<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[oliver's typography blog!]]></title><description><![CDATA[What Lies Beneath?]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/my-blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 Jul 2026 04:25:24 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Project Spotlight: Menu Design]]></title><description><![CDATA[Welcome back to my blog! In this post, I will be discussing my most recent project: a menu re-design for Fat Katz Slider Bar, an endearing restaurant that caught my eye in its original menu, and just how much information was presented. While the place itself was bright and flashy, I took inspiration from its atmosphere going off of simply the logo design, following an orange color palette all the way through. Pulling other inspirations with my color palette, I tried to replicate a playful...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/project-spotlight-menu-design</link><guid isPermaLink="false">693357e24f0e700bce2fdc7f</guid><pubDate>Fri, 05 Dec 2025 22:32:49 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_ca656ee3f7804f0e9499375c98951f86~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_792,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[When Fonts are Trouble: The Fraktur-Antiqua Debate]]></title><description><![CDATA[Around the time of WWII, there were numerous atrocities unfolding across the country of Germany, as many of us know. However, one small debate stood in the midst of all this chaos, one simple typeface that grew to define the Nazi regime altogether. That typeface was originally Fraktur, mainly distiguished by its decorative endcaps in a blackletter style. However, an ancient conflict was revived when another typeface began to be compared alongside it, being the typeface Antiqua, or the Latin...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/when-fonts-are-trouble-the-fraktur-antiqua-debate</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6931c3f6346ce9789f569267</guid><pubDate>Fri, 05 Dec 2025 22:03:45 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_6c8dc0d986944ca9b1b34c930bce981d~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_500,h_739,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Dadaism - A Period of Surrealism]]></title><description><![CDATA[What exactly is Dadaism?  This peculiar term came to me when a friend recommended I take a History of Surrealism class—its full title being Dadaism and Surrealism . That alone sent me spiraling into a rabbit hole of a movement I had somehow never encountered, a strange and electrifying corner of art history that felt too bold, too unruly, too ahead of its time to be forgotten. Born in the grisly shadow of World War I, Dadaism emerged as a chaotic rebuttal to a Europe that had seemingly lost...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/the-chaos-of-dadaism</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69250c809745b3c9f144306b</guid><pubDate>Thu, 04 Dec 2025 17:09:54 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_3df96e73108147df88a89f3da99c81ab~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_960,h_800,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Birth of the Semicolon]]></title><description><![CDATA[The semicolon has one of those surprisingly dramatic histories that can make you look twice, being such a simple thing within writing. First born in Venice in 1494, this was during a time when writers were experimenting wildly with language, and where punctuation wasn’t established with fixed rules, but entirely where punctuation marks were discarded reguarly. These expansive uses of text, across both printed and handwritten uses, were pioneered by the literarati known as the Italian...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/the-birth-of-the-semicolon</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6930c303644b95bce4b414cd</guid><pubDate>Thu, 04 Dec 2025 02:38:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_9c957a596a6043f49aa54cca098d3cc5~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Propaganda Study Series: The Soviet Union]]></title><description><![CDATA[Welcome back to my Propaganda Study series! Today I’m diving into the riveting history of a once powerhouse of a country: the Soviet Union. While being mainly known for stark geometry and the use of authoritative tone, Soviet propaganda gave major influence in shaping the design landscape, particularly the Bauhaus era. Even though in the modern age is not as obvious, the rigidity shown in this time period demonstrated a great feat of color theory, where emphasis took the stage in how unified...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/propaganda-study-series-the-soviet-union</link><guid isPermaLink="false">692e1ade2bc8fd382e718191</guid><pubDate>Wed, 03 Dec 2025 22:48:07 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_b45ce51e102643dcb502eb0cc5125c52~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[All Apologies: Modern Grunge Typography]]></title><description><![CDATA[Oh yes, the timeless period of the 90s rock-revival, a period in music I had always wanted to experience for myself since I watched my father play Unplugged concerts on the TV when I was younger. The gritty yet universal appeal of grunge music at the time laid the roots of my long journey into exploring music myself, working at a record store in high school for a short period before heading into college, where I am currently a student in Digital Media Design, an ever-changing field and I grow...