Music?
Typofactory
Posts: 56
Hello,
If you make typefaces, I am just assuming that you listen to music while doing so (hopefully I am not wrong in that intiial assumption). I was wondering what type of music you listen to while making fonts? For me, that is slightly different than what I normally listen to, and different than my work music.
As for me, I listen to mostly 90s and 2000s alternative/rock, and some newer (and older) stuff. It almost all alternative or rock. I also listen to copious amounts of Bastille (Their main song is Pompeii)
For example, I am currently listening to You Get What You Give by New Radicals, and prior to that I was listening to Divide by Bastille.
If you make typefaces, I am just assuming that you listen to music while doing so (hopefully I am not wrong in that intiial assumption). I was wondering what type of music you listen to while making fonts? For me, that is slightly different than what I normally listen to, and different than my work music.
As for me, I listen to mostly 90s and 2000s alternative/rock, and some newer (and older) stuff. It almost all alternative or rock. I also listen to copious amounts of Bastille (Their main song is Pompeii)
For example, I am currently listening to You Get What You Give by New Radicals, and prior to that I was listening to Divide by Bastille.
Tagged:
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Comments
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Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed is the only thing I listen to when designing fonts.1
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I used to, but prefer silence now.1
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Lately I’ve been listen to live EDM DJ performances on YouTube. There are seven hour sets by Armin Van Buuren that are incredible. The good DJs remix every song at every show so you can hear a song change over time as the DJs learn what the crowds like.0
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I often like silence for type design work nowadays.
If I am listening to music, I tend to prefer Mozart. Occasionally “Thick as a Brick” by Jethro Tull is good (the full album, not just the single).
(This is not the same as my general music-listening preferences.)0 -
I don't like to have music playing when I'm working. I don't really notice it or enjoy it.
If I'm going to listen to music I prefer to do nothing but listen to music. Although I do listen to music sometimes when driving, especially for long trips.
When working on fonts, I either listen to nothing (especially if I'm writing feature code or similar), or I listen to spoken word stuff—podcasts, audiobooks, etc., especially when I'm kerning.2 -
I find that music can help me persist at work when my energy is flagging or I might seek distractions. I almost always listen to music when kerning. When doing other kinds of font work, I sometimes listen to podcasts or lectures at first, and switch to music as the day goes on. If I really need to concentrate on something difficult, I prefer silence.
Music varies quite a lot. For some reason, Lana Del Rey is particularly good for kerning. At the moment, I am listening to Lambchop, whom I just discovered.0 -
That New Radicals song will haunt you your whole life1
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I don't understand why someone would disagree with someone expressing their personal listening preferences. What does that even mean?15
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I like ambient/electronic music when I work. It's not distracting but it changes my mood
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Whenever I'm working on fonts, I find that listening to music helps me get into a good flow state. Though it could be purely a placebo effect, I feel more productive when I listen to music. When it comes to music, I prefer low-fi as my go-to genre while working.
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Death metal
Post metal
Sludge metal
Kerning playlist has higher BPM.4 -
Mark Simonson said:I don't understand why someone would disagree with someone expressing their personal listening preferences. What does that even mean?0
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It varies:1. Baroque music. 2. Silence. 3. Rain sound. 4. Renaissance music. 5. MPB (Popular Brazilian Music) 6. 1980s rock. 7. Kitaro. 8. Pärt. 9. Medieval music.2
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Sorry @Dominic Stanley I was just commenting on someone weirdly disagreeing with my earlier comment, not yours. No worries. An unfortunate consequence of the flat nature of this forum.
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Mark Simonson said:Sorry @Dominic Stanley I was just commenting on someone weirdly disagreeing with my earlier comment, not yours. No worries. An unfortunate consequence of the flat nature of this forum.0
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I find I often end up working in silence but when I do have music playing, I’ll usually do a dive on a record label or musician/band. When I’m doing something particularly intensive, I’ll listen to music that doesn’t have English lyrics (I usually go with French).0
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Fun topic! Most of the time while working I listen to different music than usual.
Ambient pieces like Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie...or that Lo-Fi Girl. I need the mood but not intense emotions that would distract me. From time to time I just use one song that feels convenient and listen to it on repeat. Radio Paradise also.
