I can cope with seeing my Supporter typeface disappear from the D&AD judges’ table when lovely things like this survive the cull. Phonetikana by Johnson Banks is a take on the Japanese katakana phonetic alphabet, which actually shows English speakers how to say things. I guess it works in reverse too, helping Japanese people learn the roman alphabet. It’s not new, they did it a while ago, but it did just receive a D&AD nomination last week.

It’s great. I know that because I studied Japanese for two years (an endeavour cruelly crushed by the onset of habitual brand agency overtime) and always loved the phonetic alphabets hiragana and katakana. Japanese has complex symbols, abstract Kanji which are derived from the Chinese language and pretty impenetrable at times, but they also use two phonetic alphabets, mainly for foreign language words or elements of grammar.

It’s funny, because there aren’t all the same sounds in Japanese as there are in English, reading them out forces you to adopt a comedy Japanese accent.

These katakana characters often find their way into technological things, signs and brand names. When you see things like Uniqlo or Wagamama written out in the UK, these are the letters they’re using.

These Kana fascinated me while I was learning Japanese and I still get a kick out of the fact that I can actually read them in things like manga or imported videogames. The Kanji on the other had were an uphill struggle. I’ve always wanted to spend some real time in Japan to get under the skin of it all, but sadly, design is a very hard thing to get into there as a Westerner.

Johnson Banks have quite an interest in Japan, and seem to have made the leap into working over there. The identity they did for the Sendai Observatory was beautiful…

…and the UK-Japan logo feels in hindsight like the genesis of the phonetikana idea…

Lovely. Makes me want to restart my Japanese course again. While I love the idea of alternative alphabets, I did have to pass recently on the frankly terrifying prospect of developing an Arabic version of Supporter.

If you’re looking for a book on the Kana alphabets, I recommend Remembering the Kana which helped me a lot.

Damn. I was half-way through making this!

Just goes to show, that idea you’ve just had? Someone else has already had it.

Lovely though, and reassuring to see this guy has had as much trouble with the ‘M’ as I was having.

I guess I’ll abandon mine now then.

Football’s never really been my thing, but I watched the England game this week with particular interest. Before the game, the Wembley crowd spelled out ‘England 2018′ in a typeface I designed. It’s called Supporter, and it was created especially for the FA’s World Cup bid.

It’s a monospaced display typeface, inspired by shirt lettering and scoreboard type. It’s carefully built to stack vertically and horizontally in a grid formation to create tight type lockups on banners and other promotional materials.

It was first used at the press launch along with the campaign slogan back in May…

Read the rest of this entry…

As those who know me will attest, I have a fascination with time as well as typography. Could this be the best thing I’ve seen all year? Maybe…

Clock Clock, by Humans Since 1982. There’s even a font. Wow, just wow.

I wish I had that much time on my hands. Found over at Boredom is your Fault

The image above is of Letterland which is my earliest memory of the alphabet, making characters out of each letter while learning to read. Flash forward 30 years and we’re still doing it, a favourite pastime of graphic designers is to dream up new alphabets and fonts. There are lots of really imaginative interpretations of the 26 letters of our alphabet out there so I thought I’d start collecting a few of my favourite A to Zs in one place. Some are more legible than others, but they’re all a bit of fun and go to show type can be a living analogue thing too.

I think this will become an ever-growing post as I find more of these. If you’ve found any, please post them in the comments…

Type the Sky by Lisa Rienermann, who tends to walk into lamp posts a lot.

Booksetting by Amandine Alessandra who hasn’t bought an Amazon Kindle yet.

Tiepography by Ed Nacional, who really needs some new shirts.

Handy by Public who are good at charades.

Heldentica by Autobahn who seem a bit wasteful.

Google Maps Typography by Rhett Dashwood who ironically suffers from vertigo.

Folded by Brian Jaramillo who has a lot of time on his hands.

Apple Alphabet by Ana Benaroya who’s getting her 5-a-day.

Ideographic Chairs by Amandine Alessandra again, who sleeps standing up.

Value Pack by Robert J Bolesta who buys one and gets one free.

Alphabet Truck by Eric Tabuchi who isn’t great at overtaking.

Backbreaker by Kalle Mattsson who makes friends easily.

Brød & Korn by Commando Group who have nice buns.

Here are more, as I find them…

Lego Font by Handmade Font who can never find the windscreen brick.

Lazer Dog by Oscar and Ewan who are quick but not brown.

Fire-Poi Typography by Nir Tober who has run away to join the circus.

East End Shopfronts by Eine who is a repeat offender.

Beard Alphabet by Tim Yarzhombeck who saves a lot on razor blades.

Bits by Paul Elliman who needs to declutter the house.

Lovely Ladies by Malika Favre of Airside who thinks boys smell.

Folded Paper Typeface by Daniella Spinat who makes great paper planes.

Interior by Andrew Byrom who secretly shops at Ikea.

Fire in the hole by Oliver Munday who had some childhood issues.

Lightbulbs by Adam Slowik who isn’t worried about his carbon footprint.

Pantone Typeface by Marc Alcock who likes Cool Gray 6.

Eatphabet by Alex Kapranos who has his clothes specially made.

Slotervaart Alphabet by Studio GloriusVandeVen who didn’t get planning permission.

Hirsutura by Craig Ward who has a blocked plughole.

Miss Alphabet by Sheriff who hope for world peace.

Zipper by Tony DiSpigna who never flies low.

Skullphabet by Skull-A-Day, who REALLY like skulls.

Human Alphabet by Monica Alisse, who is good at helping planes to land.

Typeface in Skin by Thijs Verbeek, who suffer for their art.

I’m not sure how long this has been around, but I just stumbled across the ecofont. Basically it’s a standard sans serif font, but using it consumes 20% less ink. That’s down to those little itty bitty holes in the letters, which viewed large look pretty odd, but apparently printed at 9 or 10 points as part of standard office communications, don’t affect the type too much. Apparently.

Hmm, I’ll wait to be convinced on that, appearance on screen in particular has got to be a bit of a nightmare, just imagine the font hinting going on in that sucker! It’s also a shame it can’t make your words 20% more effective as well, but you’ve got to admire the intention.

Of course, Budmo Jiggler by the prolific Ray Larabie has been carrying the torch for years, I’d give good money to see a PowerPoint presentation set in that…

Oh, and I found it in Wired magazine.