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listen to.

Type­Tracks 003 — An eight song compilation inspired by Adrian Frutiger's Univers.

Adrian Frutiger’s Univers (pro­nounced “UNiv-air”) is one of my top five favorite type­faces. Like many rela­tion­ships, the begin­ning of my affair with Univers was mainly super­fi­cial. It was my un-imaginative way of try­ing to dis­tance myself from Hel­vetica. In my defense, let me say that I like Hel­vetica and we are still good friends, but I was young and fool­ish once. Back then I thought another Swiss sans-serif type­face would be the answer to my typo­graphic prob­lems. Now that I’m older, I see the flaws in my logic, but I really have no regrets. I have grown to love all of the great idio­syn­crasies that make Univers a sophis­ti­cated, well-rounded, and ver­sa­tile sans-serif. So this edi­tion of Type­Tracks is my mix­tape for Univers.

Type­Tracks 003: Univers

1. Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Ware­house  - Minus The Bear, Highly Refined Pirates

2. All The Wine - The National, Alligator 

3. Ani­mal - Miike Snow, self-titled album

4. La Costa Brava - Ted Leo and the Phar­ma­cists, Liv­ing With the Living

5. Archae­ol­o­gist - Win­ter­sleep, Wel­come to the Night Sky

6. After­noon Delight  -  Star­land Vocal Band, self-titled album

7. Wel­come to the Work­ing Week  - Elvis Costello, My Aim Is True

8. Leave the City  - Mag­no­lia Elec­tric Co., What Comes After the Blues

Posted: 04.03.2012|Posted by: Levi M.|Comments (1)|
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Type­Tracks 002 — An eight song compilation inspired by Erik Spiekermann's Meta.

Meta
Watch­ing UnderConsideration’s Brand New Con­fer­ence awhile back, I was reminded of the supreme excel­lence and over­all affa­bil­ity of type designer Erik Spiek­er­mann, the final speaker. Among his lengthy cat­a­log of fine type­faces, the Meta fam­ily is a par­tic­u­larly sat­is­fy­ing design. A ver­sa­tile sans serif with a heart of gold, Meta’s human­ist lines pro­vide just the right amount of panache. It’s a proud type­face that could make friends with just about anybody.

Type­Tracks 002: Meta

1. Pic­ture Book — The Kinks, The Kinks Are The Vil­lage Green Preser­va­tion Society

2. Hol­land, 1945 — Neu­tral Milk Hotel, In the Aero­plane Over the Sea

3. 1901 — Pheonix, Wolf­gang Amadeus Pheonix

4. Rocky Racoon — The Bea­t­les, White Album

5. 15 Steps — Radio­head, In Rain­bows

6. Impos­si­ble Ger­many — Wilco, Sky Blue Sky

7. Oth­er­side — Red Hot Chili Pep­pers, Cal­i­for­ni­ca­tion

8. Speed Tri­als — Elliott Smith, Either/Or

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Type­Tracks is the exper­i­men­tal brain­child of Tactic’s Cre­ative Direc­tor, Cody Thomp­son. A series of playlists inspired by a given type­face, Type­Tracks is an attempt to bridge the gap between two of the author’s great joys — typog­ra­phy and music. Its sub­jec­tive nature leaves plenty of room for dis­cus­sion, so feel free to pro­vide your cri­tiques, addi­tions and any­thing else that’s on your mind. To email Cody directly, click here.
Posted: 01.07.2011|Posted by: Cody T.|Comments (0)|
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Type­Tracks 001 — An eight song compilation inspired by Franklin Gothic Demi Condensed.

TypeTracks 001: Franklin Gothic Demi Condensed
I dis­tinctly remem­ber my dis­cov­ery of Franklin Gothic (specif­i­cally, Demi Con­densed) as a water­shed event. Indeed, it was a mon­u­men­tal turn­ing point in my path towards design. Why Franklin Gothic? I’m not sure. Hon­estly, look­ing back I could just as eas­ily have veered towards Hel­vetica or some other ubiq­ui­tous sans. But to me there was just an inex­plic­a­ble ‘some­thing’ about that stern, straight-talking type­face that said, “this is it.”

Type­Tracks 001: Franklin Gothic Demi Condensed

1. Packed Like Sar­dines in a Crushed Tin Can — Radio­head, Amne­siac

2. Every­body, Come Out­side! — Pome­gran­ates, Every­body, Come Outside!

3. Saved By Old Times — Deer­Hunter, Micro­Cas­tle

4. Martha My Dear — The Bea­t­les, White Album

5. Fog (Again) [Live] — Radio­head, Com Lag: 2+2=5(ep)

6. Jerusalem Had A Bad Day — Pome­gran­ates, Every­body, Come Outside!

7. Motor Away — Guide By Voices, Alien Lanes

8. Pretty Mary K (other ver­sion) — Elliott Smith, New Moon

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Type­Tracks is the exper­i­men­tal brain­child of Tactic’s Cre­ative Direc­tor, Cody Thomp­son. A series of playlists inspired by a given type­face, Type­Tracks is an attempt to bridge the gap between two of the author’s great joys — typog­ra­phy and music. Its sub­jec­tive nature leaves plenty of room for dis­cus­sion, so feel free to pro­vide your cri­tiques, addi­tions and any­thing else that’s on your mind. To email Cody directly, click here.
Posted: 11.16.2010|Posted by: Cody T.|Comments (0)|