I love secret spaces, and here in our office in the glorious Phelan Building in San Francisco, we have a secret abandoned penthouse on the roof. But we also put together a small space on our 9th floor that’s secret in a different way — it celebrates something that’s everywhere around us, but something many people don’t often notice. Typography.

We call it Whitespace or, in moments of typographical bravura, White␣. If you happen to be a fish, it looks like this…

…although we want to believe it’s almost as cool if you’re a human being.

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Why?

Because typography deserves recognition and celebration. And because it’s much more fun than many people imagine.

We wanted to put together a small corner in the Medium universe that’s maybe a bit like a library, and maybe a bit like a museum, but much more lively, and much more forward-looking. A place where you could soak in as much typography as you wanted: informal or formal, visual or textual, solitary or social. You could come in for a minute, or spend days there (as some of us have).

(Why are you still looking at me.)

What’s in Whitespace? Let’s start with type playing cards, and some stencils for people to mess with:

We have posters and printouts celebrating type:

We have whiteboards for people to try their hand at lettering. And they do!

(Of course, only black and red markers are allowed.)

And… that’s pretty much it. Thank you to Sara Williams, Misty Xicum, and many others who made this space possible. Do you have comments? Are we missing anything obvious? Are you around and would like to visit? Let us know at [email protected].

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Books

Haha. Psych! Of course, we also have books, many amazing typography books that both practice and preach. Books to be read in situ, or lent out.

(Boy, did I get italic happy in that last paragraph.)

First of all, books for newcomers exploring the crazy world of ligatures, slab serifs, and the like. Try to spot the beautiful discretionary ligature in the left photo!

(By the way, the history of the Letter Formerly Known As Aquatic Vibrating Human that we use in our wordmark is pretty fascinating.)

We have books from the greats themselves — Gill, Spiekermann, Tschischold, Zapf. Ellen Lupton’s book series. And, closer to our tech world, Mr. Dvorak himself talking about the science of typewriting, in 1936:

(Some of the chapters from the Typewriting in social situations chapter are pretty fascinating.)

There are serious high-brow volumes about typography, right next to fun books celebrating type delight:

And books not just about individual typefaces, but individual typefaces in individual circumstances:

(To those curious: The above is not the only book we have about a typeface used in a subway.)

We also want to recognize that we’re part of something bigger. That there were type technologies that came before the web and computer screens:

And we also don’t want to forget of typography as something that serves a purpose — sharing stories and ideas:

In case you’re interested, here is a full list of books:

Fun

• ABC3D by Bataille
• Hyperactivitypography from A to Z by Studio 3
• Manuale typographicum by Zapf

Casual typography reading

• The field guide to typography: Typefaces in the urban landscape by Dawson
• The fundamentals of typography (2nd ed.) by Ambrose, Harris
• The geometry of type: The anatomy of 100 essential typefaces by Coles
• Just my type by Garfield
• On web typography by Santa Maria
• Stop stealing sheep & find out how type works (2nd ed.) by Spiekermann
• Thinking with type (1st ed. and 2nd ed.) by Lupton
• Twenty-two tips on typography (that some designers will never reveal) by Jard
• Type in use (2nd ed.) by White
• Type on screen by Lupton
• The type taster: How fonts influence you by Hyndman
• Typography: Macro and microaesthetics by Kunz

More serious typography

• Anatomy of a typeface by Lawson
• Detail in typography by Hochuli
• The elements of typographic style (rev. 3.1) by Bringhurst
• Finer points in the spacing & arrangement of type by Dowding
• Inside paragraphs: Typographic fundamentals by Highsmith
• Letters of credit by Tracy
• The practice of typography: Correct composition: A treatise on spelling abbreviations, the compounding and division of words, the proper use of figures and numerals, italic and capital letters, notes, etc. with observations on punctuation and proof-reading by de Vinne (1901)
• Rhyme & reason: A typographical novel by Spiekermann
• A tally of types by Crutchley
• Thames and Hudson manual of typography by McLean

