The Type Pod

Copperplate Gothic is probably already on your computer. It comes pre-loaded on many. It has been there this whole time, quietly convincing people it's elegant.It is not elegant.In this episode, we examine why Copperplate has become the go-to typeface for business cards, law firms, and anyone who wants to seem serious — and why designers have described it as a "hodgepodge," a "pastiche," and, memorably, "like bad cherries." Along the way you'll learn more than you strictly needed to know about display typefaces, how they were a product of technological disruption, and — as a bonus — drop caps.We also get to revisit our old mate Frederic (no K) Goudy, and briefly, his consistently under-credited wife Bertha Matilda "Woman Printer of the Year" Goudy.Along the way Anitra and Inger take detours into what it means to be a "real twin," and Jason reveals an unexpected and extensive (and slightly disturbing) knowledge of the work of Sean Connery.This episode gets pretty loose, even if Copperplate does not."Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars!Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes.#wehategoudy

You’ve seen Mrs Eaves everywhere—even if you’ve never known her name. In this episode, we uncover the story behind one of the most familiar typefaces around, and its designer, Suzanna Licko—a woman who gets credit for her work (well, mostly… it’s complicated).Anitra dives into the research with plenty of side-eye and a healthy distrust of design history, informed in part by having gone to design school with private school boys. Along the way, we detour into the HR relations of early 18th-century print shops, trade magazines, and the so-called legibility wars of the early 1990s.Stick with us—or better still, visit our website to see Mrs Eaves used in the transcript—and you’ll leave ready to dominate bookstores with your new favourite game: guess that book cover typeface (Spoiler alert: it's probably Mrs Eaves)."Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars!Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes.#wehategoudy

An emergency podcast. Ripped straight from the headlines of a couple weeks ago.When Calibri was unceremoniously replaced by Times New Roman under the Trump administration, we chose to process our feelings—potential travel ban be damned.Yes, this episode is about fonts. And no, it’s really not.In a looser, more unscripted conversation than usual, we turn rage into humour while exposing how typography has always been political: shaping authority, enforcing norms, and quietly excluding people. Typefaces, it turns out, have never been neutral."Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars!Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes.#wehategoudy

This episode we talk about Transport, which is not a typeface. We know this for sure because designer Margaret Calvert said so in an email to us. If you have ever driven anywhere you will know the (not a) typeface Transport, as it was purposefully designed for roads. What you may not know is that the typeface is just one part of an extensive information system designed to help us all get where we want to go. Hopefully without hitting deers or pedestrians along the way.In this episode Anitra gets way too excited about the DIN system, and wasn't embarrassed at all when Jason schooled her on what vulgar fractions are. See examples of Transport by driving down the road OR at our website thetypepod.orgYou can buy our book on Amazon (rated 5 stars!)"Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars!Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes.#wehategoudy

Originally Anitra thought this typeface was designed by a woman, and because she is the only person authorized to speak about typefaces designed by a woman Anitra did the research for this episode. Sure, Jason is in touch with his feminine side, but not enough to be brave enough to speak (and he is too young and pretty to be canceled). Turns out Anitra was almost completely wrong, this typeface was created by a bunch of women — maybe. Although kind of no one designed this typeface too? Anyway, it wasn’t what we expected, but Anitra claims she is still right about who designed it, but in an unexpected way, and Jason is not contesting this.We are sorry it took so long for Season 2 to drop listeners, but get ready for more Type Pod. Now Anitra has figured out how to use Descript again there's more episodes coming!Find the show notes and a transcript set in Akzidenz Grotesk at Typepod.org. And because we might finally be getting the hang of this self promotion thing, you can see pictures of our book Back to Font on there too! Which you can buy everywhere, including Amazon. Check out our intro episode where you can get a discount code to buy the book directly from Laurenceking.com if you are in the UK.It's good to be back :)"Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars!Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes.#wehategoudy

