Welcome to issue #19 of The Dinamo Update. In this semi-regular newsletter, we’ll be continuing to share the latest ongoings at the studio in five or so parts.

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It’s Our Birthday 🥲🎈

Running a foundry is something we’re still learning about, every day. This stuff takes practice, and that’s how this project’s slogan came about. Daily practice. Just like brushing your teeth.

We hope this collection of Swiss-made toothbrushes will ensure the sustained oral hygiene of you and everyone you meet 👄

Daily Practice: The Interviews

We asked each of our collaborators to share a little insight into their own daily practice with us (and how they like their bristles).

JP Haynie, Actual Source

What was the last thing you did today?
I just unpacked my bags from a trip to New York. Publishing is a heavy business!

And the worst?
I flew home from NY. I tend to be a homebody and I really don’t love flying or being in airports so this is something I did not enjoy. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

What do you make sure to practice every day?
I try to play my instrument everyday (guitar) because I love it and it helps me relax.

What brush-type are you?
I prefer a medium brush… a little easier on the gumz!

May Kim, graphic designer

What was the last thing you did today?
I took my laptop out to get some work done at Starbucks.

And the worst?
I got lazy and ordered McDonald’s by delivery… Please don’t judge.

What do you make sure to practice every day?
I’m a very anxious person, so on a daily basis I practice keeping peace of mind. It’s important to stay mentally healthy, for both mind and body!

What brush-type are you?
Soft bristles! But I do like the airplane brushes because they are wide.

Brian Roettinger, Perron-Roettinger

What was the last thing you did today?
Looked at some gold material samples to see... is it too reflective? Does it look like gold or brass?

And the worst?
Continuously blew my nose. Not covid, just that old classic cold.

What do you make sure to practice every day?
Drink lots of water, stay hydrated. Water is the all-mighty healer.

What brush-type are you?
Medium weight!

Anna Haifisch, cartoonist, and Anja Kaiser, graphic designer

What was the last thing you did today?
Anna: I sharpened colored pencils.
Anja: I read an article about speech bubbles in medieval manuscripts.

And the worst?
Anna: Driving the car 1 km to the supermarket.
Anja: Running behind my own schedule.

What do you make sure to practice every day?
Anna: Drawing?
Anja: I like to collect references, create small archives, and also writing accompanies me more and more in the last years.

What brush-type are you?
Anna: Soft.
Anja: Hard.

Giliane Cachin, graphic designer

What was the last thing you did today?
Design. I was in that purely experimental phase. And right before that, I had some friends surprise visit me. I get a lot of studio visits, which is also part of my daily practice!

And the worst?
I was going to the midwife this morning, but I’m terrible with my phone at the moment and I didn’t look at it. I went to the other side of town, but she had canceled.

What do you make sure to practice every day?
Part of my daily practice is to test things, to experiment with process, and that then often becomes visible in my visual outcomes.

What brush-type are you?
I'm 100% a soft bristles kind of girl ;)

Larissa Kasper, Kasper-Florio

What was the last thing you did today?
Edit a poster consisting of a thousand small book pages by censoring all the images in the layouts. It’s a bit of a Sisyphean task for a Monday but I need to make it work before the end of the day, as it’s the deadline.

And the worst?
It’s not that dramatic. But I wanted to buy groceries and the card paying system was down, and I only had ten cents in my pocket.

What do you make sure to practice every day?
My most important daily practice this year has been with my dog, Oki. She’s a rescue, and she’s been very anxious since puppyhood. Instead of tricks we need to practice simple, every day things, to get her feeling comfortable in the city.

What brush-type are you?
My dentist says I’m not allowed to use the hard bristles, because I use too much pressure. Even though I’d prefer them, I have to use the soft ones. But I might risk it all for the Dinamo brushes!

Jon Gacnik, Takumi Akin, and Wesley Chou, Folder Studio

What was the last thing you did today?
Morning stroll and coffee near the office. Reviewed proofs. Ate a delicious salad.

And the worst?
After all the above, we ate Krispy Kreme donuts. 😮‍💨

What do you make sure to practice every day?
Healthy habits. We all tend to get in the “zone,” which is great from a productivity standpoint, but it’s easy to neglect the necessary habits in between like taking breaks, sitting up straight, going on walks, and most importantly brushing our teeth!

What brush-type are you?
Wesley: Medium.
Jon: Hard.
Takumi: Soft.

Oliver Shaw, Friend Editions

What was the last thing you did today?
I just packed up some zines to send to customers. The zine was I FEEL GOOD by Ben Kopp. Published by me (Friend Editions). It’s cool, it comes with a tattoo transfer sheet.

And the worst?
I left my phone at home, but it’s only 10am.

What do you make sure to practice every day?
Most mornings (especially Monday) I like to come in my studio a little early and take care of personal or logistical matters before doing any “real work.” It clears my mind and relaxes me for some reason.