History of letters and shapes

• Counterpunch: Making type in the sixteenth century/Designing typefaces now (2nd ed.) by Smeijers
• The eternal letter: Two millennia of the classical Roman capital by Shaw
• Letter by letter: An alphabetical miscellany by Pflughaupt
• Shady characters: The secret life of punctuation, symbols, and other typographical marks by Houston

Thinker’s typography

• An essay on typography by Gill
• Modern typography: An essay in critical history by Kinross
• The new typography by Tschichold
• Punctuation: Art, politics, and play by Brody
• Printing and the mind of man: The impact of print on five centuries of Western civilization by Carter and Muir
• Texts on type by Heller and Meggs
• Unjustified texts: Perspectives on typography by Kinross
• The well-made book: Essays & Lectures by Daniel Berkeley Updike by Peterson
• While you’re reading by Unger

Specific typefaces

• Helvetica and the New York City Subway System by Shaw
• New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual (reissue)
• Helvetica forever: Story of a typeface by Muller and Malsy
• Helvetica: Homage to a typeface
• Johnston’s underground type by Howes

Book design

• The book: A cover-to-cover exploration of the most powerful object of our time by Houston
• Book design by Haslam
• Bookmaking (3rd ed.) by Lee
• Books: A living history by Lyons
• Fifty Penguin years
• The form of the book by Tschichold
• The nature of the book by Johns
• On book design by Hendel
• Saul Bass by Bass & Kirkham
• Typefaces for books by Sutton & Bartram
• Type: A visual history of typefaces and graphic styles (Taschen)
• What we see when we read by Mendelsund

Type design

• Designing type by Karen Cheng
• Lettering & type: Creating letters & designing typefaces by Willen, Strals
• Size-specific adjustments to type designs by Ahrens, Mugikura

Grid/layout

• Grid systems: Principles of organizing type by Elam
• Explorations in typography: Mastering the art of fine typesetting by de Bartolo with Spiekermann

Information visualization and typography

• The visual display of quantitative information by Tufte
• Envisioning information by Tufte
• Visual explanations by Tufte
• Beautiful evidence by Tufte

Lettering and creative typography

• Creative lettering today by Harvey
• Lettering design by Harvey
• Script & Scribble by Florey
• Sign painters by Levine & Macon
• Typewriter art: A modern anthology by Tullett

Type makers

• Creative characters: The MyFonts interviews, vol. 1
• Dot-font: Talking about fonts by Berry
• Frederic Goudy (Masters of American design) by Bruckner
• Giambattista Bodoni: His life and his world by Lester
• Hello I am Erik by Erler
• Typographers on type by McLean
• Typographically speaking: The art of Matthew Carter

The tech of typography

• Digital typography by Knuth
• History of the Linotype Company by Romano
• Linotype keyboard operation
• Ottmar Mergenthaler and the printing revolution by Mengel
• The TeXbook by Knuth
• Typewriting behavior: Psychology applied to teaching and learning typewriting by Dvorak
• Typing for everyone by Levine
• Typography & typesetting: Type design and manipulation using today’s technology by Labuz

International typography

• Detailtypografie: Nachschlagewerk für alle Gragen zu Schrift und Satz (German typography)
• Lexique des règles typographiques en usage à l’imprimerie nationale (French typography)
• A kiadványszerkesztés 2. by Ferenc (Hungarian typography)
• Ortografía y ortotipografía del español actual by de Sousa (Spanish typography)
• Tekstwijzer: Een gids voor het grafisch verwerken van tekst by Treebus and van Haaren (Dutch typography)
• Typografia typowej książki by Chwałowski (Polish typography)

On writing

• Bird by bird by Lamott
• The elements of style by Strunk, White & Kalman
• Good prose by Kidder & Todd
• How to write a sentence by Fish
• Little red writing book by Royal
• On writing by King
• On writing well by Zinsser
• Several short sentences about writing by Klinkenborg
• Uncreative writing by Goldsmith
• Why we write: 20 acclaimed authors on how and why they do what they do by Maran
• Writing down the bones by Goldberg

Type specimens

• Emigre Fonts: Type specimens 1986–2016 by Vanderlas
• Font Book: Digital typeface compendium by Truong, Siebert, Spiekermann

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