Commercial Type

RELEASES | 1 JULY 2022

New release: Frame by Paul Barnes

Designed by Paul Barnes for the cycling-clothing brand Rapha, Frame comes in four weights with separate versions for text and headlines. It is also available as a variable font, with axes for weight and optical size. The family has a large x-height, reduced extenders, simple serifs with minimal tapering, and an overall crispness most evident in the ball terminals.

SPORT | 30 JUNE 2022

Rapha x Commercial Type at the Spring Classics

To celebrate and promote the release of Frame our friends at Rapha travelled to two of the most iconic Spring Classics cycling races, the Tour of Flanders (Ronde van Vlaanderen) and Paris-Roubaix. With a series of bold and eyecatching placards held aloft by the roadside they update the long and rich tradition of guerilla advertising.

RELEASES | 17 MARCH 2022

New release: Feature by Berton Hasebe and Christian Schwartz

Dark, dense, lovely Feature debuted in February 2018 in T: The New York Times Style Magazine. Originally designed by Christian Schwartz and Berton Hasebe in three optical sizes and two widths, the efficient serif family has been expanded for this release by Hrvoje Živčić, who completed the character sets, added an Ultra weight to the Display version, and drew italics for the whole collection.

TDC | 25 JANUARY 2022

Kara Gordon joins the TDC Advisory Board

Kara Gordon was elected to The Advisory Board of the Type Directors Club for a two-year term.

CUSTOM TYPEFACES, CORPORATE DESIGN | 12 NOVEMBER 2021

Corridor by Tim Ripper for the MIT Alumni association

Serendipity sometimes plays a crucial role in bringing together designer and client, providing the impetus to complete unfinished sketches. Such was the case with Corridor, a custom typeface drawn by Tim Ripper for a new rebrand of the MIT Alumni Association by Michael Bierut’s team at Pentagram.

RELEASES | 19 OCTOBER 2021

New release: Orleans by Paul Barnes

Orleans is a crisp and refined headline face by Paul Barnes that effortlessly synthesizes influences from various German and American calligraphic sans serifs into new forms. Though drawn for the redesign of the German edition of frieze, the magazine folded before the redesign was implemented. The typeface lives on, having been expanded into seven weights with accompanying italics.

CUSTOM TYPEFACES, CORPORATE DESIGN | 17 DECEMBER 2020

Means, a new serif typeface for Mailchimp

Means is a versatile serif family drawn for Mailchimp, used as the primary typeface in the latest iteration of their identity. Referencing the work of Oswald Cooper, designer Greg Gazdowicz toned down many of the retro elements while retaining the friendliness that is elemental to the Mailchimp brand. Used across display and text, from mobile to billboards, Means presents Mailchimp, grown up.

RELEASES | 17 NOVEMBER 2020

New release: Review by Berton Hasebe

Berton Hasebe originally drew Review for T: The New York Times Style Magazine, where it debuted in February 2018. Now expanded and available for licensing, Hasebe’s blunt family evokes the plucky, DIY era of phototype and Letraset, minus any nostalgia or grunge. Set tight, Review creates a striking text image while remaining readable.

RELEASES | 29 SEPTEMBER 2020

New release: Graphik International with Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, and Thai

First released in 2009, Graphik is now more accessible and cosmopolitan, with freshly drawn families for the Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, and Thai scripts. The new designs translate the spirit, rather than the letter, of Christian Schwartz’s original “vanilla” sans serif.

RELEASES | 8 SEPTEMBER 2020

New release: Action Text by Erik van Blokland

Type made for screens needn’t lack personality. Action Text continues the reflections Dutch superstar Erik van Blokland embarked on with Action Condensed. Geared toward interfaces and continuous text onscreen, Action Text comes in a variable version with weight and grade axes, as well as a “flat” version in four weights accompanied by matching italics, with a Bright and Dark grade for each weight.

EVENTS | 24 MARCH 2020

2020 North American Classics Tour postponed

Unfortunately due to ongoing situation we have cancelled all dates. We will reschedule the tour for Fall 2020.

