Audio Interview w/Tony Ross at TonyTeach

TonyTeach is an online learning center where you can find video tutorials, podcasts and live training for Flash, Toon Boom Animate, Photoshop, and more—both for free, and for purchase. Recently Tony Ross caught up with me, and we had a half hour discussion about how I work, my inspirations, digital vs. analog, and about my career in general—plus I give a couple of useful tips on using Adobe Illustrator’s pen tool that even this seasoned teacher was surprised by. Here’s a recording of that discussion:

Update: Terry Chouinard Got Your Help!

I’m very pleased to report that Mr. Chouinard achieved his Kickstarter goal. Those who’ve invested $35 or more can choose from among the prints by 15 different artists—myself included–to receive as one of the perks for being a contributor. See Terry’s Kickstarter page for details.

I’m also pleased to report that Terry will make available to me 100 beautifully printed 18″ x 24″ letterpress copies of my “Wonderful World” artwork, below, which I will sign and make available as soon as the ink dries. So even if you missed being a contributor to his campaign you can still obtain a copy of that print. If you’d like to reserve one, send me an email and I’ll be sure to set one aside for you. Thanks!

Terry Chouinard Needs Your Help!

Terry Chouinard is a master letterpress printer. Letterpress printing is a craft that is slowly disappearing, but there are still some great practitioners out there keeping it alive. Mr. Chouinard has invented a device that will greatly enhance their ability to keep ink colors accurate and consistent throughout a print run—no matter how big or small. One of his followers wrote a really nice piece describing what he’s done on her blog Quince & Quire. He’s looking for small investors to be able to make his “Ink Dial” a reality—and has posted it on Kickstarter.

Terry asked me to donate a piece of art so that he could offer a signed, limited edition, letterpress version of it as a reward to investors, and I gladly offered my piece “Wonderful World”. For an investment of as little as $35 a beautiful hand-printed 18″ x 24″ letterpress version of this art could be yours.

There are 14 other artists who have committed art to Terry to try to help him get his Ink Dial off the ground. Please check out this very worthy project. The more you donate the more prints you could be rewarded with by the likes of Marian Bantjes, Andrew Byrom, Paul Shaw and Jack Unruh. His deadline on Kickstarter is coming up soon—take a look and see if you don’t want to support this very worthy project.

Dynascript Makes Its 1953 Premiere… In the 21st Century

Several months ago I was contacted by David Klein, Vice President of Charles P. Rogers & Co. in NYC (bed manufacturing), about working together with him on a project. He described his company as “a small idiosyncratic company that has been making a quality product for over 150 years”. David had fallen in love with—and purchased—a 1953 Fageol Van that had been housed in The Golden Age of Trucking Museum which had recently closed its doors. The Fageols were beautiful vans that came in various sizes and configurations.

Physically the truck was in good condition, and David loved and wanted to keep the brilliant yellow color that it had been given by the Barrieau family—the van’s original owners. His vision was that this truck would become a moving billboard for CPR & Co, driving around New York, conveying “the Charles P. Rogers Beds message” in a manner that this van might have—had it been theirs back in the ’50s. Wanting to keep as much historical accuracy as I could, I asked about older graphics and logos from the CPR & Co archives but there was very little except for this monogram (which I kind of liked).
So, I needed to create graphics that felt appropriate for this 1953 van, and which helped evoke a simpler time. The only concrete thing that I had to work with from Rogers & Co. was the monogram, so I used that design as a basis to create a “medallion” that could be used on the front and sides of the truck. Just prior to the call from David I had begun development of a new font (which became Dynascript over the next few months), and decided that somehow it felt right to use it for the supporting graphics/slogans on the sides of the van.
The van is currently in the process of having my graphics applied, so what you’re looking at is a Photoshop assembled composite of the truck with my design work superimposed.
For the back of the van I created a logo in which I tried to evoke and encompass the over 150 year history of the company. Though it is a bit different from the mid-century vibe that Dynascript had helped give the front and side graphics, I felt it was appropriate and didn’t conflict with them. Also, it might be noteworthy to mention that I used the non-connecting italic version of Dynascript for the URLs on the back and sides of the van.

Not unlike my project with Deliscript and the Canter’s food truck, here was another instance of the influence that assignment work and font design had on each other. Even though they both started out as independent projects, they soon became inextricably entwined. Dynascript is probably a better font for it, because, with this project, I was trying to solve its design both from the point of view of a fontmaker, and from that of a font user.

Soon, when actual photos of the finished truck become available, I will post them here along with my development sketches and more detailed descriptions of the design process. Comments welcomed!

Typography Enters the Space Age! – Dynascript’s World Premiere on MyFonts

Dynascript brings the ease of “Pushbutton Automatic” to your typesetting experience. Dynascript is actually 2-Fonts-In-1: without switching fonts you can instantly change from Dynascript’s connecting font to the non-connecting italic with the simple push of a button. (Just press the “Stylistic Alternates” button in the OpenType palette.)

Typesetters across the planet will also be able to set copy in their language of choice.

Dynascript’s 694 glyphs can be used to set copy in: Albanian, Basque, Catalan, Cornish, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Kalaallisut, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Maltese, Manx, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Oromo, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, and Welsh—and of course English. Sorry! Off-world languages not yet supported.

What is Dynascript? It’s is a completely original, never before seen, bold script font—but to some it may be reminiscent of various mid-century neon signage, and of sign writing, Speedball alphabets and even baseball scripts. The design of Dynascript also takes some cues from a historical typographic curiosity that began in Germany in the ‘20s and which lasted into the ‘60s—when Photo-Lettering gave it the name “Zip-Top”. Basically it was believed to be the wave of the future—that by weighting an alphabet heavier in its top half, one could increase legibility and reading speed. The jury’s still out on whether or not there’s any validity to this claim—but you can decide for yourself!

