lonely clarendon seeks a friend

David Ford
4.Aug.2008 11.25am
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Clarendon is the headline text. Any suggestions for a complimentary body typeface? It will be used across all sorts of collateral....brochures, quarterly reports etc. The mind positively boggles at the possibilities.



Ehague
4.Aug.2008 1.50pm
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naoiseo
4.Aug.2008 3.17pm
naoiseo's picture

U2 through their design agency Four5One have been using Clarendon for pretty much all their print and web graphics since 2004. It might be interesting and useful for you to have a look at how they have handled the typeface.

The way they seem to make it work is by always juxtaposing it with with something very modern looking, Eurostile in this case. They also make nice use of Aachen in the booklet of the same album. You can sort of see it here but it looks better on the inside pages. Also worth checking out is the book U2byU2 were they have used Garamond in conjunction with Clarendon, but don’t know how successful this is really. The original use of Clarendon in U2 material is the 2004 How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb album, which is entirely set in Clarendon.

On looking through the U2 stuff I get the impression Clarendon is a difficult face to work with. I have also found this myself from experience. My own suggestion here would be Helvetica Condensed Light. It think that could make the right contrast. I also feel like I can never use anything other than another classic face with Clarendon. I don’t know why that is.
Anyway I hope this has been of some assistance to you!


Nick Shinn
4.Aug.2008 5.21pm
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For a properly Victorian companion, Scotch Modern.