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/all-apologies-modern-grunge-typography</link><guid isPermaLink="false">692512d3fbcc173f6ef13fb7</guid><pubDate>Fri, 28 Nov 2025 19:54:24 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_69c8c963d4144662805317402ffee10e~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_500,h_500,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Delving Into Blackletter]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Blackletter font... I wouldn't say needs an introduction. While being so ornamental and born from the highest of royalty, this font eventually became a staple in alternative culture today, having an industrial edge that is instantly recognizable. During the early Middle Ages, European manuscripts were written in Carolingian minuscule , a rounded, spacious script designed under the holy Roman emperor Charlemagne, who brought unity to a fractured literary world. But as Europe entered the...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/delving-into-blackletter</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691ff1664380ae0a508becc6</guid><pubDate>Tue, 25 Nov 2025 01:49:33 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_a4cf757bc3674b4489ca25fd8f6b4c88~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_720,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Exploring Islamic Calligraphy]]></title><description><![CDATA[As being a young person with many years ahead of me, I always try to seek out knowledge in educating myself on regions of the world that I eventually plan to visit. Coming from a place so far removed geographically and culturally, I’ve recently found myself fascinated by Middle Eastern arts—especially the beautifully intricate Arabic alphabet. Even without being able to read it (to my great misfortune), its alphabet is so incredibly expressive with its fluid lines and ancient elegance. What...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/exploring-islamic-calligraphy</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691fe1f16d6fca21101e24ad</guid><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:32:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_c4e0d33748e4438aa706d1e9c9ea22c6~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_736,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Intricacies of Wood-Block Printing]]></title><description><![CDATA[As previously discussed in my blog, the history of printing has gone through several periods of great change, our modern-day equivalent being the lightning-speed ink printer, where the biggest complications come from simply buying an ink cartridge, or fixing jammed papers. In the very first days of printing, several days dedicaded to creating the printing process for one singular page. This is a prime example of Chinese movable type, an ancient printing method (created in the 7th century! )...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/the-intricacies-of-wood-block-printing</link><guid isPermaLink="false">690baa15a0cae0bc250aad19</guid><pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2025 20:27:50 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_62ac3d652c8743148e2a0704b097cb88~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_600,h_400,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Drop-Caps: Look at me!]]></title><description><![CDATA[Ever come across reading a book or magazine with a large and ornate letter next to the paragraph, immediately catching your attention?  This is the mark of the drop-cap , a stylization that predates before the printing press and moveable type, impossible to ignore in ancient book designs (an example shown here in a page from the Icelandic Sagas manuscript, dated to the year 1005). As history and the art of typography advanced over time, there have been various methods in how to use dropcaps....]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/drop-caps-look-at-me</link><guid isPermaLink="false">690ba0f4988cdeb684f9232b</guid><pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2025 19:26:13 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_f54846a22d004c5b93651f3c4ae0d4b5~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_988,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Project: Creating Book Covers]]></title><description><![CDATA[I have been an avid reader since I was small, yet my love for it had a fading period for a while before finally returning to it, and it was all thanks to Mark L. Danielewski's House of Leaves . It immediately captures you in the weirdness of it, completely challenging the way I read going forward and was a whirlwind of plot points, along with its structure. Here the text speaks for itself, and the words in this book alone often guide you through its most frustrating parts, as different...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/project-creating-book-covers</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68fa7a56dc39b5e10ea871fb</guid><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 19:33:29 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_2a20b0e5fc914a9188cddc8e89f73464~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_580,h_452,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Propoganda Study Pt 1: The Chinese Cultural Revolution]]></title><description><![CDATA[Welcome to my Propaganda Study series! In this collection, I will thoroughly explore how common people were influenced by their surrounding governments through general typography, text hierarchies, and other aspects of design through propaganda. This post will cover the infamous Chinese Cultural Revolution , a period which displayed Mao Zedong's rise to power and unwavering grip over China's people over a period of 10 years, from 1966 to Mao's death in 1976. The graphics prevalent throughout...