This watchmaker's lathe workstation build: th-cam.com/video/kI2XADN-hJU/w-d-xo.html Hayear digital c-mount microscope: amzn.to/3GIT8C1 Disclosure: Tested may earn a comission from items purchased here.
You have the perfect amount of space on the bottom of either door to put some size conversion cheat sheets and charts. Or maybe one for a size chart and the other for the owners manual. Starrett makes a great little quick reference chart for hole sizes that I have found so helpful when doing jobs on the lathe over the years. It’s double sided so if you mount it you would want to have 2 so you can see both sides.
I am a sign maker with over 3 decades of experience I have long awaited Tested to tour a small talented local sign shop. The overlaps in knowledge with a shop that does CNC, hand lettering, design and so on would likely blow Adams mind. So many parts of the maker community owe 'tips and tricks' to skills developed by the sign industry.
I was making models in '78 into the '80s. Earned my Commercial Graphics in 1980 and worked as an illustrator/draftsman until '84 I'm still enamored with fonts, but try and make a big boss understand readability ... LOL My layoff notice was rolled up and stuck in my bike ...
Hi Adam, love your content 👍 This typical German machine colour is called "Resedagrün" = "Reseda Green". It is a colour of the RAL colour standard with the code RAL 6011. This is a really old German industial standard (called "painting of machines": DIN 1844) that dates back to 1927. Kind regards from Germany 🤗
While comparing online photos is not an accurate way measuring color, I feel the Proxxon green is somewhat warmer than the 6011. I'm sure he could have brought one of their tools to a paint shop and had them mix up a batch after finding the correct Pantone equivalent.
seeing Adam deal with his adhd ticks in real time has always been one of the reasons i love his content as someone with Autism and ADHD alot of times it gets covered up or edited out of other channels of people who have it whereas in adams videos it shows him working through and around his ADHD in ways that really helped me alot personally when i was growing into my own. Thanks as always for the amazing content Adam and just being you without a filter truly a gift to stem and education for me and many others who enjoyed the craftsmanship and ingenuity and labor put into these beautiful projects over the years as well as a peak into the mind of someone dealing with something i am as well.
My father was a sign maker (among many other things) and I was always amazed at his ability to hand paint the letters and make them readable and look good. He was also a printer, on old hand typeset printing press we had in our basement, a carpenter, an electrician, and other things. He grew up during the depression and served in New Guinea and the Philippines in WWII.
My great grandfather on my paternal grandmothers side was a sign maker too! I don’t really know very much about him other than that. But I do know we still have his supplies that he’d use for painting the signs. Wicked cool
I haven't even finished watching this video yet at the time I'm writing this comment but I had to stop to say this: Adam, you are one of the few people I've seen who let their genuine interest and passion show through. I have never thought much about lathes and woodworking and such. I've always seen them as beautiful but never was really interested in learning more about it myself. You've done that. Your eye for little details and the care you exhibit in your work is awesome to see. It's that passion that is infectious and draws people in and is so fun and interesting to see. Learning from someone who is truly interested and invested in a given subject is an entirely different experience, and I hope you continue to do so. Thank you for what you do!
My old job was filled with work stations full of mismanaged tools, unthought through work spaces, and missing many key tools that you would think a multi million dollar fabrication company would have. This year i started my own fabrication company to metaphorically start putting a price tag a little closer to my work. Being able to see someone that has put so much thought and care into his equipment is not just enriching his life but the many lives that will go on to discover tested videos. I have definitely been enriched and inspired, or at least have a little bit clearer of a vision of what that messy workspace in my mind should look like. Thank you.
An idea came to my mind when at 11:10 Adam opened the box. instead of opening each panel individually, after unlocking the front door, a mechanism set up to the top lid (since you have to always push open it to back) will pull the door panels to the side and lock it. they will now swing or sway unless you pull back the top lid to close.
Having been in East Germany (Berlin) many times back in the day, I know the hopeless green of which you speak. Your cabinet is exceptional. I’m pleased just looking at it.
I have the same appreciation for graffiti and the style behind the stylized letters and how you can stretch and warp letters and still read it. I took a class from a german graffiti artist named SMOE, the class was called going wild with letters, really opened up my eyes to style.
The words “typeface” and “font” are typically thought of as synonymous, but they actually refer to different things. While a typeface describes a particular style of lettering, a font refers to variations of a typeface, like its size and weight. The simplest way to understand this difference is that a typeface is a set of fonts with common aesthetic qualities.
From what I've heard Font is to Typeface what MP3 is to Song. The Font is the "container", be it the file or the printing die or whatever else, and the Typeface is what that looks like. Not sure how true this is, it might be more nuanced than that, or more complicated. It's a fascinating topic nonetheless :D
Not just common qualities, more than that: the typeface is the “font family”: Helvetica is the typeface, Helvetica bold italic is a font. In metal typesetting, the term font also referred to the size, since you actually needed different physical sets for different sizes.
Scrolled to find this thread. Yes, “font” describes the specific weight, style, and size within a type family as well as the code that contains those specifics. Two meanings for the same word, but neither of which should be used when describing handwritten type. And I know, it’s extremely obnoxious, but it drives us graphic designers nuts.
