Studio Notes #59

Hello there, Type & Design Friends. Here's issue #59 of Studio Notes™—quick bits delivered to you each Friday.

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I'm loving the behind-the-scenes look at these stop-motion shorts from Snotmotion (great name). Within a minute or two they expose some magical DIY animation techniques. And the best part is that they made these little films about funny sports moments just for fun.

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Citizen Printer looks like a fantastic book covering the work of letterpress artist, Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. It includes over 800 reproductions of his “type-driven messages of social justice and Black power, emblazoned in rhythmically layered and boldly inked prints made for the masses”. Important messages made beautiful with handmade printing.

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Even before I knew the backstory, I've been hailing Tony's Chocolonely as the best chocolate bar out there. Not to mention the pleasing, uncoated paper packaging with its handmade-esque lettering. But who knew “Tony” is actually Teun van de Keuken, a Dutch journalist that was upset by the forced labor practices in the cocoa industry who set out to make some Fairtrade bars in a better way to prove a point. It turned out, the chocolate was so good it grew into a permanent business. And I'm glad it did.

My only complaint about the bars is the uneven, random scoring they have which makes breaking off pieces difficult and messy. But now that I know it's meant to symbolize the inequality in the chocolate business, I have come to love it.

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I don't know if this is real or not, but I sincerely hope it is. Brilliant and amazing reactions when combining specific chemicals within a single drop of water. The results look like miniature Big Bangs or supernovas exploding or other cosmic events that, let's face it, I don't know how they would actually look in real life but it's how I imagine they would.

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It's that time of year, folks. I don't make the rules of commerce. So, for the next week or so, everything in the shop is 25% OFF—that includes all fonts, all goods (tees, hats, decals, books, etc.). Use code BF25 at checkout.

Also! I'm including our Secret Club™ membership in the sale as well. It's perhaps the best time to join the club by taking 25% off the annual subscription for your first year. You'll get community access, FREE fonts, and more. Use this link to get the 25% off discount.

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What are you working on?

I ended up banging out a large-ish update to our Parkly typeface—an all-caps display sans inspired by old WPA National Park posters. This new version 2.0 fixed a lot of things that were bothering me, but also now spans four widths, adds many more glyphs including diacritics and expanded language support, National Park signage arrowhead arrows, and more. It's a free update for folks that previously purchased a license. If you've bought Parkly in the 2 years or so, you already received an email with the update. If not, feel free to reach out and I'll get you sorted out. And of course, Parkly (and all fonts) are on sale right now (see above).

I hope you have a fabulous weekend, and we'll see you back here next Friday.

Cheers,