A couple of months after our post which mentioned you could sleep with both Bello and Sauna, we spotted this typographic bastard in Helsinki. Something in between Bello and Sauna. Maybe someone took that post too literally?

Underware’s Mid November Tornado Tour 2010

Helsinki, 13 November
Make the Ego Bigger II (typeworkshop + lecture)
time: 10.00 – 14.30 o’clock
Grafia, Uudenmaankatu 11 B 9, Helsinki, Finland

Helsinki, 18 November
Next(con)text, seminar on typography and type
time: 14.00 o’clock
Media Factory & Department of Media
Media Centre Lume, Sampo Hall, Helsinki, Finland

Amsterdam, 18 November
BNO Tallks 6
time: 19.00 o’clock
Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Belfast, 19 November
the Bello-Eats-Liza-Fakir-Auto-Sauna-Tornado
time: 13.00 o’clock
University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Copenhagen, 19 November
Beyond the words
time: 09.00 — 16.00 o’clock
Conceptual Type — Type led by ideas
The Black Diamond, The Royal Library, Copenhagen, Denmark

Design the new Caribbean guilder symbol.

On 1 January 2012 Curaçao and St. Maarten (since yesterday 2 islands of the former Netherlands Antilles) will introduce the new Caribbean guilder as their national currency. This new currency needs a new symbol. In recent years there have been some new monetary symbols introduced. Most notably the Euro in 1996, Hryvnia in 2004, Rupee in 2010. This has shown that the introduction of a new currency symbol is a delicate moment. Fingers crossed. Let’s wait till the first committee fucks up the introduction of the new Caribbean guilder symbol.

If the government doesn’t manage to introduce a successful monetary symbol for its new currency, people will just write the currency at length (eg. 24,50 Cmg). Honestly, how often do Europeans still write (by hand!) 24,50 Euro instead of €24,50 just to avoid confusion?

Current fashion could quickly cause that the new currency symbol would look like “something + 1 or 2 horizontal bars”. But is that really necessary? Here is a sketch of a combined ‘c’ (caribbean) with a ‘ƒ’ (florin):

But even more important: whatever it looks like, you have to able to write this new symbol with your big toe in the sand (ũ Kurt Weidemann). Rough, small, quick and dirty, the symbol should survive. Even when written by a local barkeeper on the back of a beer mat, drunk as he is:

Hopefully this issue will draw enough attention, despite of the fact there are substantially less users of this currency than the Rupee. How predictable will it be? Let’s wait till the new official committee meets for the first time (men only). Let’s wait for the public contest of the authorities. Let’s wait for the shadow-contests of typophiles, wait for @fontblog’s call for submissions, wait for type designers’ comments in international media, wait for the offical presentation followed by tons of critique. And then let’s wait for the moment we discovered we could have done better.

Kuantu e ta kosta? See you in 2012.

Dear Tanja,

thanks a lot for the nice package which came by mail recently. What a nice surprise! We didn’t expect anything, and definitely not something like this at all. Three big letter-pillows: B, A and S. Very nicely made with Bello Caps. Wow. We’re flattered of course, but also confused. First of all, you included a hand written letter which was only signed with your first name: Tanja. Second, you didn’t leave any contact details. What is this? Who are you? Why such a nice gift? Why the mystery?

Is it a secret admiration of B(as), A(kiem) and S(ami)? Or do you just only adore Bas? Should we get worried? If you’re not 18 yet: does your mother know you’re sending nice surprises to strange men? If you’re 18+: next time include bikini-pics!

Or could you put our imagination to a hold and tell us who you are?
lots of love,
Underware

> update: Tanja has been traced. We love you too!

Link: Sing the Typeradio mantra

Sing along with the Typeradio choir. Sing Lorem Ipsum & the Typeradio mantra. Sing along!

Book of war, mortification and love at Nijhof & van Lee, Amsterdam

Being the epicenter of graphic design in Amsterdam, Nijhof & Lee is a bookstore you have to see while visiting Amsterdam. Feel and smell the love for books.

Book of war, mortification and love at van Stockum, Den Haag

Bookstore van Stockum is one of those bookshops which is always very eager to nicely present their books, which means our books as well. You might remember them from the extreme sauna book testing. Being close to central station in Den Haag, their window has lots of visibility for passersby. Mr. Linssen is watching you.

Poldercup, the movie. For those who don’t speak Dutch: a goal isn’t really a goal if you didn’t first dragged a women, a girl or a lady into the water. Men say.

We love football. We love subcultures. Sometimes these two meet, for example when Pied La Biche organises three-sided football, invented by the Danish artist Asger Jorn. Not extreme enough? Try swamp soccer, once made up by Esa Romppainen. And again another fascinating variation is blind football.

Recently our love for football and subcultures perfectly came together at the Poldercup. Football on a Dutch meadow with ditches and channels crossing the pitch. Scenery: cows, clouds, windmills, church towers. The pitch remained a battlefield, the water an extra opponent challenge as leaping ditches wasn’t allowed.

Where the crossing of channels should have forced teams to come up with new tactics for playing football, everybody was just struggling with the muddy grass-plot. That became a welcome excuse for not being able to do our Aurelio-tricks. Quote we heard after another failed shot: “my right leg had a perfect shot, all went fine, should have been a goal. The problem was my left leg, that got simultaneously stuck in the mud”.

Doesn’t matter we got kicked out in the semi-final, doesn’t matter Bas got a light concussion, doesn’t matter there were as much cameras as players, it was a beautiful day. Thank you Maider López, we love the horizon as much as you do.