Urbana
Designed by César Puertas
Published by César Puertas
Available from MyFonts

Typefaces of 2007 index »

Despite seeing a few rough spots in the design, an incomplete set of weights, no small caps and so on, I have chosen Urbana to highlight this year. The reason is the profound rightness of nearly everything that is already there.

This rightness comes in part from an especially assured use of the Dwiggins inspired visual trope of a round curve and cut curve on the interior lines of the letterforms. Many other faces use have used this feature and it is becoming very popular. But so far I don’t know of a typeface uses it so well. Urbana’s cuts introduce just the right sparkle to open the counter and make them feel bigger than they really are. The effect is not showy. Instead it’s presence is carefully modulated throughout the face to give a superbly even and subtly inviting impression. Consider Urbana without it; it might be a lumpy eccentric mess. But with it, that sense of inevitability and unquestionable rightness is achieved.

Urbana’s rightness also comes from a seemingly improbable merger of brush inspired strokes welded selectively onto parts of the familiar lines of of 20th century style sans type. Described in this way it’s easy to imagine a Frankenstein Monster of a font. But looking at Urbana you see the opposite. The contrasts of the curves and straight lines are thoughtfully and above all quietly integrated.

Looking quickly at Urbana it would be easy to simply notice it’s upbeat feeling. But I think in time designers will come to appreciate the solid reliability of it’s design along with it’s quiet novelty that draws and maintains the reader’s attention.

— Eben Sorkin is a designer and type enthusiast based in Eagle River, Alaska. His resume includes a stint at Maxis where he contributed instantly recognizable digital illustrations for SimCity 2000. Sorkin is currently working on several type designs of his own, including a bitmap font optimized for writing code.

Taz III
Designed by Luc(as) de Groot
Published by LucasFonts
Available from LucasFonts and FontShop

Typefaces of 2007 index »

Whereas TheSans is friendly, round and wide, Taz is more reserved, more angular in its curves (causing its characteristic text pattern) and more condensed. Originally designed for the German newspaper of this name, Taz has grown into a family of 15 weights, including extremely thin ones, which should satisfy every need. This makes Taz a perfect workhorse. Actually it is one of very few typefaces I have licensed and used, and I am delighted to read that it has been updated recently.

What makes me so particularly fond of Taz and other de Groot typefaces is the care with which they are made, and most of all, their excellent spacing and kerning. Even setting all caps is not a hassle but fun. I don’t know if this can be said of many other typefaces. Spacing must be one of Luc(as) de Groot’s obsessions, not only expressed in the actual work but also in presentations and interviews which repeatedly emphasize the need not only for kerning pairs but for kerning triplets (thanks to OpenType, this is possible now). Taz III embodies both theory and usability.

— Karsten Lücke is a type designer and typographer based in Germany. He studied communication design and worked at Steidl Publishers in Goettingen from 2004 to 2005. Since then, he has focused on type design. His Litteratra was selected for Typographica’s “Typefaces of 2005” and Tiptoe was selected in 2006.

Scriptonah & Casual Brush
Designed by John Nahmias
Published by JonahFonts
Available from MyFonts

Typefaces of 2007 index »

With script faces, it’s always something. They’re generally misunderstood and easily misused. Consider an all-caps setting, for laughs. Or how about wide tracking? But users are not always to blame. Some script faces are so illogically designed, that users have a hard time making them look natural even at optimal sizes. One typical downfall of type designers is to assign a connecting-style ‘r’ as the primary character in a font containing mostly letters which are not expected to connect. Typographers become understandably frustrated when they have to confront — as the default — a style of ‘r’ that lacks compatibility with most of its lowercase companions. It’s an anomaly known to many. Examples abound.

Murray Hill (ATF, 1956) was a prototypical upright nonconnecting casual script face. It has an attractive but troublesome ‘r’ which loves to lead but rarely likes to follow. The same is true of the ‘r’ in a casual script face such as Montauk. ITC Studio Script has surely the most disagreeable default ‘r’ of all, despite the presence of two alternates in the font which behave better. Nevison Casual has, as its original alternate, an orderly nonconnecting ‘r’ but numerous other lowercase letters in the font are simply too rowdy to let it do its job.

Overcoming these common maladies are two informal upright script faces by John Nahmias, namely Scriptonah and Casual Brush. The letters are not meant to overlap, and the style of ‘r’ is refreshingly uncomplicated. The character shapes are free and open, and they have more guts than most of their forebears. They’re unabashedly robust and not annoyingly fussy, though they are quirky in certain ways. Quirkiness seems to go with the territory.

