14❦ Sighted Digits

The Secret Cellar

“I really don’t know how they’ve done it. They don’t even have souls… do they?”

Tonight, Jason talks with Glenn Fleishman about his ambitious Tiny Type Museum project — as well as typography, design, technology, and the weird spaces between digital and analog.

Also, a conversation with Steve Robinson, owner of Wolf Mountain Books, about what makes books so special.

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HONORED GUESTS
Glenn Fleishman (@glennf)
Steve Robinson

Glenn’s Tiny Type Museum and Time Capsule has funded on Kickstarter, and progress is being tracked at TinyTypeMuseum.com. Read more, take a look at photos of the development process, or make an order while there are still tiny museums available in the limited run of 1,000.

Glenn mentioned several foundries and other typography-related folks, including:

• The Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum, who serendipitously was involved in cutting an early wood type version of DeVinne, by permission of Central Type Foundry, where it was first designed five or so years prior.
• P22, makers of Blox (in collaboration with Starshaped Press).
• GlowForge, who make a 3D Laser cutter that basically conjures things from the æther.

In addition, these fine folks were mentioned:

• Tom Standage, author of Writing on the Wall: Social Media – The First 2,000 Years
• Anna Robinson, who is designing the wooden cases fro the Tiny Type Museum project
• Joseph Moxon, who in 1684 completed Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing
• David Sax, who wrote Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why they Matter
• Toshi Omagari, who has modernized an extensive collection of typographic works by Berthold Volpe
• Edward Tufte, who wrote (and self-published) The Visual Display of Quantataive Information (along with other seminal works on the topic of information design)

Finally, a colophon of sorts. Here are the typefaces mentioned:

• Bembo, which Tufte recreated from the original drawings, because of course. Read the comments on this page to find a gem from Tufte himself.
• Albertus
• De Vinne, as originally designed by Gustav Schroeder c. 1892 (this is the version which influences Invisible Sun’s design; there are others of the same name which look different)

Steve Robinson is the owner of Wolf Mountain Books, and mentioned the following books and authors:

• Vincent Starrett
• William Targ
• A. Edward Newton
• Dana Orcutt
• A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes
• Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
• The Haunted Bookshop, by Christopher Morley

SPONSORS

This episode was sponsored by Gamers Giving (@gamersgivingco), a Denver-based 501(c)3 charity by gamers, for gamers. Gamers Giving organizes events and fundraisers which benefit members of the gaming community who have experienced tragedy.

AUDIO DESIGN

Casey Ross (@caseyrawz)
https://www.rawzstudios.com

CONSULTING

Jess Meier (@burst0fhope)

Sound Effects ©2018 BBC

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Monte Cook Games (@montecookgames)
http://MonteCookGames.com

Invisible Sun
http://InvisibleSunRPG.com

Invisible Sun is the intellectual property of Monte Cook Games, with whom Zeros.Bar and the Secret Cellar have no affiliation.