Digital-News on Scoop.it today

Robin Good: "Would you like to join a select group of designers from around the world to curate what you would consider fonts from our Monotype collection for use in editorial publishing?"

 

This is what James Fooks-Bale, from Monotype (the largest type foundry out there) initially wrote to Mario Garcia. The email went out also to several other designers around the world, who were all invited to participate in curating a set of type collections to inspire and help designers re-discover what fonts and typefaces to use for their next project.

 

"The unique challenge of this project was developing type palettes.

 

Each set of type families had to make sense for the hypothetical publications we proposed.

 

But the families in each palette also had to complement each other: in finish, attitude, or historical reference.

 

It was not about selecting interesting typefaces, but choosing those that could work as part of a system..."

 

Monotype calls these curated sets of typographic faces "collections" and it describes their function and meaning as: "The Monotype Collections are a series of personal font selections curated from the Monotype library by leading figures in the print and digital design worlds.

 

Each one takes a theme that corresponds to real-life briefs or trends, such as Heritage, Publishing, Branding or Web Fonts, and all fonts selected by our curators are available to license from Monotype.

 

...

 

The sheer volume of font options now available to designers and creative directors can be daunting and time-consuming to explore, leading designers to settle for tried-and-trusted go-to fonts.

 

The purpose of the collections is to widen their palette, and offer a range of entry points to the Monotype library, which contains thousands of fonts covering every application, and has its origins in the late 19th century.

 

The Collections contrast contemporary alternatives and reveal hidden gems from the archives, and invite designers to delve deeper."

 

This is a great example of how curation can be used to market, inspire and help great artists discover and re-discover tools they may have not been using for a while.

 

Fascinating. Innovative. Inspiring. 9/10

 

Full story + samples from all curated sets: http://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/the_page_is_the_stage_curating_a_monotype_type_collection

 

 

Via Robin Good