Informal nonconnecting scripts are closely related to handwriting. Some handwriting is stylish. Some handwriting is bland. Obviously, not all handwriting connects, or slants, or looks consistent. Yet, functional handwriting has a rhythm and a flow. It can be bouncy and irregular, erratic and undisciplined, but it needs to “feel the beat.” (If a beat cannot be detected, it’s very bad news, like no pulse.)

Outstanding performance at small display sizes is not a strength associated with casual script typefaces, ordinarily because they have a low x-height. By contrast, Nahmias’ script faces, which sport a higher than average x-height, read clearly at small display sizes, and even at big text sizes. But insofar as point size can be rather arbitrary, and is admittedly not an equitable way of comparing typefaces, “virtual size” is. Scriptonah and Casual Brush appear relatively bigger than one might expect. This has to do with a sturdy structure. Scriptonah, in any of its four weights, is not particularly pretty or delicate, but it is far from homely. It’s firm and fibrous; it’s raw. Casual Brush, though also tough, is plainly an exercise in jotted gestures, with moderate stroke contrast as an attribute. The ampersand is a true beauty. It’s my favorite character in the typeface. So sweet and so simple. It breathes with gusto, like a panting dog just back from a good hard romp.

— John Downer, an accomplished sign painter, show card writer, and letterer, helps to keep the hand-driven crafts alive by demonstrating to captive audiences around the globe. He has also designed typefaces for Bitstream, Emigre, the Font Bureau, and House Industries.

Restraint
Designed by Marian Bantjes
with Ross Mills
Published by Tiro Typeworks
Winner TDC2 2008

In Use


Click to enlarge

Typefaces of 2007 index »

Marian Bantjes’ background as an illustrator gives her a different perspective on the creation of a typeface. Where the majority of ornamental type begins with a typeface onto which swashes and decoration are added, the typeface Restraint, designed in collaboration with typographer Ross Mills, was built inside-out. The characters themselves have been defined by the negative space of the ornament, as if the letterforms are just a lucky happenstance. Ornate borders and swirly pattern based designs magically reveal themselves as words.

This non-conventional typeface requires thought - you truly have to think differently when designing with it. Although no kerning is required, you need to be aware of the glyphs both above and below each character. Similar to ASCII art, Restraint requires a plan to be successful. You truly need to pull up a chair and spend some time with it.

— Corey Holms is a poster and identity designer in Southern California. His recent forays into type design can be found at Veer.

Purista
Designed by Tomáš Brousil
Published by Suitcase
Available from FontShop and MyFonts

Typefaces of 2007 index »

I’ve been feeling hungry for a stylish, edgy sans who enjoys evenings out on the town and long mornings of crisp conversation. In other words, I’ve been craving a font who likes to party but who can also help out with the dishes. Purista is open-minded (with broad language support), brimming with style, sophistication, functionality, and an exciting range of weights.

— Ellen Lupton is a writer, graphic designer, and curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Her book Thinking with Type is a basic guide to typography directed at everyone who works with words.

Editor’s Note: Like Eric Olson’s Stratum (2003), Purista is a thoughtful 21st century nod to early 20th century geometric grotesques like Eurostile and Bank Gothic. I am certain we’ll see a lot of it in the next few years by designers seeking a rigid, minimalist interpretation of the alphabet. — SC

National
Designed by Kris Sowersby
Published by KLIM
Available from Village
Winner TDC2 2008

In Use Click to enlarge

Typefaces of 2007 index »

National is the second typeface released by KLIM within a year and has been termed a revival of the 19th century English and American grotesks. While there is a hint of grotesk, it does not simply copy but is truly a reflection of the present — type made in and for the digital age (of course!).

National is slightly mannered, which becomes more apparent in the heavier weights yet it still remains simple, subtle and serious. A digitally carved Opentype wonder, it has everything the modern designer needs for modern typesetting. Rather than dwell on the amazing OpenType features, it’s the typeface as a whole that should really be given attention. It has a human charm that gives such warmth and learned beauty to text and after seeing paragraphs and pages set in it I’m sure the reader will agree too.

While National is only the second retail typeface from KLIM it has already been awarded a Certificate of Excellence from the TDC in Typeface Design 2008.

Duncan Forbes is a designer — and occasional type critic — at the studio Experimenta in Wellington, New Zealand.