Came to the comments looking for someone else to point this out. Perhaps a nitpick, but if one wishes to self-identify as a "[typography] nerd," then the distinction between font and typeface is VERY salient
My grandpa used to have loads of tools and toolboxes, probably some from east Germany, that had that exact green that Adam was talking about and I mean, it’s not exactly the right one but it has the right ambiance lol! My grandparents’ home is full of that green! Though it didn’t feel like a color of hopelessness 30 years ago when I was a kid, today it feels just like it. Like you have an urge to say “blaaagh…” and drop your shoulders when you see it.
I think there is something to be said about taking time and paying attention to the details that matter to you personally. That’s what I’ve learned from you Adam. For a long time I’ve thought/or been taught that efficiency in time is the only thing that matters, often times ignoring or not taking time to give the proper attention to the details that matter to me in order to save time.
Love the discussion of fonts here - not only is it super interesting, but it's such an apt illustration of how all the various "AI"-based creative tools and/or plagiarism machines proliferating today just can't reproduce what human artists and craftspeople do. Sure, they can get close in some ways, but in others not at all. It's so crucial that we maintain these skills and crafts, and we lose so much if we fail to do so.
You can definitely tell the lighting changes that were made. Feels less of a work shop and more of a production shoot layout. Very professional, but there was something special with the rugged look
Adam, Your philosophy on fonts and their readability is so on point. I am a freelance graphics designer, and I can tell you, the feeling you get when you see a proper font in its proper placement is zen. I use the word feeling because it matters. Your eye and how it interprets what you are reading, has feeling, emotion, expression...all things humanizing in its form. Thank you for your thought process. It is always so much appreciated that you take the time to discuss these topics.
As a huge MythBusters fan, I have admired Adam since 20 years ago. I like watching him hit the beat like a young boy whenever he gets a genius idea. What is recorded in the videos is not only the results, but more importantly, they shares with us the process of thinking, designing, producing, and optimizing each work, which is extremely precious.
The font plays a role in making the type legible but there are a whole bunch of typesetting rules that have been lost becasue of the advent of computers and the loss of compositors who were responsible for the layout of the text. I wrote a comment on this too long to repeat but I was an apprentice to a compositor reading modern publications is painful to me I see all the mistakes they make and as Adam said it is more difficult to read. They do not teach layout skills any more the computer screws it up without the help of any proper rules.
I judge all fonts by seeing if I can tell the difference between O and 0 and 1 and l, if that is useless, I don't bother examining anything else about that font :-).
i just finished a tattoo 6 hours ago on my stomach spelling ''harlequin'' in dutch (Harlekijn), in an old English stylized font, we spent a good 2,5 hours researching fonts to make it suit my other tattoos and also make it readable, i've never cared much about it but after researching fonts for this tattoo i got really into it and the art of of fonts. i always loved calligraphy and decided last week i want to do something with it! this video really made me incredibly happy!
When computer screens got bigger to render more details in fonts is the first time I really started to struggle with my dyslexia. I really learned about the importance of fonts and how hugely they influence readability to me. This goes for contrast, dark mode, size, spacing, rendering methodology, aliasing algorithms, serifs, etc. I'm not a font nerd by any means. I have had to dive in to the topic out of necessity to learn what keeps me productive in a high-resolution universe. Fonts are a huge factor in accessibility even for all of us who with sometimes less obvious disabilities or restrictions to deal with.
Beautiful workstation! My Father-in-law was a cabinetmaker. It was never allowed to show the edge laminations of plywood. Even the end-grain of natural wood. And, of course, no fasteners. He spent more time mitering than assembling. But his product was artful, but he would stain rather than paint. I still make work tables his way: plywood with milled stock around the edges (like a flush picture frame). I’m just starting to gear up to work on my own watches. Cleaning and lubrication rather than repair. Nekkid Watchmaker mesmerizes me. Inspired me to install a new capacitor in my Seiko Solar 100M.
On the subject of fonts, here in the UK specific fonts we're developed for road signs and are still known as "transport" and "motorway". The intention was to create a style that would be as easy to read as possible so that drivers minimised the time looking at the signs and maximisimed the time spent looking at the road. So it was at least in part about saving lives through use of a font.
As a font nerd who's made and sold fonts, I feel Adam starting with font work, then talking about font design, only to cover it up later with paint is a bold choice. XD
I love watching your channel. You have the ability to bring to light things we don’t normally think about. Such as fonts. I have found that reading some text I will find myself reading the same thing numerous times where as some books just make sense the first time around.
I absolutely love proper labels. Best way I've found to label pretty much anything is a rectangle of black (or other colours) PVC tape, and write on it using white ink with a dip pen. You can stick the tape down to a cutting mat and do the calligraphy part there, then cut a neat section out of the tape and stick it on whatever it is you're labelling.
Never thought about fonts that way before. Consider me enlightened. Now you got me looking through my books from when I was a kid. Always liked educational stuff. Looking at all the fonts to see what was best. ‘Questions kids ask’ was my favorite series.
Excellent content! Wonderful editing! I love the sights and sounds of a shop and creative process. A little drumming for entertainment as well❤ I’m definitely hooked on your channel and your content. It’s inspiring.
May dad was a commercial artist / graphic design guy back in the day. He could do hand lettering like that with nothing but a blank page and a paint brush. Your lettering is very good.
I made a lot of WWII model airplanes as a kid and that green reminds me of the paint on the inside of the bomb bays and landing gear doors. I think it was called "zinc chromate" or something like that. Nice work sir! (As always.)
