Fedra Sans

Forewords

Typotheque is a graphic design studio and “digital type foundry”, founded by Peter and Johanna Bil’ak (ahhh, designer husband & wife duo…) in 1999. Anyone who’s interested in typography should bookmark their website, as it is full of useful and beautiful design things available for purchase such as books, t-shirts and . . . → Read More: Typotheque – Celebrating The First Ten Years]]>

Typotheque Typefaces 1999-2009

Fedra Sans

Forewords

Typotheque is a graphic design studio and “digital type foundry”, founded by Peter and Johanna Bil’ak (ahhh, designer husband & wife duo…) in 1999. Anyone who’s interested in typography should bookmark their website, as it is full of useful and beautiful design things available for purchase such as books, t-shirts and of course typefaces as this is what they specialize in. To celebrate their 10 years anniversary, they sent us – and a bunch of other people, I’m sure – a nice little brochure that commemorate what they’ve accomplished in the last decade. I was very impressed by it, which was to be expected since it puts together a few of my most favourite design elements:

- A typography-based design;

- A good used of “the grid”;

- The use of black ink on newsprint;

- It’s Dutch (ok, that’s not really a design elements, but what I mean is that Dutch design is one of my favourite and a trip to Amsterdam is enough to convince anyone that design is ultra-present everywhere, even in the streets (see picture below).

You will notice that my favourite design elements all have one thing in common: they are simple. Yet, when you put them together the result is stunning and nothing is missing. No frou-frou and no need for fancy stuff. Just a well executed, simple design, like the Typotheque brochure above. A special mention goes to the envelope in which the brochure came in. Again, simple, typography based design but this time in a bright orange colour that contrast well enough with the brochure to create a balance when the two items are put together. We wish Typotheque a very happy 10 years old birthday, and look forward to their 20th anniversary brochure.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a locally brewed beer. It is conveniently located just around the corner from us so it’s a great alternative to the Oh-So-Stinky-And-Far-Away Beer Store. There’s definitely something special about buying beer directly at the brewery: not only are we doing something good by buying a local product, but the beer even seems . . . → Read More: Amsterdam Beer – Nice packaging (and taste!)]]>

Amsterdam Beer

Amsterdam is a locally brewed beer. It is conveniently located just around the corner from us so it’s a great alternative to the Oh-So-Stinky-And-Far-Away Beer Store. There’s definitely something special about buying beer directly at the brewery: not only are we doing something good by buying a local product, but the beer even seems fresher and tastier. The brewery shop isn’t just a plain refrigerator. It’s a cool warehouse where we can see the beer-making process and the staff, if often not overly friendly, is at least authentic and far from the corporate ‘fakeness’ that we get in other places.

Anyways, the purpose of this post is to show you that Amsterdam recently changed its packaging. It used to be a paper label glued to the bottle, but now they’ve changed it so the label is directly printed on the bottle. It gives it a nice, clean look and makes it easier for the brewery to reuse the bottle in an eco-friendly manner. We also like the box in which the 25 bottles came: it’s minimalist, a bit rough-looking and very different from the overly decorated and colourful box that other beers come in… We give it two thumbs up, and on that note, we’re off to drink a beer – it’s New Year’s Eve after all!

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Amsterdam – Bière au bel emballage (et bon goût!)

Amsterdam est une bière brassée ici, à Toronto. La brasserie est située juste au coin de notre rue, donc c’est pratique et nous permet d’éviter la puanteur du Beer Store. Il y a définitivement des avantages à acheter de la bière directement à la brasserie: non seulement encourageons-nous une entreprise locale, mais la bière semble être plus “fraîche” et semble également avoir meilleur goût. Le magasin de la brasserie n’est pas qu’un simple réfrigérateur… C’est plutôt un genre d’entrepôt qui permet de voir comment la bière est faite et les employés, même s’ils ne sont pas toujours extrêmement sympatiques, sont authentiques.

Récemment, Amsterdam a changé l’emballage de ses bouteilles de bière. Au lieu d’avoir une étiquette en papier collée sur la bouteille, l’étiquette est désormais directement imprimée sur celle-ci. En plus d’être écologique, ça modernise l’image de la marque. On aime beaucoup la simplicité de la boîte dans laquelle venaient les 25 bières…Ça fait changement des autres caisses de bières aux couleurs et designs un peu trop dynamiques! Parlant de bières…C’est l’heure d’aller en prendre une. Après-tout, c’est la veille du Nouvel An!