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About the Author
Steven Heller is the cofounder and the cochair of the MFA Designer as Author program at the School of Visual Arts. He writes the Visuals column for the New York Times Book Review and the Graphic Content blog for T-Style; is editor of AIGA Voice; and is a contributor to Design Observer. He is the author, coauthor, and/or editor of more than 120 books on design and popular culture, including the forthcoming New Ornamental Type (Thames and Hudson). More information can be found at his homepage.
 
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Typoliteracy

by Steven Heller
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Typedia logo
 
 
I love type prefix titles like Typotheque, Tipoteca, Typology, Typomuffin, etc. Now there's Typedia, and you guessed it--it's a wiki-like, interactive encyclopedic type website devised and designed by Jason Santa Maria, Khoi Vinh, John Langdon, Liz Danzico, and Dan Cederholm, all names I suspect Print readers know well (or will now). 
 
Well, you wouldn't have guessed that these guys did it had I not told you. But here's what Santa Maria says about the new venture: "Sites like Flickr had already revolutionized the way we shared and discovered photography; why isn’t anyone taking advantage of the web for the sake of type? I should do that, I murmured. My friends offered up a shared response: Well, do it." They did it. (Langdon designed the logo above.)
 
Typedia enables the user to locate typefaces, attribute a designer or foundry, and see the face(s) in context. But, Santa Maria says, a site like Typedia is only as good as its members. "So we made it dead simple to contribute. Creating an account is quick, and adding a listing for a typeface only has one required field, the name. Fill in any other information you know, and others will (we hope) help by filling in what you don’t." To get started, visit the homepage and register.
 
Then build the largest type library in the universe.
 
What's the first font you would grab? Tell us in the comments. And if anyone knows who designed it, I'm looking for info on a face called Klaus Bubula Bold.
 

 
Reader Comments
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Oh you clever Heller... nice self-promotion for a font that YOU designed. Too bad I wasn't able to find a visual of it on the interwebs! My current font crush: Klavika.
By kasiadesigns  September 16, 2009 
Typohile has a Wiki, but I don't think it is visual. And you can get an answer to font inquiries PDQ. Current type crush: Scala
By BruceS63  September 16, 2009 
I haven't had my coffee yet. I should have known something was up. Klaus Bubula Bold. You little stinker.
By Bobbi  September 16, 2009 
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