We had just the same East German green and Proxxon conversation today! It turns out Proxxon is made in Luxembourg. However, enjoyed your video very much and I like to see that your are still using the little 10.8V makita drill. I bought them years ago when you showed them in a video and they are still going strong. Thanks Adam for your work!!
Proxxon is still a German company. Most is still produced in Germany ('Industrial' series e.g.). Except of the 'Micromot' that is produced in Luxembourg.
i came to learn and understand great fonts through programming. fonts can have such a drastic effect on your view of your code editor and make coding more eye straining or beautiful. there are even some paid fonts that are amazing (spend the money on the tools that improve your craft). it helps you really to personalize your work space. in school i took an intro class on designing fonts and through the lens of programming i learned to appreciate it way more. so i totally get your love of fonts and totally agree with you.
Excellent video, Adam! I really enjoyed the teams' editing decision to overlay the description of the spray paints you used while the timelapse played in the background! Also, the build itself... *chef's kiss!* 👏🏻💪🏻👍 Thank you, Adam and Team!
The problem is you need to be skilled at it, nowadays you can replicate even the brush strokes using high resolution UV curing printers that will not only give the look but the feel as well.
From the title and thumbnail I fully expected Adam to introduce us to a lost gem of an anti-hero from an obscure corner of film history named The Watchmaker.
I've no idea what you're planning to do with this but the idea of realigning the headstock every time you want to use the lathe seems like a lot of work.
13:28 I love when the editors on a keep-it-simple channel like this allow themselves a brief moment of creative liberty. I can just see them smirking to themselves quietly lol.
Regarding the type of lines for specific letters, I remember it this way: V and W - broad first stroke, N and M - thin first stroke. As if youve rotated it 180 degrees. Im sure theres a better mnemonic, but it works :)
wont lie, ive rectangular bordered all my labels in my shop. Such a thing has brought me so much joy when i start looking for stuff. I can imagine the next step is fontnerdary
It is fantastic hearing Adams passion for typography, it is far too often overlooked. I am a graphic designer and I can say type is almost always the most difficult yet most rewarding part of what I do.
The very first online college course I took was a technical writing course. Our first assignment was to find a font that we felt best represented ourselves or our communication style. Then, craft a discussion posting about our selves and why we picked the font and the post had to use the font. It was suprisingly accurate as to the pretentousness of an individual or those that wanted to be obtuse and difficult to understand.
I was not getting that green when you first started. When you ended, it was an amazing combination! Envious of your ability to see it before it exists.
As a geographer, remaking maps that had poor font choices was half of my technical education. It is such an important part of communicating information that is so oft ignored. Even stuff as minor as kerning can make such a huge difference in not just readability, but the message and importance of the data being sent. The internet really loves its semiotics but so many ignore how the written word is presented as an integral part of semiotics.
As a young teenager, some 50 years ago, my most favourite, favourite book was a Letraset catalogue. Page after page after page of glorious fonts. I studied, copied and altered so many different fonts until I really understood what the key elements of a good font design were. My career in graphic design never happened but my love of fonts remains. Photoshop makes it all too easy these days. You can create amazing things but it's only by drawing letters by hand that you can truly understand how they work. I used to create my own logos for all sorts of things. I'm still kind of sad that I never pursued it professionally.
I like the b-roll footage showing the back and how it doesn't open further than 90 degrees now for all of us worried about your new lathe station unbalancing and falling on the floor xD
Talking about fonts and design. I taught surface design cad for a semester. One exercise I found and recommended to my students to train thinking in 3d is to try and draw a 3/4 view of the shape two intersecting letters would make. Like imagine if you had a block of wood, drew an S on one side, a Z on the next, then cut them out on the bandsaw visualise and try to draw that shape. Really takes a bit of thinking to get your noodle around.
I love your font! Totally love the leading serif. My grandfather managed a print layout/typesetting shop, and passed on his knowledge and enthusiasm of typefaces to my dad, who was in advertising, and who in turn passed it down to me! (I manage corporate websites.) For those who don't know, Arion Press/M&H in San Francisco still sells physical fonts, as do a few other foundries in the US. This case is amazing too. I was totally satisfied with storing my watchmaker's lathe under a towel, but I think I'm going to have to upgrade. 😄 Also - "Green with a little hopelessness in it" is brilliant. 😂
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The editing of this video is heads above the rest, keep it up.
When I was 17 I was taught typography. We were not allowed to use the print room (metal type) until we could hand draw the fonts you wanted to use at the size we wanted and layer out as a visual. Just business card took me a week. I can still draw that font with my eyes closed.
Heya, Mr. Self, I see that drumming music choice. Soon as I heard that transition, I thought that was the kind of fun edit choice Josh would make. Editor sees fellow editor's taste in edit choices.
As a artist (stone sculptor) looking at your drawings in mirror or just shine thru them on a window help you have a fresh look and spot things. And yes fonts are the silent heroes of the art world. As a work i hand chisel several tomb stones. Create and copied font not mentioning 10+ years of sandblasting and chiseling epitaphs.
I liked the use of Picture-In-Picture editing to allow some detail discussion on top of a timelapse of the process. I would be happy to see more of that sort of thing in the future!
As a cartographer fonts are super important to the readability of a map. Very much time was spent on marching the font to the intent, or message, of the map. I can relate to your font nerdary!
I fully agree with you about fonts and layout. The positioning of "WatchMaker's" on your case is driving me crazy. I would put the center of the doors either between the "H" and "M", or perfectly split the "M" at the tip of the dip.
