I was about to make a special announcement on a consulting project I landed, but I had to suppress my excitement after reading the NDA. Oh well!

One of my favorite rollerblading techniques is the ability to drop in. The highest I can do is an 8-foot, curved ramp. Anything higher than that is just out of my league. Đán, on the other hand, has mastered his dropping techniques and he has the confidence to pull it off. Here are some of his awesome drops:

1. Wakefield Skatepark (1)
2. Wakefield Skatepark (2)
3. Reid Menzer Memorial Skatepark (1)
4. Reid Menzer Memorial Skatepark (2)
5. Powhatan Springs Skatepark (1)
6. Powhatan Springs Skatepark (2)
7. Scott D. Eagles Skatepark (1)
8. Scott D. Eagles Skatepark (2)
9. Scott D. Eagles Skatepark (3)
10. Scott D. Eagles Skatepark (Slo-mo)

I admire his skills and confidence.

The Snowman is back and he might forgive, but he never forgets. Jeezy delivers 29 tracks all by himself. He raps the bars and the hooks. His flow is still slow and eerie. His storytelling is still captivating. I didn’t I could finish 29 tracks, but I had gone through at least three times. I could quote his rhymes and punchlines on any track, but I leave you with this one: “They wouldn’t let you in the door, but I walk you in the buildin’ / Only thing I’m takin’ care of, nigga, is my children.” Glad to hear a hustler’s taking care of his kids.

Last Friday was my last of work for 2023. I will return on January 10, 2024. I need a long break.

As soon as I found out about the release of Playpen Sans, designed by Laura Meseguer, Veronika Burian, and José Scaglione, I typeset the “Cổ tích nhi đồng” sample page again. Playpen Sans has an organic handwriting quality that fits well with the folk tales for children.

When setting the stories in Playpen Sans’s regular weight, I was surprised how well the text can be read. The TypeTogether team had done an exceptional job of keeping the authenticity of the handwriting style without compromising readability. Striking that balance requires research, time, and skills. The final product shows that they had invested in all three.

Playpen Sans comes with Vietnamese diacritics right from the initial release. The combinations, the stacks, and the positions of the marks are spot on. What I love the most is the bottom tail of the hook above, which adds a handwriting touch to the mark. In my type reviews, I always recommend the bottom tail.

While admiring the diacritical marks, it occurred to me that I have seen this typeface before. I went back to my font review archive and there was Playpen Sans, but under a different name. José Scaglione had sent it to me a while ago to review. I almost forgot all about it until now. It is incredible that they made Playpen Sans free for anyone to use.

When I took over the law school website, responsive design started to gain traction. In my interview presentation, I made the promise that I would make the whole site responsive if I were hired. Even though I had very little knowledge on server administration, which was the main responsibility of the web services developer position, I was hired.

My supervisor at the time told me, “Although you don’t have much backend knowledge, you have a strong sense of design. I am sure you will be able to pick up all the server stuff.” I was thrilled that she had more confidence in me than I did in myself.

To keep my promise, I ripped out all the HTML and CSS and rewrote them from the ground up. I also approached mobile first in my responsive redesign. I did not use any frameworks; therefore, everything I coded tailored to the site—nothing more, nothing less. At that time, we still used floats for layouts, but as soon as the CSS grid landed on major browsers, I rewrote the CSS to take advantage of the grid functionality.

To give our site more flexibility, I developed layout patterns based on the grid system. I put together a demo page to show different combinations (buttons, images, text, video). The grid can accommodate at least 12 layouts. The best part is the fluidity of the grid system. It is made to adapt to any digital device.

Neue DIN, made in Berlin by Hendrik Weber, Andreas Frohloff, and Olli Meier, has been German-engineered to take advantage of the variable-font technology. Neue DIN packs 81 styles into one single variable font. The weights span from extra extra thin to black and the widths vary from extra extra condense to extra extra wide.

With the power of variable font, the sky’s the limit. From advertising and packaging, editorial and publishing, film and TV, logo and branding, poster and billboard, software and gaming, sports and entertainment, wayfinding and signage, to website and user interface, Neue DIN is ready to take on any platform and environment.

Neue DIN supports 435 languages, including Vietnamese. Ivo Gabrowitsch and the talented team at Fontwerk cared deeply about the language expansion; therefore, they reached out to me when they designed Vietnamese diacritics for their typefaces. It had always been a pleasure experience working with them, and Neue DIN was no exception.

As versatile, flexible, legible, and incredible Neue DIN is, I wish it had an oblique or italic companion. Without italicized letters, a typeface can’t be a textface. In most writing formats, including APA, MLA, and Chicago, emphasis and title of source needed to be italicized. Let’s hope Neue DIN will have italics in the future.

Last week I relaunched this blog with a new text face, Kaius, designed by Lisa Fischbach. Today I found a tiny bug in its Vietnamese diacritics. The breve and the hook above on the lowercase a (ẳ) are mapped to the circumflex and the hook above (ẩ). I thought I misspelled my Vietnamese, but the issue was the font. I reported it to the designer. Hopefully she’ll get it fix.

In the meantime, I needed a new text face; therefore, I went ahead and licensed Herbik, designed by Daniel Veneklaas. I wanted to license Herbik a while back, but I hesitated because I have been spending way too much on fonts. Now I have the legitimate reason to get them.

I could have used an open source typeface on Google Fonts or rented a typeface on Adobe Fonts, but I wanted to use typefaces from small, independent foundries and to host them on my site—not from a third party. I love Herbik. With buoyant and robust serifs, Herbik lends versatility, readability, and legibility to long-form reading text.

I’ve been reading Manuel Moreale’s People and Blogs. I am so glad to see people are still blogging. I’ve been doing this since 2003 and haven‘t stopped. It’s all good, baby baby!

Since the release of my book, Vietnamese Typography, in the winter 2015, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with type designers and type foundries around the world. I reviewed their diacritics and made recommendations to improve legibility and readability for Vietnamese readers.

When I decided to drop my book on the open web, I wanted to provide a complete resource for designing Vietnamese diacritics. I did not think about the advising service until David Jonathan Ross reached out to me to review his hyper-stylized typeface called Fit. As the name of the typeface suggested, everything must fit—even the diacritics. The double-stacked marks in Vietnamese proved to be a challenge. We went back and forth many rounds until we came to the perfect fit. In our collaborative efforts, I learned about his design process and decision making.

After my work with David, I realized I could offer similar advice to other type designers. As my site reached the type community, requests for reviewing Vietnamese diacritics rolled in from different parts of the world, including Dalton Maag in London, TypeTogether in Vinohrady, Sandoll in Seoul, Fontwerk in Berlin, Grilli Type in Lucerne, Klim Type Foundry in Wellington, TypeNetwork in Seattle, and Frere-Jones Type in Brooklyn. For a complete list, visit my client section.

In addition to typefaces, I review apps, websites, and any materials with Vietnamese text. As a result, I added type advisor to my resúmé to make the title official.