24 March–14 April 2020

March

25 Wednesday San Francisco

30 Monday Vancouver

31 Tuesday Portland

April

1 Wednesday Los Angeles

6 Monday Salt Lake City

7 Tuesday St Louis

8 Wednesday Minneapolis

9 Thursday Chicago

10 Friday Cranbrook

13 Monday Richmond

14 Tuesday Nashville

16 Thursday Denver

RELEASES | 10 DECEMBER 2019

New release: Darby Serif

Darby Serif, is an elegant new contemporary serif typeface, designed by Paul Barnes, with Dan Milne. The companion to Darby Sans, the text version first appeared in 2017 in Francesco Franchi’s redesign of La Repubblica newspaper in Italy.

EVENTS | 6 NOVEMBER 2019

Lettering workshop with Miguel Reyes at Tipografía México: Herencia/Heritage

Miguel will give a lettering workshop at this year’s Tipografía México conference in Monterrey. Speakers include Jassiel Rivera, Gonzalo García, Ricardo González, and David Jonathan Ross. Workshops will also be given by Sindy Ethel and Armando Pineda.

Wed–Fri, 6–8 November 2019

Universidad de Monterrey

Av. Ignacio Morones Prieto 4500 Pte.

Monterrey, N.L 66238

Mexico

Tickets here

RELEASES | 1 NOVEMBER 2019

New release: Ayer by Miguel Reyes

Ayer is an elegant condensed display typeface designed by Miguel Reyes between 2016 and 2019 for W, a large format fashion magazine. Display typefaces for fashion magazines need flexibility in order to extend their lifespan beyond a couple of seasons. The four different italics in the Poster size is one way Ayer fills this need.

EVENTS | PANEL DISCUSSIONS, LECTURES | 25 OCTOBER 2019

Paul in New England

Paul will be part of a panel discussion hosted by the Providence Public Library and will give a lecture in Boston hosted by the local AIGA chapter.

Fri–Tue, 25–29 October 2019, Both events begin at 7pm

PROVIDENCE

Friday, 25 October

The Pavilion at Grace Church

300 Westminster St

Providence, RI 02903

BOSTON

Tuesday, 29 October

Lesley University Amphitheater

UHall Room 2-1501

815 Massachusetts Avenue

Cambridge, MA 02140

AIGA Boston event page

GREEK, MAGAZINES, CUSTOM TYPEFACES | 23 OCTOBER 2019

Harding, a new typeface for Nature

Commercial Type partners Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz have designed a series of new typefaces for Nature, one of the world’s leading scientific journals. Working closely with creative director Kelly Krause and external design consultant Mark Porter, Barnes and Schwartz have created Harding, a multi weight text and display family

EVENTS | CONFERENCES | 10 OCTOBER 2019

Greg Gazdowicz speaking at BITS9 in Chaing Mai, Thailand

Greg will give a talk entitiled “Ahistoric Reading” at this year’s BITS conference in Chiang Mai. This talk will be in depth look at his process of designing Roboto Serif for Google, a typeface that ignores historical precedents for how native screen typefaces should look by ignoring atmosphere and focusing purely on making a comfortable reading experience on screen.

Thu–Sat, 10–12 October 2019

Le Méridien Chiang Mai

108 Changklan Rd

Chang Khlan Sub-district

Amphur Muang

Chiang Mai 50100

Thailand

Visit the conference site for more information

CUSTOM TYPEFACES, CORPORATE DESIGN | 18 SEPTEMBER 2019

Custom typeface by Tim Ripper for REI Co-op

Tim Ripper has drawn a new serif text and display family called REI Stuart for the latest evolution of the REI Co-op identity. The family is based loosely on the Plantin model, with a soft finish reminiscent of the routed lettering on National Parks Service signs.

COMMERCIAL CLASSICS | 17 SEPTEMBER 2019

7 new families from Commercial Classics

Commercial Classics has released seven additional families, including a revival of Caslon Ionic No. 2 first seen in last year's relaunch of Interview magazine, and Thorowgood Grotesque, based on the first sans serif with a lowercase cut in the British Isles.

COMMERCIAL CLASSICS, CUSTOM TYPEFACES, CORPORATE DESIGN | 1 AUGUST 2019

Custom typefaces for Rapha

Since its foundation 15 years ago, Rapha has been producing some of the finest cycling clothing in the world, both for amateurs and for the pro teams. Working closely with Rapha’s internal design team, Commercial Type partner (and long time cycling enthusiast) Paul Barnes and long time collaborator Dan Milne have created a new range of typefaces for the company, Rapha Sans and Rapha Serif.

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