I love secret spaces, and here in our office in the glorious Phelan Building in San Francisco, we have a secret abandoned penthouse on the roof. But we also put together a small space on our 9th floor that’s secret in a different way — it celebrates something that’s everywhere around us, but something many people don’t often notice. Typography.

We call it Whitespace or, in moments of typographical bravura, White␣. If you happen to be a fish, it looks like this…

Photo by Darren Hull from his Inside Medium series. Thanks, Darren!

…although we want to believe it’s almost as cool if you’re a human being.

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Why?

Because typography deserves recognition and celebration. And because it’s much more fun than many people imagine.

We wanted to put together a small corner in the Medium universe that’s maybe a bit like a library, and maybe a bit like a museum, but much more lively, and much more forward-looking. A place where you could soak in as much typography as you wanted: informal or formal, visual or textual, solitary or social. You could come in for a minute, or spend days there (as some of us have).

(Why are you still looking at me.)

What’s in Whitespace? Let’s start with type playing cards, and some stencils for people to mess with:

The left photo has two of my most favourite fonts ever. Guess which ones!

We have posters and printouts celebrating type:

We have whiteboards for people to try their hand at lettering. And they do!

(Of course, only black and red markers are allowed.)

And… that’s pretty much it. Thank you to Sara Williams, Misty Xicum, and many others who made this space possible. Do you have comments? Are we missing anything obvious? Are you around and would like to visit? Let us know at [email protected].

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Books

Haha. Psych! Of course, we also have books, many amazing typography books that both practice and preach. Books to be read in situ, or lent out.

(Boy, did I get italic happy in that last paragraph.)

First of all, books for newcomers exploring the crazy world of ligatures, slab serifs, and the like. Try to spot the beautiful discretionary ligature in the left photo!

(By the way, the history of the Letter Formerly Known As Aquatic Vibrating Human that we use in our wordmark is pretty fascinating.)

We have books from the greats themselves — Gill, Spiekermann, Tschischold, Zapf. Ellen Lupton’s book series. And, closer to our tech world, Mr. Dvorak himself talking about the science of typewriting, in 1936:

(Some of the chapters from the Typewriting in social situations chapter are pretty fascinating.)

There are serious high-brow volumes about typography, right next to fun books celebrating type delight:

And books not just about individual typefaces, but individual typefaces in individual circumstances:

(To those curious: The above is not the only book we have about a typeface used in a subway.)

We also want to recognize that we’re part of something bigger. That there were type technologies that came before the web and computer screens:

And we also don’t want to forget of typography as something that serves a purpose — sharing stories and ideas:

In case you’re interested, here is a full list of books:

Fun

Casual typography reading

More serious typography

History of letters and shapes

Thinker’s typography

Specific typefaces

Book design

Type design

Grid/layout

Information visualization and typography

Lettering and creative typography

Type makers

The tech of typography

International typography

On writing

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