Through Lines 140

Despite a few lyrical liberties by Jack Black, a solid straight-up cover of Rush’s 1980 classic The Spirit of Radio for Dave Grohl’s yearly Hanukkah Sessions series.

• “…instead of thinking of technological change as additive or subtractive, think about it as ecological, as changing the systems in which people operate.” An ecological perspective is the right way to explore technological effects — it’s not about the tech itself, but how we perceive and interact with these things.
• “It’s an artificially manufactured location, one which might be entertaining enough to visit but which cannot offer the human connection it advertises, nor any underlying reason for its existence beyond profit.” The metaverse doesn't have a leg to stand on.
• The Scorpion Express, updates on the state of Variable Fonts from Matthew Butterick. Like others, I can’t say I entirely agree with his findings — variable fonts certainly are not dead by any means.
• As someone who owns one of his insane (and very large) letterpress prints, do not miss this talk with Dafi Kühne at the Letterform Archive in January.
• There’s something magical about large wood block prints. The ones from artist Valerie Lueth and Tugboat Printshop are no exception. Gorgeous work all around.
• I really can’t get enough of the incredible images from the James Webb Space Telescope. 2022 was a good year for the exploration of our universe.
• The story of Apollo 8's famous Earthrise photograph by astronaut Bill Anders.
• This 16th century volvelle calendar at Harvard’s Houghton Library is exquisite.
• Juan Villanueva and Lynn Yun launched Type Electives, a new virtual design school covering material beyond the usual educational programming.
• Sit back for an hour with this brilliant 2014 BBC documentary about Kate Bush.
• Tom Whitwell’s 52 Things I Learned in 2022 list is out.
• There’s a lot of fun to be had with Munken Creator.

Notable Type Releases

It’s been a quiet week on the type front with no notable releases this past week. It might be from my having escaped Space Karen’s orbit, or maybe that type designers have chosen to give themselves some well-deserved time off.