JTD Typewriter №4: Meta Newsletter, Tools, Type In Use, Enfilade
Hello from a (finally) snowy Philadelphia. It’s been a while since I’ve written. An intentional choice only part as I don’t want clutter your inbox. In the spirit of the new year, my resolution (ugh) is to put more words to the page, be more thoughtful, and try to make my little corner of the internet a place I want to spend my time (and not just sell things to you.)
To that end, I’m testing a new format for the JTD Typewriter: It’ll still have all the foundry news, in-use examples of our typefaces, and behind-the-scenes previews of upcoming work (scroll down if you just want to see the type), but it’ll also be a place for me to explore topics that I think are relevant to type design, design, or culture-at-large.
Over the past year, I’ve started every day working my way through the back catalogue of Craig Mod, a writer, thinker, drummer, (who you are all likely familiar with.) I used to spend that time scrolling Instagram but now that we’ve made the decision to stop using it, morning has become a time to slow down and get in the right headspace for the day. Craig’s thoughtful writing has been a nice change from the mindlessness of social media.
For your reading pleasure, here’s our first revamped Typewriter:
TOOLS
Every once in a while, I have a bit of an existential crisis about my work. Type design is an inherently digital process with a digital product. The fact that over a decade of output essentially wouldn't exist if a few hard drives around the world suddenly stopped working is something I grapple with; nothing is truly permanent, but there’s a lack of physicality to this work that I’ve never quite accepted.
When I do have the opportunity to use tools (pen, paper, pencil), in my work I have a tendency to get lost in them. Maybe it’s part of that deep psychological yearning for physicality or maybe it’s because our office was above a stationary store for many years. Who knows?
Since the start of the foundry, I’ve used notebooks of some kind to keep track of each typeface. I’ve tried digital tools like Obsidian but they’ve never stuck for me; I need what little physical media I can get in this job. Each notebook is rarely filled with sketched, it’s usually pages of notes, ideas, and lists. Most, if not all, of the sketching happens in the app (because I’m not very good at drawing and that’s where the end product is going to live anyway).
The notebook process is constantly being refined and it’s been settled for a while now. Writing implements, too. Despite their need for sharpening, pencils have always been the writing tool of choice. I’ve tried Blackwings and I find them too waxy or too smudgy. After much trial-and-error, Mitsu-bishi (not the car company) 9800 HB’s are my pencil of choice. The notebooks are the splurge-worthy Plotter modular notebooks. The book itself is a very fancy version of the trapper-keepers I used in elementary school, with each project getting its own folder. When the project is done, the folder ends up in a Plotter archival box. It’s a pretty robust, easily searchable system, and it’s less cumbersome than digging through old sketchbooks trying to find a project-specific note.
The links above take you to the stationary shop in the building we shared. They’re great people and I highly suggest a visit if you’re in Philly
IN USE
Hubbell, one of the largest manufactures of electronics and electrical components, recently rebranded and chose Transducer as its primary typeface.
It’s always interesting when we sell a license for Stack (our lowest-selling typeface, by far.) Every time we do sell a license, it’s used in a cool way. This time, Smith and Diction, a local studio, used it for their branded merch.
UPCOMING
On January 22nd (my birthday), Enfilade will have an update. Language support has been greatly increased (finished) along with supporting punctuation and symbols. We’re almost at the end of the road with this one—we just need to add italics, finish the remaining stragglers, and kern it—so if you're interested in it, grab it now before the final price increase.
P.S.
If you need a book recommendation I just reread Outpost, by Dan Richards and remembered why it was so enjoyable. Inside are some great insights into human creativity, as well as wonderful stories about the places we feel compelled to go to and what happens there.
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