Happy solstice everyone.

If you’re using Mastodon, you can follow HEX there too:
typo.social/@HEX

✳︎ IN THE WILD ✳︎ Margo by HEX in use

Beloved type community Goodtype brought in @hoodzpahdesign to give the brand a refresh. They paired Margo with Griffith Gothic by @frerejones.

“Margo had that perfect old school calligraphy feel but with a modern sophistication.”

The talk I gave about all things Franklin Gothic for @coopertype & @lubalincenter last month has be re-edited to restore some parts that were dropped in the livestream and subsequent recording. The new edit also includes high-res/full-screen slide images.
youtube.com/watch?v=94uCx6…

Last reminder: My talk about Franklin Gothic is happening ✨tonight✨ – about 7 hours from now – at 18:30 EDT. (An earlier flyer accidentally specified the wrong weekday.)

RSVP for free to attend in person or to stream the event live online:
coopertype.org/event/franklin…

I’m giving a free talk next week about all things Franklin Gothic as part of @CooperType & @lubalincenter’s Herb Lubalin Lecture Series.

The event will be live in person at @cooperunion and also streaming online. RSVP for free: coopertype.org/event/franklin…

October 24, join us @cooperunion or by livestream for the first fall Lubalin Lecture Series talk w/@HEXprojects @NickSherman who'll be talking about Franklin Gothic & its relatives, as well as the cultural impact in the world of design RSVP [always free] coopertype.org/event/franklin…

HEX Franklin is HEX’s fresh take on Franklin Gothic, with handy features like multiplexed weights for easy text reflow, and variable fonts that allow for endless tweaking of your spacing, widths, and weights! futurefonts.xyz/hex/hex-frankl…

HEX Franklin got a nice mention in the latest edition of @robinrendle’s newsletter (buttondown.email/adventures/arc…) after he used the variable font for his essay, “In Praise of Shadows” (robinrendle.com/essays/in-prai…).

Glad to see the big quotation mark ornaments from the fonts getting used.

✨NEW FONTS✨
HEX Franklin has been upgraded to version 0.2, with much more character support, plus an early ‘Tyght’ variable font that allows for extra-tight display spacing without the need for manual user kerning tweaks.

Available now at @futurefonts:
futurefonts.xyz/hex/hex-frankl…

… I should probably mention that, despite all the uppercase samples I’ve been sharing, the HEX Franklin Tyght variable font does include lowercase too. (I’m just partial to all-caps tightness.)

This sample was also made with no kerning beyond what is built into the font.

… Just one more thing, then I promise I’ll pause the flood of Franklin content in your timeline:

Check out the interactive HEX Franklin Tyght demo page. Moving the sliders around is fun but also a good way to understand how the variable font works.
🎚🎚🎚hex.xyz/HEX_Franklin/T…

Hot font take:
Sometimes symbols like ® don’t need to get heavier in bold styles the way other glyphs do, and instead of getting narrower in condensed styles they can just get smaller.

… Ideally you could have optical size variants that affect the prominence of symbols like ®, but otherwise it doesn’t seem like too far of a stretch to work around the understanding that condensed styles are typically used at larger sizes.

The main Typographics conference is starting now! You can watch free on the public livestream. 📺
2022.typographics.com/livestream/

A new website with info about font subsetting, typeset entirely in the new HEX Franklin type family (delivered as a single variable font file).