A few weeks back, shortly after the devastating earthquake that forever changed the lives of the people of Haiti, the Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA) put out a call for participation in the creation of a collaborative font, the proceeds from the sale of which would go directly to providing aid through international medical humanitarian organization Doctors without Borders.

This is the fourth time SOTA has undertaken such an effort (hence the title ‘FontAid IV’), this time using ampersands to represent the idea of “people coming together to help one another”. Who says celebrities, musicians and actors are the only ones who can make a difference?

My contribution to FontAid IV, dubbed “The Anchor”.

Personally, this was an opportunity to be part of something significant, and over the course of an evening, I sketched out and refined an idea that eventually became my submission to the project. More time would have allowed me to submit another if for no other reason than to keep my pal Grant, who donated his time toward the work in assembling the final font, even busier.

Where to Buy

The resulting font, dubbed “Coming Together”, which includes more than 400 glyphs from designers, typographers and artists around the world is now available in cross-platform OpenType format for a mere $20 from several popular font distributors with more being added later this week.

• Buy from Veer
• Buy from Ascender Fonts
• FontShop (coming Tuesday, February 16)
• My Fonts (later this week)

I’ve bought my copy, now it’s your turn — support SOTA and purchase the font for yourself, a co-worker, family member or a friend.

When Luke, Carolyn and I launched Ligature, Loop & Stem last November we really had no idea what to expect. Throughout October I teased a bit of early interest out of friends and such on Dribbble (yes, the extra “b” is on purpose) and during An Event Apart in Chicago.

Although the feedback was all extremely positive and validated that we were on to something interesting, I tend to guage expectations with at least one foot in reality. In the end though, the response completely blew my expecations out of the water with that first collection of products selling out in under 3 days.

When we finished shipping everything I gave myself a little project — to map the orders. The reason was simply to put a little visual context around what we just did. The end result looks something like the preview below.

Click the preview above to view the project.

Due to other committments and even though this has been sitting on the server for a few weeks I just haven’t had the time or energy to talk about it, not that there’s really that much that’s not self-explanatory… For me it was a fun little diversion and a good chance to tinker with version 3 of the Google Maps API. If it’s interesting to anyone else, that’s a nice bonus.

For those wondering what’s next — I’ll have a bit more to say about LL&S and some other things soon.

Now that Emily, Gillian, new baby brother Liam are all home, we’d all like to say thank you again to all our family, close friends and coworkers near and far for their well-wishes and congratulations on Liam’s birth on New Year’s Eve and throughout the last few days.

It all means a great deal, so thank you super nerds: @gordasm, @neilio, @robotjohnny, @jmcnally, @paulkyte, @fyang, @gmacgregor, @saila, ButterLabel, LL&S and former Wishingline co-conspirators: @luxuryluke, @splorp, @carywood, @mrwarren, @annamazon, @theinterned, and internet friends, peers, clients and all around awesome people: @sugarfreejones, @SharaK, @slowtron, @derekbalmer, @simplebits, @adactio, @feather, @nicepaul, @ktamura, @orderedlist, @drinkerthinker, @tiffehr, @mezzoblue, @TheAdnostic, @greghoyboy, @pws, @kenschafer, @jeffsmith, @renaud, @nathanborror, @vpieters, @mrs_hicks, @gleyseele, , @thedoeeyes, @kfinlayson, @danielseaman, @stickel, @louderthan10, @joshualane, @KuraFire, @breppy, @briandelicata, @kellysims, @katanma, @mattbrett, @soopa, @retodd, @adarowski, @dcharrison, @geoperdis, @andrewdotcom, @mintchaos, and @jaygoldman. Yes, even you too @kennymeyers. Jerk.

Needless to say it was one New Year’s Eve we won’t soon forget.

Yesterday was supposed to be a relaxed and uneventful New Year’s Eve for Emily and I but it would seem someone had other plans for us… Or at least wanted to ensure that the end of 2009 went out on the most positive note possible.

As it turns out we spent the night at Women’s College Hospital, not too far from home under the wonderful care of nurse Rebecca, who along with the other fantastic staff there helped deliver our new baby boy.

Our special little guy was born at 10:21PM and came in at a healthy 8lbs and with a pretty full head of hair, just like his big sister Gillian. We didn’t know in advance whether it would be a boy or a girl, so now comes the fun part — picking out a name.

