Fonts in Focus, January 2006

Amherst™ is a family of blackletter-inspired typefaces. This family, created by British designer Richard Yeend in 2002, is unique in that it mains the feel of blackletter/medieval type without relying directly on historical forms. Amherst is split into two different sub-families, Amherst and Amherst Gothic.
Amherst Gothic is very loosely inspired by late medieval letterforms, often called Texturas or Gothics. However, the letterforms of Amherst Gothic seem just as inspired by the Art Deco movements of the 1920s and by contemporary sans serif type design as anything else. Nevertheless, certain letters in this typeface do appear more "gothic" than others, especially A, D, M, Y, d, r, and x. Amherst Gothic is made up of three fonts, Amherst Gothic Split, Amherst Gothic Split Alternate, and Amherst Gothic Italic. Amherst Gothic Split has in-lined characters, and appears very ornamented. The alternate characters in Amherst Gothic Split Alternate are quite medieval in their appearance. Amherst Gothic Italic is the least medieval-looking of the set; its characters are very round, and more geometric.
The Amherst Font Family is part of the TakeType Library .

The calligraphy font Banner™ was designed by Martin Wait in 1986 and mixes the character of the 1940s with that of the 1980s in its forms. The round and somewhat reserved lower case letters make a balanced basis for the generous capitals. Black outer contours surround a white inner area and are heavier on the right side of the figures, making the characters look as though they have shadows. Banner should be used in point sizes of 18 and larger and is meant for lighthearted short texts or headlines.
The Banner™ Font Family is part of the Linotype ITC Library.

Linotype Brewery™ is part of the Take Type Library, chosen from the contestants in the International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. This text font is available in six weights from light to black and was designed by Gustav A. Grinbergs. An outstanding characteristic of the font is its light stroke contrast and its constructed forms. Its tiny, triangular serifs first become noticeable in very large typesizes, much like the Dutch fonts of the 17th century, Copperplate, for example. Linotype Brewery is cool and elegant and well-suited to middle-length texts and headlines.

With twelve different weights Linotype CaseStudyNo1™ is a new flexible type family that has a condensed technical style. Its different stroke thicknesses offer a wide variety for magazines, books, advertising, etc. For each weight the designers Gerd Sebastian Jakob and Joerg Ewald Meißner have also made additional alternative letterforms, logos and symbols.
The Linotype CaseStudyNo1 Font Family is part of the Take Type Collection.

Linotype Cethubala™ is part of the Take Type Library, chosen from contestants of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. Designed by the Portuguese artist Patricia Carvalho, it is a playful and unusual font. Its roots lie in the characters of runes and old alphabets and the font is, in the words of the designer, ’an attempt to interpret and carry the knowledge of the magic world.’ Linotype Cethubala is intended exclusively for headlines in large point sizes.

ITC Cyberkugel™ is the work of British designer Timothy Donaldson, who occasionally likes to write with an extra-fine ballpoint pen. "I like the spindly scrawny forms that it gives me when I follow all the usual ’italic’ writing conventions", he says. And there lie the origins of ITC Cyberkugel, although the creative process was moved from pen and paper to software and a Wacom tablet. "I like the fact that people will be buying it to give them a ’human’, ’organic’, ’non-digital’ look, and yet no ink has soiled paper. Although the movements of the hand are still the essence, the whole thing was created in cyberspace." The name comes from combining cyberspace and Kugelschreiber, the German word for ballpoint pen. ITC Cyberkugel is a fresh interpretation of traditional calligraphy.
The ITC Cyberkugel Font Family is part of the Linotype ITC Library.

Grace™ was designed by Elisabeth Megnet and appeared with Linotype in 1992. The basic style of Grace is based on the Gothic miniscule of the 13th century. It represents a modern philosophy held by Andre Gürtler, Professor of Typography in Basel with whom Megnet once studied. With this philosophy, calligraphy is not to be seen as a decorative art, and fonts created according to this tenet have far fewer ornamental strokes. They are eccentric, drawn out and almost bulky. Like Gothic forms, one of the predecessors of this font, Grace gives vertical lines a particular emphasis. This font is not meant for long texts but makes a distinctive impression in shorter texts or headlines. This face is part of the value pack Calligraphy for Print 2.