Dynascript makes it’s debut today on MyFonts, and we’ll start its special introductory sale on MyFonts tomorrow (25% Off!).

For more detailed information please download “The Dynascript Manual” pdf (800 kb).

Dynascript Design and Art: Michael Doret

Dynascript OpenType Programming: Patrick Griffin/Canada Type

I Am Pleased To Announce…

…that my latest font design is just about ready for release. It’s a script font in OpenType format, but I believe it’s unlike anything else on the market.

What makes Dynascript unique (apart from its design) is that it’s actually two fonts in one. The default font (above) is a connecting script. However, with the simple press of a button in the OpenType palette you will be able to convert your copy into the alternate non-connecting version of Dynascript (below)—a very different look!

Dynascript will contain almost 700 glyphs with support for the following languages: Albanian, Basque, Catalan, Cornish, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Kalaallisut, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Maltese, Manx, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Oromo, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, and Welsh. Oh, and I almost forgot—English.

I’m currently involved in creating the supporting graphics, and I hope to have Dynascript released very soon. Also in the works—a completely redrawn upright version of Dynascript which I should have ready for release withinin the next few months.

So Why No New Posts Lately?

(In case you’re wondering) I haven’t really been able to post anything of note lately because I’ve just been far too busy with work. Since I decided long ago to do everything myself, if I can’t get to it, it just doesn’t get done. With that in mind I thought I’d just take this free moment to make a quick note of what I’ve been up to.

First and foremost I’ve been working with a new and exciting client in the film industry. I’m not at liberty to discuss what I’ve been doing yet, but suffice it to say that what I’ve been working on will soon be highly visible to anyone living in the civilized world . . . and I think it’s some of the best work I’ve ever done. Stay tuned, because, when I am able, I will be posting “case studies” of the stages these lettering treatments went through–from rough ideas to finished art.

Second…in case you haven’t noticed I’m not the most prodigious of font-makers, averaging maybe one new design a year at best. I’ve had a new script design in the works for quite some time now, and it’s getting close to completion – hopefully within a month or two. Like most of my font work, it’s a completely new design—not a rehash of something from  the past that’s been unearthed. But at the same time many will think that it looks “familiar” without quite being able to place it! So, in the coming weeks, time willing, I’ll be posting some snippets of this new design before it’s official release.

Speaking of fonts, I just learned that Steinweiss Script was voted by Graphic-Design.com as the “official font” of their 17th Annual Fall Fonts Festival. About the choice, Fred Showker wrote that this font was “a masterful creation because of the multitude of special settings, alternative characters, ligatures and frequently used pairs and triads of letters that go together differently than straight typesetting”  and that “the real value of Michael Doret’s fonts is the incredible amount of work he builds into each font. He actually tries hundreds of different settings, looking for problem areas and opportunities for alternates. You’ll only find a handful of fonts out on the market that are this flexible and complete … a half dozen of those are Michaels!” Wow! Thanks Fred!

Steinweiss on Steinweiss

When I originally did the title lettering for “Alex Steinweiss: The Inventor of the Modern Album Cover” I hadn’t yet designed “Steinweiss Script“. In fact it was designing this headline that spurred me to do that typeface design. In retrospect there were many interior headlines and other lines of copy for the book that Josh Baker, AD at Taschen, would have liked to have had set in a new Steinweiss Script font. But they had to settle for what was available at that time, which was one of several different digitized versions of what Alex Steinweiss had originally designed for Photo-Lettering.

Now Taschen has released their more moderately priced trade edition of this incredible book—and just in time for this release I was able to reset all their headlines and other copy the way we had originally wanted to—in Steinweiss Script:

Above: Before and After Details from the older and newer editions

Below: You can Look Inside the earlier edition…

…or Look Inside the newer version:

Our intention was that the newer version, with everything reset in Steinweiss Script, would feel closer to what Mr. Steinweiss would have done had he been able to apply his scrawl to these pages.

Just a reminder: Steinweiss Script is available for purchase on MyFonts, Veer, FontShop and YouWorkForThem. To learn more about these fonts, read Steven Heller’s Imprint article or MyFonts’ Creative Characters for January.

Alex Steinweiss, 1917 – 2011

Just having returned from vacation, I discovered that while I was incommunicado Alex Steinweiss—one of my heroes and the inspiration for my Steinweiss font—had passed away. So I’d just like to add my voice (belatedly) to the chorus who have recognized him as one of the giants of 20th century design, who has influenced countless people in the design and illustration fields, and brought delight to millions of others through his beautiful work. The world is indeed a lesser place without him. R.I.P. Mr. Steinweiss.

Promotional card sent to Steinweiss' clients, ca. 1952. Image courtesy of Taschen Publishing.

Fonts In Use: GQ Picks Steinweiss Script for their Comedy Issue

I just got a call from my pal Glenn Parsons of Astrolux Design who informed me that my last font release Steinweiss Script was all over the new issue of GQ Magazine. Kudos to their Creative DIrector Jim Moore for making such a smart choice! Here’s a collage of a few of the pieces taken from different pages in the current issue. I think these demonstrate nicely some of the versatility of this font, such as the ability to set words on curved paths—and still have all letters connect properly.

You can find links to all the outlets where Steinweiss Script is sold (as well as all my other fonts) on the Alphabet Soup pages of my website. I’m also proud to announce that Steinweiss Script is now being sold from the YouWorkForThem website, my newest font reseller.