Our book Back to Font is finally out! You can buy it in bookstores and everything! If you are in the UK you can get a 20% discount by going to laurenceking.com and entering the code TYPEPOD20.In the grand tradition of this podcast we messed up the original "producer produced" version of this into, so we did it again using finger puppets and bits of string, without the ThesisWhisperer. (She would want us to say the sound quality is not her fault, which is true it isn't.)Tune in to learn about why type is emotional, who is responsible for the jokes on the front cover, and the importance of cats to publishing deals. ** Editors note: We misnamed our wonderful editor Gaynor throughout this episode – which makes it even more obvious how very important she was to the project. There's no way she would have let us make that mistake, we are very sorry Gaynor!"Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars!Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes.#wehategoudy

Inger gathered the team for an emergency pod about Balto the 2013 typeface chosen for the Harris Waltz campaign. After one failed attempt – which tested Inger’s patience about kerning — we nailed it (although we may inadvertently start some new political conspiracy theories by talking about the adventures of a plucky Disney dog also named Balto, not to mention the problematic choice of Perpetua for Obama’s first campaign). Anitra talks too much about columns and typeface rubbings and Jason tries to take the higher ground, while Inger briskly moves us along. We then revisit past presidential campaign typeface choices, and argue about Optima. Finally we add to Trump’s growing list of indictments by pointing out he has also committed type crimes. Season two is coming up soon! In the meantime, you can go back and review season one so you get all our jokes about kerning.Stuff we mentionedMaking BaltoThe new Trump Logo and the MAGA cap storyMcCain's Optima typeface story"Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars!Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes.#wehategoudy

After a long delay (we blame the state of the world, frankly - exhausting) it's finally the end of season one of The Type Pod! In this episode we finally tackle our least favourite typeface: Goudy. We learn about the designer, Frederic (no K) Goudy and speculate on his rumoured penchant for women and fast cars. We dive into his improbably large output... of typefaces and publications. We wonder if part of the reason he designed and cut over 100 typefaces might be his very talented wife Bertha, who got much less press despite being named the Times ‘Woman Printer of the Year’. Jason did the history of the typeface for this episode. He offered to revisit the “Oxford University Press War” days because he has spent less time in therapy about this than Anitra. It becomes clear by the end of this episode that he is in a much better place about Goudy as well as his ex-boyfriends. This episode is for all survivors of corporate typefaces, whoever you are and whatever they were.Download a transcript set in Goudy (which again Jason had to do because Anitra just couldn't face it.)You can also visit our website to see images related to this pod.We know we've been infrequent, but don't unsubscribe yet! We have more episodes in the pipeline for you. Stay tuned..."Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars!Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes.#wehategoudy

In this episode we talk about Baskerville, which is the most trustworthy typeface (as proven by Science.) Anitra has Feminist Thoughts about designer John Baskerville and thought it would be inappropriate for Jason to mansplain this particular typeface to her… but she found out some things about JB and, well, this episode takes a turn. We learn about how designer John Baskerville pissed off the establishment enough to be turned into a famous book character and perhaps inspired a riot. What happened to Baskerville after he died is possibly even more interesting than why he got dismissed by the Vox Classification system. And it’s not often you can say that.You can find the show notes and transcript set in Baskerville  at https://www.anitraland.com/podcastIf you'd like to share your own views on Baskerville, or the pod, email us on [email protected] or leave us a message on speakpipe.com/thesiswhispererYou can find us on Twitter: @type_pod and on Insta: @the_type_podOur Producer, Professor Inger Mewburn is located at the Australian National University and is on twitter as @thesiswhisperer"Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars!Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes.#wehategoudy

