Is this for sale or what? Details, man. We need details! Where was it sourced from?

It's Font of the Month at Veer.
Published by Fontek.

at last !


�

Here's a link:

http://www.veer.com/results.asp?image=LFT2244900

There's a bit of Letraset-supplied background information on the page. I'd like to offer more, but that's all they gave us. It actually only has a couple of animal images included. See below:

Funny, we wrote to Yoko 3 separate times with a proposal for just such a font project and never received a response. If it is not licensed, there may be a problem.

> never received a response.

You probably just weren't wearing oversized dark glasses and slobbering at the mouth enough.

Handwriting fonts are bad enough, but fonts of bad handwriting of dead celebrities is a bit too much for me.

hhp

>You probably just weren't wearing oversized dark glasses and slobbering at the mouth enough.

---Actually, I was.

>Is that a problem?

It depends on the estate and their lawyers. It does tend to vary from case to case. As a rule we do not do any fonts "based on" or even "inspired by" unless we have permission and/or licensing or unless it is in the public domain.

Ha ha, 7 messages into the thread and we're Yoko-bashing!
Actually staying civilised 7 messages was pretty, eh, civilised.

You probably just weren't wearing oversized dark glasses and slobbering at the mouth enough.
???

She is by far more interesting than that dead pub rocker she used to hang out with.
And if she sues, well what can I say? You go girl!

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If I didn't know whose hand it was, I wouldn't be upset.
But the font is riding on Lennon's celebrity, so to see it used to set text like "I am so money" in Veer's catalog is disconcerting.
After all, he was the guy who wrote "Imagine no possessions".

If you don't think this is a problem, how would you feel about a handwriting font called "Meinkampf"?

>how would you feel about a handwriting font called "Meinkampf"?

Depending on the context and source, it may be a bit like the way Jonathan Barnbrook stirs the socio-political pot with his naming and background concepts. No direct or indirect associations or comparisons are meant to be applied by the following statement, but quite frankly, font names like Infidel, Nixonscript and Shock & Awe might cause the same amount of gooseflesh as the phrase Meinkampf in some circles.

>... to see it used to set text like "I am so money"
>... in Veer's catalog is disconcerting.

Most people won't make this connection without a bit of footwork on their part, but I agree with Nick that it's an uncomfortable and perhaps inappropriate association. What would have made it worse, is if we had leveraged the Lennon connection in any way to sell the face. We didn't.

To be honest, that particular headline gives me the willies regardless of what face it is set in.

FYI, John Lennon's name has been selling baby stuff for a while now:

http://www.babyterritory.com/b/John_Lennon_Baby_Gear/

When we ride our bikes in the summer, we take a break at the end of our ride right by Strawberry Fields (in the shade). I can't tell you how many tourists go out of their way to go there. We always get the question: Where is Strawberry Fields?

Barnbrooks Mason was called Manson at first, Emigr� made him change it. Somone also tried ordering Prozac (the drug, not the font) from him. But controversional naming is one thing, licensed 'John Lennon' fonts are another, that's merchandising and is probably handled by Yoko's lawyers. If not, it's just theft.
A Lennon font used for writing 'I am so money' is one of the risks that the people taking care of Lennon merchandising is running. Font designers have little or no influence on how people use their work, as Barnbrook has experienced. (Ironically Exocet is really popular in neo-nazi circles.)

There's a big distinction between typefaces, which are designed as commercial production tools, and handwriting, which should be accorded the same privacy (legally) as a person's photograph.

A friend of mine has designed a couple of typefaces, but isn't publishing them, because she wouldn't want them to be used for text that she would find offensive.

Yes, Lennon was the man who wrote 'imagine no possessions'. He was also the man who bought a second flat in the Dakota to keep his fur coats in.

if we had leveraged the Lennon connection in any way to sell the face. We didn't

Well its sold as a Lennon handwriting font...

>>We always get the question: Where is Strawberry Fields?

Answer: Its in Liverpool ;-)

You are so wrong Steve, try West 72nd Street in Central Park Manhattan. Central Park was one of his favorite places and Strawberry Fields is where he hung out in Central Park.

OK, but Strawberry Fields in Central Park is named after the song which is named after Strawberry Fields in Liverpool.
Also Strawberry Fields in Central Park wasn't called Strawberry Fields when he used to hang out there.

Strawberry Field (yes, singular like that) was a Salvation Army home in Woolton, Liverpool, and John used to go play there with his friends when he was a kid.
Later, in 1966, he used his childhood memories of Strawberry Field and abstracted them for a song, which he called 'Strawberry Fields Forever'.

Here's an excerpt from an interview Lennon gave to Rolling Stone in 1968:

Q: "What is Strawberry Fields?"

JOHN: "It's a name, it's a nice name. When I was writing 'In My Life,' I was trying 'Penny Lane' at that time. We were trying to write about Liverpool, and I just listed all the nice-sounding names, just arbitrarily. Strawberry Fields was a place near us that happened to be a Salvation Army home. But Strawberry Fields-- I mean, I have visions of Strawberry Fields. And there was Penny Lane, and the Cast Iron Shore, which I've just got in some song now, and they were just good names-- just groovy names. Just good sounding. Because Strawberry Fields is anywhere you want to go."

Err... and sorry for derailing the thread

> Well its sold as a Lennon handwriting font...

What I meant was that it was not leveraged beyond the description that was supplied by the foundry (Letraset). Never was Goo Goo Gjoob referred to as attributable or inspired by Lennon in any of our marketing materials. The product description on the web site that mentions Lennon is a required bit of background information from the designer. We certainly could have emblazoned the cover or inside spreads of our catalogue with superfluous celebrity stroking, but we didn't. That was my original point.

I didn't think Veer used the whole Lennon thing too heavy. I haven't seen the printed catalogue, though...

Since where already off topic: That's a very nice user-image-thing you've got there Steve P.

> I haven't seen the printed catalogue, though...

A PDF version is available here.

Andrew, Lennon may be considered hypocritical, a millionaire advocating a world without money. But he supported many progressive social causes. The "War is Over" ad campaign he and Yoko did was brilliant. Part of the strength of his songs was their recognition of his imperfection, he was a jealous guy and not afraid to admit it.

The text in the image file at the top of this thread was taken from an army recruitment ad (complete with missing apostrophe). Lennon may have been rich, but he never went to war or started one. I wanted to see how it would look.

And it seems that typographic culture completely overwrites any graphological status (the personality or politics of the writer) that may reside in handwriting. In other words, even if you know Lennon's politics, you just see "natural" sloppy handwriting, in a sloppy font. And the context in which the type works, ie the layout and the images it works with, creates far more meaning than can ever be inferred from the script.

It's like we've spent many centuries investing subtle differences in typeface with particular meanings (type as formalized writing?), but perhaps now what we're trying to do is figure out something similar for un-formalized scripts -- that may be one reason why they're so popular as fonts.

>>That's a very nice user-image-thing you've got there Steve P.

Oh, Thanks - I think there are loads of interesting and attractive images among the user-image-things of typophile members. I started collecting them at one time, with the idea of maybe doing something with them, but I haven't saved any for a while. Maybe Jared & Joe have them all stashed somewhere?

>And the context in which the type works, ie the layout and the images it works with, creates far more meaning than can ever be inferred from the script.

Yes