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/propoganda-study-pt-1-the-chinese-cultural-revolution</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68f2ce7460ceb7e0d1036b83</guid><pubDate>Sat, 18 Oct 2025 01:12:09 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_65e5a017cd554a7c9efb0fd854a64c8f~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_580,h_400,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Punchcutting - Typing with Metal!]]></title><description><![CDATA[As brought up in my design classes, the spreading of mainstream type has been all thanks to the invention of the printing press, made famous by Johannes Gutenberg . With letters that were mounted on a metal press and arranged to fit the page of text, this invention made way for an expansion of literacy across Europe. Before the printing press, there was firstly process of  punchcutting , where letters were outlined into one end of a steel bar . The manual process of this, even to the most...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/punchcutting-typing-with-metal</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68f2b5c960ceb7e0d1033fed</guid><pubDate>Fri, 17 Oct 2025 21:42:45 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_319438d304a1436e85f75e6473854250~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_250,h_134,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Helvetica is Everywhere]]></title><description><![CDATA[Being such a flat and simple font, it's funny to say Helvetica is everywhere... but I'm not wrong. With its simplicity comes being so...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/helvetica-is-everywhere</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68d4c34845cc4b94d67ed211</guid><pubDate>Thu, 25 Sep 2025 04:28:44 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_d6d3dc83c68041d4af5115ce7dcc205d~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_800,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Project 2 Advertisement: Thumbnails]]></title><description><![CDATA[Here are my thumbnails for the Poster 2 project, where I will explain the concepts behind them.  The first is for a Cafe Bustelo...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/project-2-advertisement-thumbnails</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68d4cbe409e4ce7caab53cef</guid><pubDate>Wed, 24 Sep 2025 05:20:09 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_3f3ca1ecec594999b1835d5e9c4c0d8f~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_551,h_735,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Language Spotlight: Bengali]]></title><description><![CDATA[In my countless hours scrolling Pinterest a few months ago, I ended up in the endless black hole that is the literature recommendation...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/language-spotlight-bengali</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68d4b1fc45cc4b94d67eac2a</guid><pubDate>Wed, 17 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_8ae7f59751764ea6b5430c92916f5504~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_402,h_604,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Very First Writing System]]></title><description><![CDATA[Seen as one of the most pivotal achievements in human history, the development of the Cuneiform writing system allowed for the creation...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/the-very-first-writing-system</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68d4b03909e4ce7caab4ff54</guid><pubDate>Wed, 17 Sep 2025 03:04:55 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_a449a01300324ca5b80b493d1780f6a3~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_550,h_464,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why is Comic Sans So Hated?]]></title><description><![CDATA[As the title says, I don't understand exactly why such a playful, unassuming font is so largely detested by those across design spaces....]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/why-is-comic-sans-so-hated</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68d4b81d62c7ed53734494a5</guid><pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_f4d2160681f2408898c13ef98c229a3c~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_800,h_400,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Create some Space! On Kerning]]></title><description><![CDATA[Something as small as simple spacing between letters, and something I largely think about regarding calligraphy, in how tedious the...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/create-some-space-on-kerning</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68d4c5ac9a52887193bd0848</guid><pubDate>Sat, 06 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_8c55252a04aa4e1c9069e9cf9e3e23ab~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_600,h_267,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Round Hand Calligraphy]]></title><description><![CDATA[Handwriting has not been a strong suit of mine for a while, so I admire calligraphy from a distance. As writing has advanced across...]]></description><link>https://numeralheaven.wixsite.com/beneath/post/round-hand-calligraphy</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68d4bd9c45cc4b94d67ec644</guid><pubDate>Fri, 05 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/686dcd_c86a981dcd254421a24406f6e7761253~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Oliver Ryba</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>