Big news from Tiny Type
The most difficult part of creative work is figuring out ‘what it means’. And the truth is, if you spend a lot of time working alone, sometimes you go a little crazy. Like staring at clouds will eventually reveal an animal of some sort, it’s important to remember that a cloud isn’t really a sheep. Clouds can be beautiful on their own, without any belabored fantasies overtaking things.
To cut things short, to cut poetry with purpose, I decided to do something about my cloud gazing. Starting today, you can buy my fonts. I’ve been sitting on these for a long time – some of them a very long time indeed – and I think it’s time to set them free.
The launch catalog is small, and the fonts are for big use. If you’ve known me for a while, these are familiar faces. If you’re new to me and the Tiny Type Co, let me introduce you to the vanguard.
Matching serifs and sans-serifs as a type family concept is a relatively young idea1. It’s certainly too young for William Caslon the elder. Now imagine an alternate universe, a typographic fantasy, where William Caslon and Eric Gill, perhaps the two most famous British type designers, were one and the same. This is where Dover Display started: Caslon and Gill, brought closely together, to explore Britishness from the outside in.
☛ See and buy Dover Display, starting at €50 per style
Piet Zwart, the Dutch industrial designer and typographer, is known for a stark and stylised approach. But the lettering he designed for his friend and peer Berlage is very quirky.
To date, there has been no digital version of this charming lettering style. Monumental Grotesk is my attempt at righting that wrong. With broad language support and a wide set of typographic extras, it can find a new life for many more people.
☛ See and buy Monumental Grotesk, starting at €40
Open for business
So: today has three pieces of good news. Piet Zwart’s spirited lettering is finally given life with Monumental Grotesk. A typographic historical design fiction is fleshed out with Dover Display. And last but not least, the Tiny Type Co. has started business. I hope to show you a lot more type to come.
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Martin Majoor’s Scala and Scala Sans are an early example, as is the Thesis superfamily by Lucas de Groot. ←