Two new font releases on MyFonts this week.

The first is the definitive version of Oswald Bruce Cooper’s classic typeface Cooper Italic.

1924 saw the release of Cooper Italic, the italic companion to Cooper Oldstyle. Cooper Italic possesses “a most unusual swing” in a number of the characters, most specifically the scooped, pigeon-toed feet of the lowercase “n”, “h”, and “m”. These idiosyncratic characters are offset by more stately and assured capitals. Cooper said that his Italic is “much closer to its parent pen form than the roman” and “that freedom is almost the life of it”.

Cooper was a firm believer in creating humanist letterforms that echo the hand that created them, not wringing the life out of them through refinement and mechanization. In Cooper’s own words about Cooper Italic, “The designer is conscious of its crudity, and of its irreverence for the best traditions. But he believes that there are enough good types already– that the need is for poor types that can be used! And since he admits this to be a poor one, there now remains to be found out only whether it is usable or not.” Cooper was long a believer that good type should be homely- if too pretty or sleek, it’s lifespan would be exponentially shortened.

Cooper designed a set of swash capitals to pair with Cooper Italic in 1927 that had not been released until now. The swash capitals are a lively interpretation of round serifed oldstyle caps mixed with classic Caslon italic forms.

These two typefaces are the result of researching Cooper’s original drawings and series of engraved proofs for both typefaces. The typefaces include the original ligatures (never before released digitally), the previously unreleased Swash characters, and a range of punctuation and diacritics, et al, that fill out a full character set. The typefaces have been lovingly kerned for the smoothest result in text setting.

Cooper Italic Complete is available from MyFonts here.

The second typeface release is called Stacker. Stacker is a display gothic typeface with three weights of extruded typefaces that can be used to project the main typeface spatially.

Originally designed for Beautiful/Decay magazine, then picked up for Nokia’s 2006 Europe campaign, Stacker is a bold, lively, attention-grabbing display face.

The extruded faces can be used in a standalone manner, as they have been by electronic musicians such as YACHT and E*Rock.

Stacker is available from MyFonts here.

Host Nora Robertson sits down with fashion designers Adam Arnold, Ryan Christensen and Elizabeth Dye to discuss their work and Portland’s evolving fashion culture.

Wednesday, January 27th, Urban Grind East, 2214 NE Oregon St., $5 admission.

Last chance to sign up for Typography 101 at Temple University Japan.

The course has been expanded to include designing custom typefaces and programming digital fonts from them.

Previously posted about Jessica Jackson Hutchins in the 2010 Biennial… two other artists featured in Plazm #29 are also in the Whitney show; Storm Tharp and Alex Hubbard. Cooley Gallery director Stephanie Snyder wrote a feature for Plazm on Storm last fall. View that here.

Clobber Grotesk Stencil Bold is a new typeface I designed now available through MyFonts. Clobber marries crude stencil forms with extreme legibility/readability at small sizes.

Host Nora Robertson with painter Michael Brophy, Cooley Gallery curator Stephanie Snyder, and Dark Horse Comics editor Shawna Gore on Portland’s evolving visual arts culture. Audio podcasts up now.

Half Mammal (Ian only) Live
at Valentines in Portland on 12/29
with Rob WalMart & Root Beer and French Fry
http://www.valentineslifeblood.blogspot.com/
9pm-ish!

So I was a printing maniac today and did a new batch of my “You Are Nothing Without Feminist Art” shirts for your pleasure. They are both a tongue in cheek flirty exclamation mark and a serious threat. An homage to Jenny Holzer, Barbara Krueger, Yoko Ono, and to other radical, fashion-forward artists and activists throughout history. They are hand-printed on soft, stylish, organic cotton Alternative Apparel t-shirts by myself and a rad helper, in Portland, OR. Buy them here. Or check out more pictures here.

Plazm, New Oregon, The Cooley Gallery, Reading Frenzy, lots of other great folks and friends will be there. We’ll have all kinds of books, magazines, printed ephemera, etc.. It’s free. Come on down to the Ace Cleaners space Sunday.

December 20th, Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Downtown Portland at the Ace Hotel “cleaners” space
Corner of SW Stark and 11th Ave