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Gill Sans and Joanna
Posted by Isaac in
4 Apr 2005 — 3:18pm
4 Apr 2005 — 3:18pm
I read somewhere recently that if Eric Gill had called Joanna "Gill Serif" instead he would have been the first to make a serif/sans family. I can't find it in Elements of Typographic Style, Anatomy of a Typeface, Letters of Credit, Counterpunch, or Paul Renner: The Art of Typography. I don't think I've read any other type related books I've read recently, (other than R.R. Kelly's American Wood Type, but it's not in there. Is it?) so where is it? I know this is a stretch, thinking that someone would kow the source right off the bat, but I also know that typophiles are a strange and mysterious bunch.
So, anyone... ?
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4 Apr 2005 — 3:23pm
I don't remember ever reading that anywhere.
And really, it's not the name that makes a family; Joanna
and Gill Sans are largely unrelated designs, to me at least.
hhp
4 Apr 2005 — 3:23pm
>the first to make a serif/sans family
Morris Benton, Clearface, when the sans version was released in 1910.
4 Apr 2005 — 5:10pm
Who's going around spreading rumors about Eric Gill? This is killing me. If I read it in a book (which I'm pretty sure I did), who would have written it and not known about Clearface? Anyway, it's not all that important, I just couldn't remember. Thanks guys.
4 Apr 2005 — 8:27pm
My guess is you're thinking of "My Type Design Philosophy," by Martin Majoor, in which he discusses the relationship of Scala and Scala Sans.
Here is a partial quote from his article: "Had Eric Gill planned Joanna and Gill Sans as one family he would have been the first in history to design a family of serif and sans, but he made them as separate designs with separate names."
http://www.typotheque.com/articles/my_type_design_philosophy.html
5 Apr 2005 — 7:42am
Bringhurst suggests Gill and Joanna together in Elements. You have to adjust the sizes to get the weights to match, and kern well.
5 Apr 2005 — 10:45am
Gill Sans works well with Perpetua -- I used them for many years in a marketing newsletter. The range of the Gill Sans was very useful, especially the bold condensed, and even Ultra. Perpetua Titling was good for initials and, er, titles. I had to make a beefed-up "small" version of Perpetua for footnotes, though.
5 Apr 2005 — 8:43pm
YES! Mark Foster RULES!
I guess what this means is that I don't read enough actual books and read too much from the web.
5 Apr 2005 — 11:50am
I've used them together as well. I always like to use the Ultra a a sort of small cap. I would extend it by 2%-3% and letterspace them.