Tobias Frere-Jones’ Type Specimens
Typography fans will find plenty to drool over in this new postcard set, which brings together 50 type specimens from designer Tobias Frere-Jones’ personal collection.
Taken from Tobias Frere-Jones’ extraordinary personal collection of type specimen books, the postcards offer a journey through history via type. And, on a more banal level, will also make quite nice greetings cards for friends too.
The postcards are presented in an elegant box, and ordered by thumb tabs into four geographically-themed sections: the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany.
“From shelf after shelf of possibilities, I chose a dozen examples each from four countries,” explains Frere-Jones. “I tried to pick designs that were distinct to that place and a part of its history, without careening into stereotypes. It was genuinely difficult to choose only a dozen examples from each place, when the histories are so rich. There are so many stories to be found and ‘read’ here.”
Fifty Type Specimens from the Collection of Tobias Frere-Jones is published by Princeton Architectural Press, priced £23.99; papress.com