery

The famed architect made a surprising error on one of his most notable buildings — or did he? A deep dive to uncover the truth.

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 17/02/2026

Fantastic, Brendan — thank you for finding this and sharing it! (Off to smear some mentholatum under my nose, à la “Silence of the Lambs,” and see if that holds back the nausea.)

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 17/02/2026

I’m really glad they left “regulating commerce” on the table for all those Star Wars prequels.

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 17/02/2026

Surely someone has tracked his collected posts, and scored them by how quickly he makes them about himself. At 39 words, this feels about at par, but I’m not a scholar, and lack the constitution to wade any deeper.

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 17/02/2026

HOW have I never known the word “logodaedaly”?

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 16/02/2026

Not many people remember that Washington’s father created the role of Val in “A Chorus Line”

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 16/02/2026

Say what you will about AI, but it's the only technology that’s ever managed to effectively combine mansplaining with the ritual apology

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 16/02/2026

Now I'm hearing this to the tune of "Que Sera, Sera"

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 13/02/2026

Note, he mentions “Killybegs, Kilkerry, and Kildare,” but can’t do a fellow a solid and include “Killarney,” which is a perfectly respectable variety of raspberry plant. This obvious fact, known to me for nearly one full minute, could have cemented a highly asterisked half victory on a technicality.

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 13/02/2026

"Ish," he says! (How's The Kale In Glocca Morra?)

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 13/02/2026

Me, incredulous: “Sumbitch mentions rutabaga, arugula, and even *rampion,* but can’t slip us a little *kale*?”

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 13/02/2026

A great piece of information visualization by Prof. Christina Pagel — and maybe the first time I’ve ever seen a toggle between “Classic UI” and “New UI” that shows two equally great interfaces. Bookmark and share!

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 12/02/2026

The good news is that you never need to say “Ixflinambdafrt,” you just need to remember that it’s the thing your doctor interchangeably refers to either by its trademark name “Celefebraxis” or its category name “the modal BFAI inhibitor”

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