music by the eels, artwork daisies of the galaxy.  i’m happy to say i played some very small part in the design of this cover art. my codependent cohorts and co-conspirators JZ rourke and shawn alexander interrogated interviewed me about this and other things. transcript below.

• jz:  di, were you in the misfits?
• dd: shut up
• sa: no really… you played bass but you never talk about it…  come on… tell us everything!
• dd: there’s not exactly a shortage of people talking about the misfits. i’m not an archaeologist or a spelunker. move along ok?
• jz: (giggle), ok then, what’s the story with the daisies of the galaxy artwork?
• dd: well, as you can see, this is just the most fantastic cd artwork almost ever.
• jz: did you design it?
• dd: no, i hope to be a designer of this caliber someday. i wish i could remember the designer’s name*, because she is brilliant. as you can see, it’s a cardboard tri-fold cover, not a jewel case cd and the design is just wonderful. as far as cd packaging goes, this packaging really pulled out all the stops. it even has, as you can also see, a booklet with all the lyrics.  when dinctype was a commercial type company, one of my most unusual and favorite typefaces was a font called “this and that” which is used for the design of the lyrics booklet.
• sa: why don’t we have this font at the studio?
• dd: well technically we do. i do. it’s not available as a free font but it may be in the future. who knows…
• jz: who does know? that’s a good question. wait, so there isn’t anyone who has this font in the world? is it your best kept secret weapon of a typeface? is this all hand drawn and scanned?
• dd: omg… stop… ok.  actually who has it… um… a number of large advertising agencies have ‘this and that’ obviously the designer* who did this cd artwork has it, quite a few design firms have it, um um…. old navy has it. it’s been around the block a few times. it is hand drawn, not scanned though. i drew the letters right in fontographer.
• sa: so, essentially, if i understand this, i’m the only person who doesn’t have it?
• dd: ahaha. yeah… it’s a conspiracy. no, it’s not been widely distributed. if i remember correctly it was only ever available as part of the ‘complete dinctype library.’ so only licensed users of the ‘complete dinc library’ ever had it.

• jz: so, how exactly does this font work? i see it has printing style letters and also script. how does that work in one font? i mean what the hell di?
• dd: well yeah, all true. it’s kind of complicated as many of my early fonts were. i am of the school of thought that says a typeface is a tool to enable a designer to do interesting things and to inspire interesting design. so, in keeping with that philosophy, i designed a number of fonts that, to me, were design elements unto themselves.
• sa: WTF?
• dd: there are quite a few, none are available as free fonts anymore because i got tired of seeing them misused all over the internet. they’re actually very simple to use, but apparently not simple enough if the user doesn’t take two minutes to read the so-called readme file.
• jz: nobody reads those. i know i don’t
• dd: which is yet another good reason that you don’t have ‘this and that,” the font.
• sa: giggle…. i read them
• dd: good shawn. keep it up. the readme file for ‘thisandthat’ basically held the keys to the kingdom for using this font and understanding it. the upper case keys access just a normal typeface, a full set of upper case characters hand printed, not script or cursive. but the lower case keys and alt keys are home to full words in script. short little words, but important ones like this and that, and, from, me, you, to, the…. lots and lots of them. so it would obviously be excellent to have a character map. but you can see the results in the examples above and below. that’s exactly how it should be used. and if i do say so myself, it’s great!

• jz: i love this font
• sa: me too
• dd: i do too. we should start using it more i think maybe… just a note, the lettering ESTATE SALE is not the ‘this and that’ font, you understand. it’s the hand lettering only.
• jz: so will the ‘complete dinc library’ ever be available to the public? will dinc go back to being a commercial type company? ever?
• dd: dunno. i haven’t really ever thought about it. i would say probably no to both… but you never know. actually, the thing is, it’s not like small type companies make any money so it’s not really a consideration.  and given that, designing typefaces is more about creative expression, it makes more sense to me to make my typefaces available at no cost. it takes a really long time to design a typeface and usually you have a headache the whole time. i am now and i have always been much much more interested in putting my fonts in the hands of good designers, who really bring out potential that i had never seen in them. it’s always gratifying and often amazing to see my typefaces in the hands of really good designers.
• jz: you mean us right?
• dd: :-) yes i do. i see my typefaces in a really singular way, the way it looked in my mind before i designed a typeface is how i see it. so when someone else uses it, it’s in a way i never imagined. i love that most of all.
• sa: that’s in keeping with your philosophy of fonts as tools for designers…
• dd: yeah…. that’s what they are. i have to go now. you two are delightfully, unbelievably, ridiculously, and most mystifyingly glad
• jz: who wouldn’t be?

*Postscript 8/29… “the designer” of this little masterpiece is the most amazing,  talented and delightful francesca restrepo. go see her, say hi.