Matthew Buchanan

"Most people can’t discern good from bad typography but everybody can feel it."

Sat, 26 May 2012 09:04:32 +1200

“Most people can’t discern good from bad typography but everybody can feel it.”

- Oliver Reichenstein, writing on iA’s new, adaptive agency site about responsive typography, and the work his company has done to create multiple grades of its Nitti and iABC faces.

A Closer Look At Font Rendering

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 23:12:08 +1200

A Closer Look At Font Rendering:

Type designer and Typekit consultant Tim Ahrens has written a comprehensive state of the play for Smashing Magazine regarding rendering engines and font formats for screen use. He covers the basics of rasterisation, the benefits and drawbacks of the Windows ClearType renderer, and the differences between PostScript and TrueType outlines. A must read.

Letterboxd goes public

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:28:49 +1200

Letterboxd:

Today we’re pleased to announced our transition from private to public beta. All pages on Letterboxd are now publicly visible (except for those deemed private by their owners), and all new users are able to send invitations to friends immediately following sign up. Letterboxd will remain invitation-only for a period, to enable us to control our rate of growth.

Beyond thrilled to be able to pull the covers off our social film review site, as we transition to a public beta. Very proud of the team and what we’ve accomplished so far.

Letterboxd, the social film diary and review site I’ve...

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:28:00 +1300

Letterboxd, the social film diary and review site I’ve been working on with a few colleagues over the past year, is nearing its public beta launch. We’ve continued to add to and improve the site since launching at Brooklyn Beta last October — film pages have had an overhaul as you can see above, among many other improvements.

If you’d like to be part of the private beta, drop your email address at letterboxd.com over the weekend, and we’ll get an invitation out to you early next week.

Offscreen magazine, a Kickstarter project from Melbournites Kai...

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:24:00 +1300

Offscreen magazine, a Kickstarter project from Melbournites Kai Brach and Jess Murray, is a little over $5,000 short of a modest goal with 3 days left to run on its campaign. Here’s the idea in their words:

Offscreen is a new, quarterly print magazine with an in-depth look at the life and work of people that create websites and apps shaping our digital lifestyle. We want to tell the less obvious human stories of creativity, passion and hard work that hide behind every interface.

The pair plan to print and distribute the inaugural issue regardless of whether they’re successfully kickstarted, and the list of interviewees for it is impressive: Tim van Damme, Dan Cederholm, Andrew Wilkinson, Drew Wilson, Blake Whitman, Ryan Singer, Lisa Bettany, Sam Brown and more.

Visit their Kickstarter page to contribute $25 (or more) to receive the first issue, or subscribe for email/Twitter updates.

The Dutch Icon collective, headed by Hemmo de Jonge, has an...

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:36:00 +1300

The Dutch Icon collective, headed by Hemmo de Jonge, has an impressive collection of royalty-free work for sale. The examples above are just two of the 99 sets they’ve drawn to date, all of which are sold exclusively through iStockPhoto (which sadly means there’s no way to buy the complete series as a single set). The consistency and proportions are perfect throughout — alongside Drew Wilson’s Pictos sets, these are among the best stock icons I’ve seen.

For more similar resources, Meagan Fisher posted a great round-up of alternatives a month or two back.

Mike Harding: For a good part of this year I’ve been working...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:44:54 +1300

Mike Harding:

For a good part of this year I’ve been working with the guys here at Cactuslab on a new site called Letterboxd. It’s a site for film lovers; a place where you can keep a log of the films you watch, rate or review them, and keep up with what your friends have been watching.

I demoed this service at Brooklyn Beta last month. The feedback has been terrific, and we are continuing to make improvements while in private beta mode. If you’d like early access, leave your email at the site, we’re inviting new users every few days.

Richard Miller’s Westin Black is a great take on the friendly...

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:36:00 +1300

Richard Miller’s Westin Black is a great take on the friendly slab, by way of Cooper Black. It’s now available for desktop and web use from Fontspring, as part of a new collection of rounded faces that also includes Museo Sans Rounded and Proxima Nova Soft.

The new Readability

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:35:00 +1300

The new Readability:

Instapaper creator Marco Arment on Readability’s new service which enables users to financially compensate the content providers whose material they read:

Trust me, these guys really know their stuff, and their heads are in the right place: there are no sinister motives or shady practices. It works exactly the way you’d expect, and is one of the most positive, constructive efforts I’ve seen in the online publishing world in a long time.

Watch the promo video to see how it works.

Big thanks to the folks at Pictory for including my photograph...

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:45:53 +1300

Big thanks to the folks at Pictory for including my photograph of Auckland harbour in today’s showcase of New Zealand and its many wonders. The McCahon-inspired nameplate above is the work of Christchurch designer Tim Kelleher, and fellow kiwi Kris Sowersby had a hand in the creation of the Meta Serif typeface used to display the local trivia scattered throughout the article.