#ale paul

[typenerd]

Specimen Collaboration: Address Sans

In a range of 3 widths and 8 weights each.

View Project / Address Sans 

[uncommon-typography]

ampersand Sudestada Sudtipos

[betype]

Auberge Script by Sudtipos (35% off).

Ale Paul one of my favourite type-foundries has released his very first font of the year. A beautiful script that resemble the vintage look of old magazines. They way Ale has made the introduction of this font is very remarkable, accompanied with beautiful illustrations of animals and flowers just like a floral encyclopedia. 

He described in this way:

Because it is multi-sourced, Auberge does not strictly fit in a distinct quill pen category. Instead, it shows strong hints of both Bâtarde and Coulée alphabets. And like most of my fonts, it is an exercise in going overboard with alternates, swashes, and ornamental devices. Having worked with it for a while, I find it most suitable for display calligraphic setting in general, but it works especially well for things like wine labels and event invitations. It also shines in the original quill pen application purpose, which of course was stationery. Also, as it just occurred to me, if you find yourself in a situation where you have to describe your entire life in 50 words or less, you may as well make it look good and swashy, so Auberge would probably be a good fit there as well. This is one quill script that no large bird had to die for. A few technical notes The Auberge Script Pro version includes 1800 glyphs, everything is included there. Also latin language support. We recommend you to use the latest design application to have full access to alternates, swashes, small caps, ornaments, etc. The images from the gallery uses this version. For better results use the fonts with “liga” feature on. During 2014 the early develop of Auberge Script was chosen to be part of Tipos Latinos, the most important type exhibition in South America. Awards

Take the introductory offer of 35% off: http://myfonts.us/KnE918

[type-lover]

Auberge Script by Ale Paul

[type-lover]

The Distillery Set by Ale Paul & Carolina Marando

[francaalvaro]

Finding Niches in Type Design with Ale Paul

A couple of weeks ago, on August 16th, I travelled to São Paulo for a lettering workshop taught by Argentinian script master Alejandro "Ale" Paul, organized by Brazil's flagship everything-type-related organizer Tipocracia (oi Henrique!). The workshop happened in one day, and there was a charla the day before.

Rolling Pen by Sud Tipos

Ale Paul is the man behind Sud Tipos. He has around a hundred typefaces under his belt, most of them staggeringly beautiful script typefaces, some awarded very important prizes by gringo-collegiates like AIGA and Type Directors Club. His work is consistently brilliant and widely diverse, I'm sure I'm not the first to say that he brings something very unique to the world of script faces. Now, a parenthesis in portuñol:

Ale, se estás leyendo esto: Perdón por escribir en inglés, solo quiero practicar esta lengua, no és mi intento ser colonizado por los yankees, te hago la promessa de reescribir-lo en portugués lo mas temprano que yo pueda!

Close parenthesis.

"My name is Ale Paul, and I like to drink wine" was one of the very first things he said during the lecture on friday: "I like wine, and travelling, and making new friends. I draw letters so I can drink wine, travel and make friends." he went on.

Out of the two events, the talk on friday and the workshop on saturday, I can honestly say that the talk struck me as more important. Ale shared a lot of important thoughts and, to me, that opening statement is a really powerful message. If you happen to love what you do for a living then all the better, but don't lose sight of what's important outside work life. Thanks for that Ale!

The talk was named "Finding niches in type design", a very fitting name, as Ale went on to speak of his business and marketing practices on the many, many projects he showed during his two and a half hour talk.

Before becoming a full time type designer and professor at University of Buenos Aires, two professions he juggles concurrently, Ale was a graphic designer, and as such he did a lot of work with packaging, so he knew a lot about that niche and started designing typefaces that he envisioned being used for it. He knew what graphic designers needed from typefaces in that niche, having been one himself, so he started designing for that.

For the rest of his talk he spoke of how in truth, it's not about finding market gaps for him, but finding new challenges that can push his work forward. His motivations are manyfold: He's designed in order to become familiar with Opentype features, to create lettering that resembles a plant, to rescue an old calligraphic style, to get back at the gringos for seeling us their lifestyle... It's all about new excuses to expand his work. 

Another very important thing he touched on in his talk is how he presents his work. It's amazing how he not only has a very large body of quality work but how he is able to present it in a consistently inovative fashion.

For Semilla, for example, he created a fictitious record label of that same name and listed their top 10 albums, all fake, all featuring the typeface in their covers, to get it to gain traction and as way to trick the market into using it for it's intended purpose: record covers! And he doesn't stop there, he's made beautiful videos for typeface releases that are a whole other work of art, you can tell there is a lot of effort put into these presentations.

It seems to me that this is perhaps his greatest differential: the presentation is so good that it appeals to non-expert audiences, it gets creative directors and graphic designers to want to apply the faces when they see it so expertly applied, it intrigues the laymen and generates interest almost imediately. I'll bet it sometimes even tricks people into trying to buy his fake products. I'm pretty sure someone tried to buy the Semilla Records albums just because of the beautiful covers. I mean, why wouldn't they?

Señor Paul put it very well: "Most typeface specimens today have no distintive characteristics to what has been made since the 17th century: Black and white, many lines, many sizes. Complete boredom.", and it makes total sense. We live in a connected, interactive, highly volatile world and type designers have stuck to this formula for nearly four hundred years and it just doesn't cut it anymore.

Sure, we have to take into account that different faces should be presented in different ways and that not every typeface is adequate for being presented in a flashy way but there is more that, say, a text typeface can do than write pangrams in different sizes and variants.

Take David Jonathan Ross' Input for Font Bureau recent online specimen for one, its brilliantly crafted to show the face's many characteristics and applications, and how it performs in a great many different contexts. This is the future of specimens, and I'm a ashamed to say I'm culpably a part of its past with my latest specimens for my text face Selsdon. I'm only starting out with this type stuff and I still have a ways to go, but Ale Paul's talk has pointed me in a direction I hadn't yet considered going. Thanks for that too, Ale. That's it for now, I'll make another post about the lettering workshop once I finish the piece I started there, hope this was worth reading as it's my first actual post here. Talk to you soon!

[type-lover]

Courtesy Script by Ale Paul

[type-lover]

A is for… by Ale Paul