The Field Guide to Typography
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THE FIELD GUIDE TO TYPOGRAPHY TYPEFACES IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE THE FIELD GUIDE TO TYPOGRAPHY TYPEFACES IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE PETER DAWSON PRESTEL MUNICH · LONDON · NEW YORK To my parents, John and Evelyn Dawson Published in North America by Prestel, a member of Verlagsgruppe Random House GmbH Prestel Publishing 900 Broadway, Suite 603 New York, NY 10003 Tel.: +1 212 995 2720 Fax: +1 212 995 2733 E-mail: [email protected] www.prestel.com © 2013 by Quid Publishing Book design and layout: Peter Dawson, Louise Evans www.gradedesign.com All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dawson, Peter, 1969– The field guide to typography : typefaces in the urban landscape / Peter Dawson. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-3-7913-4839-1 1. Lettering. 2. Type and type-founding. I. Title. NK3600.D19 2013 686.2’21—dc23 2013011573 Printed in China by Hung Hing CONTENTS_ Foreword: Stephen Coles 8 DESIGNER PROFILE: Rudy Vanderlans, Zuzana Licko 56 Introduction 10 Cochin 62 How to Use This Book 14 Courier 64 The Anatomy of Type 16 Didot 66 Glossary 17 Foundry Wilson 68 Classification Types 20 Friz Quadrata 70 Galliard 72 Garamond 74 THE FIELD GUIDE_ Goudy 76 Granjon 78 Guardian Egyptian 82 SERIF 22 ITC Lubalin Graph 84 Minion 86 Albertus 24 Mrs Eaves 88 ITC American Typewriter 26 Neutraface Slab 90 Antwerp 28 DESIGNER PROFILE: Jason Castle 92 Archer 30 Perpetua 98 Baskerville 32 Plantin 100 Bell 36 Rockwell 102 Bembo 38 Sabon 106 Bodoni 40 Shàngó Gothic 108 PMN Caecilia 44 Times New Roman 110 Calvert 46 Trajan 112 Caslon 50 Walbaum 114 Century 52 Wile 116 Clarendon 54 SANS SERIF 118 Letter Gothic 208 FF Meta 210 Aktiv Grotesk 120 Myriad 212 Akzidenz Grotesk 122 Neutraface 214 FS Albert 126 New Rail Alphabet 216 Arial 128 ITC Officina Sans 218 ITC Avant Garde Gothic 132 Optima 220 Avenir 136 Rotis Sans Serif 222 Bath City 138 Univers 224 ITC Bauhaus 140 VAG Rounded 226 DESIGNER PROFILE: Wayne Thompson 142 Verdana 228 Bell Centennial 148 Bliss 150 Chalet 154 DISPLAY 230 Channel 4 156 DIN 1451 / FF DIN 158 Aachen 232 Eurostile 160 Agency Gothic 234 FF Fago 162 Amelia 236 Fedra Sans 164 Arnold Böcklin 238 Fenland 168 Bank Gothic 240 Foundry Sterling 170 A2 Beckett 244 Franklin Gothic 174 ITC Benguiat 246 Frutiger 176 DESIGNER PROFILE: Henrik Kubel 248 Futura 180 FF Blur 254 Gill Sans 186 Bodoni Poster 256 Gotham 188 Bottleneck 258 Helvetica 192 Broadway 260 Interstate 196 Cooper Black 262 DESIGNER PROFILE: Freda Sack 198 Foundry Fabriek 264 Johnston 204 Foundry Flek/Plek 266 Kabel 206 Futura Black 270 Gill Sans Kayo 272 Comic Sans 336 Glaser Stencil 274 ITC Edwardian Script 338 Foundry Gridnik 278 Fette Fraktur 340 Headline 2012 280 Gigi 344 Kade Letter Fabriek 282 Kuenstler Script 346 Kakaw 286 Macmillan Headline 348 Knockout 288 Old English 350 DESIGNER PROFILE: Jason Smith 290 Owned 352 LCD 296 ITC Machine 298 Mahou 300 SYMBOLS & DINGBATS 354 Mason 302 Namco 304 Carta 356 OCR-B 306 Kakaw Dingbats 358 Princetown 308 DESIGNER PROFILE: Frida Larios 360 Pump 310 FF Netto Icons 366 Rosewood 312 Wingdings 368 Architype Stedelijk 314 ITC Zapf Dingbats 370 Stencil 316 FF ThreeSix 318 FF Trixie 320 Further Reading 372 Umbra 322 Useful Websites 373 Zebrawood 324 Index 374 Picture Credits 380 Acknowledgements 382 SCRIPT 326 About the Author 384 Balloon 328 Bickley Script 330 Bruno 332 Brush Script 334 FOREWORD_ STEPHEN COLES FOREWORD Type enthusiasts acquire their odd passion through various they can be part of the manmade world, the designed world that channels, be it writing and language, or lettering arts like most people don’t consider—door knobs, silverware, the calligraphy, or simply a penchant for the most basic element of guardrail on a roadway. And perhaps the most elemental and graphic design. My road to fontdom traveled a more circuitous omnipresent aspect of everyday design is type. route. As a young boy, I was a birdwatcher. While my peers were Peter Dawson’s Field Guide is not unlike the trusty books playing ball, I was scouring my neighborhood for uncommon I carried on my birding trips. Once armed with photographs species. I volunteered at an aviary, caring for every winged thing, of typefaces in the wild, along with their natural histories and from rescued magpies to the zoo’s prized Andean condor. defining characteristics, anyone—even those without much The regular attendance at our local Audubon Society meetings typographic knowledge—can discover that what fascinates consisted of a couple dozen gray-haired ladies and me, the them most are the things that most people ignore. 