The repetition of simple geometric shapes forms a daily part of our environment. Throughout the 20th century – and into the 21st – typefaces whose designs have taken advantage of this have remained popular. But finding exactly the right mood can be tricky. For your convenience, we have grouped some of our favorite geometric typefaces (mostly sans serif and symbol) into four categories: circles, squares, ovals, and triangles.
Introduction
Prolific! Perhaps this is the best word to describe the life and work of Morris Fuller Benton. The creator of over 200 types for ATF, Benton left his mark on 20th Century design. His faces would spread across the globe, and dozens are still in use today.
The original squared sans, redrawn – Bank Gothic and Morris Sans
Bank Gothic was a typeface released in 1930 by the American Type Founders (ATF). Morris Fuller Benton, ATF’s chief designer, created the family. ATF Bank Gothic was a family of five types: Light, Medium, Bold, Condensed Light, and Condensed Medium. These were cast in metal for hand composition, and remained in use for decades (see fig. 1).
Morris Fuller Benton – born 30. 11. 1872 in Milwaukee, USA, died 30. 6. 1948 in Morristown, USA – engineer, type designer.
After training as a mechanic and engineer, Benton jointed the ATF, where he became type designer and in-house designer with ATF.
Fonts: Benton developed over 200 alphabets, all of which were published by ATF, including Century roman (with Theodor Low de Vinne, 1885), Mariage (1901), Alternate Gothic (1903), Franklin Gothic (1903–12), Cheltenham® (1904), Clearface®
[...]Dan Reynolds is a Font Engineer & Typographic Specialist at Linotype GmbH in Bad Homburg, Germany. Born in Baltimore, he decided to become a type designer during his first visit to Mainz. In the evenings he does things like help organize the Offenbach Typostammtisch (which he co-founded in 2004), moderate at Typophile.com, and contribute to Slanted, a German typography magazine. Dan is a member of the ATypI and holds a BFA degree in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design and an
[...]Not your grandmother’ s medieval type ... meet the “American” Gothic fonts!
A breed of no-nonsense typefaces, called “Gothics” in the United States, have been serving as heavy hitters in financial services, business, and newspaper sectors since the late 19th Century. Gothic typefaces – not to be confused with Blackletter typefaces, which look “gothic” in a scary, medieval sort of way – are American sans serifs. Their forms are designed to solve
[...]Sans Serif Fonts