As a graphic designer and absolute Font Nerd, I couldn't agree more with Adam. Line weight, angle of italicized, spacing, kerning, serif vs sans serif, how many fonts can a design have, what font should and shouldn't be used for different applications, the absolute villainizing of Comic Sans. The over use of Trajan in movie posters. Fonts are beloved by the people that use them and underappreciated by the general public. Nothing causes heartache and a deep shuttering more than when a client says "Just use whatever font you want, it doesn't really matter."
as a dyslectic fonts are super important to me it makes a huge difference its why i switch to on e reader so i can chose one that makes reading easier for me
Adam, As a traditional and CElectronic Graphic artist/Illustrator from the late 70s but nolonger do it proffessionaly I agree 100%!!!!!! The trick to S's or any round letter is they are a bit taller than the other letters extending up and down just slightly. An S should be to sized so that the top is slightly less than the bottom in size and don't forget to assend and dessend it slightly more that your normal letters.
Speaking of fonts - In 1972, a bored college dropout named Steve Jobs wandered into a calligraphy class and absolutely fell in love with the art of lettering. In 1984, he released a groundbreaking computer called the Macintosh. Up until this point, letters on a computer were just static bitmaps all the same size. But in this new graphical interface you could choose from a selection of beautiful “fonts” that were rendered in any size you wished, both on the screen as you typed, and on the printer exactly as it appeared on the screen.
Oddly enough Jobs gave the world both a blessing and a curse with his fonts, now you can make anything totally illegible after spending hours searching for the font you think looks cool. I love all the fonts don't get me wrong but I have seen corporations using comic sans as their font. Font choice is too complex to leave to some guy moonlighting as a graphic artist.
Adam, you have my unending adoration as both a human and a maker - I bought 2 copies of Every Tool Is A Hammer, one for myself and one for my mother. I consumed it like a thanksgiving feast. So it pains me to tell you your A’s and M are backwards. If it helps, the easiest was to remember is to imagine your hand drawing the letter forms from left to right on the page: / Upstrokes are thin \ Downstrokes are thick
I find it super interesting that you find fonts interesting and tie it to your watchmakers lathe, as I find that watch design to be a similarly incredible expression of abstract ideas with practicality and beauty. Watchmaking is someone in their cave trying to represent something as abstract as time by creating repetition to measure- and trying to make it look good. Very funny parallel to your take on fonts
Yes to fonts 😊 I took lithography/printing in jr/Sr high school, as well as a semester of commercial design in high school. Oh man! The font computer we had in our high school print shop back in the early 80's was huge! As for Moby Dick, the version I was last reading, was a free Kindle edition. I made it to about chapter ~25. Challenging read.
When I was in college, back when desktop publishing was just starting, I had to learn to draw Helvetica and Times New Roman by hand from memory. Also had to to identify 200 different fonts just by looking at a lowercase "p" and "j".
This watchmaker's lathe workstation build: th-cam.com/video/kI2XADN-hJU/w-d-xo.html
Hayear digital c-mount microscope: amzn.to/3GIT8C1
Disclosure: Tested may earn a comission from items purchased here.
Re fonts , thoughts on art nouveau? 😊
Adam how do you like your m18 sander?
you're not sad enough to get that eastern green 🤪amazing how it went from candy green to this 👍
You have the perfect amount of space on the bottom of either door to put some size conversion cheat sheets and charts. Or maybe one for a size chart and the other for the owners manual. Starrett makes a great little quick reference chart for hole sizes that I have found so helpful when doing jobs on the lathe over the years. It’s double sided so if you mount it you would want to have 2 so you can see both sides.
I have to think that green reminds me greatly of Matthias Wandel's self-made tools. I know you're a fan, Adam. Did that provide any inspiration?
Some days I wake up and think, “damnit I really just need to see Adam Savage work on a box today” and today all is right with the world.
I watch Adam videos in the mornings so I wake up with a friendly enthusiastic voice.
@@toriwilson6961 That's so lovely. We'll pass your comment on to Adam (although he may see it himself -- he reads comments.)
I am a sign maker with over 3 decades of experience I have long awaited Tested to tour a small talented local sign shop. The overlaps in knowledge with a shop that does CNC, hand lettering, design and so on would likely blow Adams mind. So many parts of the maker community owe 'tips and tricks' to skills developed by the sign industry.
I was making models in '78 into the '80s. Earned my Commercial Graphics in 1980 and worked as an illustrator/draftsman until '84 I'm still enamored with fonts, but try and make a big boss understand readability ... LOL My layoff notice was rolled up and stuck in my bike ...
Agreed, a lot of little Nuance in shop to shop, it's amazing I love looking at others factory
Hi Adam,
love your content 👍
This typical German machine colour is called "Resedagrün" = "Reseda Green".
It is a colour of the RAL colour standard with the code RAL 6011.
This is a really old German industial standard (called "painting of machines": DIN 1844) that dates back to 1927.
Kind regards from Germany 🤗
While comparing online photos is not an accurate way measuring color, I feel the Proxxon green is somewhat warmer than the 6011. I'm sure he could have brought one of their tools to a paint shop and had them mix up a batch after finding the correct Pantone equivalent.
Than you for explaining that! I was browsing the comments hoping to find the origin of the "East German Green" :)
well since that green contains NO traces of yellow or orange it ain the one hes talking about
@@TheInfidel_SlavaUA Are you saying green does not contain yellow? 0.o
You mean red, right?
