Crazy! I just want to know how you made that trail without leaving a mess?

Does that mean that Charles DeGaule took Carter's Little Liver Pills?

ChrisL

De Gaulle always had a nose for fonts

uhh... I mean Franks =-)

Norbert,
Don't typecast DeGaulle now:-)

ChrisL

Yes, we have no puns today.

--

Any idea if LM is using Fenway for both body and heads?

Also: the article mentions the highly successful
redesign of Le Figaro. What are the body and head
fonts it switched to (and what were they before)?

hhp

No puns :-<

Guess I will take my ball and go home.

ChrisL

>highly successful redesign

In other words, it didn't suck.
Not quite as impressive as a f****** awesome redesign.
I mean, how's it shape up against the new Grauniad?

>>highly successful redesign

>In other words, it didn’t suck.

readership doesn't tank more than 5% + no more than 3000 letters of complaint = successful redesign

readership doesn't tank more than 2% + no more than 1000 letters of complaint = F'n successful redesign

readership increases + no more than 500 letters of complaint = cooking the books

I based my "highly successful" only on that paragraph, since of course
I haven't seen the thing (which is why I asked that question). Maybe
that claim is bogus, dunno. But I'm curious, does a redesign necessarily
cause a readership drop? And what time period are we talking about?
I mean, the guarantee of getting complaint letters is basically due
to human nature, but don't we expect good design to bring increased
readership, eventually? I thought Kevin was carried off in triumph
in Helsinki.

BTW, what's a Grauniad?

hhp

The Grauniad is a (now largely affection) nickname for The Guardian, which used to be notorious for its misspellings. I don't think they still have the reputation, but the name has stuck.

The point of Kevin's presentation in Helsinki was about the relationship between the pleasurable aesthetic experience of typography and measurable increase in cognitive performance, based on related work in which people are found to perform problem solving tasks more easily and quickly after an enjoyable mental experience such as watching an amusing video rather than a dry lecture. So not directly related to the crapshoot of trying to increase readership in a competetive newspaper market.

I don't know about readership or circulation - but I've heard that whiney letters are a given whenever you redesign a paper.

Grow-nee-add is English slang for The Guardian.

And I thought it had something to do with groins.

To me the Guardian redesign, at least fontwise (I'm not qualified
to judge it otherwise) was stellar - so I personally wouldn't use it
as a reference point. Anyway it's more useful to compare papers that
are in the same arena. And what's interesting here is that France
is becoming more conservative (mostly in a bad way) so switching
from de Groot's stuff* to Fenway seems to make sense. Even though
it's kinda sad too.

* I mean the heads.

hhp

The Grauniad was first named that by the satirical magazine Private Eye in the '60s

Reading it daily after the redesign, I came to be really impressed with the typeface and the redesign, although there were a couple of things that bothered me (in the paper, not the face). They were outweighed by the brilliance, though.

At first, I didn't take to it, and I think that's why there are usually letters from readers who don't like their habits disrupted.

That and people as a rule go out of their way more to complain than to praise.

hhp

Buy a PDF for one euro - http://www.lemonde.fr/web/monde_pdf/0,33-0,1-0,0.html

Link via le typographe - http://www.typographe.com/article/461/le-monde-change-encore

Fenway is in the back bay neighbourhood formally called Kenmore. The Fens is an area about a mile south of Fenway Park.

The Fens is a Lincolnshire area with the towns Boston and Spalding in eastern coastal England.

A.G. Spalding was a Boston Red Sox pitcher who founded the Spalding athletic company in 1876.

I was born 8/10 of a mile from Fenway Park in what is now the Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center, the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. I now live in London England.

Matthew Carter was born in England, but lives in Cambridge (MA) across the Charles River from Fenway Park.

We both made bitmaps for Tahoma, he on a Mac and me on Windows.

Simon, thanks for the links. So the Figaro is just using
Utopia and something else by Slimbach. Vraiment ennuyant.

hhp

Vincent!
Love your story:-)

ChrisL

Vincent is the name of Matthew Carter's typeface used in Language Culture Type in combination with Fenway.

"Vincent is the name of Matthew Carter’s typeface used in Language Culture Type in combination with Fenway"

Incredible!

ChrisL

Quoting Si,
The California Angels baseball team, renamed the Anaheim Angels, renamed the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were swept aside by the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 post-season on their way to their curse breaking World Series win.

• Vincent the typeface is based on an early type of Vincent Figgins.

• "But same play, next time, I'd do exactly the same thing," said Chone Figgins, the third baseman of LA Angels, after his wild throw home opened the gates to the biggest one-inning explosion in Red Sox postseason history in the visitors' 9-3 Game 1 victory.

You can't make this stuff up.

JFP quoted in The Trib - http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/07/business/papers.php

Si