It's cool to understand typography now, to have a favorite typeface, and to be able to bore your friends about the differences between Arial and Verdana. The Japanese company Type wants to put your favorite typography on your face in the form of glasses. Type has created two lines of glasses that take design inspiration from a couple of the most well-known typefaces, Helvetica and Garamond. Each line has three versions of the spectacles — light, regular, and bold, of course — that delineate the thickness of the frames.
The glasses do a pretty good job at reflecting the characteristics of each typeface. The Helvetica frames look like they'll blend into your face — much like the typeface has blended into our world, becoming a presence that's legible, accessible, and somewhat boring. Forgoing passive-aggressive personality, the glasses make a statement by making no statement at all and representing nothing but their function — to help you not run into the person in front of you on the sidewalk.
The Garamond line takes a different approach, highlighting the deliberate differences in the typeface's stroke weights in the spectacle's bridge and frame. They are pronounced and round, giving off an air of elegance and intelligence with a slight hint of pretentiousness that no doubt channels the typeface's 16th century French roots.
If you simply must know that you've dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's of your personality in your eyewear, you can get these glasses beginning January 30 for ¥24,150 (about $231 USD). Maybe they're just Warby Parker knockoffs, but the idea that we could see Typewriter-inspired glasses soon should both delight and enrage designers everywhere — personally, I'm holding out for Bodoni.
Comments
I demand a Comic Sans line be created as well.
By Adam Maras on 01.20.14 2:59pm
I want webdings as one as well.
By Kirielson on 01.20.14 2:59pm
I’m pretty sure every pair of glasses George Clinton has ever worn qualifies as that.
By TheFirstUniverseKing on 01.20.14 5:04pm
wow
By oscillik on 01.20.14 3:05pm
By Tomjohn36 on 01.20.14 3:56pm
I came here for this
By DrDenim on 01.21.14 10:05am
it would be really satisfying to punch someone wearing those in the nose! ;)
By echomrg on 01.21.14 4:40am
Helvetica Neue Ultra Light !!!
By m12ha3l on 01.20.14 3:00pm
Likewise. This is pretty neat, too bad my eyesight isn’t that bad.
By almightykingdom on 01.20.14 3:03pm
They should make iOS7 glasses.
See everything in Helvetica Neue with pastel colors and frosted glass.
By npo on 01.20.14 3:14pm
Sorry, meant to reply to this post. First time posting on The Verge. Anyways, great picture!
By rgatchal on 01.20.14 5:00pm
Accurate picture. I’d be mesmerizingly beautiful.
By mr.kev on 01.20.14 9:12pm
Little did we know, Helvetica Neue Ultra Light was inspired by Steve Jobs’ glases:
By slinlee on 01.20.14 4:02pm
Ahem, you mean Ghandi’s glasses.
By ElementFire on 01.20.14 4:28pm
ahem, it was a joke. Plus, (if you want to be pedantic), the rims on Steve’s glasses are way thinner.
By monstercheeto on 01.20.14 4:35pm
Ahem, if you want to get REALLY pedantic, Steve’s glasses are actually rimless.
By johnnygenius on 01.20.14 5:33pm
Ahem.
By mguniverse on 01.20.14 5:41pm
Oh, great, a rimwar
By kawa on 01.20.14 8:27pm
No one wins a rimwar.
By carson.walls on 01.20.14 11:33pm
Or… everyone wins a rimwar.
By ElementFire on 01.21.14 12:18pm
The new thinner and lighter iSpecs Air?
By Christopher Bright on 01.20.14 8:32pm
PRIOR ART!
By AirGun on 01.20.14 5:51pm
ahem, and btw its Gandhi, not Ghandi
By monstercheeto on 01.20.14 5:59pm
you would think after all these years people would know where the H goes
By vamacharana on 01.20.14 6:17pm
Ahem, glass circles have been around for a while. Much before Gandhi or Steve.
By mr.kev on 01.20.14 9:14pm