@@TheInfidel_SlavaUA "A green that contains no traces of yellow"...its a contraddiction.
As a watch modder, Font Nerd, and CNC Mill tech, I applaud you Adam. Thank you for all you do my friend.
Do you watch any of the “clickspring” TH-cam videos?
seeing Adam deal with his adhd ticks in real time has always been one of the reasons i love his content as someone with Autism and ADHD alot of times it gets covered up or edited out of other channels of people who have it whereas in adams videos it shows him working through and around his ADHD in ways that really helped me alot personally when i was growing into my own. Thanks as always for the amazing content Adam and just being you without a filter truly a gift to stem and education for me and many others who enjoyed the craftsmanship and ingenuity and labor put into these beautiful projects over the years as well as a peak into the mind of someone dealing with something i am as well.
My father was a sign maker (among many other things) and I was always amazed at his ability to hand paint the letters and make them readable and look good. He was also a printer, on old hand typeset printing press we had in our basement, a carpenter, an electrician, and other things. He grew up during the depression and served in New Guinea and the Philippines in WWII.
That last sentence applies to my grandpa!
My great grandfather on my paternal grandmothers side was a sign maker too! I don’t really know very much about him other than that. But I do know we still have his supplies that he’d use for painting the signs. Wicked cool
I haven't even finished watching this video yet at the time I'm writing this comment but I had to stop to say this: Adam, you are one of the few people I've seen who let their genuine interest and passion show through.
I have never thought much about lathes and woodworking and such. I've always seen them as beautiful but never was really interested in learning more about it myself. You've done that. Your eye for little details and the care you exhibit in your work is awesome to see. It's that passion that is infectious and draws people in and is so fun and interesting to see. Learning from someone who is truly interested and invested in a given subject is an entirely different experience, and I hope you continue to do so.
Thank you for what you do!
Thanks so much for taking the time to let us know. We will make sure Adam sees your comment.
"that East German hopelessness." ... Brilliant.
As a German... what is east German green?😂
Next time I have to go get some paint, I’m going to ask if they have anything with a bit more hopelessness. I’m interested to hear their reaction.
@@rened.5998 yeah ...never heard of that myself either...and i lived through the late cold war ^^
Maybe its NVA military green? ^^
@@rened.5998 Reseda Green i belive.
@@TheInfidel_SlavaUA Reseda Green, Germany had their own standard DIN 1844, until 1974.
My old job was filled with work stations full of mismanaged tools, unthought through work spaces, and missing many key tools that you would think a multi million dollar fabrication company would have. This year i started my own fabrication company to metaphorically start putting a price tag a little closer to my work. Being able to see someone that has put so much thought and care into his equipment is not just enriching his life but the many lives that will go on to discover tested videos. I have definitely been enriched and inspired, or at least have a little bit clearer of a vision of what that messy workspace in my mind should look like. Thank you.
An idea came to my mind when at 11:10 Adam opened the box. instead of opening each panel individually, after unlocking the front door, a mechanism set up to the top lid (since you have to always push open it to back) will pull the door panels to the side and lock it. they will now swing or sway unless you pull back the top lid to close.
Having been in East Germany (Berlin) many times back in the day, I know the hopeless green of which you speak. Your cabinet is exceptional. I’m pleased just looking at it.
Do you mean Resedagrün (RAL 6011)?
I have the same appreciation for graffiti and the style behind the stylized letters and how you can stretch and warp letters and still read it. I took a class from a german graffiti artist named SMOE, the class was called going wild with letters, really opened up my eyes to style.
The words “typeface” and “font” are typically thought of as synonymous, but they actually refer to different things. While a typeface describes a particular style of lettering, a font refers to variations of a typeface, like its size and weight. The simplest way to understand this difference is that a typeface is a set of fonts with common aesthetic qualities.
Linus Boman has a video that specifically discusses this.
From what I've heard Font is to Typeface what MP3 is to Song. The Font is the "container", be it the file or the printing die or whatever else, and the Typeface is what that looks like.
Not sure how true this is, it might be more nuanced than that, or more complicated. It's a fascinating topic nonetheless :D
Not just common qualities, more than that: the typeface is the “font family”: Helvetica is the typeface, Helvetica bold italic is a font. In metal typesetting, the term font also referred to the size, since you actually needed different physical sets for different sizes.
Scrolled to find this thread. Yes, “font” describes the specific weight, style, and size within a type family as well as the code that contains those specifics. Two meanings for the same word, but neither of which should be used when describing handwritten type. And I know, it’s extremely obnoxious, but it drives us graphic designers nuts.
Came to the comments looking for someone else to point this out. Perhaps a nitpick, but if one wishes to self-identify as a "[typography] nerd," then the distinction between font and typeface is VERY salient
My grandpa used to have loads of tools and toolboxes, probably some from east Germany, that had that exact green that Adam was talking about and I mean, it’s not exactly the right one but it has the right ambiance lol! My grandparents’ home is full of that green! Though it didn’t feel like a color of hopelessness 30 years ago when I was a kid, today it feels just like it. Like you have an urge to say “blaaagh…” and drop your shoulders when you see it.
omg i completely forgot about Puddles Pity Party, thank you for reminding me of this youtube jewel. Gonna have to go binge his jams now.
I think there is something to be said about taking time and paying attention to the details that matter to you personally. That’s what I’ve learned from you Adam. For a long time I’ve thought/or been taught that efficiency in time is the only thing that matters, often times ignoring or not taking time to give the proper attention to the details that matter to me in order to save time.
