Touched up I Love Ngọc Lan a bit for 2017. The homepage featured a grid of photos. The type is now set in Alda, by Berton Hasebe. The activity on the site has been quiet for a while and I don’t expect to have much interactions in the next few years. I still hope to keep it as a place to remember one of the most beloved Vietnamese singers. The site has been online for 14 years and I’ll keep it running as long as I can.
Ann Bessemans, Digital Fonts and Reading, (p.29):
A remarkable finding from the objective legibility research is that children with normal vision read with reliably fewer errors when the serif typeface DTL Documenta was used, rather than the sans serif Frutiger. This result is somewhat surprising because children (especially beginning readers) mainly read with a sans serif in primary school.
If you are a Vietnamese parent who is still holding on to the outdated traditional values, I advise you to be open-minded with your gay children.
Being gay is not a sickness. You can’t straightened him up. You can’t make him love another female. How would you feel if your mother forces you to love another woman? You can’t do that, right? Being gay is not a choice. It is who he is. Rather than opposing him, why don’t you embrace him? He needs your love and support.
Being gay is not abnormal. He doesn’t need any medication. He needs your acceptance. He is still your son. Don’t push him away.
A collection of 14 research essays focusing on legibility and readability. If you care about typography, this book will provide informative studies on reading experiences ranging from highway signages to newspapers to everything in between. Required reading for designers.
Thế là hết thêm một năm. Nhìn lại năm nay hạnh phúc nhất là đón Việt Xuân vào thế giới to lớn và gia đình nhỏ bé này. Mới đây mà đã 10 tháng. Thằng thứ ba có khác. Cái gì nó cũng nhanh nhẹn cả. Ba tháng đã bắt đầu mọc răng. Tám tháng đã thích ăn những thứ gì ba mẹ nó ăn. Thích chơi những gì hai thằng anh lớn chơi. Mười tháng đã bò khắp nơi và bắt đầu tự đứng một mình. Cái nét đặt biệt nhất của nó là hể nghe nhạc là lắc tay lắc chân rồi luôn cả đầu và mông.
Năm 2016 quá nhiều sự căng thẳng trong cuộc sống, việc làm, và xã hội. Tuy nhiên mọi thứ rồi cũng vượt qua. Năm 2017 tôi quyết định sống nhẹ nhàng hơn và giảm đi những phiền muộn. Bỏ qua hết những gì không cần thiết. Không cần phải đổ mồ hôi về những việc nhỏ nhặt. Mỗi ngày tôi sẽ chọn ngồi thật yên. Nhìn rõ hiện tại ngồi nghĩ lại mình. Đời tôi sẽ không ngốc dại nữa và không tự làm khô héo tôi đây. Luôn tự nhắt nhở rằng: “Cuộc đời đó có bao lâu mà hững hờ.”
Dù sao đi nữa tôi cũng cám ơn đời đã ban cho tôi những niềm hạnh phúc tôi đang có. Những niềm vui tôi nên nắm lấy. Những may mắn tôi nên nhận thức. “Tôi nay ở trọ trần gian. Trăm năm về chốn xa xăm cuối trời.”
The following notes come from Robert Bringhurst in Palatino: The Natural History of a Typeface.
On the beauty and structural clarity of letterforms, (p.10):
Human language appears to serve, in human cultures, a role not entirely unlike that of sexual reproduction in plant and animal biology: it is evidently a primary vehicle of exogenetic heredity. It appears to me that The beauty and structural clarity of letterforms, and their profligate, luxurious economy, are of real and practical use in this regard, just like the beauty, structural clarity, and profligate economy of flowers.
In short, it seems to me that the art history of letters and the natural history of letters can and should be understood as essentially one and the same.
On serif, (p.245):
Serif—those little entry and exit strokes through which the writing hand and the reading eye like to find their way into and out of a letterform—are also a means by which letters tie themselves into a line: a form of graphic social bonding.
On Zapf, (p.265):
In type design, as in literature, music, and painting, some of the great names—Baskerville and Caslon will do as examples—belong to people with one persistent style. Zapf was more like Picasso: an artificial highly unusual range and inventiveness.
On the remaking of type, (p.269)
Because typography is a practical art no less than it is a fine one, type has to be constantly remade.
On classification, (p.271):
We need to forget the classifications and look at the thing itself, but in order to understand the thing itself, we also need to see how it is related to everything else. And that is the point—really, the only point— of taxonomic classification.
On the ecosystem of type, (p.274)
Language, like a cello or piano, can give the savor, just the savor, of physical existence to visions that the heart can never tell and the eye can never see. Type, as a bearer of language, can do the same—not any better, but over a broader space and longer time than spoken language. That is to say, it enlarges the ecosystem.
Open a book, the performance begins. Close it, it ceases. There is nothing to watch, nothing to hear, but something happens. The mind reaches into the heart, the gut, the throat, and dances with the body. It also dances with a voice speaking out of another body: one as close as your inner ear through it might be at the same time several centuries, oceans, and mountain ranges away.
Type, unless no one uses it, never exists in isolation. The more it is used, the more it is part of its cultural watershed. Letterforms and fonts can be studied, measured, and observed, like animals and plants. But as soon as we isolate or dissect them for closer, more methodical comparison, they cease to be what they were when they were functioning parts of system to which them belong.
I have read 50 books this year, which is 6 books less than 2015. It’s still a good number according to my reading history. I do hope to keep reading around 40 to 50 books a year. I am still obsessed with reading. I read to relax and when I have time to myself. It also helps me stay away from social media. After this year’s election, I have drastically reduced reading the news; therefore, I will focus more on books next year. In addition to reading, I have started to collect books I love to keep. I will continue to update my wish list.
An attentive assessment of Palatino, a typeface with an extended family Hermann Zapf had spent six decades designed and refined. Once again, Bringhurst’s poetic prose, technical analysis, biographical documentation, and beautiful typesetting make this book a real treat for type nerds.
From Investigation to Strategy and Narrative to Design to Implementation to Engagement, Johnson delves into the five-step process as well as the essential half step that bridges the gap between Strategy and Design. Clear and approachable explanations combined with rich visual illustrations make this book a must-have guide for creating successful branding in any industry.
Came up with 10 principles for ON Designs.
Inspired by Jeremy Keith’s collection of Design Principles.