Type Gallery - Phenix American

Font Designer: Morris Fuller Benton, 1935

Looking for an Art Deco typeface? Flipping through old books and magazines from the 1920s and 30s will show you a wide array of examples. Many of these are still available for use today! The Art Deco style was enmeshed in the language of industrialization. Think back to the time of glamorous, long automobiles, propellor airplanes, and geometric ornament. The Phenix American™ typeface is a perfect summation of the spirit of these times.

Where did Phenix American come from? It is an old American Type Founders design. These famed metal type distributors helped define the visual landscape of the United States and the world for almost a century. Morris Fuller Benton may have been their most prolific creator of typefaces. Aside from Phenix American, typefaces to his credit include Broadway™, New Century Schoolbook®, Franklin Gothic™, News Gothic™, and ITC Souvenir®. Benton is one of an elite group of individuals who have developed both text and display faces. While his types for text may get more mileage these days, Benton’s display designs like Phenix American remain as beautiful now as the day they were first released.

Phenix American’s letters are rather condensed, and of the sans serif variety. They look tall and narrow, like the skyscrapers going up around the country at the same time as the typeface’s first release (1935). Phenix American is perfect for both corporate stationery as well as magazine headlines. In fact, it has been used well for both of these purposes going on seven decades. Skillful designers could try their hand setting Phenix American on packaging concepts or logos as well.