Love the discussion of fonts here - not only is it super interesting, but it's such an apt illustration of how all the various "AI"-based creative tools and/or plagiarism machines proliferating today just can't reproduce what human artists and craftspeople do. Sure, they can get close in some ways, but in others not at all. It's so crucial that we maintain these skills and crafts, and we lose so much if we fail to do so.
You can definitely tell the lighting changes that were made. Feels less of a work shop and more of a production shoot layout. Very professional, but there was something special with the rugged look
Adam, Your philosophy on fonts and their readability is so on point. I am a freelance graphics designer, and I can tell you, the feeling you get when you see a proper font in its proper placement is zen. I use the word feeling because it matters. Your eye and how it interprets what you are reading, has feeling, emotion, expression...all things humanizing in its form. Thank you for your thought process. It is always so much appreciated that you take the time to discuss these topics.
Appreciate the kind comment; we'll pass it along to Adam.
I am so thankful you found that fabric paint. That original green color made me sad and the final hopeless color makes me happy!
As a huge MythBusters fan, I have admired Adam since 20 years ago. I like watching him hit the beat like a young boy whenever he gets a genius idea. What is recorded in the videos is not only the results, but more importantly, they shares with us the process of thinking, designing, producing, and optimizing each work, which is extremely precious.
Fonts are important, because they DO matter. A lot more than you think. Shows the importance of fine details, that most people can grasp
I used to have Fontographer. Almost 30 years ago.
The font plays a role in making the type legible but there are a whole bunch of typesetting rules that have been lost becasue of the advent of computers and the loss of compositors who were responsible for the layout of the text. I wrote a comment on this too long to repeat but I was an apprentice to a compositor reading modern publications is painful to me I see all the mistakes they make and as Adam said it is more difficult to read. They do not teach layout skills any more the computer screws it up without the help of any proper rules.
I judge all fonts by seeing if I can tell the difference between O and 0 and 1 and l, if that is useless, I don't bother examining anything else about that font :-).
I can’t reccomend Atkinson Hyperlegible highly enough. It’s the font that got me interested in fonts
Yes!
i just finished a tattoo 6 hours ago on my stomach spelling ''harlequin'' in dutch (Harlekijn), in an old English stylized font, we spent a good 2,5 hours researching fonts to make it suit my other tattoos and also make it readable, i've never cared much about it but after researching fonts for this tattoo i got really into it and the art of of fonts. i always loved calligraphy and decided last week i want to do something with it! this video really made me incredibly happy!
I wish they would do longer videos- I would happily watch a 2 hour unedited recording of adam building this thing
Complete with all shop sounds only... no music. 😊
The colour is a big thumbs up from me 👍
The Fonts are responsible for so many of my Happy Days. I love all letters but especially the A’s.
Even from the other side of a computer screen, your shop looks so very relaxing to work in.
When computer screens got bigger to render more details in fonts is the first time I really started to struggle with my dyslexia. I really learned about the importance of fonts and how hugely they influence readability to me. This goes for contrast, dark mode, size, spacing, rendering methodology, aliasing algorithms, serifs, etc. I'm not a font nerd by any means. I have had to dive in to the topic out of necessity to learn what keeps me productive in a high-resolution universe. Fonts are a huge factor in accessibility even for all of us who with sometimes less obvious disabilities or restrictions to deal with.
The documentary *Helvetica* is a great resource to inspire potential and current font lovers alike, in my opinion ❤
I loved how I tuned in because I had no idea what a Watch Lathe was and I’ve stumbled into a Fonte seminar…. Love it
Gosh, any new Adam Build video gets my creative juices flowing. Just an absolute well of creative drive, and passion that's infectious.
Beautiful workstation! My Father-in-law was a cabinetmaker. It was never allowed to show the edge laminations of plywood. Even the end-grain of natural wood. And, of course, no fasteners. He spent more time mitering than assembling. But his product was artful, but he would stain rather than paint. I still make work tables his way: plywood with milled stock around the edges (like a flush picture frame). I’m just starting to gear up to work on my own watches. Cleaning and lubrication rather than repair. Nekkid Watchmaker mesmerizes me. Inspired me to install a new capacitor in my Seiko Solar 100M.
On the subject of fonts, here in the UK specific fonts we're developed for road signs and are still known as "transport" and "motorway". The intention was to create a style that would be as easy to read as possible so that drivers minimised the time looking at the signs and maximisimed the time spent looking at the road. So it was at least in part about saving lives through use of a font.
As a font nerd who's made and sold fonts, I feel Adam starting with font work, then talking about font design, only to cover it up later with paint is a bold choice. XD
I love watching your channel. You have the ability to bring to light things we don’t normally think about. Such as fonts. I have found that reading some text I will find myself reading the same thing numerous times where as some books just make sense the first time around.
I absolutely love proper labels. Best way I've found to label pretty much anything is a rectangle of black (or other colours) PVC tape, and write on it using white ink with a dip pen. You can stick the tape down to a cutting mat and do the calligraphy part there, then cut a neat section out of the tape and stick it on whatever it is you're labelling.
Never thought about fonts that way before. Consider me enlightened. Now you got me looking through my books from when I was a kid. Always liked educational stuff. Looking at all the fonts to see what was best. ‘Questions kids ask’ was my favorite series.
Excellent content! Wonderful editing!
