iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lastly, monotype.com is not the best reference link. Might I suggest en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetica or fontsinuse.com/typefaces/44....

en.wikipedia.org

Helvetica - Wikipedia

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Also, I think the description is an incomplete sentence. Is it missing the word “why” at the end?

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The typeface is not called “Monotype Helvetica”. A company called Monotype happens to own the rights now but it became a standard in the 20th century as issued by the Haas and Stempel foundries, and the Linotype machine. If referring to the typeface design, I would simply use the name “Helvetica”.

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Typographica @typographica.org · 31/08/2026

Unfortunately, I don't have permission to suggest changes (I guess I need an invite code?), so I’ll just post them here for now…

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Love that version of Gill Sans (single-story a) which was more commonly used in Eastern Europe.

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Typographica @typographica.org · 18/08/2026

Smartest thing It’s Nice That has done: hire @goodspeed.bsky.social. Dumbest thing It’s Nice That has done: take Meta money to do an advertorial puff piece on the IG rebrand. Anyway, here’s another good Goodspeed article: www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

itsnicethat.com

Elizabeth Goodspeed on the branding challenge behind Mayor Zohran’s new municipal grocery stores

Everyone wants to know who will win New York City’s grocery store RFP – the more interesting question is what public identities should actually do.

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Stephen Coles @stewf.com · 04/08/2026

If we happen to be in #SaltLakeCity during our wedding anniversary, of course I’m getting a bouquet at Art Floral, now celebrating their own 75th. Their neon sign went up in 1958 and they kept it glowing since. Get flowers & let ‘em know you love their sign! At night: flic.kr/p/pBzMd9 #Signs #Neon

Photo of a sign in two parts: a painter’s palette with the word “ART” in pink neon, and a rectangular background with the word “Floral” in green neon script.

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Typographica @typographica.org · 09/07/2026

Indeed, a very important book! Just one manufacturer, yet it nearly fully encapsulates a quarter-century of typographic style.

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TypeTogether @typetogether.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

‘How to Create Typefaces’ book /// The revised and updated and second edition of ‘How to Create Typefaces,’ by Cristóbal Henestrosa, Laura Meseguer, and José Scaglione, is now available, and we’re excited! Get yours: shop.itemzero.com/products/how... #typography #fonts #graphicdesign #fontsky

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Typographica @typographica.org · 09/07/2026

On that note, Neon Speaks is traveling to Reno this year to celebrate the opening of the city’s Light Circus Nevada Neon Museum. Join me and a bunch of other sign geeks for three days of screenings, talks, tours. Sep 11–13, 2026. neonspeaks.org #NeonSigns #Neon #Signs #Reno #NeonSpeaks #Nevada

Photo of a neon sign featuring a smiling cartoon cowboy with a head and body as the shape of Nevada. Lettering next to the sign reads, “Where vintage meets voltage!”

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Typographica @typographica.org · 09/07/2026

The biggest neon shop in the San Francisco Bay Area also happens to be a dazzling showroom of vintage signs. But it’s only open to the public once a year: at the Neon Speaks Festival. Get tix before they sell out: www.eventbrite.com/e/neon-works... #NeonSigns #Neon #Signs #Oakland #SFBA #NeonSpeaks

eventbrite.com

Neon Works Shop Tour 9/20

Once-a-year chance to take the Neon Works shop tour. Includes photography, tube bending demo, and vintage neon sign boneyard.

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Typographica @typographica.org · 07/07/2026

Big fan of CJ Dunn’s new Dunbar Design Repository: cjtype.com/dunbar-desig... Like other digital type specimens it’s a big long scroll full of samples and motion, but it’s as informational as it is showy. #TypeDesign #TypeSpecimens #Typography #Fonts

cjtype.com

Dunbar Design Repository

A Versatile Geometric Typeface System

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This is basically ‘style transfer’ and they do an excellent job at it. But genAI advocates really want us to believe that they are capable of extrapolation, not just interpolation, and I have seen no evidence that they are.” — Qwerasd typedrawers.com/discussion/c...

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I say that’s the ‘promise’ because in reality you'll find that generative AI actually does a pretty terrible job of producing truly novel outputs. This isn't to say that these models can’t interpolate between things represented in their training data; that they’re quite impressive at.

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“The promise of generative AI is that it can learn the underlying meta-structures of the training data, so that it can recompose and extrapolate them in ways that are novel or not represented well in the training data.

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lost when expediencies, conveniences, or short cuts are employed. … removal of the human from the process of making unmakes or stunts the human, and reduces the made thing to a mere product, which is of course how the tech capitalists view everything.” — John Hudson typedrawers.com/discussion/c...