I remember that while I kerned my last font I used these two videos:
- Carl Reinecke - Flute Concerto, Op. 283 (1908)
- CARLES TREPAT - Teatro Colón A Coruña 2014
This Serbian medieval church music was inspiring while designing some promo images with historical themes for my font Razumec:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEueSZk_g6k
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As it happens, not long ago I took Argetsinger’s chronological list of historical type designers and chased down which historical composers were contemporaneous with them, so I’d know what to listen to when setting something in a particular typeface. Of course the nationalities don’t line up, so it might be jarring to associate Baskerville with Mozart, etc.
Nicholas Jenson 1470: Obrecht, Janequin, Taverner, Willaert
Francisco Griffo 1495: Gombert
Aldus Manutius 1499: Morales, de Milan, Tallis, Arcadelt
Claude Garamond 1540: Victoria, Caccini, G Gabriel, Sweelinck
Robert Granjon 1570: Monteverdi, Praetorius
Jean Jannon 16??: Schütz, Cavalli, Froberger, Lully, Buxtenhude
Christoffel van Dijk 1648: Charpentier, Corelli, Pachelbel
Nikolas Kis 1686: Bach, D Scarlatti, Handel
William Caslon 1720: Gluck, CPE Bach, Stamitz
Pierre-Simon Fournier 1740: Soler, Haydn
Johann Michael Fleischmann 1745: JC Bach
John Baskerville 1750: Salieri, Bortniansky, Vlementi, Mozart
Richard Austin 1788: Beethoven, Field, Paganini
William Martin 1790: Czerny, Rossini
Firmin Didot 1798: Schubert, Donizetti
Binny & Ronaldson 1800: Berlioz, Mendelssohn
Giambattista Bodoni 1813: Chopin, Schumann, Liszt
Justus Erich Walbaum 1837: Bizet, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky
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For deep focus work, I go instrumental or ambient. Recent faves:
Wind by Gigi Masin
First Thought Best Thought by Arthur Russell
Partly on Time by Kinloch Nelson
For the more creative/exciting bits, I like loud guitars. Recently:
Domino by Diners
A Distant Call by Sheer Mag
Peace Loving People by Pardoner
Grand Prix by Teenage Fanclub
EGG by Fat Spirit
Fun thread! Nice to see what y'all are listening to.0 -
@John ButlerOf course the nationalities don’t line up, so it might be jarring to associate Baskerville with Mozart, etc.Still, one can imagine Baskerville visiting the London pub where Mozart was trying to make a few pence in 1765, and had a pint as young Wolfie tickled the ivories!1
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I associate Baskerville more with Handel, albeit at a remove, since Baskerville was based in Birmingham. Handel’s life and career overlap directly with the development of the style of written and engraved forms, primarily in London, that Baskerville would translate into type.
Handel’s house in London is preserved as a museum, and is worth visiting. It is made available as a practice space for music students, so one sometimes encounters string quartets or similar playing while one walks through the house.4 -
Music is somewhat intertwined with my type-design and related teaching practice. There is the DTL Type & Music Project and, for example, at ATypI Amsterdam 2013 I organized a concert in the Grand Ballroom of Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky. Before the concert I ended up with a harpsichord in my suite, because Krasnapolsky’s management did not know where to place it. Once transferred to the ballroom on the evening of the concert, the instrument was completely out of tune and had to be tuned for the second time that day.Moreover, I like to refer to music in my lessons, as my (former) students from The Hague and Antwerp who are reading this can confirm.3
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Brian Dove said:...Recently:
Domino by Diners
A Distant Call by Sheer Mag
Peace Loving People by Pardoner
Grand Prix by Teenage Fanclub
EGG by Fat Spirit
...Grand Prix is a fantastic album. Power Pop is one of my go-to genres.0 -
If you want ambient/EDM music by type designers, I would humbly recommend Twice Shy on Soundcloud or Spotify...
I'm sure there are others too - show off your side-projects!3 -
Letterror used to have some MP3 tracks, fun sample-y stuff. They might be Dutch giants. My favorite was “Live Violence.”
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I made a few songs and put them on Soundcloud.2
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I have tapes of the experimental, arthymic percussion group I was part of in the late 1980s, but I wouldn’t recommend them for a type design soundtrack or, indeed, for listening to at all.1
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Simon Cozens said:If you want ambient/EDM music by type designers, I would humbly recommend Twice Shy on Soundcloud or Spotify...
I'm sure there are others too - show off your side-projects!2 -
- Mozart and contemporary music of Mozart
- Baroque music (many Czech composers)
- 50's & 60's pop/rock (my youth)
- Christmas songs as usual in December (a bit early!).
- Web radios like Radio Addictive 50's, Click your Radio-Oldies
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