I love the sights and sounds of a shop and creative process. A little drumming for entertainment as well❤
I’m definitely hooked on your channel and your content. It’s inspiring.
Thanks so much for taking the time to let us know!
May dad was a commercial artist / graphic design guy back in the day. He could do hand lettering like that with nothing but a blank page and a paint brush. Your lettering is very good.
I made a lot of WWII model airplanes as a kid and that green reminds me of the paint on the inside of the bomb bays and landing gear doors. I think it was called
"zinc chromate" or something like that. Nice work sir! (As always.)
I love having kits for equipment so I've got everything I need near for the task. Love this cabinet build
Is there anything Adam cant make or build?? Absolute Genius.
Amazing setup!
You truly have inspiring resolve, Adam 👏
We had just the same East German green and Proxxon conversation today! It turns out Proxxon is made in Luxembourg. However, enjoyed your video very much and I like to see that your are still using the little 10.8V makita drill. I bought them years ago when you showed them in a video and they are still going strong. Thanks Adam for your work!!
Proxxon is still a German company. Most is still produced in Germany ('Industrial' series e.g.). Except of the 'Micromot' that is produced in Luxembourg.
@@BH.22. i didn’t know that, thanks for your reply!
My favorite part pulling the tape great job
i came to learn and understand great fonts through programming. fonts can have such a drastic effect on your view of your code editor and make coding more eye straining or beautiful. there are even some paid fonts that are amazing (spend the money on the tools that improve your craft). it helps you really to personalize your work space. in school i took an intro class on designing fonts and through the lens of programming i learned to appreciate it way more. so i totally get your love of fonts and totally agree with you.
Excellent video, Adam! I really enjoyed the teams' editing decision to overlay the description of the spray paints you used while the timelapse played in the background! Also, the build itself... *chef's kiss!* 👏🏻💪🏻👍 Thank you, Adam and Team!
Adam, your channel is the best. That lathe is awesome!!!
seeing a Maker video in which they actually pain the wood gives me life
Nothing beats hand painted lettering.
The problem is you need to be skilled at it, nowadays you can replicate even the brush strokes using high resolution UV curing printers that will not only give the look but the feel as well.
From the title and thumbnail I fully expected Adam to introduce us to a lost gem of an anti-hero from an obscure corner of film history named The Watchmaker.
I've no idea what you're planning to do with this but the idea of realigning the headstock every time you want to use the lathe seems like a lot of work.
I love how he’s always tapping or clapping when thinking haha
I envy Adam because he has both the time and money to what ever he wants.
13:28 I love when the editors on a keep-it-simple channel like this allow themselves a brief moment of creative liberty. I can just see them smirking to themselves quietly lol.
Regarding the type of lines for specific letters, I remember it this way: V and W - broad first stroke, N and M - thin first stroke. As if youve rotated it 180 degrees. Im sure theres a better mnemonic, but it works :)
18:23 Pantone colour of the cold war. Green with a little bit of hopelessness in it.
LOL!
wont lie, ive rectangular bordered all my labels in my shop. Such a thing has brought me so much joy when i start looking for stuff. I can imagine the next step is fontnerdary
It is fantastic hearing Adams passion for typography, it is far too often overlooked. I am a graphic designer and I can say type is almost always the most difficult yet most rewarding part of what I do.
The very first online college course I took was a technical writing course. Our first assignment was to find a font that we felt best represented ourselves or our communication style. Then, craft a discussion posting about our selves and why we picked the font and the post had to use the font. It was suprisingly accurate as to the pretentousness of an individual or those that wanted to be obtuse and difficult to understand.
I was not getting that green when you first started. When you ended, it was an amazing combination! Envious of your ability to see it before it exists.
As a recent novice watchmaker this was awesome to watch, more!!
As a geographer, remaking maps that had poor font choices was half of my technical education. It is such an important part of communicating information that is so oft ignored. Even stuff as minor as kerning can make such a huge difference in not just readability, but the message and importance of the data being sent. The internet really loves its semiotics but so many ignore how the written word is presented as an integral part of semiotics.
I want everyone in my life to be as happy as Adam is 13:42 such a great feeling
As a young teenager, some 50 years ago, my most favourite, favourite book was a Letraset catalogue. Page after page after page of glorious fonts. I studied, copied and altered so many different fonts until I really understood what the key elements of a good font design were. My career in graphic design never happened but my love of fonts remains. Photoshop makes it all too easy these days. You can create amazing things but it's only by drawing letters by hand that you can truly understand how they work. I used to create my own logos for all sorts of things. I'm still kind of sad that I never pursued it professionally.
Still got mine on bookshelve
I like the b-roll footage showing the back and how it doesn't open further than 90 degrees now for all of us worried about your new lathe station unbalancing and falling on the floor xD
I have to say that green is just a great color. I have used this color on toolboxes and the inside of my MGs glovebox.
Thats a gorgeous case. Everything within seated reach. Looking forward to seeing something small made tiny.
Talking about fonts and design. I taught surface design cad for a semester. One exercise I found and recommended to my students to train thinking in 3d is to try and draw a 3/4 view of the shape two intersecting letters would make. Like imagine if you had a block of wood, drew an S on one side, a Z on the next, then cut them out on the bandsaw visualise and try to draw that shape. Really takes a bit of thinking to get your noodle around.