Macbeth is a heavy, condensed Art Deco-style typeface from Linotype. Macbeth includes some particularly noteworthy diagonal elements – these enliven the design and give typeface its overall character. Macbeth should be used for music-oriented applications, or anything that is both reminiscent of the early 20th Century and a bit spooky. The letters in Macbeth are quite similar to display style found on Frankenstein posters, and those of other early films..

The Mojo™ typeface is an adaptation of a lettering style that was popularized by 1960s poster artists like Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso, and Rick Griffin. During the heyday of rock concert impresario Bill Graham, their psychedelic posters were seen all over the San Francisco Bay Area. The style itself is rooted in the Art Nouveau period, and is unmistakably influenced by turn-of-the-century Viennese poster designer Alfred Roller.
Jim Parkinson created Mojo for Rolling Stone magazine, referencing these psychedelic-lettering classics. A long time Rolling Stone collaborator, Parkinson´s lettering and type designs can be seen regularly in its pages. His style has become synonymous with Rock´n Roll, especially the classic rock of the late 1960s.
True to its roots, Mojo is best used in large display sizes, on posters or signs. But the font also works well on small invitations and flyers, and might even be the right choice for your band¿s logo. Try Mojo out today!

Linotype Pide Nashi™ is part of the Take Type Library, chosen from the entries of the Linotype-sponsored International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. German artist Verena Gerlach created a typeface which looks almost like Arabic at the first glance, only with the second do the familiar forms become clear. Rounded lower case letters, generous, sweeping capitals and diamond-shaped ornaments give the font its Arabic feel. The exotic Linotype Pide Nashi is best suited for short and middle length texts and headlines and especially for ornamental texts.

Pompeijana™ is named after Pompeii, one of the ancient Roman cities destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Excavations of the well-preserved ruins at Pompeii revealed election notices written on city walls, and the typeface Pompeijana is based on this brisk writing. The decorative look of the alphabet is achieved by placing the emphasis on the top and foot of the letters, making heavy horizontals and diamond-shaped serifs. Adrian Frutiger added the Borders font, a set of ornaments that are true to the style of the alphabet. Pompeijana is a striking display face that speaks persuasively when combined with modern sans serif typefaces; try it on your next political poster, restaurant menu, or book cover.

The noted calligrapher and teacher, Karlgeorg Hoefer, designed San Marco. For inspiration, he looked to the Italian rotunda style of blackletter writing from the fifteenth century, and the blackletter rotunda types of Nicolas Jenson. Though we often eulogize Jenson’s beautiful early roman typeface, we sometimes forget he actually designed many more blackletter types than roman or greek. He used his fine blackletter types in the history and medicine books he printed in Venice. The San Marco typeface was named for the San Marco cathedral in the center of Venice, and reflects its curvaceous arches and round-vaulted spaces. Its highly stylized characters make the San Marco typeface a good choice for compelling and potent display typography.

These smily faces express in a nice and friendly way emotions. For invitations, childrens documents in schools and for family affairs. Have fun. Martina Theisen has made another cartoon fonts of silhouettes called Improfil, and Typentypo and Creatures. The Linotype Smileface™ Font Family is part of the TakeType Collection.

The van Doesburg typeface is based on the lettering of the famous De Stijl artist Theo van Doesburg. This style of lettering looks very contemporary – it would be at home online or in a flash movie – but its design really harkens back to the early 1920s. De Stijl was a Dutch constructivist movement that shared similar ideas with the German Bauhaus philosophy, and also with post-Revolutionary design in the Soviet Union. Since the 1920s, artists, designers, and all radicals alike have found affinity with its simple forms. Today, typefaces like this are used for everything, from museum signage to English pop music.