FF Kievit alternatives and companion
Hi,
I’m hoping to tap into your collective knowledge. I’m designing all the visual materials for a small dental practice. The target audience is middle-aged, upper-middle class, and more on the rural side (the location is a smallish town in the Texas hill country which nevertheless sees a number of transplants from the larger metropolitan areas).
My goal is to stay away from typical color schemes for this sort of stuff (a regrettable blend of pastels, my research tells me) and modernism in general. I want inviting and open and un-designed looking. I think my choice of fonts will go a long way towards setting the appropriate tone.
I played around with Avenir, but it was a little too geometric. Kievit is along the lines of what I’m looking for, very clean and unmannered but still with some solidity. I’m not sold that it’s the right one. Any suggestions in the same vein? Some serif companion suggestions would also be great.
Note to Stephan H: I welcome your font-pimping even if your suggestions aren’t that close to my brief. Rock on.
26.Nov.2007 1.03pm
If you can explain more about why FF Kievit isn’t working for you, we can be more helpful with alternatives. You may like the newer FF Milo from the same designer. It’s got a larger x-height, a little more friendly.
26.Nov.2007 1.12pm
This might be off base but - what about Freight and or Freight Sans? It has a nice warmth to it.
http://www.garagefonts.com/typespecimens.html?key=bannerfam&thename=Frei...
27.Nov.2007 6.12am
Not off-base at all, Eben. Freight is fantastic, just the sort of thing I’m looking for.
Stephen, I don’t think Kievit has a deficiency as much as I haven’t seen enough good alternatives to make a proper comparison. If anything, Kievit might be a just a little too straightlaced. This may or many not help, but my client commented on Avenir looking too “stretched,” which I took to mean they preferred a larger x-height and a more vertical shape to the letterforms.
FF Milo is really nice, I think the counters are a little bit too open for me. Something about that makes me want to use it for a daycare center or nonprofit. Don’t know why. Another one that I really, really like is Nexus, but it is a touch too quirky this time (Dear Martin Majoor, I will spec that font for a project if it kills me).
27.Nov.2007 7.42am
Great!
28.Nov.2007 9.23am
You might dig Mundo Sans then. I think it’s at a nice midpoint between Kievit and Milo.
28.Nov.2007 12.14pm
Mundo seems very nice indeed.