Day by Day

Duchamp in a box

In around 1935. Duchamp had produced enough remarkable works to create a new and extremely surprising work of art: the Boîte-en-valise, a box which, when opened, unfolds and spreads out. A portable museum, no less, of 68 of his most iconic works is displayed before the eyes of the viewer, reproduced and sometimes miniaturised. The concept became so popular that seven distinct versions were produced (without the suitcase) in limited editions between 1941 and 1966.

Script Fonts book: “A guide to the script font jungle”

A few year ago (six in fact) Laurence King published a handy and fun guide to Retro Fonts, which I frequently pick up and browse through. This week they published Script Fonts compendium with the same useful format and design. 

The book catalogues over 300 typefaces, chosen by the author, Geum-Hee Hong and Karin and Bertram Schmidt-Friderichs. In their own words: 

“We embarked on our search, deliberately selecting not only the best and beautiful examples of handwriting, but also curiosities like the digitized handwriting of famous presidents or Paul Cézanne.”

The book is helpfully broken into sections like: Handwriting / Spontaneous and Personal or English Copperplate / The Distinguished Elegance of a Pointed Nib.

The book makes a great jumping-off point to browse the other typefaces of designers and foundries mentioned and as a bonus, the book is accompanied by a CD which includes 122 free fonts.