The Euro icon, released on December 12, 1996, is the most recently designed symbol for a currency. The Euro character was the final selection out of ten other symbols presented to the general public. Its shape derives from the Greek epsilon (ε), and the “C” character, which references the cradle of European civilization . The two horizontal lines have been attributed to the stability of the European market. Before the symbol was created, the European Commision (EC) listed four criterion for the design:

It should be a highly recognisable symbol of Europe. It should have a visual link with existing well-known currency symbols. It should be aesthetically pleasing and easy to write by hand.

Image created by John Winge

There has been somewhat of a revival, a wild, crazed passion as of late. For what, you ask? Ampersands.

I’m sure that doesn’t strike you as strange after seeing multiple ampersand blogs show up recently. Even the Society of Typographic Aficionados’s Font Aid IV project aims to raise money through a font that is made solely of ampersands. To see what inspired this sensation, let’s take a look back at the origins of this interesting and mysterious shape.

The Font Game for the iPhone and iPod Touch

I Love Typography (ILT) released The Font Game, a new application that tests typeface knowledge, on December 17th for the iPhone and iPod Touch. ILT founder John Boardley designed gameplay along with Kari Pätilä, who also created online support. Justin Stahl developed the game; it is his second application for the iPhone. (His first was the very useful reference tool, The Typographic Manual.)

A quick look at The Font Game:

The Journal purchased a copy of Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style in November. Regarding the book, renowned typeface designer Hermann Zapf said, “I wish to see this book become the Typographer’s Bible.” It is full of useful information, but it is not a casual read: it requires the reader’s full attention. Elements is also easy to navigate and read – it lives up to it’s own good advice.

One of Bringhurst’s small but significant subjects are lowercase numbering figures. Lowercase figures make for healthy, harmonious numbering.

A couple weeks ago I saw some display fonts by FontFabric that I was hoping to feature in our journal. They have put together quite a collection of both free and pay fonts. It’s always exciting to find good type designers releasing a few of their fonts for free (yikes! what an alliteration!). They have everything from a simple sans serif font like Zag all the way to some crazy display fonts like Portal. You can tell they have some personality with the text they use to preview their type with, be sure to check them out! Here are some of my favorites (in no specific order):

So yesterday I was testing out Google Reader as a new RSS aggregator after deciding that Arcylic’s Times just wasn’t doing it for me. I came across a post with some Criterion collection DVD covers, and was just blown away. I remember back in film school my teachers would always mention Criterion DVD’s but I never really took the time to check them out. Now I’m regretting I didn’t earlier… These are some of the most successfully designed conceptual pieces I have come across to date. Each one incorporates an emotion or aspect of the film in unique creative ways, through elements such as film stills, cut out shapes, and even color schemes.