Elana Schlenker: designer (english version)

Elana Schlenker is a Designer/Art Director. She being as an art director at Conde Nast and now she work at Princeton Architectural Press 

My description of her, is : type, attention to detail, simple shape, hand-crafted elements, good balance, beautifully designed, magazine, magazine and magazine. Because, she create her own culture magazine The Original in 2006, and now this magazines change for her current passion, Gratuitous Type, which in her own words she described as “a pamphlet of typographic smut.” Elana have clear eye for design, without borderline.

She accept to describe herself in this post. Thank you for her participation in this blog.

. Can you tell us who you are? 

I am a graphic designer based in Brooklyn. I currently work in the in-house design department at Princeton Architectural Press. I also publish Gratuitous Type (gratuitoustype.com), a magazine about design and typography, and maintain a small freelance practice.

. Can you explain your work at  Princeton Architectural Press? 

I'm a designer at Princeton Architectural Press a publisher based in the East Village in New York. We specialize in architecture and design books, but the titles we publish are incredibly eclectic — each project is completely different from the last. At PAPress I am responsible for designing books (usually about 3-4 each season) and also miscellaneous collateral for the company — marketing materials, promotional sites, even book trailers. It is a very small company (the design department is just me; another designer, Ben English; and our Design Director, Paul Wagner), so our roles really vary from day to day.

. What do you feel is the most challenging thing about typography? 

For me I suppose it is resisting the urge to use typography that is super-trendy. Sometimes the trendy stuff is so pretty! I try to mix the old with the new, the timely and the timeless. There's a balance to strike, and the challenge is in finding it. 

. How would you describe your style? 

Generally, I try to make relatively simple, content-focused work, with an emphasis on strong typography, form, and color. I try to inject humor where I can, but of course, that's not always appropriate. What's unseen in my work, but a big part of what I do, is the organization of information. With my editorial background, I've very focused on the structure and hierarchy of information, narrative, etc, and I bring this to each project — from books to logos and websites.

Atipo®: design studio and type foundry (english version)

Atipo is small studio located in Gijón in the north of Spain. This studio wanted to make a more personal project that allowed them to develop work from other perspectives, and be able to freely combine all the disciplines they love, such as typography, photography, illustration, video...
Their works, are sophisticate, clear, with a lot off recherche and reference. I hop you will appreciate the font they create. You can download those for free.
I am thankful to their participation.

. Please tell us a bit about your professional background.

Atipo is formed by Raul Garcia and Ismael Gonzalez Pomar. We meet each other during  study in fine art at Salamanca. We are graduate in Graphic Design and Audiovisual. After several years working in different studios, web and branding agencies, we decided (during the middle of a crisis, early in 2010) to implement our project staff. We define ourselves as a multidisciplinary study and we try to profit of all things we love in each of our projects, either through the illustration, video or typeface. These two years have been very intense but very grateful, we have achieved in a short time that our work had been seen in numerous blogs and publications. In addition we have received several prizes: a Laus, a Brand New Award, a European Design Award and five Motiva awards. 

. How did you start designing Bariol type?

There are not many rounded fonts and most of them derived from a non-rounded typefaces. We decided that Bariol were a rounded type from the beginning. The development was long and the structure suffered several modifications. The look now is a mixture of Helvetica with DIN but with an personal air, as well as versatile and highly readable.
FREE FONT: Download Bariol Regular for free by just paying with Tweet. 

. What was the most challenging part in creating Cassannet type ?

Cassannet is a font based on the style of lettering seen on Cassandre posters and the biggest challenge was to collect the spirit of the Art Nouveau style and give a modern look in the same time. We believe it is a type that works well as a display, especially in editorial design but we have seen it working in different ways, such as logo or printed on a poster.

FREE FONT:  Download Cassannet for free by just paying with a Tweet