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(x) Geometric sans used in contemporary Swedish advertising - Stadium Sans, custom by Stockholm Design Lab - {self (Johan)}
Posted by Birdseeding in
12 Feb 2011 — 2:25am
12 Feb 2011 — 2:25am
In the past year or so, I've seen this one geometric typeface pop up in (I think!) at least three applications, all in billboard ads or public transport ads. I always notice it by subconciously thinking "what's wrong with that Futura?" and then seeing that it's a different typeface entirely - square tittles, less elegant, tighter-spaced, very different /t/ and /e/.
Any clues?
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12 Feb 2011 — 4:15am
It could be Avant Garde aka URW Gothic and several other names.
12 Feb 2011 — 3:36pm
Hmm, no, I don't think so. Different /t/ and /e/ again. I'll keep looking myself too.
12 Feb 2011 — 3:42pm
It may be an optical illusion, but it looks to me as if the weight of the a one the top line doesn't match the other letters, in which case it may well be the love-child of a Helvetica-Futura coupling...
13 Feb 2011 — 2:15am
I think this is a custom typeface based on ITC Avant Garde Gothic with some hints of Helvetica, just like Nick describes it.
13 Feb 2011 — 3:27am
Maybe custom, but how about this one then? It's not the same typeface as the one above, I think (round tittles), and it's from an entirely different company (Bank vs. sports retailer) but it's got the same bent /t/ and bigger-apperture /e/ as the previous one, while retaining the Futuraesque /a/ and general geometric feel.
13 Feb 2011 — 3:41am
The closest I get is Neuzeit Grotesk/Geometric 706. Although the general skeleton matches, the weight distribution doesn't, and the "s" is quite different (more ITC Avant Garde Gothic-like).
13 Feb 2011 — 7:17am
What about AG Schoolbook Two? Not a perfect match – the a counter is not round.
(FF Schulbuch also features the tailed t and the single-storey a, but is based on Helvetica and consequently has horizontal terminals)
13 Feb 2011 — 1:22pm
Birdy's entry could be Century Gothic, except for the 't'. Again. But, frankly, I have never seen anything in the Futura/AvantGarde style with a bent 't' before. Unless someone has drawn one as an alternate in some font of this style, I'm far adrift.
13 Feb 2011 — 2:19pm
Alright, sorry for leading people off on a wild goose chase, I just did what I should have done originally - googled up who did the brand. Turns out the first one is indeed a custom typeface, Stadium Sans by Stockholm Design Lab:
http://www.stockholmdesignlab.se/#/1112/projects/clients/stadium/stadium/
This leads me to suspect the second one is probably also custom work, it's very, very close to Futura in so many other details that it might merely be a variant.
14 Feb 2011 — 3:47am
Oi! It's not the capture, it's the chase!
14 Feb 2011 — 11:29am
Related:
http://typophile.com/node/60524
Related?
http://typophile.com/node/79053
14 Feb 2011 — 1:20pm
For the second sample, if you chase a little more you find a few pdf files of that bank using that font. In particular
http://www.ikanobank.se/site_files/docs/ekonomi/Ikano_Delarsrapport_2010...
uses the font on its cover page, and it is called IkanoSans-Bold, thus also custom.
14 Feb 2011 — 1:48pm
Ah, can you tell from a PDF what fonts are in it? That would help greatly in future discoverings.
Oh, and thank you!
14 Feb 2011 — 2:16pm
In the Acrobat Reader, you get the list of fonts used in the pdf by selecting File > Properties... > Fonts.
In Acrobat Professional, you can select individual characters and see what font they belong to. You select "Tools> Advanded editing > Touch Up Text Tool" then select the character, right click on it and select "Properties". You then get something like this
14 Feb 2011 — 3:27pm
Thank you, that's an extremely useful tip. Turns out my third "Not Futura" was Avant Garde.