Hello dear Reader 🐉

If you've known me since at least I graduated from TypeMedia, in July 2024 (damn, not to quote Billie Eilish, but I'm getting older), you know all too well that the absolute quest of my life has been since then to live alone.

Well, I received the news I was so begging for on August 26th: I am moving out. To my dream area of Paris, nonetheless. In a flat I've been longing for, for EVER. Since at least 2017. I baptised the place the Arkive in my mind. I don't think I've ever told that to anyone, so why not start with you guys: my type designer ultra disciplined monk alter go is called Arkando, and the type work she does, I call Arketype. So Arkando, whose work is Arketype, lives in the Arkive, and her quest is Ando's Ark. Probably silly to anyone that's not me but it helps me lol. This is just scratching the surface. The lore actually runs very deep, I have a supermassive internal universe. I should make a video game one day... But then again it's real life so even better. Also, if it wasn't obvious already, my favourite letter is A.

So yeah, I'm moving out of my parents, and I will get the keys the day after my 32nd birthday, which is September 6th. Everybody is welcome to my place. I am extremely excited to make it a home. Before I applied to TypeMedia, I really considered switching to studying interior decoration. I just love this stuff, and the blank canvas I will have is everything I've been praying for. I am extremely grateful. And the cherry on the big fat cake, is that my favourite / most played artist of all time, Lauren Sanderson, is coming back to Paris in February. I met her at a meet and greet in 2024, just before TypeMedia, and it changed the course of my life.

I decided to get sober only because she got sober for over one year and I thought I respect her so much, why couldn't I respect myself the same? I hope I can get meet and greet tickets again, I want to thank her in person so badly, I will be 1y sober on March 11th 2027, so just after. I guess my music recommendation for this issue is then In My Head, my favourite song of all time, I think I'm reaching over 700 listens now. I want to get lyrics from it tattooed in Dargon. I promised myself I would. So I will.

The news of moving out have of course occupied the majority of my mental space, but I have still managed to progress on several fronts. First and foremost, the grind on Transept continues, and is almost to a close; I have chosen to try to kern it with Kern On, in order to learn how to use the software better, but to fully test it by hand.

Honestly, very honestly, I think I'm finding out more and more that after Dargon and its 40k+ pairs (it's not Warhammer 40k, it's Dargon 40k yo), I can kern anything by hand, and - exclusive to this newsletter - I have to admit... I lowkey enjoy it. So I think for my next typeface I will try again to kern it via Kern On if it's ultra display just because I'm interested to learn how to use it, but the second it takes 0.0001s more than I anticipated, then I switch to kerning with a controller. Which I still owe you guys an article about, I haven't forgotten, it's planned.

Also, the first session of my Boring Workshops workshop is approaching rapidly, and I'm super excited about it. I am also starting to teach at ECV again with Morgane Vantorre soon, and it promises to be an incredible year.

Quick rundown of the media I've been consuming the past two weeks: my sister showed me this incredible ASMR artist, and I've fallen asleep like an absolute brick on their cyberpunk video for the 6th day in a row now. I have no idea what the end of the video is lmfao. Also going strong with Critical Role, as per usual. And I haven't played any video game, astonishingly, or more like, I've chosen to play The Sims irl and to control my own life. But I did watch copious amounts of GTA 6 content, so it kinda counts!

In terms of reading, however, I've been back on the grind. I've started on Audible the reading of Swanns's Way from Marcel Proust, as I needed something in my native language to make work more fun, and I've been THOROUGHLY enjoying the audiobook of The Creative Act by Rick Rubin, that I was originally quick to dismiss as insta bro content, but is actually phenomenal. Also started The Pivot Year by Brianna West, whose The Mountain Is You had a super deep impact on me last year when I was training for the Paris marathon.

Friends my life is about to change for the better. I am already changing, I can feel it. I am eternally grateful, excited, and thrilled. pardon my French, but all I want is to shut the FUCK UP and work. I want to stop talking about becoming a type monk and actually become one. Type design, independence, fitness, forever.

Before I leave you alone, I did say I wanted to use this newsletter also as an accountability partner. So, let's do a little bit of predictive writing. Dear reader, in the next issue, I will announce that the Transept update either has been released, or I only have to press a button for it. I said I would, and so I will. If I don't, please feel free to publicly shame me for not keeping my word.

Sorry, this was a long one. Humongous thanks for reading this. As one of my favourite quotes says, from the Witcher, and a nod to the first issue of Alchetype: something ends, something begins.

Let’s fucking go.

Take care ⚔️🔠
(Ark)Ando