Signed by editor Ben Kiel

Typographer and design luminary Ben Kiel makes nationally-significant work from his studio here in St. Louis. (For example, check out his typography work for New York.) He's taught at leading design schools like MICA and St. Louis' own Sam Fox School at Washington University.

We're proud to say Ben's our friend — he has been buying his pencils with us for 10 years and we have been discussing typography for just as long. So we had to have signed copies of his new edited volume (with a long list of amazing collaborators), which enthusiastically considers the possibilities of letterform design from a variety of unique perspectives (and in multiple languages!)

It's a gorgeous volume with many little delights; each surface has been designed with great finesse. I'll be keeping one for my own design library.

A lush print experience for everyone interested in type

Identity Is Variable explores the intimate connections between who we are and how we express ourselves through type. Design studios XYZ Type and Polymode collaborated to invite fifteen diverse voices from the design world to discuss the ways their personal and cultural identities resonate with typography, through personal narratives, critical essays, and lively conversations.

Contributors include artist-technologist Mindy Seu, designer-writer Elizabeth Goodspeed, multidisciplinary artist Diana Guerrero-Maciá, designer-poet Sadie Red Wing, and collaborative studio WORK/PLAY. Collectively, the twelve entirely original pieces in the book underscore the fact that typography is never neutral, but rather deeply personal and political.

The book includes essays by Elizabeth Goodspeed, Diana Guerrero-Maciá, nicole killian, Kyle Letendre, Saki Mafundikwa, Ziddi Msangi, Duy Nguyễn, Chris Skillern, and David Jon Walker; a poem by Sadie Red Wing, and a comic by Kruttika Susarla. Two discussions are included: one between Be Oakley, Mindy Seu, and nicole killian, and another between Danielle McCoy and Kevin McCoy of WORK/PLAY.

Identity Is Variable is offset printed in two spot colors, expressively designed by Polymode using the namesake variable typeface XYZ Type created for them.