Digested on January 24, 2003
Posted by David Earls

Stupid ADSL.

Everything is already so new and shiny and oh so intriguing in the world of typography this year, don't you think? ATypI, SoTA and Typophile all got major online upgrades this month. The first two launched totally redesigned websites to impress the public with, and Typophile re-launched its immensely popular and rather good forums, but with a twist.

Lets start with Typophile. The redesigned forums are certainly pretty and offer several worthy enhancements in functionality, but the real interest lies in the introduction of a multi-tiered subscription model. Now members can upgrade their accounts for cold hard cash, and help support what is clearly a worthwhile and accessible venture. Becoming a paid-up supporter is not entirely selfless, mind - Typophile send you goodies including tshirts and CD Roms, plus access to 'exclusive' forums, including one that allow the downloading of early builds of typefaces for critique. Sure its a pain in the arse to be forced into using PayPal, but I think it might just be worth it.

But wait, there's more - Typophile have started a series of live chats with typography luminaries, starting out with an hour long discussion with Tamye Riggs. It could be an interesting development and potentially a lot of fun, but the moderators need to ensure that it does not becoming a broadcast voice for those with off-topic political agendas to push, as it nearly degenerated into with its first outing.

ATypI and SoTA both now have far more professional online presences, but just like Typophile, thats not the interesting bit. SoTAs membership structure appears to have changed, now offering a range of benefits such as discounts on font purchases, Typophile subscriptions (hmmm) and books in addition to their free exhibit hangings, TypeCon discounts and so on. ATypIs new website now seems to be updated far more often and is keeping its ear to the ground for new developments.

Have you noticed it yet? Subscriptions? Events? Restricted content? Membership benefits? A place of discourse and education? All of a sudden, whether intentionally or not, Typophile is beginning to sound less like a website, and more like, well, ATypI and SoTA.

Onwards to a pair of great interviews. Andy Crewdson gets to talk to Gerald Lange, the lucky bugger, while on my side of the Atlantic, Jean-Francois Porchez has posted the first part of his interview with Gabriel Martinez Meave and Alejandro Lo Celso. Both worth your time.

On the subject of Jean-Francois Porchez, the Typographer.com masthead this week is set in Sabon Next, designed by the very man himself. Look out for more guest mastheads in the future.

Lots of events coming up. The New Typography - An Interdisciplinary Symposium is being hosted on Thursday 13 March 2003 at the Institute of Education here in London. Speakers will include Lucille Tenazas, Elliott Peter Earls, Teal Triggs, Theo van Leeuwen, Paul Elliman, Mikon van Gastel, Gunther Kress and Sue Walker. If you're interested, contact Helen Ainsworth on 020 8547 8867 or email: thenewtypography@hotmail.com

Matthew Carter and Charles Creesy will be presenting The New Digital Monticello Type: History and Inspirations on Tuesday 23 February 2003 at The Grolier Club in New York - further details in this handy PDF if you'd like to attend.

Enough for one post, till next week, internet permitting...

Jean-Francois suggested a guest masthead archive. Good idea, I'm on the case already.


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Digested on January 5, 2003
Posted by David Earls

My ADSL line and router have been having a row, with the result that they’ve broken up, and gone their seperate ways (at least as far as the web is concerned). I have managed to FTP some small changes to the site (additional recommended books, a change of email address and a little addition to the About section), but as the main content is managed with a web-based interface, I am, as they say, buggered. Until Virgin Internet, British Telecom and Zen Internet have sorted things out between each other, I can’t reliably post. Should be back in approximately 5 days time, providing all goes smoothly.

Quickie type news though: there is a new website for ATypI which looks a whole lot better than what went before. Also on the web front, after a few days in the internet wilderness, the Porchez Typofonderie website has returned under the new domain name of typofonderie.com.

Happy new year!

Connectivity Update One:
British Telecom are pretending that there is no such ISP as Virgin.net and have cancelled my order for me. Gee thanks, I wonder what they will say when I let them know that I can’t pay my phone bill due to me denying their existence. Goodness knows when it will be sorted out.

Connectivity Update Two:
Amazingly, British Telecom have three people across the entire UK dealing with ADSL migrations. I am now waiting for one of those three people to set an expected time for the transfer to occur, which might be as late as the end of January.

Connectivity Update Three:
Now Virgin.net are refusing to migrate my line at all. I have to cancel my contract with 30 days notice from the, then start a whole new adsl installation with Zen. Minimum time – 5 to 6 weeks. I want my old analogue modem back. I want to be able to access my favourite websites from home again. I want to be able to maintain my website that I've looked after for 5 years. I want my mommy.


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The masthead is currently set in Sabon Next, by Jean François Porchez.




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