Mastodawn

Doug Wilson Nov 12

As a (now former) employee of Monotype, and someone who has been around the type industry for 20 years, I have been having many of the same thoughts that @flaviazim expresses here.

I can feel something changing, but what is it?

https://contraforma.substack.com/p/can-we-still-build-a-future-in-type

Can We Still Build a Future in Type?

An insider's look at the future of type design amid corporate consolidation, AI, and cultural volatility—and why collaboration and shared infrastructure might be the only path forward.

Contraforma

Flavia Zimbardi Nov 12

@onpaperwings it's both comforting and quite scary to know I am not imagining things—especially considering your experience and inside view. but I truly hope we can open more conversations and find some answers together.

thierryblancpain Nov 13

@flaviazim @onpaperwings Might very much just be me but to me the industry feels okay (*), it’s the world that makes it all feel that way.

*within boundaries. The huge influx of people and foundries definitely seems to have made it a lot harder for newcomers. We were extremely lucky to start in 2009.

Doug Wilson Nov 13

@thierryblancpain @flaviazim thanks for sharing your point of view. The world certainly feels messed up right now.

Yeah, the industry is certainly different than 15 years ago with a huge influx of new designers. I just fear there isn’t actually an industry for all these graduates and talented designers to work inside.

Graeme Swank Nov 15

@onpaperwings @thierryblancpain @flaviazim
I think the truism of “There’s always room for one more” can be applied. But I think there are other concerns for newer designers that is more market based. In a broad sense, for smaller one person foundries, we are essentially local businesses operating in a global marketplace that favors larger entities. Then there’s two issues I see, one that has happened and one that is in the near future (not AI)

Graeme Swank Nov 15

@onpaperwings @thierryblancpain @flaviazim
The first is that font license prices over time have not kept pace with CPI or cost of living, meaning that fonts now are deeply discounted. I have some data I have analyzed on that, but I would like to have more data points.

Graeme Swank Nov 15

@onpaperwings @thierryblancpain @flaviazim
But, if discounted fonts due to inflation is real, then I would think that favors established stakeholders (as they have more of a library, more capital, etc.) and can bear that cost more than someone starting out. To compound the problem, they’re generally the ones setting the going rate (setting aside Google, MT, Adobe, etc.).

Graeme Swank Nov 15

@onpaperwings @thierryblancpain @flaviazim
The second is what happens when legacy indie foundries start to reach retirement age? Do they sell their IP? Do they give the foundry to employees? Something else? If it’s the first I think that would make it even harder to compete against.

Sorry for the stream of consciousness, I’ve been thinking on these structural things for a while, and I’m not sure how much of that is on point.

Doug Wilson Nov 15

@swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim I agree on both points. I wish every type designer would agree to raise prices — I bought fonts over 15 years ago at $50 per style 🤯

And yes, there are multiple and the foundries that don’t want to keep making fonts into their 60s and 70s. But what can they do if they don’t want to sell to Monotype?

Ben Kiel Nov 18

@onpaperwings @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim

Doug Wilson Nov 18

@benkiel @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim Hell, yes! My first type license I ever purchased, around 2005 or so?

Kris Sowersby Nov 18

@onpaperwings @benkiel @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim What was it Doug?

Doug Wilson Nov 18

@klim @benkiel @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim Gotham as well.

Ben Kiel Nov 19

@onpaperwings @klim @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim oh, my first was Mrs. Eaves and Triplex Cond Black

@benkiel @onpaperwings @klim @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim Base. Right after they opened their online shop.

Kai Bernau Nov 19

@letterror @benkiel @onpaperwings @klim @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim
We’ve always had expensive taste I guess…

(We literally got our first credit card just for this.)

Frank Grießhammer Nov 19

@kai @letterror @benkiel @onpaperwings @klim @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim Interesting mix of fonts there

Kent Lew Nov 20

@frankrolf @kai @letterror @benkiel @onpaperwings @klim @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim Funny. In 2009, the invoice was all Charter, with Mantinia for letterhead. I think Cherie was doing them all by hand (and didn’t catch the stray tracking on the last address line). By 2007, maybe she was using business software and hadn’t managed to customize the template. 🤷‍♂️

Kris Sowersby Nov 20

@kentlew @frankrolf @kai @letterror @benkiel @onpaperwings @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim Does anyone know what the C&C wheel logo is?

@klim @kentlew @frankrolf @kai @benkiel @onpaperwings @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim Maybe related to “Carter”?

Doug Wilson Nov 20

@letterror @klim @kentlew @frankrolf @kai @benkiel @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim I've always wondered myself. If no one knows, I'm happy to ask Matthew directly.

Kent Lew Nov 21

@onpaperwings @letterror @klim @frankrolf @kai @benkiel @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim Erik’s on the right track. I believe it’s a cart wheel.

Kent Lew Nov 21

@onpaperwings @letterror @klim @frankrolf @kai @benkiel @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim And I seem to recall seeing a pinecone for Cherie on something once.

Kent Lew Nov 21

@onpaperwings @letterror @klim @frankrolf @kai @benkiel @swanktype @thierryblancpain @flaviazim Found the reference. From a 2018 correspondence: “I use the pinecone logo Matthew drew for me on my checks. I miss it, but I’m moving to paying everything I can online [...]. The cone lives on, though, on my fireplace.” She had the design cut into a tile using a waterjet.

BTW, Cherie referred to the C&C emblem (with tongue in cheek, I suspect) as “our wagon wheel logo”. 😆

Nick Sherman Dec 1

@kentlew Useless trivia tangent, but: After becoming the first full-time designer at MyFonts (pre-Monotype-takeover), one early project was a one-off newsletter called ‘Distinguished Characters’ (a pre-cursor to the ‘Creative Characters’ series) with profiles on Carter, Licko, Stone, and Unger.

Part of making the newsletter was designing little type specimens, and I made a point to include the cone dingbat for Charter’s.

Shockingly, the archived version is still online:
https://www.myfonts.com/pages/newsletters-sp-200705

Distinguished Characters: Modern classics | MyFonts

Font:

@nicksherman @kentlew Amazing! Who wrote these?

Nick Sherman Dec 1

@onpaperwings @kentlew As with the later Creative Characters interviews, Jan Middendorp was responsible for the text of this one and I did the design and coding. This issue was a kind of test where Jan and I got to demonstrate how showcasing the people behind the fonts was something worth doing. It also helped me earn more freedom with the efforts to improve the design of MyFonts stuff overall. (Before then the design of the newsletters, website, etc didn’t get as much attention / budget.)

@nicksherman @onpaperwings Nice! 😊