The Typekit Blog

In this week’s sites we like, we present a rather poetic tour of New York: its artists, its windows, and its psyche.

The Made by Hand film series seeks out those who turn commodity into true craft, with a focus on the local, sustainable, and handmade. These insightful, beautiful films find a fitting home on this thoughtfully-designed website, which features bookish Adobe Caslon for body text and Museo Sans Rounded for brightly-contrasted subheads.

In a clever and freshly-considered representation of “the eyes of the city,” Windows of New York features artist Jose Guizar’s vibrant illustrations of window frames around Manhattan. The uncluttered website keeps the visual focus on each single window, with minimal location notes—titles, really—in the stately capitals of Museo Slab and longer text excerpts in Chaparral.

New York Moon features meditations on topics “of time and space, structures trapped beneath the city, translation, neighborhoods, the desert, water and nostalgia.” The precise PT Serif stars as both headline and body text throughout the site, with Alternate Gothic 2D placed thoughtfully on a selection of headlines as well; a background image styled after newsprint completes the site’s printed-periodical aesthetic.

That’s it for this week; share sites you like in the comments!

We love typography, and we love it even more when great type is paired with quality writing. In this week’s sites we like, we’re featuring a few smart people who are very good with words.

It doesn’t take but a few seconds on writer Jack Cheng’s website to get sucked into reading his perceptive and engaging blog. Chaparral makes for a lovely, unobstrusive body text that keeps the focus on his words, while Anivers SC brings a robust character to headings and the inspiring homepage opener.

We love writing on the web, and the crew at Editorially aims to make that process an even better one for authors and editors with their innovative writing app. In addition to improving upon the mechanics of the modern writing process, they’ve done great work with their website; Adelle is an excellent choice to set the writerly tone for this page. (Doesn’t the descender on the “y” remind you of a typed letter?) JAF FacitWeb balances this nicely, making for clear and inviting site navigation.

Even for those of us who work on the web, there’s nothing quite like the perfect notebook. Draft Supply Co. offers a lovely, simple interpretation of this most essential of tools, and features some exquisite type on its equally appealing website. The page bristles with energy from Stratum 2, a geometric sans serif from Process Type Foundry. The approachable FF Dagny brings a newsy personality to the body text throughout.

That’s it for this week’s sites; share the sites you like in the comments!

Let’s take a hop across the Atlantic for a British twist on this week’s sites we like.

The website for Arsenal features just the right level of intensity for this English football club, keeping energy high while providing clear, direct navigation. Agency Gothic CT, which was licensed from CastleType and is being served by Typekit, brings a bold attitude to the page, while FF Meta offers a soft but confident counterpart in the body text.

Considering the stunning breadth of their collections and outreach initiatives, it’s appropriate that the website for the British Film Institute is such a visual pleasure to explore. Adelle is a great typographic choice here, as it has a lively character that plays strongly off the captivating screenshots without dominating the scene.

That’s it for this week; share sites you like in the comments!

We’re wrapping up this week with some music and games. Play on into the weekend with this week’s sites we like!

It may only be February, but doesn’t this page make you look forward to summer? Cubano‘s cheerful, subtly retro vibe sets the mood on this site for the Festival of the North East. Museo Sans cleanly provides information on festival details while maintaining the site’s lighthearted personality.

This website for the Governors Ball Music Festival in New York is a fantastic example of how mixing the styles of a single typeface can make for powerfully dynamic typographic design. Proxima Nova shines here as both an iconic header and a modern, geometric body font, with Proxima Nova SC OSF Extra Condensed playing a perfect supporting role in subheads and navigation.

Inspired by classical Renaissance typefaces, Minion is an appropriate choice for the official website of Settlers of Catan. With a studied tone enhanced by colorful illustration, this site has us ready to gather resources and build some settlements this weekend! Click the German flag to see how neatly the type translates across languages, too.

That’s it for this week! Share sites you like in the comments!

We’re celebrating the art of language and letters in this week’s sites we like.

Leading with a homepage that attractively displays a gallery of his recent projects, Erik Marinovich‘s website keeps the focus on his beautiful lettering work, but does not disappoint when it comes to web type. Chaparral brings light, deliberate form to the main body text, while JAF Herb, a distinctively approachable blackletter, adds its blocky but stylish character to headers. Learning Curve adds a perfect flourish of color and swirl.

Sean McCabe‘s website employs Le Monde Courrier STD throughout, its relaxed but orderly shape establishing a friendly, conversational tone for his neatly-organized lettering portfolio. The resulting feel is as close to a personal tour of his lovely lettering projects as we could ask for from behind a screen.