Minuscule
Designed by
Thomas Huot-Marchand
Published by 256tm
Available from MyFonts
Winner TDC2 2005


In Use


Click to enlarge

Typefaces of 2007 index »

The first impression is shock. A “typeface for extremely small sizes” shown in 48pt is not necessarily pretty. That is the nature of type specimens: we want to see details that aren’t meant to be seen in the real application. Thomas Huot-Marchand, the designer, goes to extreme lengths to explain these details, but the first thing I did was to print a page from the PDF specimen provided. It works! Extremely readable at extremely small sizes, i.e. anything below 7pt.

Some of the tricks employed look familiar: the tops of stems bent backwards to open up joins and very explicit counters were measures I employed when I designed FF Meta, which was to be used at 7pt and below by the German Post Office. On a display face, these and other details would look mannered, but at small sizes, they become almost invisible. They make the sound rather than the tune of the page. There are several versions with less contrast, heavier serifs and wider tracking the smaller the intended size is.

Minuscule Deux which, presumably, is intended for 2pt type (!) has no curves left and no counters for some of the characters. The o, for example, is represented by its counter only: a black square. Strange, even weird, but physically successful in the intended size. To me, however, that looks just like blotchy rendering, but I wonder whether your ordinary reader would notice. Or, in fact, even bother to read 2pt type.

A radical departure, one worth considering both for its experimental character (no pun intended) and its potential practical uses. Typefaces originally designed for a particular purpose — from Century Schoolbook to Bell Centennial, from Frutiger to ITC Officina — have proved their worth before they become adopted by everybody for everything. This may well happen to Minuscule but it could take a while. For now, it is as strange as it is useful.

— Erik Spiekermann is an internationally renowned typeface and information designer who is now also a movie star, thanks to the film “Helvetica”. He founded MetaDesign in 1979, FontShop in 1989, and now runs SpiekermannPartners in Berlin, London, and San Francisco.

Los Niches
Designed by Juan Pablo de Gregorio
Published by Umbrella Type
Available from Veer

Typefaces of 2007 index »

Kinescope
Designed by Mark Simonson
Published by Mark Simonson
Available from FontShop, MyFonts, and Veer

Typefaces of 2007 index »

The days of the lettering artist are not gone and they have morphed into the type designer’s foray, Mark Simonson’s to be exact. Kinescope is an inspired take on what was another era’s bold brush script style. Mark took his initial inspiration of the Fleischer Brother’s Superman cartoon series and greatly added to it, giving us a rich, full-featured design more useful than most typefaces like it today. Thanks in part to Mark’s use of OpenType technology, and especially his use of stylistic sets, you can think of it as an old school body with a new school engine.

— Tiffany Wardle de Sousa is a typographer living and working in San Jose, California. She earned her MA in the Theory and History of Typography at Reading. Active in the type community, Tiffany has written for several design publications and serves as a SOTA board member and Typophile moderator.

Greta Text & Display
Designed by Peter Biľak
Published by Typotheque

In Use

Click to enlarge

Typefaces of 2007 index »

You can’t judge a typeface by its letters. Some typefaces are deliberately neutral and set up a treat, other neutral types are really flat on the page or screen. The opposite also applies: really stylish types are often too quirky when set, their hallmark letters jumping out of the page at the reader. Sometimes a typeface's strong characteristics bring just the right amount of sparkle to a block of set text. Goudy and Dwiggins were masters of this, as are Storm and Sowersby.

Add to the list Peter Biľak’s Greta. To be honest, when I first saw samples of the type I was not bowled over. This first experience with the type was the kind of A-Z Hamburgenfons showing which does no favours for any face. I had judged Greta by its letters, and it was not until I saw the type as the text face in “Dwell” magazine that I came to see its brilliance. The text was clear and eminently legible with just enough sparkly quirkiness to make the text sing.

— Chester Jenkins is a type designer and co-founder of Village, a “type co-op”.

The most obvious success of Peter Biľak’s new Greta Text face is that it is extremely legible at small sizes, even with ascenders that are generous for a newspaper type. This was its first requirement, as it was intended for newspaper text in Czech, with its plethora of diacritics. Beyond this, Greta Text manages to have a new, distinctive voice without having any characters that stick out as odd or awkward. The whole is beautifully coherent and balanced. Finally, Greta manages to look fresh without looking either austere or slick. I particularly appreciate this, as today a lot of otherwise polished and successful new faces today lack warmth.

I wish I could tell you exactly how Biľak has accomplished all this, but I don't know, which is what fascinates me about this new font--it achieves its mastery subtly.

I admit I don't like the look of the much higher contrast companion Greta Display nearly as much, but that is more a matter of personal taste. Overall, an outstanding achievement.

— William Berkson is a philosopher and type enthusiast. He is currently working on an intensive digital revival of Caslon to be released by the Font Bureau.