Fonts in Focus, October 2005

Linotype Animalia™ is part of the TakeType Library, chosen from the contestants of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. The font was designed by German artist Johannes Plass and is full of surprises. It is like a walk through the zoo, where the j is a shark chasing a small fish and the K is a moose gazing at the sky. Linotype Animalia is intended exclusively for use in headlines with large point sizes.

ITC Redonda™ is the work of Montreal designer Gérard Mariscalchi and based on a common style of 19th century French handwriting. It comes with two sets of caps, both highly flourished, which are complemented by a refined lowercase. ITC Redonda is a distinctive upright script with intricate forms and will lend elegance to any application.

Neuland™ Star is part of the Take Type Library, selected from contestants of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. Designed by German artist Lothar Kloth, the font consists exclusively of capitals with wide strokes and irregular contours. Its basic forms were influenced by the font Neuland, designed by Rudolf Koch in 1923. Completely new with this font are the stars which glitter from every letter. It suggests entertainment and can easily be envision on posters for a show or circus. Linotype Neuland Star is intended exclusively for headlines and displays in large point sizes.

Milano™ is definitely in the upper echelon of display typography with its superb, engraved chromium style, italic lowercase and extravagant initials. The lowercase is designed to be closely set. From the talented hand of British designer David Quay.

The German designer Alexander Dosiehn developed the Liga Sans™ type family as part of his graduate thesis at the Fachhochschule Düsseldorf in 2001. Liga Sans is a sans serif typeface that acts as a bridge between classical modern styles. Traces of pen forms and brush strokes can be seen mixed together with the most legible elements from grotesk-style faces in the alphabet’s letterforms. These features work together to create a style that works very in many sizes, including smaller ones! Liga Sans is an original, lively addition to the Linotype Library suitable for text, magazines, and corporate identity work.

The strictly constructed forms are the first thing about Frank Marciuliano’s Linotype Isilda™ to make an impression. Like his other fonts Linotype Lindy and Linotype Automat, the emphasized vertical strokes of Isilda are reminiscent of bars and give text a static feel. Isilda is not recommended for text but is particularly good for headlines in large point sizes, which allow its unusual forms to really stand out.

The release of the Hawkhurst™ type family marks the arrival of a contemporary successor to the legion of classic British text faces. Designer Richard Yeend has created a successful reinterpretation of the transitional typeface style. A unique characteristic of this new design is the serifs, which connect to the letterform stems at slightly varying locations throughout the alphabet. These playful terminals do not distract from legibility of the line; rather, they function in larger sizes as an intriguing element, alluring the reader into the text.
Hawkhurst contains large x-heights and a wide base, in order to swiftly lead the eye across the page. To see for yourself, take a closer look at Yeend’s clever design: included are two weights of text, italics, small caps, and alternate figures. Hawkhurst is part of the Take Type 5 collection, released in 2003 by Linotype.

Linotype Franosch™ is a three weight display typeface designed by artist/graphic designer Max Franosch. Around the time of making the initial sketches, Franosch was looking a lot at Arabic newspaper and magazine headlines – he was drawn to their bold and very ’graphic’ type. A common feature was the ’floating’ dots which added a rhythmic quality to the text. This came to influence the use of dots in Linotype Franosch. Apart from this influence, Franosch also has a very clean and futuristic feel to it, due mainly to the highly geometric nature of the characters and the uniform stroke weight.
Linotype Franosch is perfect for party flyers, headlines, and internet banner ads.
All three faces in the Linotype Franosch family are part of Linotype’s Take Type 4 collection.

ITC Forkbeard™ is the work of British designer Michael Gills and named after a famous Viking warrior. Gills was inspired by the work of Victor Hammer as well as a lesser known uncial style called Andromaque. Distinguishing characteristics of ITC Forkbeard are its geometric overtones and its distinct capital and lower case letterforms.

British designer Tim Donaldson created the lively typeface Etruscan™ in 1995. Based on Etruscan letters from ancient Italy, this unusual and condensed sans serif face whimsically mixes soft lowercase characters with more angular capitals. Etruscan brings light and airy classical form into contemporary documents, and a sunny Mediterranean flair and jollity into your projects.

The font Eckmann™ is named after its designer, Otto Eckmann, and appeared with the Klingspor font foundry in 1900. The influence of the Jugendstil is clear to see in the flowing floral contours of the letters. This font was made for larger point sizes, like on posters, and while relatively legible, it is not meant for smaller print. The font was often used in book titles and advertisements of the 19th century and today Eckmann font is often used to suggest a feeling of nostalgia and is often found on the Jugendstil facades in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Linotype Boberia™ is part of the Take Type Library, which features winners of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contest. Designed by Bo Berndal, its historical roots lie in the neoclassicism of the turn of the 20th century. The slender letters with a large x-height and marked stroke contrast give the font an elegant character. The nostalgic, flowing forms are typical of Art Deco fonts and allow designers a number of possibilities for the font’s use. Boberia includes regular, italic and bold type styles.

The Bix Bats™ symbol family was developed in 2003 by Argentinean designer Victor Garcia to complement his display text font Bix™ Plain. Bix Bats contains four different symbol fonts. Most of the characters in these fonts have their lower halves reversed out. Typing a line of text in these symbol fonts, or mixing these symbol fonts with Bix Plain, will create a very interesting text effect: the bottom half of your lines of text will be reversed out, on top of a colored bar.
Bix Bats Arrows contains numerous possible arrow combinations, from archery references to the American recycling symbol. Bix Bats Funny includes all of the symbols needed for a party, from beer steins to bunny rabbits! Bix Bats Shiny has enough starbursts to light up a night sky, and in Bix Bats Wired you will find all of the technological accessories needed to be in the now. All four fonts are included in Linotype’s Take Type 5 collection.

Karlgeorg Hoefer designed Beneta™ in 1991, inspired by the Littera beneventana, the script of the Benedictine scribes from the 10th to the 12th century. During this time, scribes began to use wider pens and set them at a 45 degree angle to the paper, which caused their scripts to have radical stroke contrasts. This script was mainly used for books and certificates but disappeared by the end of the 13th century. Beneta revives the characteristics of this historic script, changing a line of text into an almost ornamental space. Beneta should be used in middle to larger point sizes for shorter texts and headlines.

The wind howled, the night grew long, and British type designer and lettering artist Tim Donaldson created the typeface Banshee™. This dramatic display face is modeled after one of Donaldson´s handwritten lettering styles. Banshee began as letters rapidly written by Donaldson with one of his homemade "ruling" pens. The letterforms are firmly rooted in the tradition of classical chancery italics. With its ragged lines and counters, Banshee realistically captures the irregularity of pen and ink on paper, lending an immediacy to packaging, advertisements, posters, and invitations that few digital typefaces can match.