there's no scratching around this week

Forgive me, forgive me, but I'm going to start this post with a moan. Why is it that organisations like to tinker around with what they're giving you, dress it up as 'making the user experience a whole lot better', and in the process make life ten times more exasperating? And then refuse to listen to you when you question what they're doing?

I logged on to my bank account yesterday morning to make a payment - to a new supplier. A few clicks of the button should do the trick. But, oh no. The service has been upgraded and I can't do that any more. Now I'm told I have to phone a 'team' on a premium-rate number. Turns out, after spending an hour on the aforementioned premium rate number, that my account is being 'migrated' and in future I'll need a card reader to carry out that transaction. Except they can't send me a card reader because my migration is still pending. Well, why don't you tell me that on your web site, NatWest Bank, instead of wasting an hour of my time? Oh, I see, it's to improve security. But what about my 'user experience': you'll pass my comments on to a 'customer care team' who will call me back within the next 48 hours. THANKS A BUNCH.

And so to TypePad - who have also 'improved' their service. Not for me, though TypePad: because the search tool is no longer available to some users. THANKS A BUNCH.

Because, you know what? I'd really like to use that search tool. Why? Because I want to mention Matthew Carter in this post (when I get around to starting it), and I know I've mentioned him before on this blog - but I can't remember when. Easy to find with a search tool. But without, I'd have to go back and read every post I've ever written in order to find it. THANKS A BUNCH.

But of course, NatWest Bank and TypePad don't read this blog, do they? No, they're too busy 'improving' their services. THANKS A BUNCH.

So, sorry to put you through that lot, dear reader. At least I feel a bit better now. And so, on to the real stuff: the 52 fonts and the letter S. And, once again, I'm spoilt for choice.

Ah, that's better already, isn't it? Sabon: designed by the great, the one-and-only, Jan Tschichold. And I must say that I was tickled by the description of Tschichold on the Textism site: 'a shit-disturber of the highest order'.

Tschichold designed Sabon in 1964, and it was produced jointly by three foundries: D. Stempel AG, Linotype and Monotype. This was in response to a request from German master printers to make a font family that was the same design for the three metal type technologies of the time: foundry type for hand composition, linecasting, and single-type machine composition. Tschichold turned to the sixteenth century for inspiration, and the story has a complicated family thread that connects his Sabon design to the Garamond lineage. 

Jakob Sabon, who the type is named for, was a student of the great French punchcutter Claude Garamond. He completed a set of his teacher's punches after Garamond's death in 1561. Sabon became owner of a German foundry when he married the granddaughter of the Frankfurt printer, Christian Egenolff. Sabon died in 1580, and his widow married Konrad Berner, who took over the foundry. Tschichold loosely based his design on types from the 1592 specimen sheet issued by the Egenolff-Berner foundry: a 14-point roman attributed to Claude Garamond, and an italic attributed to Robert Granjon. Sabon was the typeface name chosen for this twentieth-century revival and joint venture in production; this name avoided confusion with other fonts connected with the names of Garamond and Granjon.

A beautiful, beautiful font. Use it wherever and whenever you can.

 

And love them or loathe them, but every designer really needs to have a script face up his sleeve for use in emergency situations. Put your money on Snell Roundhand.

It was designed in 1965 by Matthew Carter. Conception and design were both based on 18th century round hand scripts. The font has an elegant and festive feel and its capitals can also be used as initials mixed with other alphabets. Or so it says here.

Comments

[Ben]

Phew. I nearly gave up with that one. It was like Rogue Traders for a moment there.

Anyway. Snell. Lovely.

[davidthedesigner]

Yeah, sorry about that Ben. Just had to get the frustration out in the open. Beats therapy, this blogging lark - don't you think?

[David Airey]

Hi David,

You mentioned Matthew Carter in this post before (at the end):

http://www.davidthedesigner.com/davidthedesigner/2007/12/b-is-for-bodoni.html

Here's a tip for searching your site: in Google's search box, type the following:

site:www.davidthedesigner.com Matthew Carter

Or replace Matthew Carter with anything you're trying to find.

Hope that helps.

[davidthedesigner]

Thanks for the tip, David. Can you sort out NatWest Bank for me as well, please?

Seriously though, I'm pretty certain that I've posted about Snell Roundhand before, but it would be quite some time ago. The active archive on the blog only goes back to October 2007, so the post presumably predates that, which is why I can't locate it with a Google search.

[David Airey]

Ah yes, your archive issues. TypePad have been good to you, haven't they?

Off to my local NatWest now, and I'm taking a wooden spoon.

[Tom Harle]

Totally with you on the TypePad issue

[Nelia]

A few years ago I'd have to pay someone for this ifnromation.