Founding president of Society of Graphic Designers (GDC) dies

John Gibson
It's been reported by DesignEdge Canada magazine that one of the founding members of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GCD), John Gibson, has died at the age of 83. Coming out of a typographic background, starting as an apprentice compositor in London, England, he became the first secretary of the Typographic Designers of Canada in 1956, after emigrating to Canada. After

Graffiti cover is parting shot for Toronto Life art director

Jessica Rose's final cover as art director of Toronto Life (she is moving to Britain) has a timely graffiti theme, what with the current mayor Rob Ford whitewashing wall art wherever he finds it. It illustrates the popular annual August Best of the City issue which will be on newsstands July 14.The cover lettering is by London-based artist/typographer Henrik Kubel/A2/SW/HK and the photograph was

The top 10 typefaces of the decade

Paul Shaw over at the design site Imprint has posted his list of the top 10 typefaces of the decade (2000 to 2010). (Shaw was the author of the list "top 100 typefaces of all time" which was published in 1998 in the newsletter of the Type Directors Club. This later was modified by Ben Archer as 100types, who tried to track down digital versions of each font.)In his top 10 list, Shaw made it clear

And, and, and, and, and, and...to benefit Haitian relief

The tragedy of Haiti has brought out some unusual fundraising initiatives; one of these is Font Aid IV, from the Society of Typographic Afficionados (SOTA).  The proceeds from the sale of a special font will go to Doctors Without Borders. Previously Font Aid ventures have benefited war and disaster refugees and the victims of 9/11. According to a story in Dexigner,
Type designers, graphic

Cheese or font

Friday fun. [Thanks to SPD for letting us know about this] A site where you can test your knowledge of fonts...and cheese...and the differences between them. You can do a scored test or a random, unscored quiz that is work-avoidance of a high order. See if you know your Gouda from your Goudy.

Dimensional typography -- moving out of flatland

For all type dweebs there's a long essay in eye weekly eye magazine on dimensional typography. It is full of paragraphs like this one:These dimensional projects stretch the definition of graphic design. They add fresh substance to the decades-old debate about whether the moniker ‘graphic’ design is appropriate to what we do. This dimensional typography highlights novel twists on design processes,

Futura to Verdana: Ikea stirs up designers by switching fonts after 60 years

"Look, I know this isn't world hunger. But if a company like Ikea can make this mistake, you have to wonder who is going to lead when it comes to design."-- Romanian designer Marius Ursache, who was so incensed about the furniture chain's decision to drop its ubiquitous customized Futura font in favour of Verdana, he started an online petition in protest. See the Time.com story.

Type shop provides print buyers with tools to measure ecological footprint

A Toronto type shop called Colour Innovations has launched a new feature on its website that allows print buyers to measure their ecological footprint, reports Design Edge Canada.Under the Eco Tools button on the site are definitions of numerous environmental terms, links and an FAQ section with important questions to address to your print and premedia suppliers.“We’ve put the information for

Canada Type introduces "personal licenses" for commercial fonts

Toronto-based type company Canada Type is introducing "personal licenses" for their fonts that make them available for non-commercial use at 20 to 35% off the cost of a commercial license."We'd like great design and conscious typography to be natural for everyone, so this is certainly a step in the right direction."said co-founder Patrick Griffin.Personal license customers may use Canada Type

Helvetica turns 50

An interesting piece in today's Toronto Star about the Helvetica typeface, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Freelance writer Ryan Bigge looks at the plain and elegant swiss typeface that has spawned numerous imitators (including the pretender Arial) and now a film that is an advance sell-out for two showings in Toronto's Hot Docs festival. Typography is not simply a frou-frou debate

Making the rounds with Gotham

Even if you wouldn't know a "stemless glyph" if you found it in your soup, you may be interested in what is considered a very big deal in the typography world with the release of Gotham Rounded; apparently Gotham is a favoured typeface among the cognescenti and rounded faces are de rigeur for Web 2.0 applications. This, from an item in Typographica, an online journal about type. (There's no