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Signal Type Foundry [Max Phillips]

Signal Type Foundry & Drawing Office is a type foundry in New York City, est. 2012 by Max Phillips (b. 1957, New York City), a typographer, graphic designer, toy designer, creative director and novelist who moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 2013 with his Irish spouse. His typefaces:

• FF Spinoza Pro (2011). His first type design, developed over a period of eleven years. FontShop: With the goal of readability in mind, Phillips named the typeface after 17th century rationalist and lens-grinder Baruch Spinoza, a man whose job it was to help people see clearly. The type family is meant as an elegant workhorse, a classic text family with just enough individual character to hold its own in display sizes. It was inspired by mid-century German book typefaces like Trump Mediaeval and Aldus, and by the types of Nicolas Kis. The forms are narrow and economical, with open counters. The line is firm and distinct. Strong, thick strokes and serifs help it grip the page.
• Center (2013). A technical monoline sans typeface with soft lines. It is based on a round rectangle. Followed by Center Slab in 2016 and Center 2 in 2019.
• The prismatic / hypnotic multilined typeface Vibro (2011), an op-art font that received the Type Directors Club Certificate of Excellence in 2012.
• Pressio (2016). A condensed to wide wood-inspired sans typeface family. See also Pressio Stencil (2018).
• Baasic (2016). A standard sans typeface: Baasic was designed for Dublin-based design office aad. baasic, and was intended as a plain, hardworking grotesque---a simple tool for clear communication.
• Ballinger Mono and Ballinger (2018). Published by Signature Type Foundry, Max explains: Ballinger began life as a single-weight proprietary typeface called baasic [...] We have developed it into a fully-featured eight-weight family with matching italics. Sources include early 20th century jobbing sanses like Morris Benton's News Gothic, and Candia, a 70s-era typewriter face Josef Müller-Brockmann designed for Olivetti, which had unusually deep junctures that added energy to letters like m and n. The family takes its name from Raymond A. Ballinger, the great mid-century American designer, author of "Lettering Art in Modern Use," and champion of elegance and readability. Ballinger has large counters and a generous x-height. Followed in 2019 by Ballinger Condensed.
• Mortise (2019). A welcome addition to the slab serif genre by Sean Mongey and Max Phillips. Max writes that the long, slightly curved vertical serifs give it a raffish, mustache-twirling air.
• Sinter (2019). A gaspipe sans.
• Tenon (2019). A great sans based on Mortise. By Sean Mongey and Max Phillips.
• Dashiell (2020, Text, Bright, Fine). He writes that it is an attempt to combine the warmth and frankness of Caslon with the lucid elegance of Garamond.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Signal Type Foundry
 [Buy fonts]
 [Designer info]
Fontspring link [Buy fonts]
Monotype link
Klingspor Museum page
MyFonts search
Monotype search
Fontspring search
Google search

INTERNAL LINKS
Type scene in New York ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Commercial fonts (small outfits) ⦿ Prismatic typefaces ⦿ Op-art Typefaces ⦿ Type in Ireland ⦿ Stencil fonts ⦿ Typewriter fonts ⦿ Caslon ⦿ Gaspipe fonts ⦿