︎CATALOG/COLLATERAL.
T26 FontKits.
SINCE THE FOUNDING OF THE T26 TYPE FOUNDRY IN 1994, THE STRATEGY FOR PRESENTING NEW FONTS, COLLECTIONS, MERCHANDISE AND OTHER ASSORTED PRODUCT OFFERINGS WAS TO PACKAGE THE MATERIALS IN LIMITED EDITION “FONT KITS” PRODUCED AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL POSSIBLE, AND OFFERED FOR FREE.
Each time a new collection, promotion or even presentation at a conference was completed, a completely new approach to the packaging was created. Two examples are the Metal Type Book and the aTypi Boxset. Each font kit was done only once in quantities of 5000 and never produced again.
T26 - MOVIES
When we launched T26 in late 1993, our “tech” world was very different than it is today.
There were countless reasons why we founded this venture - too many to go over here - and most have been covered in countless posts, podcasts, interviews and presentations.
We began before the web, and in fact were one of the first foundries to sell fonts online.
Everything we created was consciously made to be unique, special, creative and as artistic as possible. We did not “market” our fonts - we showcased them.
One of the ways we tried to break a little ground was by creating a series of font “music videos” - where instead of a “band” being the hero, we made each typeface the hero, and cut a short video for each font via the advent of a new technology called “QuickTime”.
During the beginning, we worked at our Segura design firm during the day, and in the evenings, prepped and fulfilled all the “font Kit” orders that were phoned in - by hand to ship out the next day.
Our launch spot was built with a selection of the order voicemails left on our answering machine (there was no cell phone voicemails as we know them today).
We took our little analog answering machine tape, and after an exhaustive search, found a way to “digitize” the soundtrack and import it to a first generation MAC. We joined it with some low-res footage we shot on a very crude and new “digital tape” HD camera” and after two days of rendering - ended up with this classic little bit.
It was a hit (before social media) - thanks to many articles written in the magazines of the day, starting with an incredible feature from our friends at Communication Arts.
These movies were very small - remember - the only way to share them was to put them on a floppy disk - which we included in our fonts kits during the very early days.
The movies are so old, I can’t even open most of them, but here is “T26 Messages” - built from responses to our font kit ad in How and Raygun Magazines - for a few giggles.
