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8 Faces #4

Article illustration for 8 Faces #4

It’s hard to believe that we’re already up to our fourth issue of 8 Faces. Four issues! It only feels like yesterday that I was emailing the interviewees for the first, asking for them to be involved and fully expecting to be turned down. But then they all said yes and so did the next eight and so did the next eight and so did the next eight and… here we are.

My aim for the magazine is to make each issue feel even more special than the last, especially when it comes to the cover. So, taking what I learned about printing white ink on dark stock from #3, I opted for the same again, but this time on stock that was actually metallic. Not glossy and cheap, but uncoated and elegant. To be precise, the stock is 290gsm Peregrine Metal Bronze from renowned paper manufacturer GFSmith. It’s lovely, and the combination of the white ink printing for Jessica’s illustration and the foil blocking for the 8 Faces logo gives the whole thing a very ‘regal’, very special feel.

8 Faces #4

Detail of Jessica Hische’s cover, printed with white ink on 290gsm Peregrine Metal Bronze stock.

Inside, I’ve stuck with the realigned format I rolled out in our last issue, both in terms of the aesthetic tweaks and the addition of new content at the back of the magazine: the three sections that take the form of Essay, Review, and Showcase. This time around we had fewer ads, so I was able to dedicate a bit more space to the longer interviews that needed it. This worked out perfectly: Craig, Nadine, and the TypeTrust boys all got an extra two pages each. Not that the interviews with John, Kris, Doug, and David are short by any means!

8 Faces #4

Jon Tan’s spread design for Nadine Chahine’s eight favourite typefaces.

I’m really happy with the way everything turned out. Jon’s spreads look beautiful, as always, and this time he even did us the honour of writing an intro that neatly surmises the coming together of web folk and type folk — a concept at the heart of the magazine. Christopher Murphy (one half of The Standardistas) wrote a great review of Typography Sketchbooks (pro tip: release a magazine and book publishers start sending you cool stuff!), Tim Brown served up a four-page essential bit of reading on setting paragraph type on the web, and we took some quotes and screen captures from the film Microsoft made with me and Erik Spiekermann. Oh, and on the subject of Mr. Spiekermann, he did a sterling job of going over the details, spotting typos and suggesting typesetting improvements. Christopher proofread it, too, and the main editing and proofing duties were expertly handled by Sam.

8 Faces #4

Christopher Murphy’s review of Typography Sketchbooks.

It’s an honour to work with such an amazing team. The end result is a clear representation of all the hard work that went into making it and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. If you’re interested, you can find more details in our most recent mailer and you can of course buy it from 8faces.com.

At the time of writing, we only have 400 copies left out of our stock of 2000.