In this episode, David joins us again as we examine the history of that most  ubiquitous of typefaces, Times New Roman, which is much more interesting than Times New Roman itself -  honest. Anitra volunteered to do the typeface history for this episode so she can then bore for Australia on printing technology. Jason and David  will try to stay awake.Follow David on InstagramYou can find the show notes and transcript set in Times New Roman  at https://www.anitraland.com/podcastIf you'd like to share your own views on TNR, or the pod, email us on [email protected] or leave us a message on speakpipe.com/thesiswhispererYou can find us on Twitter: @type_pod and on Insta: @the_type_podOur Producer, Professor Inger Mewburn is located at the Australian National University and is on twitter as @thesiswhisperer"Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars!Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes.#wehategoudy

After a longer than intended - “we’re out of lockdown and we have a social life again!” - pause The Type Pod is back. In this episode we deep dive into Bodoni, that typeface most beloved by designers of fashion magazines. Ace designer, type teacher David joins Jason and Anitra all the way from Washington D.C. to discuss why designers have, for more than two centuries, stuck with Bodoni… through thick and thin. We learn all about designer Giovanni Battista, who once made Napoleon come to his house for a meeting, and has his own museum in Parma. We speculate on why grunge band Nirvana chose this typeface most associated with “high class” to be their band logo. Finally, Anitra will explain why Bodoni is the best typeface to take to fancy parties. Follow David on InstagramYou can find the show notes and transcript set in Bodoni at https://www.anitraland.com/podcastIf you'd like to share your own views on Bodoni, or the pod, email us on [email protected] or leave us a message on speakpipe.com/thesiswhispererYou can find us on Twitter: @type_pod and on Insta: @the_type_podOur Producer, Professor Inger Mewburn is located at the Australian National University and is on twitter as @thesiswhisperer"Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars!Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes.#wehategoudy

Content warning: this pod contains details of historical sexual abuse. Due to technical issues during recording, we skip our advertised feature on Times New Roman; although fear not, we will return to Times New Roman in the future. Instead we focus on Gill Sans, and Eric Gill, type designer and religious artist... with a sideline in erotic woodcuts.Jason warns that luxuriant facial hair combined with smock-wearing are a red flag for, and Anitra confesses some disturbing revelations about Eric Gill and Chris Pratt mean she is no longer a Fan of either one's body of work. We agree that Gill Sans is not a typeface for beginners, and discuss the hazards of uneven proportions in letterforms. Anitra laments that Gill Sans being the “British Helvetica” doesn’t wash with Americans.You can find the show notes and transcript set in Gill Sans at: https://www.anitraland.com/podcastIf you'd like to share your own views on Gill Sans, or the pod, email us on [email protected] or leave us a message on speakpipe.com/thesiswhispererYou can find us on Twitter: @type_pod and on Insta: @the_type_podOur Producer, Professor Inger Mewburn is located at the Australian National University and is on twitter as @thesiswhisperer"Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars!Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes.#wehategoudy

In this first episode, Anitra and Jason talk about Futura, that most versatile of modernist typefaces and its designer Paul Renner, OG Anti-fa. Anitra tells Jason why the Nazis hated Latin typefaces. We argue about the merits of mathematical proportions and discuss why Futura is probably not classified as a “fun” typeface. Jason unfairly compares Type Designer Mathew Carter to a character from Game of Thrones.Anitra chose to do the history for this episode thinking that she knows all about Futura because she has read lots of stuff about the Bauhaus, but does she actually? (Spoiler alert, turns out not really).You can find the show notes and transcript set in Futura at: https://www.anitraland.com/podcastIf you'd like to share your own views on Futura, or the pod, email us on [email protected] or leave us a message on speakpipe.com/thesiswhispererYou can find us on Twitter: @type_pod and on Insta: @the_type_podOur Producer, Professor Inger Mewburn is located at the Australian National University and is on twitter as @thesiswhisperer"Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars!Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes.#wehategoudy

Catch up with your favourite typography nerds, Anitra and Jason, as they unravel the mysteriously wonderful world of typefaces - and the people who make them.Each episode is a deep dive into one type face (not a font!), who designed it, what it's good for and how we feel about it. "Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars!Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes.#wehategoudy