Welcome back to your favourite(?) fortnightly newsletter!
As promised, I bring details and dates this time! Be sure to read all the way to the end. đ Fair Warning: This weekâs issue doubles as a love-letter to one of my favourite genres of type. Ready for the deets?
𤤠Ugly Delicious, Type Edition đ¤¤
GROTESQUES. We briefly discussed grotesques in our last issue, but if you know anything about me, you know I love and heavily use grotesques. What are Grotesques? What makes them grotesque? Itâs time for a deep dive!
Grotesques are the genre of sans type created around 1815. Theyâre slightly crude but have a lot of visual character. Thatâs usually a fair way to spot them in the wild. Grots were initially inspired by sign type, solid, bold forms suitable for headlines and advertisements. Over time, they lost some of their quirk, got more sleek and polished and neutral as Neo-Grotesques (read: Helvetica).
As for why they were deemed âgrotesqueââ well, sans serifs were considered pretty renegade for their time. They were seen as quite ugly and obnoxious compared to their glamorous predecessors â high-contrast, modern serifs and Roman type.
If youâre keen on reading more about Grots, check this out.
đđťââď¸ Why be Regular, when you can be Degular? đđťââď¸
DEGULAR. To celebrate grotesques in all their glory, this time, I present you, Degular. If you are familiar with the brilliant work of James Edmondson (type designer, creator of Degular, and all-round genius) down at OH no Type Co, youâll know that Degular is an atypical addition to the foundryâs roster.
In Jamesâs own wordsâ
While {most of} the fonts around here scream in desperate need of your peepersâ gaze, Degular aims to fade into the background (âŚ) Degular also provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to use an Ohno font more than once!
Degular is Ohnoâs take on a familiar and beloved genre of Sans. The story of Degular might be the only thing better than Degular itself. Give this a watch!
Degular, and many others from Ohno are available to use and license for free (personal and commercial) as part of the Adobe CC subscription. It might be one of the few and only redeeming benefits of having an Adobe subscription. Cheggit!
đ Save the Date! đ
âWHY SHOULD THE NERDS HAVE ALL THE FUN?â, the title of my talk at TypeWknd. And as promised, hereâs the scoopâ
I started tttt to share my learnings and type know-how, something that had become natural to me through my education, exposure and enthusiasm. But typography is very inaccessible to most people. Most designers too! And it has been, for a very long time. Everyone knows and acknowledges the importance of good typography but thatâs where it starts and ends!
Where does one go from there? Whatâs beyond a series of Design 101 articles, hating Comic Sans and honing Google fonts?
Why Should the Nerds have all the Fun? Let's talk about how we can make typography more accessible, the story of tiptoptypetips and the way ahead!
My presentation is part of an entire weekend (as the name suggests) of type and design-related talks, presentations and workshops. And trust me, sharing the âstageâ with such a diverse, truly global and talented list of speakers is both flattering and terrifying. The conference is fully online, and FREE! All you have to do is registerâ
I went ahead and also created a calendar event for youâ Sunday, Sept 27th, 7:30AM CST | 1:30PM BST | 6PM IST. Mark your calendars, nerds!
Hope to see you all there :)
I had fun with this one! Hope you enjoyed your weekend read of The Roundup too. As always, reply to this email with any thoughts and feedback, drop me a DM on Twitter or leave a comment below đ
Until next time,
đ Sneha.
Degular is a great typeface ! Seems somewhat similar to Hagrid by Zetafonts, another great typeface â¤ď¸â¨
Loving how visually tantalizing this newsletter is! was fun to read <3