Obama is a central focus in this midterm election. Candidates associate themselves with the President or oppose him. So I would have thought the visual identity choices would reflect this relationship. Not so much.

Rhode Island School of Design's new alumni magazine, RISD XYZ, just launched. The publication showcases the inspiring stories and accomplished work of RISD's alumni community. Chriswell Lappin of WellNow Design led the design, along with other contributing alumni, to give it not only a vibrant new look but also an exciting direction.

Best of all, much of the type is set in Antenna and Receiver, both designed by Cyrus Highsmith, a RISD alum himself (97 GD) and faculty member. The sans serif Antenna is the earlier design; Receiver is closely related, but with clear-cut slab serifs. His forthcoming ...

Thanks to my long career at Font Bureau, I can spell bureau with confidence. Now, thanks to the new slab serif version of Antenna, I can spell its name, Receiver with the same certainty. The e goes before the i ! Receiver isn’t published yet but you can check it out in RISD’s new alumni magazine, RISD XYZ.

For those of us who keep tabs on magazine redesigns, What’s been Worth Watching the past few weeks is TV Guide itself.

The magazine unveiled a fresh redesign last week with a new palette of typefaces, including several from Font Bureau — Quiosco for text, Boomer Sans & Serif for a wide range of display.

The new design by Robert Newman, James Reyman, Kate Thompson and Katherine Dillon of DillonThompson features a brighter, bolder, cleaner look and a crisp ...

A couple of weeks ago, I caught a screening of The Call of Cthulhu at my friendly neighborhood public library. H.P. Lovecraft, the author of the original short story, is something of a local hero here in Providence.

I drew the above lettering in my sketchbook while waiting for the show to begin.

Although this film adaptation was done in 2006, it’s a silent movie that appears as if it were made closer to era when the story was first published in 1928. There is an attention to detail that any typophile could appreciate—no anachronistic fonts in this production, at least as far as I could see. Check out the titles in the trailer for a taste.

Last week Fortune magazine unveiled a bold new look, spearheaded by creative director John Korpics. To herald the new direction, Korpics commissioned Cyrus Highsmith to draw a new logo for the nameplate.

Now entering its 80th year, Fortune magazine has had an illustrious history, often noted for its journalism and photography. A new logo needed to be distinguished, to demonstrate boldness, and to signal success.

photo copyright 2010 Elias Roustom

EM Letterpress recently printed a beautiful book of poetry by Barton Levi St Armand with illustrations by Walter Feldman. The poems are set in the inimitable Dante with Relay for the headers.

“In this edition we’re getting down among the serifs, fiddling about with fonts and dabbling in Qwerty as well as trying to make sense of the Myers Briggs test and where it’s usefully employed. How has the idea of the book and the mechanical printing press fared since Gutenberg’s great idea?”

Check out the sonic collage that is The Night Air podcast.

The month of January typically sees many “Best Of . . .” reflections on the year just past. John Boardley over at the I Love Typography blog has recently added his own personal Favourite Fonts of 2009 to the mix. Heading up his list is FB’s Trilby by David Jonathan Ross.

There’s no actual significance to the order, but we’re pleased to have landed a top spot anyway. And Trilby is in good company: It’s a wonderfully eclectic and tasteful gathering of fonts.

Read more by John Boardley.

Drawing a masthead is a nice change of pace. While a typeface contains hundreds of different glyphs, a masthead is usually just several letters long. You even know what order they go in. In contrast, the parts of a typeface can be assembled in almost any sequence and the letter drawer must plan for that.

There are some folks who delight in obscure letter combinations, archaic diacritic marks, and other linguistic minutiae. And it is important to take care with such details. Sometimes, I also like to just draw though.

I had a great time drawing this masthead for a ...