Bubbles

Bubbles are little collections of ideas that we observe bubbling up in the world of independent type design. Each one has about 3-4 examples of ideas that are not quite enough to be a full list, but happen often enough to be noted. We’re get excited about where and when these bubbles pop up, what they mean for the world of type, and how you can benefit from them. It’s a new way of looking at typography together that we think can be helpful to everyone. While Bubbles will live here, they’re best experienced on twitter, so follow @proof_and_co to catch each bubble as it bubbles up!

Featured
Circle Counters
Circle Counters

There's a retro wave sweeping type design, epitomized by this one particular detail: a simple circle counter. This bubble is all about the recent fonts that have been putting a hole in the middle of their letters.

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Tightly Spaced
Tightly Spaced

Traditionally, ‘good’ typefaces are ones with ample spacing, but what would happen if you made the type as tightly spaced as possible? Well, it’s certainly a look. This bubble is about the types that are bringing everything just a little closer together.

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Calligrafans
Calligrafans

Typography and Calligraphy have always had an interesting relationship, but somewhere along the way, type and calligraphy became estranged. In the last few years, that relationship has been rekindled. These are the Calligrafans.

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Sliced & Diced
Sliced & Diced

What is one to do in this post-modern world but to destroy the typographic models that have come before and build something new with the pieces? Some type designers have been doing just this through slicing and dicing letterforms into horizontal layers to get stacked forms that slant, lean, and dance on the reading line.

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Digital Degradation
Digital Degradation

Normally types are designed to handle the medium in which they are deployed, but what if you flipped that script? These types have been embracing analog production models or theories on visibility to explore a new aesthetic we call Digital Degradation.

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Pinched Counters
Pinched Counters

For ages, big, open counterforms exemplified mastery of craft and modern type technique. However, there are those who have been defying this idea by intentionally putting a 'kink' in the counter.

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Above the X-Height
Above the X-Height

A few things have been popping up above the x-height lately, bringing an old-fashioned calligraphic tradition back into the contemporary zeitgeist.

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Brutal Beauties
Brutal Beauties

Brutalism is a thing in almost every other art form, why shouldn’t type design have a go at it? These types are embracing the raw power of simple shapes and roughly-hewn strokes.

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Tech-Mech Sans
Tech-Mech Sans

The Tech-Mech Sans features a blending of square and round shapes with contrast in the ordinal poles to make what appear to be gears, cams, or digital-inspired lines that carve out their own new little area of the type design map.

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Have any thoughts or suggestions for Bubbles you’re seeing, or know of any other typefaces that are popping up in this bubble? Shoot us an email or share it with us on twitter!