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Contemporary typeface 'equivalents'
"I think it is about time that designers made a stand on the noughties decade we are in. Typographers are far ahead of their designer counterparts and they really need to catch up. Type designers are creating some wonderful advances in design, and we are let down by designers who continue to use Helvetica or Futura."
Nick Hayes, type trends 2005, digit magazine July 2005
after reading the above in a friend's design magazine, I've been inspired to use other, more contemporary typefaces for some of my work instead of relying on safe bet 'classics' such as univers, helvetica, sabon etc.
are there any currently available faces that stand up to say, the popular use of 'classics' ?
and for what would you recommend your choice for (the setting of books, magazine layouts, etc.) ?
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15 Jul 2005 — 3:46am
Time to get the Indie Fonts books 1 & 2. These books will get you going on some of the new work that is going on out there. Go to P22 this month they have a special on those books. Also visit Emigre their Vista typeface is lovely.
15 Jul 2005 — 5:30am
This is not to depart from the main thread, and eventually I will write a more in depth article regarding it, but the situation today of "Typographers are far ahead of their designer counterparts" demonstrates how effective a tool U&lc magazine was for decades.
I promise to take this up at another time and not here and now.
15 Jul 2005 — 6:41am
Yves addressses this very issue in this issue of Bald Condensed.
15 Jul 2005 — 7:41am
If we think in terms of equivalents, it will be tough to replace the classics, although traditional-style faces like Quadraat, Scala, Miller or Minion stand comparison with anything that's gone before.
More pertinently, new types can be used in new ways.
For instance, I recently came across one of my faces, Beaufort, used in the headlines of the UK "Bird Watcher" magazine. What caught my interest was the way the art director had combined different sizes of the same font in headline words. Because of the "infinite" sharpness of the serifs (thanks to PostScript), it looked like optical scaling, because the serifs are equally sharp at different sizes. This is not a style of setting that I anticipated when I designed the typeface, and it may not be to everybody's taste. But it shows a progressive relationship between new types and contemporary graphic design.
15 Jul 2005 — 8:14am
Nick, your Brown Gothic face I would consider a great alternative to Franklin Gothic. I would also say that there are far too many other great type designs out there to only fall on the crutch of classic faces. Classics will always be classics...try watching a movie from the 70's or 80's that you have a fond memory of, its almost guaranteed not to be the way you quite remembered it.
15 Jul 2005 — 5:27pm
I can't wait for Norbert's thoughts... Meanwhile I suggest these threads:
http://typophile.com/node/13220
http://typophile.com/node/13281
http://typophile.com/node/13806
All 3 threads contain many links to new, terrific typefaces and type designers. Some standouts, in case those aren't covered: Stormtype.com, Hoefler & Frere-Jones, Feliciano Type Foundry, Umbrella Type foundry, Matthew Carter, FontBureau, PampaType,...
See? I must concur: 2005 is the right time for graphic designers to embrace and make use of the incredible wealth of new, excellent typefaces that are available with unprecedented convenience. There's no excuse for tired typography anymore. In fact, some of the new designs are so good, they should really become the new classics.
Specifically, here's a list of old (ignore or delete), followed by new - buy online, some from the original designers!
Times -- Laurentian
Bembo -- Bembo Book, FTF Merlo
Caslon -- Clifford
Centaur -- Adobe Jenson
Optima -- Optima Nova
Helvetica -- FTF Flama/FTFGrotzec
Palatino -- FF Maiola
Commercial Script -- Bickham Script
16 Jul 2005 — 7:26am
my favorite Times replacement is Lido by Storm and it's FREE!*
*but must be licensed for commercial work.
23 Jul 2005 — 1:55pm
Thanks for the link to Lido, Paul.