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I grew up around artists, and I came to realise — although I only found the words for it recently — that the art, in the sense of a product — a painting or a sculpture — was only part of what they were making, and not always the important part. They were making themselves as makers, which is what is

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Q. Is it enjoyable to have to create multiple weight variations and italics for each font that you create? “This is the work. Is all of it equally enjoyable? No, but it is what trains skills and shapes us as people who make this particular class of thing.

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Critique Request for Gothic Gumdrop (100% AI-generated submission to Google Fonts)

about their influences with those who see their art. When you use AI, it obfuscates the sources of the ideas it shows you, and as a result you release things completely severed from their history and context, which is bad for everyone involved.” — qwerasd typedrawers.com/discussion/c...

typedrawers.com

Hi Everyone, The Google Fonts contributor guidelines pointed me to this forum as a safe place to get feedback on my type designs.

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Critique Request for Gothic Gumdrop (100% AI-generated submission to Google Fonts)

“One of the many truly offensive things to me about AI-driven artistic processes is that they divorce the ostensible artist from their influences. All art draws on and builds on previous work in one way or another, and an artist ought to be aware of their influences, and ideally share information

typedrawers.com

Hi Everyone, The Google Fonts contributor guidelines pointed me to this forum as a safe place to get feedback on my type designs.

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Alphabit Studio @alphabit.studio · 13/04/2026

Introducing alphabit.studio! Built for creating and editing fonts for small screens, embedded devices, retro systems, and anywhere bitmap fonts still make the most sense. Import real formats, edit with proper pixel control, and export cleanly. Enjoy, and get in touch if you spot anything lacking.

alphabit.studio

Alphabit Studio

Design monochrome bitmap glyphs with variable-width editing and validation-aware export flows.

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Thanks to @lib.utah.edu for digitizing and sharing these photos, part of the Shipler Commercial Photographers Collection held by the #Utah Historical Society. More shots of CP Markets: collections.lib.utah.edu/search?q=%22... More buildings: utah-primoprod.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explor...

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Back to Crystal Palace Markets. There were five locations in the city. Many had lovely signs. These 1936 photos showcase some that period’s typical lettering – a mix of what we now call Arts & Crafts and Art Deco. If you wanna ref that American era, this is the style. #ArtDeco #ArtsAndCrafts #1930s

Black-and-white photo of a building and parking lot.

Cropped detail from previous photo showing two neon signs: “Crystal Palace Market / Day and Night Service” and “Groceries / Meats / Bakery”.

Black-and-white photo of a building and street.

Cropped detail from previous photo showing a neon sign at the top of the building. It reads, “No. 3 / Crystal Palace Market / Day & Night Service”.

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In the window happens to be a link to another relative. Dunford Bakery was founded in the late 1920s by Hazel Love Dunford. My uncle, Doug Dunford, was a third generation owner of the company. They’re still around today (www.dunfordbakers.com/history.php) & maybe oughtta return to that script logo.

Cropped detail of first photo, this one showing three signs in the window, two are neon, and one is a painted board reading, “Bakery / Dunford Products”.

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Typographica @typographica.org · 14/06/2026

Of course, I can’t post that sign without some commentary. It’s a nice example of a classic thick-thin sign painter’s gothic, lit with a single stroke of neon at night. The “DISTINCTIVE SERVICE” lettering is particularly handsome. #Lettering #SignPainting #Signs #NeonSigns #1940s

Cropped detail from the photo in the previous post showing a closer look at the letters.

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Carlo Bassani, Il Pittore di Caratteri : Alfabeti Artistici in Colore, Milano, 1890 archive.org/details/gri_... #Calligraphy #Lettering #Alphabets #1890s #19thCentury

Page from a book showing a lowercase fraktur alphabet in red-orange with brown shading, surrounded by monolinear initials, many of Mediaeval form, in red-orange, brown, and blue.

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Matthew Butterick | Extinction-level capitalism

Speaking of Equity, its designer just wrote a piece about AI (set in the font): matthewbutterick.com/extinction-l...

matthewbutterick.com

Matthew Butterick

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He’s one of those few people who understands type designers and their craft, yet always had a focus and expertise on that other side. But, hey, as you know, I’m biased! @fontsinuse.com would not exist without his early support. He funded the first few years and sold it to the partners for a dollar.

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I hear you. That statement could have been clarified. I think Sam’s just noting how he’s seen so many type designers overlook some of the duller but necessary aspects of running a business. Most of these folks get into this because they love the craft, not the biz part.

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To me a flip implies short-term. Building or buying something with the sole plan of reselling it. Sam’s outlook sounds much more long-term; he’s just recognizing that at some point you may have to sell it.

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but continue to work. Your foundry would still have a place on the internet, its history would be preserved, and it could continue to grow even after the sale. We wanted to reassure designers that their legacy would continue.” IR: Will you theoretically sell to Monotype? SB: I would protest that.

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