What brush-type are you?
Hard af.

Rebecca Stephany, graphic designer and educator

What was the last thing you did today?
I was preparing slides for the semester introduction for the program I teach in Kassel.

And the worst?
I spent too much time reading the news on the phone… I definitely have a difficult relationship with it.

What do you make sure to practice every day?
I’m working on trying to take more breaks. Meaningless breaks — just to be outside, look at the buildings, the sky. We’re so easily cramped in with never-ending to do lists, and sometimes we just need time to do nothing.

What brush-type are you?
I have a sonic electric toothbrush. With it, the bristles aren’t so important — it’s all about the slow movement and angle.

Scott Barry, RoSE LOS ANGELES

What was the last thing you did today?
Walked Ozzie the dog.

And the worst?
Actually, not so bad of a day. Can’t even think of anything bad.

What do you make sure to practice every day?
I’m not much for routines actually! Every day I try as hard as I can to break the routine :)

What brush-type are you?
Whisper soft.

Box design details

It would be a real challenge to handle this many brushes if they weren't held together by something, so Mathias and Sascia made a box. Designing this cardboard playground was one thing, but sweet-talking the brush and packaging producers was another. They managed both gracefully. Now let's take a moment to admire the details.

10 in 1 📦

10 artist-designed Curaprox toothbrushes with 5,460 ultra-fine, 01.mm Curen® filaments. Compact brush head, straight angle, 18.2 x 1.2 cm. Optimal for cleaning. Produced in Switzerland

Walter Caption Contest

In each issue of The Dinamo Update, we will provide a new Walter cartoon in need of a caption. You, the reader, can submit your caption by responding to this email or by commenting on our caption contest IG post. The best three responses win the complete Walter Alte.

Scroll on for the last round’s winners — as well as the new contest.

THIS MONTH'S Contest

ROUND 1 Finalists

🏆🏆🏆

Congratulations Jan Schaab, Erik Sachse, and Christof Floymayr. All three of you should have received your files of ABC Alte Walter!

Studio Updates

We’re very excited to have two new faces in the Berlin studio full-time:

Ethan Cohen (brother of Jed) is joining the team as Type Designer and Head of Business. He has a masters degree in TypeMedia from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and attended the Type@Cooper Extended Program. Before joining the team, Ethan worked at The Type Founders, LucasFonts, and Mucca Design, and released some of his own typefaces through Future Fonts. Before moving to Europe, he spent many years handling contracts and IP at a record label during the day and playing guitar and banjo in bands at night.

Madeleine Morley is a writer and editor from London. She’s been writing with Dinamo for a while but is joining as our new Head of Publishing & Communications. Maddy studied English at Cambridge University and History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, and her culture writing has appeared in The New York Times, Fast Company, Quartz, The Observer, Dazed & Confused, AnOther, Elephant, and many more. She worked at It’s Nice That and AIGA Eye on Design. Her dog, Basket, doesn’t know any of this but loves her nonetheless.

Typeface Updates

We’ve just released italics into the Helveesti web: You can now add it to your ABC Helveesti typeface to complete the family. Spikes or sans spikes.

Gravity has also expanded into the italics universe, courtesy of italics meister Fabi. It also newly supports all Cyrillic alphabets, thanks to Olga.

Arizona Specimen

A box of unbound, multi-headed specimens arrived at Lucas and Elias’s studio. Nora took some pictures of it (I heard it drops next week).

P.S.

Johannes went to Glasgow (and returned). Thank you to Beth, James, and Mook from INTL Assembly for the invitation, and putting such an amazing festival together! The energy in the room was beautiful. With 800+ audience members, it might have been the biggest crowd we’ve ever presented to. The photo above — our 2022 thoughts — got a lot of response. Photo by Min-Kim.

• Educator Will Albin-Clark put together this thread on the nuances of selecting typefaces. There’s a note about our EULA.
• Support FLINT*ype, an online platform promoting typefaces designed by people marginalized by our patriarchal majority society. And bookmark the archive now.
• What happens when you apply economic theory to a 404 page?
• We’ve been watching Q: Into the Storm on HBO. Who knew that 8Chan’s creator is a type designer.
• Maddy has an essay on print collectives in the new networks themed issue of Beirut-based Journal Safar. Feat. interviews with the folk at TXTbooks, Rabbit Roads Press, and L'Automàtica.
• Cheers for sharing TypeRoom: This short film is “a kind reminder about the origins of western typography and a great introduction to calligraphy by Hermann Zapf.”
• The grave of XYZ. The story of a mysterious headstone of an unidentified bank robber.

Thank you for checking in with our latest issue of The Dinamo Update. You can read all of the back issues in our archive.

Speak soon,
Team Dinamo 🐩