Julius: The Cards

Source: http://chloeweil.com.© Julius & Chloe Weil. License: All Rights Reserved.

Spinoza, the typeface, was chosen because it shares a name with Baruch Spinoza, a Jewish-born philosopher who did some work in optics, particularly on instrumentation and the design of lenses for telescopes (can see far into the past) and microscopes (very introspective). Very heavy-handed, no?

The choice is both obvious and peculiar. Baruch had both been given cherem (an excommunication of sorts) and renounced his religion. Does it fit the content? Absolutely.

But something else is peculiar here:

The flash of unstyled text, while wince-worthy (for some reason? Like I'm ashamed for people to know that resources are loading?), is collateral for knowing that my work isn't beholden to the whims of the Typekit CDN.

If longevity is an issue, why not opt for self-hosting FontFont's webfont? No flash of unstyled text, no subscription to maintain, and the opportunity to harness the OpenType features this otherwise beautiful design calls for (oldstyle proportional figures, namely).

Update: Since this article the Weils have purchasedSpinozaand now self host.

Source: http://chloeweil.com.© Julius & Chloe Weil. License: All Rights Reserved.