Copious amounts of work in the latest Los Logos collection from Die Gestalten Verlag. More in the next one, as well.

From the archives: Naruse Matsuri poster circa 2007.

Stage two of the collaborative website I’ve designed with AQ for the Asics Olympic team now online. It includes new animated content, as well as many other goodies!

I will be doing a live painting session at the Whisky Live 2010 event at Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba on Sunday, February 21 from 4:30PM to 6:00PM. Kyoto Jazz Massive will be performing live accompanying the painting. Info here.

Out now: Cooper Hilite Complete!

Cooper Hilite Complete is a complementary set of two fonts- Cooper Black and Cooper Hilite. Either typeface can be used alone, or as a stackable, multi-colored set.

The history of these typefaces:
Cooper Black, the most famous and successful of Oswald Cooper’s type designs was released in 1920, following a year of development fleshing out the weight of the typeface and filling out the full character set. Cooper redrew the lowercase characters multiple times, toying with the rounded forms of the “m” and “n” and engaged in a lively debate with McArthur over the final form as McArthur requested that the typeface be drawn bolder and bolder. Cooper famously said the face was “for far-sighted printers with near-sighted customers”, and the public agreed. Sales of Cooper Black were voluminous, and Barnhart Brothers and Spindler had a difficult time keeping up with the demand for the typeface. Conservative typographers were critical of Cooper Black, though it was overwhelmingly popular, helping to shape the American advertising landscape through the 1920s and 1930s.

1925 saw the release of Cooper Hilite, the highlighted companion to Cooper Black. The design was executed by merely painting white incised negative spaces on a proof of Cooper Black.

These two typefaces are the result of researching Cooper’s original drawings and series of engraved proofs for both typefaces. The typefaces include the full range of punctuation and diacritics that fill out a full character set. The typefaces have been lovingly kerned for the smoothest result in text setting.

Available now via MyFonts!

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior designer (iPod, iPad, iTouch, et al) likes the YACHT logo so much that he and the Apple design team dropped some free custom laser-engraved iPods on the YACHT team last week.

New bit of writing up in Scion’s magazine about my take on the work of Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh.

組織間で情報を共有するためのオンライン情報マネジメントシステム、Synapseのウェブサイト。

I wrote a 10,000 word essay called “Heft, Gravy, and Swing: The Life and Times of Oswald Cooper” for the latest issue of Idea. The essay serves as the definitive biography of the Chicago type and lettering designer, famed for his Cooper Black typeface.

The essay is the result of a long-dreamed of trip to Chicago to sift through Cooper’s original drawings, scarce writings, and working papers. Copiously illustrated with proofs of Cooper’s work, unpublished typefaces, and photographs of rare design work, his legacy is brought into contemporary focus. New biographical information about Cooper, his work, and his associates is discussed within.

Tons of images of the feature and a spicy excerpt in the Writing section.

雑誌『アイデア』最新号に、「Heft, Gravy, and Swing　オズワルド・クーパー　その生涯と時代」という1万語のエッセイを執筆した。このエッセイは、Chicagoタイプに関する、およびCooper Blackタイプフェイスで有名なレタリングデザイナーに関する決定的なバイオグラフィだ。

このエッセイは、クーパーによるオリジナルの図面、希少な文章、ワーキングペーパーを調査するための、長年夢見てきたシカゴへの旅行の成果として生まれた。クーパー、その作品、その同僚に関する新たな伝記的情報がここに論じられている。