Thanks again to all our friends and well-wishers — we can’t wait to give you a proper introduction!

Way back in September (it feels like eons ago to me) I put together a digital mix tape of cover songs. It went over pretty well and there was a big pile of songs that didn’t make the cut. More importantly though, there was enough demand (though it might just be because Luke told me to) to warrant a sequel — so here it is.

I think there’s perhaps a bit more range in this one than the first, but I’m pretty close to these songs so it’s hard for me to say without feeling somewhat biased about it.

Creative Commons Photo used in the cover art by balakov / CC BY-NC 2.0

Download ‘Not the Same’ Part 2 (93.03MB m4a bookmarked format)

1. Rocking Chair - Death Cab for Cutie (original by The Band) - There was a reason they were called The Band and Death Cab does them proud here. The addition of horns to the mix adds a little something new to the band’s already well-honed sound.
2. Supernatural - Live (original by Vic Chesnutt) - Live never proved to be a great live band (IMO) but this was a solid, stirring highlight from their 1995 MTV Unplugged performance. It was also my introduction to the songs of Vic Chesnutt which I immediately began to search out.
3. Reason to Believe - Aimee Mann & Michael Penn (original by Bruce Springsteen) - A great cover from one of indie-rock’s favourite husband and wife duos. From the tribute to Springsteen’s 1982 “Nebraska” record.
4. Between the Bars - Metric (original by Elliott Smith) - Acoustic Metric + Elliott Smith = awesome. What else is there to say?
5. She Said, She Said - Matthew Sweet (original by The Beatles) - One of the rockier tunes from The Beatles’ 1966 “Revolver” record, this version gives a good taste of what seeing Matthew Sweet live is like.
6. Will He Be Waiting for Me - Sarah Harmer (original by Dolly Parton) - I don’t care for Dolly Parton herself but there’s some good songs in her back catalogue as the White Stripes and Sarah Harmer have proven.
7. If You Tolerate This - David Usher with My Brilliant Beast (original by the Manic Street Preachers) - I’m of two minds about David Usher in general - he can be either hit or miss, but this cover with My Brilliant Beast falls in the ‘hit’ category for me.
8. Fasinating - Fischerspooner (original by R.E.M.) - A highlight from R.E.M.’s “Up” album that didn’t make the cut and that most people have never even heard. This is obviously very different.
9. The Spirit of Radio - Catherine Wheel (original by Rush) - For Greg Hoy. This might be as close to a simple rock version of a Rush tune you might ever hear, especially missing Geddy Lee’s vocal stamp.
10. Hyperballad - Glen Phillips (original by Bjork) - I’ve always thought Bjork’s music presented an interesting opportunity to do something a bit different since her songs tend to be unlike just about anything in popular music. Glen unearths a simple ballad in this particular case.
11. Guilty by Association - Joe Henry with Madonna (original by Vic Chesnutt) - From the second (and last) Sweet Relief album and yes, featuring that Madonna, who apparently happens to be Joe’s sister-in-law. The original features Vic and Michael Stipe of R.E.M. who produced Vic’s first two records.
12. Paranoid Android - Steven Page (original by Radiohead) - Sufficiently weird and unlike anything the Barenaked Ladies ever produced.
13. She Don’t Use Jelly - Ben Folds Five (original by The Flaming Lips) - The crazy, fun version. Features the vocal talents of all three members of the band along with help from multi-instrumentalist John Mark Painter and his wife, singer Fleming McWilliams.
14. Wall of Death - R.E.M. (original by Richard Thompson) - Probably one of Richard Thompson’s most upbeat songs. Originally from the tribute album “Beat the Retreat”, this particular song reappeared a few years later as a B-side from the single for “E-Bow the Letter”.
15. All the Young Dudes - Travis (original by David Bowie/Mott the Hoople) - A pretty straight-up cover but Fran and the boys never disappoint. This particular B-side comes from the single for “Side” off their album “The Invisible Band”.
16. That’s All - Clare and The Reasons (original by Genesis) - This is one of those cases where the cover is massively better than the original. Still… needs more tuba.

The death of singer/songwriter Vic Chesnutt on Christmas day prompted my revisiting this so it’s fitting that he’s well represented with two songs. Although there’s still more on the cutting room floor, I’ll likely move on to something new the next time the urge strikes to do another of these.

Enjoy!