I love your font! Totally love the leading serif. My grandfather managed a print layout/typesetting shop, and passed on his knowledge and enthusiasm of typefaces to my dad, who was in advertising, and who in turn passed it down to me! (I manage corporate websites.) For those who don't know, Arion Press/M&H in San Francisco still sells physical fonts, as do a few other foundries in the US.
This case is amazing too. I was totally satisfied with storing my watchmaker's lathe under a towel, but I think I'm going to have to upgrade. 😄 Also - "Green with a little hopelessness in it" is brilliant. 😂
The editing of this video is heads above the rest, keep it up.
When I was 17 I was taught typography. We were not allowed to use the print room (metal type) until we could hand draw the fonts you wanted to use at the size we wanted and layer out as a visual. Just business card took me a week. I can still draw that font with my eyes closed.
Heya, Mr. Self, I see that drumming music choice. Soon as I heard that transition, I thought that was the kind of fun edit choice Josh would make. Editor sees fellow editor's taste in edit choices.
Aw, thanks for saying so!
As a artist (stone sculptor) looking at your drawings in mirror or just shine thru them on a window help you have a fresh look and spot things. And yes fonts are the silent heroes of the art world. As a work i hand chisel several tomb stones. Create and copied font not mentioning 10+ years of sandblasting and chiseling epitaphs.
I liked the use of Picture-In-Picture editing to allow some detail discussion on top of a timelapse of the process. I would be happy to see more of that sort of thing in the future!
It's always good to see you work, Mister Savage.
That green looks great!
As a cartographer fonts are super important to the readability of a map. Very much time was spent on marching the font to the intent, or message, of the map. I can relate to your font nerdary!
love the typo
love the new into format
Im an Ex Animator and my wife is an Ex Graphic Designer, I could sit and listen to Adam talk fonts all day long :)
I fully agree with you about fonts and layout. The positioning of "WatchMaker's" on your case is driving me crazy. I would put the center of the doors either between the "H" and "M", or perfectly split the "M" at the tip of the dip.
As a graphic designer and absolute Font Nerd, I couldn't agree more with Adam. Line weight, angle of italicized, spacing, kerning, serif vs sans serif, how many fonts can a design have, what font should and shouldn't be used for different applications, the absolute villainizing of Comic Sans. The over use of Trajan in movie posters. Fonts are beloved by the people that use them and underappreciated by the general public.
Nothing causes heartache and a deep shuttering more than when a client says "Just use whatever font you want, it doesn't really matter."
as a dyslectic fonts are super important to me it makes a huge difference its why i switch to on e reader so i can chose one that makes reading easier for me
I imagine one day Adam's Cave will become an iconic memorial to craftsmanship, much like Leo Fender's office at G&L Guitars.
“Fomenting a little font nerdery”. Love, love, love.
Adam, As a traditional and CElectronic Graphic artist/Illustrator from the late 70s but nolonger do it proffessionaly I agree 100%!!!!!! The trick to S's or any round letter is they are a bit taller than the other letters extending up and down just slightly. An S should be to sized so that the top is slightly less than the bottom in size and don't forget to assend and dessend it slightly more that your normal letters.
Speaking of fonts -
In 1972, a bored college dropout named Steve Jobs wandered into a calligraphy class and absolutely fell in love with the art of lettering.
In 1984, he released a groundbreaking computer called the Macintosh. Up until this point, letters on a computer were just static bitmaps all the same size. But in this new graphical interface you could choose from a selection of beautiful “fonts” that were rendered in any size you wished, both on the screen as you typed, and on the printer exactly as it appeared on the screen.
Oddly enough Jobs gave the world both a blessing and a curse with his fonts, now you can make anything totally illegible after spending hours searching for the font you think looks cool.
I love all the fonts don't get me wrong but I have seen corporations using comic sans as their font. Font choice is too complex to leave to some guy moonlighting as a graphic artist.
i like the song its like a christmasy summer bop
Love them soundtracks. 🎵
“Oh you shouldn’t” … is that a challenge, my good man!? …accepted!! ☝️😄
Adam, you have my unending adoration as both a human and a maker - I bought 2 copies of Every Tool Is A Hammer, one for myself and one for my mother. I consumed it like a thanksgiving feast. So it pains me to tell you your A’s and M are backwards. If it helps, the easiest was to remember is to imagine your hand drawing the letter forms from left to right on the page:
/ Upstrokes are thin
\ Downstrokes are thick
The letter ‘S’ is the hand of the font world.
Paula Scher made me love typography as art ❤
I find it super interesting that you find fonts interesting and tie it to your watchmakers lathe, as I find that watch design to be a similarly incredible expression of abstract ideas with practicality and beauty. Watchmaking is someone in their cave trying to represent something as abstract as time by creating repetition to measure- and trying to make it look good. Very funny parallel to your take on fonts
Yes to fonts 😊 I took lithography/printing in jr/Sr high school, as well as a semester of commercial design in high school. Oh man! The font computer we had in our high school print shop back in the early 80's was huge!
As for Moby Dick, the version I was last reading, was a free Kindle edition. I made it to about chapter ~25. Challenging read.
Only because you mentioned East European, you might find the @The Post Apocalyptic Inventor TH-cam channel interesting.
The green is giving Matthias Wandel vibes.
When I was in college, back when desktop publishing was just starting, I had to learn to draw Helvetica and Times New Roman by hand from memory. Also had to to identify 200 different fonts just by looking at a lowercase "p" and "j".
Fonts are the reason i love ereaders.