Brick by brick: News about FontStruct
June 30, 2008 | In News
Last week we opened our Thursday edition of the New York Times and were delighted to see the words “FontStruct.com” staring back at us. Peter Wayner wrote an interesting piece about the trend of do-it-yourself font making. FontStruct was an ideal subject for the topic and the first service mentioned in the story, along with some commentary from a FontStructor who is fast becoming a celebrity around this parts for his complex creations, Gene Buban (AKA geneus1).
Earlier in the month FontStruct was given even more digital ink from the online magazine Slate. Writer Jason Fagone articulated a reaction we’ve experienced many times here in our office:
“… as often happens in art, aesthetic limitations breed creativity. The most ambitious FontStruct users have created letterforms so ornate you’d never believe they’re derived from a set of prefab shapes.”
As well as the pure joy in using the app:
“This instant-gratification quality is the true appeal of FontStruct … There’s something about that moment when your own letters begin to flash across the screen.”
Rounding up the recent press coverage is a plug from one of our favorite magazines, ReadyMade, with a fitting metaphor:
“The process is a little reminiscent of Tetris, but without the overwhelming feeling that sets in when the pieces start dropping at an impossibly rapid pace.”
Wonderfully put. In the interest of keeping FontStruct stress free, we promise not to add any obnoxious video game music or imposing time limits to the editor in the near future. As for FontStructions inspired by Tetris, that we whole-heartedly support.
June 15, 2008 | In News
Canada’s newspaper The Globe and Mail is looking for FontStruct users living in or near Toronto for an upcoming story about FontStruct. If you are interested and meet the qualification, please post a comment below or contact us and we’ll put you in touch with the writer.
June 6, 2008 | In News
We added some new Bricks to the FontStructor today: elongated right-angled triangles, and isosceles triangles. These should provide some more options for building diagonals.
You’ll find the new bricks at the bottom of the “All Bricks” panel. Thanks to Diego Sans Salas for spelling out why these will be useful.
Update:
Due to popular demand we’ve added some more bricks to represent all permutations for the elongated triangle shape:
May 26, 2008 | In News
Two members of the FontStruct team, Stephen Coles and myself, will be talking about FontStruct at this year’s TYPO Berlin conference. TYPO is in the “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” in Berlin, Germany. Our talk is on Thursday, 29th May at 5p.m. There’s more information on the event and location on the TYPO website.
Conference registration is sold out, but we’re on a stage in an area with free public access, so if you’re in the neighborhood, please stop by, especially if you have any questions or suggestions for the FontStruct team.
Read more about the FontStruct presentation here.
May 13, 2008 | In News
We apologize to those of you who couldn’t connect to FontStruct late last week. Over the last few days our servers were hit hard by adoring hordes from hundreds of sites, including the behemoth Slashdot which unleashed a tsunami of new traffic we couldn’t absorb, and two of our favorite blogs: Coudal and Kottke. We’re doing our best to brace the servers against future onslaughts so there will be minimal downtime. Thanks for your patience.
May 5, 2008 | In Tips
FontStruct was designed to be self-explanatory. We built the editor so that anyone, without any type design or technical experience, can get started right away. But it’s always nice to have a moving, talking guide. So, here’s our first screencast: an introduction to FontStruct. Let the soothing Scottish timbre of FontStruct creator Rob Meek guide you through the basics of the application.
Continue reading…
April 22, 2008 | In News
On April 1, after months of planning, designing, production, and testing — not to mention endless mulling over licensing schemes — we took a deep breath and lifted the gates, opening FontStruct to the general public. To give the servers a gentle test, we decided not to announce the site right away. We leaked the news to a few close friends and went back to our regular FontShop duties.
A few days later, I turned to our intern Ivo, who sits next to me, and whispered what was then an unbelievable figure: “1,500!”. That was how many FontStruct users had registered by the end of the first week.
Continue reading…
March 31, 2008 | In News
Sharing is one of the principle motivations behind FontStruct, so we wanted end user license agreements that are as open and flexible as possible. Fortunately, the Creative Commons organization has already done this for us. Starting today, you can now apply a Creative Commons license to each of your FontStructions. See the option on the FontStruction page. Click the “About this License” link below the License menu to read more about each license and what it means for your creation.
March 30, 2008 | In News
FontStruct hasn’t yet been formally announced, but it’s fully functional and open to all while we fiddle under the hood. The easiest way to get started with the FontStructor is to check out the quick start guide. Enjoy yourselves, and please let us know if you have problems or suggestions while we’re in this beta phase.
