Tel Aviv: Day 2 - Fontef Studio

A visit to Fontef Studio.
After getting up early, keeping up with the blog, going to the local gym for a quick work out, and having a bit of breakfast...we headed out to visit Yanek at Fontef, his studio - which is located on Rotschild Boulevard and Allenby, in a building built in the 1940's. Per Yanek's suggestion we grabbed a "shuttle taxi" - which is an interesting concept. These small buses roam the streets on a specific route...and can be flagged down at any time...and for less than $2 per person they will stop at any point during the route and drop off and pick up. Basically, they are more convenient than buses and less expensive than taxis. A great idea that I am surprised has not been adopted by other cities.
Type talk.
Fontef consists of a spacious room that Yanek shares with Lahav Halevy...another talented designer with whom he occasionally collaborates. We spent a bit of time talking shop - much to the chagrin of poor Jake who perused a copy of the Jerusalem Bible, whle Yanek and I chatted about people we know - like Neville Brody, Eric Spiekerman and Tibor Kalman...and our love for fonts and design. It's nice to talk with someone who is not only passionate about their craft, but also very good at it. Yanek also shared some of his work...including a set of guidelines and identity extensions he created for Russian Standard (a vodka from Russia); and he showed us how he runs his typeface business online.
Yanek's smile.
Yanek is a very gentle person with an impish and infectious grin. His entire face lights up when he smiles...from his eyes to his dimples. Apparently his smile is now famous, as he was chosen for an ad that is running in the Tel Aviv newspaper. He showed it to us, and I took a snapshot of it...I get the feeling that there is a second career in the works here! :) Yanek smiles when he talks about type and design...and when he talks about Tel Aviv...a city that he loves and that he's very proud of. He likes to point out buildings and tell us stories about how they came to be, what makes them special, and how the fit in the short history of this city. And so, he took us up to his roof and pointed at stuff and told us about it.
Jake likes to eat.
All in all, it was a very fun way to spend an hour...(probably more for me than for Jake). However, we followed our chat with a nice lunch consisting of felafels we picked up at a local street joint and ate at on of the benches that sit under the shade of the trees that line Rotschild Boulevard...and at that point it was obvious that Jake was happy again. In all honesty, I had not realized how much Jake loves to eat. When he's off to Berkeley I will have to make it a point to take him and some of his friends out to dinner as often as I can.