L’art queer de ne pas réussir à traduire “L’art queer de ne pas réussir” is a collection of annexes to the text The Queer Art of Failure written by Jack Halberstam. Halberstam views failure as empowering events that can serve as critiques of capitalist and heteropatriarchal norms.

As the title suggests, I failed to translate this text. However, from this book, which seemed so desirable and yet almost unattainable, I tried to grasp what I could in order to redistribute it into the six objects contained in this folder (including, among other things, a discussion with Léo Love Gentil about the collective dansmalangue, a translation of Chapter 1 of TQAOF, and a SpongeBob Survival Kit). This project experiments with the content of the book itself, putting it to the test in order to imagine it beyond the mystery it holds.

TQAOF was written in 2011, and Jack Halberstam uses a concept he calls “Low Theory”, with which he seeks to analyze popular culture objects to reach a broader audience. The project is almost exclusively composed in Fluxisch Else (distributed by Open Source Publishing) and Adelphe by Eugénie Bidaut (available on the Typothèque Genderfluid by Bye Bye Binary). The two are supported by cameo appearances by a handful of other typefaces.

The project pdf is available via are.na.

From Pixar:

Set in a suburban fantasy world, Disney and Pixar’s “Onward” introduces two teenage elf brothers who embark on an extraordinary quest to discover if there is still a little magic left out there. “The story is inspired by my own relationship with my brother and our connection with our dad who passed away when I was about a year old,” says director Dan Scanlon. “He’s always been a mystery to us. A family member sent us a tape recording of him saying just two words: ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye.’ Two words. But to my brother and me—it was magic.

Alias Harbour is used for headline text. See also this similar use of Harbour, for He-Man action figures. I guess the Onward logotype is custom type, though probably based on a typeface. Read about the Pixar logo.

Deemo is a rhythm video game developed by Rayark Games and first released on iOS and Android mobile platforms on November 13, 2013.

Rock n Roll Typo by Otto Maurer Design is used for the logo and merchandise.

The sign for a restaurant in Yiwu, China pairs lowercase letters from Sand (designed by David Berlow for Mac OS 8, 1996) with stroked capitals from Charlemagne (Carol Twombly for Adobe, 1989) for the English part. The Chinese font is yet unidentified [it’s STHeiti, see comments].

Until 1 July 2018, Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice, Italy presents the exhibition Bellini/Mantegna. Two Masterpieces Compared. Two depictions of the same subject – the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, one by Giovanni Bellini, the other by Andrea Mantegna, are shown side by side for the first time in history.

At first glance they look completely alike, and yet you understand that the two mirror-works have completely different personalities. But who came up with the marvellous composition?

The design process was characterized by concepts such as comparison and mirroring. The two artists are represented in a balanced way, communicating at the same time the stylistic differences. The mirrored construction allows reading the image in two ways. The logotype is based on two typefaces derived from Roman capitals (used by both artists within their works), opting for a more graceful style for Mantegna and a more linear style for Bellini. This choice is derived from the comparison of the two works, where Mantegna’s gives greater sacredness to the figures, embellishing them with haloes and decorations, while Bellini’s places the characters in a more familiar and human dimension. [paraphrased from the Italian press text]

The font chosen for Mantegna is Charlemagne Bold. Carol Twombly’s display typeface is inspired by versal capitals of late tenth-century England which in turn revived classical Roman letterforms. Bellini is typographically represented by a customized pairing of elements found in History, Peter Biľak’s playful layer system based on Roman inscriptional capitals. The wordmark combines History 04, a monolinear sans serif skeleton, with History 09, a layer of long tapered serifs. Of the latter, only the top serifs were used. The proportions of E and L were adjusted, maybe to compensate for the different lengths of the two names.

Christoph Dunst’s Novel Sans is used for secondary information on the poster and the book cover as well as for the texts in the exhibition. The standard typeface used in the visual identity of Querini Stampalia is Futura. It here appears for the museum’s name alongside the stylized ‘Q’ mark which was designed by Studio Camuffo in 2002.

​Exhibition design by We Exhibit. Graphic design together with Studio Visuale.

Kudos to Rinaldo for the helpful pointers — grazie mille!

The catalog accompanying the exhibition is published by Silvana Editoriale.

The Cadillac Bar & Grill in the Civic Center of San Francisco offers Mexican delicacies like Fajitas, Enchiladas and puffy (can’t-get-enuffy) Tacos – but the true jewel is the Margaritas Menu. Every Margarita’s unique flavor is represented with a unique typeface! A feast for the eyes (and taste buds)!

The font selection is interesting: some obvious defaults and system fonts (Copperplate, Rosewood, Gill Kayo) are mixed in with less-often seen typefaces (Rage Italic – perhaps more appropriate for the California Margarita).

The ones most difficult to identify were Doghouse (Spicy Pineapple Margarita) from the House Industries General Collection, and Morteza, from the now-defunct Bright Ideas foundry. (Thanks to Nancy Windesheim, the designer for helping me figure those out!)

Really, the only way that this book could be more ’90s would be if it featured the cast of Friends on its cover, instead of a Renaissance painting. Charlemagne and Copperplate! Those are two typefaces I know I always associate with web development. This book is so hot.

The book, written by Ian S. Graham, was published by John Wiley and Sons. You can still find its table of contents on a great vintage website.

This jacket is an interesting use of Carol Twombly’s Charlemagne typeface. The book it was designed for is Peter Richardson’s Herod: King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans from 1996. Perhaps Charlemagne was chosen by the jacket’s designer because the leg of the ‘R’ in the typeface is reminiscent of the form of thorns and/or nails, instruments of torture from Christ’s Passion and Crucifixion (which, albeit, are historical events that are said to have taken place decades after the death of Herod the Great, who is the subject of this book). At least they didn’t use Trajan!

The book was published by the University of South Carolina Press.

Perfect LTypI for the titles of the TV documentary Charlemagne / Karl der Große, produced by Taglicht Media and Pre TV together with WDR and Servus TV in cooperation with arte.
Hat tip to Loïc Sander.

This violin maker’s logo uses Charlemagne by Carol Twombly, with a custom compact umlaut and a giant end swash.

Animation film studio Pixar has been represented by this logo since 1995, when it debuted with Toy Story. The logo is set in Charlemagne, a typeface designed not too many years earlier by Carol Twombly at Adobe, Pixar’s neighbors to the south in San Jose.

Kottke just posted a short history of the Pixar logo animation where you can see the logo (and the Pixar mascot, Luxo Jr.) in motion