>I’ve recently been getting more into font collection

Are you looking to use the fonts or just collect them? Someone who for example might collect spoons, would approach things differently from someone who was primarily interesting in eating soup.

My favorite is, uh, my own :-)
Collectors welcome. Printed memorabilia also available.

Yes, I’m using them in a variety of web/print work. I would love to build a strong library, from all the classics to new modern foundries. I have a bit of a modernist style but also really respect the classics.

[…] what you guys think are some of the best foundries.

Maybe it’s more useful to start by looking which “foundry” is offering the best conceived digital typefaces. If you are looking fos strictly typographical styles, I would start by looking at which types you like more, and then see which renditions and stylizations are among the best available as digital type.
For example, with Garamond types, or Jenson and Caslon, you may have a lot to evaluate, and then see what works best as a digital version, which is more carefully rendered, which is more solid, or more complete in terms of glyph coverage, etc.

So Jeremiah, do you like movies with gladiators? Do you like to shake things up in your life every now and then and eat pancakes for dinner? Any opinions on the unspoken, underlying paternal theme existing in the complex Batman-Robin relationship?

Oh, wait a minute ... ah, I get it now. Silly me - all you wanted was for people to provide you with names of their favorite type foundries because you’ve got a developing interest in typography! I wonder what made me think you were looking for a intrusive psychological profile?

Alright, so then just the foundries: Mr. Shinn up there already has provided a great start. I would especially recommend checking out “Brown” and “Worldwide,” my personal favorites there.

Some others to see, with special emphasis placed size, quality and most of all, diversity:

www.textaxis.com
www.gestalten.com
http://andreubalius.com
http://fontsmith.co.uk
www.daltonmaag.com
http://blambot.com
http://www.felicianotypefoundry.com

These will get you started; if you’ve seen ’em, raise the flag and I’ll toss out some more. Disclaimer: These are not my “favorites” nor do they represent what I consider the “best” ones; however they are all very good and not what I’d call particularly mainstream like, for example, “fonts.com.” Let me know what you find.

To start with in the US: Adobe, FontBureau, Hoefler & Frere-Jones, Village, House Industries, plus individuals who sometime sell through their own shops, like Matthew Carter, Sumner Stone, Christian Schwartz, others.

Thank you guys so much, your replies were far beyond my expectations. I’ll definitely check out all of the Foundries you guys suggested and also the individuals. I have some studying to do!

Here is some Swedish Type foundries, where you’ll find a variety of quality typeface families.

http://www.fountaintype.com

http://www.macrhino.com

http://www.autodidakt.se

So interesting to see how the many influences coming from the “nuclear bomb” of the 1990s has been fully assimilated in refined and craftful designs by a new generation of [educated] designers (I see an incredible array of influences, including Alias, in the Textaxis letters). Thanks for the links…

I add some modern ’classics’, varied (I have no better term… :=():
Storm Type Foundry: http://www.stormtype.com/
Typeculture (Mark Jamra) http://www.typeculture.com/
Alias: http://www.alias.uk.com/1_fontlist.html
Virus (Jon Barnbrook): http://www.virusfonts.com/
Latinotype: http://www.latinotype.com/espanol/
Sudtipos: http://www.sudtipos.com/home
Klim (Kris Sowersby): http://www.klim.co.nz/

“nuclear bomb”

Yikes! How did I miss this? Please explain.

Well, with that term I tried to compensate my lack of immediate expression in English language…
I used it to describe the state of typography (simply seen as the mechanization of the process of setting lettering, not as “fine typography” as commonly used) as it was hit by the tornado of the so-called “digital revolution”. Many designers (mostly graphic designers) generated a true “avant-garde” movement on international scale, as type design stopped to be “a brave and arcane business” in the hands of a few, a notion expressed by Matthew Carter in an interview around 1993.

Hmm… Try to locate the article “The Digital Wave” by Robin Kinross, from an old issue of Eye Magazine, to look at Rick Poynor’s articles in the first issues of the same, and at his book “Typography Now” (issue 1). Locate some Cranbrook or CalArts catalogue, the narratives behind the works of Jon Barnbrook, Miles Newlyn, Jeffery Keedy, Frank Heine, Sue LaPorte, P. Scott Makela, Barry Deck and others in earlier issues of Emigre, and then you may have an idea of all the earthquake these caused in my mind of self-taught designer in process… :=)

My comment about Alias was because I see a lot of David James & Gareth Hague’s intutions (but others as well) in letterforms picked up by the designer(s?) of Textaxis.
For example, the typeface Borneo has a lot of forms influenced by Alias’ MetSys (which, in turn, was based on James’ lettering for the early 1990s album covers of Steve Hillage’s band System 7).
Inercia and Suite owe a lot to FF Dax (1995-1997) and the previous Barmeno (1983) by Hans Reichel;
Oneline is heavily influenced by Alias’ Progress (2002);
Latina Italic owes an lot (in terms of stylization) to John Downer’s Triplex (1985), and so on…