12-year-old blond kid in the corner. Birders, it turns out, have a lot in common with type geeks. They are acute observers (of course), but they are also preoccupied with identification, classification, anatomy, and minute details that distinguish different breeds. Documentation is also part of every birdwatcher’s life; the “life list”—a record of every species they’ve ever seen—is an essential companion. (It could be interesting if designers kept a life list of all the typefaces they’ve ever used. Some of our lists would be much longer than others.) Later, I learned that it wasn’t so much the biology or behavior of birds that interested me most. It was something Stephen Coles is a writer and modernism, midcenturymodernist. else: a fascination with everyday things. The ordinary stuff that typographer living in Oakland and com. He consults with various surrounds us is usually considered mundane, but it is actually Berlin. After six years at FontShop organizations on type selection. full of variety, and intrigue, and clues that shed light on our San Francisco as a creative director, Stephen is author of the book he now publishes the acclaimed The Geometry of Type and is environment and ourselves. These everyday things can be parts online resources fontsinuse.com, a regular contributor to Print 8_9 of the natural world, like birds, plants, insects, or clouds. Or typographica.org and a tribute to magazine. Birds and typefaces live parallel lives. While many people take these omnipresent denizens of our environment for granted, there are others who can’t help but observe, 1 classify, and identify them. If you picked up this book, you are likely one of these obsessed few. Welcome. KEY_ 2 1 Clarendon 2 Akzidenz Grotesk 3 3 Antique Olive 4 Helvetica 5 Century Expanded 4 6 FB Garamond Display 7 ITC Souvenir 8 Goudy Old Style 5 6 7 8 INTRODUCTION_ INTRODUCTION What is that typeface? This is a common and recurring question thrown into the mix. And that’s before we’ve discussed the heard among design professionals, the budding typographic overall “classifications” of typefaces. It is a vast and complex enthusiast and the general public alike. picture. So where do we begin? As modern society and technology reinvents and expands A basic appreciation of the origins of typefaces can aid the ways in which we communicate, we are increasingly our understanding, providing strong clues to their design and confronted with a vast array of messages, be they printed, appearance. Many of the typeface designs we see today have online, or surrounding us in the built environment. The words been created from or influenced by, or are revivals of, historical we want and need to read (and on occasion don’t wish to read) references, with the majority born from principles and forms are now styled in such an array of differing typefaces that created centuries ago by our Roman ancestors. interest and enthusiasm in all things typographical is at an Their appearance has also been influenced by a wide variety all-time high. The number of fonts available, in all styles of other factors. Key to many are technological developments, and categories, is now well over 150,000, and rising by the from the earliest letterforms carved in stone, through to the day. The task of navigating this ocean of letterforms, separating invention of movable type with the Gutenberg Press in the and identifying one typeface from another, can be bewildering. mid-fifteenth century, and on to the advent of the computer and The Field Guide to Typography identifies and provides the early digital experimentation starting in the 1960s with OCR context to over 125 typefaces commonly used and seen today. (Optical Character Recognition) typefaces. The 1980s brought us In this book, I hope to help the “spotter” identify the familiar— DTP (desktop publishing) and the advent of the Macintosh and not so familiar—typefaces that we see around us in our computer, which revolutionized and expanded the way type day-to-day lives. The book will also explain the thinking behind their design, the stories of their development, and the impact they have had on people, organizations, communities, and even OPPOSITE: New York’s Times countries. Taken as a whole, it is a comprehensive celebration Square, where visitors are of our ever-expanding typographic world. confronted with a vast array Each typeface has varying permutations, known as fonts. of messages and the right choice of typeface provides not only These include Light, Roman, and Bold—or even Extra Light clear communication but also 10_11 and Extra Bold—often with Condensed and Extended variants context for the message. 12_13 INTRODUCTION could be drawn and created. Innovations in printing presses, Today, many companies and charities commission bespoke, paper manufacturing, and the mixing of ink have also played contemporary typefaces to reflect their personality and brand a major part in type evolution.