“The right words in the right order can do great things,” opens the Distil Copywriting webpage. We think there’s also something to be said for the right words in the right typeface, and Distil nails this as well, pairing fresh Freight Sans with subtle Skolar on this well-paced site.

That’s all for this week; share sites that you like in the comments!

Isn’t everything better with a friend? Pairing things up in this week’s sites we like.

Daniel Eden has pulled together another gorgeous collection of font profiles, this time featuring a catalogue of serif and sans pairings from Typekit. As educational as it is effective, this site explores how “twin” fonts such as Freight Text and Freight Sans naturally balance one another when used on the same page.

On the clean, appealing Karma website, FF Din lends an upbeat style to the body text, with Proxima Nova Alt neatly punctuating each section. Karma’s mobile hotspots are designed to be shared with friends, and they express this simple idea effectively and with optimism on this smoothly designed site.

As Harmonizr aims to make modern group collaborations simpler and more fun to manage, their website leads by example, balancing the distinct personalities of FF Meta, Myriad, and Bello into one cohesive and dynamic message.

That’s all for this week; share sites that you like in the comments!

All manner of animals in this week’s sites we like.

Mandrill is MailChimp’s email notification platform for apps. Freight Sans, set in all caps with generous letter spacing, exemplifies the sleek and contemporary aesthetic of the site.

If the Stonehenge Veterinary Hospital puts as much care into their services as they do their website, your pet should be in good hands. Friendly, informative, and tasteful, they utilize FF Dax Compact, Museo Slab, and cute silhouetted critters to great effect.

If it’s true that you first eat with your eyes, you might take a bite out of your laptop. Little Goat Diner’s charming illustrated and animated splash screens are a clever prelude to their numerous and extensive menus, set in the appropriately playful Brandon Grotesque.

That’s all for this week; share sites that you like in the comments!

A new Uber app, great customer support, and Miami’s history in this week’s sites we like.

Uber turns the stressful ordeal of hailing a cab into an easy, modern experience. Fittingly, their website achieves a similar effect with the legible and contemporary sans serif, FF Clan. The high x-height and no-frills architecture makes FF Clan a perfect choice for both Uber’s new website and their mobile app. You can license FF Clan Web from FontShop and bring your license over to Typekit.

Desk.com, a customer support management platform (which we proudly use for our own support here at Typekit), pairs the approachable Myriad with the workmanlike FF Basic Gothic, an excellent alternative to Verdana. The result is a pleasing, easy-to-navigate website.

HistoryMiami is a cultural institution dedicated to teaching and celebrating the history of Miami, Florida. They establish a nice contrast of geometric sans and humanist serif, using Proxima Nova for headings and navigation and Adobe Garamond for body copy.

That’s all for this week; share sites that you like in the comments!

There’s plenty of pizza, an AEA redesign, and some holiday cheer in this week’s sites we like.

Ballard Pizza Company serves whole pies and fat slices to the pizza lovers of Seattle. Their website packs a lot of information into a narrow space, while exuding hard work and quick service; two widths of Proxima Nova (regular and Extra Condensed) deliver.

Taut type, glossy photography, and a burlap background emphasize the attention to surface and texture at Reno Chicago. A simple composition built with no-frills Refrigerator Deluxe helps bring out the content’s warm glow.

For people who make websites, the An Event Apart redesign might be as educational as the conference itself. From its new RESS-based design to its masterful application of the upbeat and clever Freight Sans, the new site is worth studying.

Alright, that’s enough working hard, paying attention, and studying — it’s time to make a fake moon landing video and get invited to MuleNog ’12. When you get there, be sure to compliment Alaska Dave on the pertinent use of BD Geminis. Source Sans does a fine, upstanding job despite the surrounding nonsense.

That’s all for this week! Share sites that you like in the comments!

A choreographer, hammocks, and the Santa Monica Pier in this week’s sites we like.

The website of Rosemary Butcher is a beautifully simple representation of her career, with a clever scrolling timeline to contextualize the expansive scope of her résumé. Adobe Text lends an appropriate elegance and is a welcome departure from the web-standard Georgia.

Hamacama sells what we all wish we were laying in right now: hammocks. Museo Slab and Museo Sans unify the site, and the superfamily’s relaxed aesthetic pairs well with the subject matter.

The storied history of Santa Monica Pier takes on a fun, quirky attitude with this attractive site. Letter Gothic, Futura PT, and Alternate Gothic No. 3 D work together to achieve a spunky retro vibe.

That’s all for this week; share sites that you like in the comments.