Through Lines 168

I’m not sure why, but I find myself consistently surprised in an unexpectedly good way with new Wilco albums. Their forthcoming release, Cousin, is no exception based on the first single for Evicted. Maybe it’s the very printerly lyric video…

• It’s not exactly Eurovision, but the debate is on for Ontario's signature song. In this case, my vote has to go to YYZ (zed, natch) from Rush, for many reasons.
• Secondhand nostalgia. “They’re nostalgic for something they never had.” I would also suggest that there’s a desire for something real, different — a meaningful choice.
• I found myself enthralled by The Magic of Mr. Masking this past week and am excited to potentially see some of his work up-close in the fall when I’ll be in San Jose, Costa Rica. Now to find a copy of that book…
• Energy makes time from Mandy Brown brilliantly dovetails into conversations I had a couple days ago that really hit home as as expression of our exasperation with so much of the technology that surrounds us today.
• I wasn’t too keen on Squarespace taking over my domains from the shuttering of Google Domains, so the domain transfer announcement from Wordpress (a greater champion of an open internet) where they’ll also extend the first million domains for a year for free was a nice surprise. Moved a bunch over easily myself this past week.
• The latest from Tobias Frere-Jones and Doug Wilson is Designing Whitney which addresses the origins and inspiration behind Tobias’ seminal workhorse type family.
• One of the biggest things that changed my relationship to work was how organization growth pushed my work friends further and further away from the day-to-day. The truth is that that doesn’t need to change those relationships, not really.
• Very much related to the above: Dissocial Media — Naz, echoing feelings that very much match my own of late.
• For anyone that recently saw Oppenheimer and wants more, you might be interested in The Decision to Drop the Bomb, a long-forms documentary from the 60s featuring the man himself.
• Of course I think it’s very cool that Kodak manufactured a new B&W film especially for Christoper Nolan to use in Oppenheimer. Reminds me of the folks I met from Kodak a few years back whose business cards were pieces of film.
• A stunning digitization of The Kelmscott Chaucer has now been made available by Michael Goodman. W.B. Yeats called it “the most beautiful of all printed books.”
• Most of the 100 million people who signed up for Threads stopped using it. Easy come, easy go, though maybe more a comment on how hard it is to leave existing communities (ahem, the former bird site).
• The Unapologetic Brilliance of Sinéad O'Connor. Another on the list of those society failed at many steps during their lifetime. She was amazing. RIP.
• The death throes of a distant star. More beauty and wonder from the JWST.
• The story of the Lunar Codex. Hell yes to this.
• I’m not totally Marvel’d out yet. Loki season 2 looks like it will be good.
• Dropover looks very handy.
• Aporia looks fantastic, and devastating in equal measure.
• The Donald Judd Library. OMG.

Notable Type Releases

• The six weights of the geometric sans, Gabarito, originally designed for a Brazilian online learning platform have now been open-sourced with contributions from Leandro Assis, Álvaro Franca, Felipe Casaprima, and Henrique Beier.
• Bild v4 (the rest of Bild) from DJR puts the finishing touches on one of his longer-running projects picking up inspiration from Trade Gothic Bold and Trade Gothic Condensed No. 20 among others. Amazingly great for headlines.
• A Dot Below (ADB) released not just one, but a trifecta of new font families including ADB Fixo, ADB Spica, and ADB Luder. The first two caught my attention for their expanded language support which each covers Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Arabic.
• The vintage charm and warmth of Guidebook from Fenotype, coupled with a nice selection of swash and titling alternates gives it a playful yet still reliable vibe that would undoubtedly work well in branding and editorial uses.
• Sudtipos’ Franqueline Slab delivers a level of charming, contemporary sophistication to a classic Egyptian form. I’m intrigued by the upside-down looking S.
• Aubusson from Black Foundry was inspired by the French tapestries from the Cité internationale de la tapisserie d’Aubusson and presents a uniquely humanist family characterized by a twist on the patterns of a monospace.
• CSTM’s Backslanted is cray-crazy and I love it. Something tells me it might even get crazier as it develops further on Future Fonts.