Kylie Minogue is an Australian star initially famed for her role on the long-running soap opera Neighbors, then as a slickly-produced UK pop star in the 1980s, and more lastingly as a more stylish coolbrow icon. I did not know, however, that she once sang a song about being a typeface. Behold German Bold Italic, made in collaboration with Towa Tei.
Whitney Mallett takes a "deep dive" into this magnificent 1997 production. It's always good to be reminded that Minogue is cyberpunk. [via HN]
German Bold Italic (three words Minogue intones throughout the track with staccato punctuation) is a real typeface, which was created to accompany the musical release. To develop it, Tei tapped artist Hiro Sugiyama, who had that same year launched the commercial design studio Enlightenment. The high-impact techno typography not only defined the record's text-centric cover, but a glyph set was made available as a data track on Tei's Sound Museum CD and also downloadable from both Tei's and Minogue's official websites. Extra-thick and geometric, the font had something in common with the heavy black frames that were Tei's hallmark at the time. Another line from the song: "I contrast, it's cool."
You can get the font on the Towa Tei's "Sound Museum" CD, assuming you have an optical drive and a computer able to mount it.
Previously:
• Typeface elegantly combines Braille and English characters
• Gorton: a ubiquitous typeface you may never have heard of
• Typeface trolls shaking down users of Adobe's font platform
• Why the Cooper Black typeface is everywhere
• Typeface reviews
• Typeface based on the calligraphy from the Lithuanian declaration of indepedence
• U.S. Highway Administration orders return to vintage typeface
