Introduction
Many typeface catalogs, including our own, group all serif typefaces together under one umbrella-category. But in truth, there are many different kinds of serifs, e.g., Renaissance serifs, baroque serifs, unbracketed modern serifs, Latin serifs, wedge serifs, etc. One of the most popular styles of seriffed letter, especially for display type, remains the slab serif.
The slab serif is a genre of letterforms that has been in use for almost 200 years. Throughout this time, many
[...]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®
[...]The designer Kim Buker Chansler created the fonts Birch™ (1990), Cottonwood™ (1991, with Barbara Lind and Joy Redick), Pepperwood™ (1994), Ponderosa™ (1990), Rosewood™ (1994) and Zebrawood™. Pepperwood™, Ponderosa™, Rosewood™ and Zebrawood™ are joint works of Kim Buker Chansler, Carl Crossgrove and Carol Twombly.
Birch is based on a Latin Condensed wood type found in a 1879 William Page specimen book. The font is a particularly legible condensed display typeface notable for its angled
[...]Oswald Bruce Cooper – born 13. 4. 1879 in Mountgilead, Ohio, USA, died 17. 12. 1940 in Chicago, USA – type designer, calligrapher, teacher.
1894: trains as a printer. 1899: moves to Chicago. Attends the Frank Holme School of Illustration where F. W. Goudy teaches lettering. 1902: teaches at the Holme School, intermittently also head of the school. 1904: opens the Bertsch & Cooper advertising agency in Chicago with the illustrator Fred S. Bertsch. 1912: travels in England, France and Germany.
[...]Gail Blumberg created the font Cutout™. She was inspired by Matisse’s aer cutouts. The biggest challenge was to keep each Cutout design in scale. "It’s not easy to make a standing figure, like 'Y', to be the same size as a curled up figure, like 'G'," Gail says.
Cutout is part of the Linotype Library.
Karl-Erik Forsberg – born 1914 in Munsö, Sweden, died 1995 – type designer, typographer. Trained at the School for Book Crafts in Sweden.
1938–41: studies at the Akademie für Graphische Künste und Buchgewerbe in Leipzig. 1942–49: designer for the publishers Almqvist & Wiksell, the University of Uppsala press. From 1950 onwards: designer for the publishers P. A. Norstedt & Söner. Besides book designs, Forsberg has designed stamps and produced magazines and stamps. 1954: a bible is published
[...]San Francisco designer and illustrator Craig Frazier created the font Critter™. The clever creatures of Critter tell you their names by the letter they represent. A helpful hint: "x" is for xenopus.Critter contains one weight.
This font is part of the Linotype Library.
Robert Harling was born 1910 in Highbury/London, he died July 1 2008. Educated in Brighton and London. Then attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. After early experience working for the Daily Mail newspaper, became freelance designer. Clients included the British post office. Typographic adviser to London Transport. Around 1935 – director of one of London's leading advertising agencies. With James Shand, founder of the Shenval Press in Hertford, published the quarterly
[...]Michael Harvey was born in 1931. He published several books on the subject of type.
Fonts: Andreas™ (1996), Conga Brava™ (1996), Ellington® (1990), Mentor™ (2005), Mezz™ (1993), Moonglow™ (2000), Strayhorn™, Studz™.
American designer David Lemon created the font Copal™. This font is named after a resin that was burned as incense by ancient cultures and which is used today as a binding agent in printer’s inks and varnishes. The fonts in Copal can be used individually or combined to achieve chromatic effects. Try the decorated letters in headlines when you’re in need of a burst of primitive energy.
Designer Barbara Lind created the fonts Cottonwood™ (1991, with Kim Buker Chansler and Joy Redick), Madrone™ (1991), Poplar™ (1990) and Woodtype™ (1990, with Joy Redick).
Helmut Matheis was born 1917 in Speyer. Studied with Prof. E. von Dombrowski at the Staatsschule für angewandte Künste (State School of Applied Arts) in Munich from 1942 to 1945, then with Prof. F. H. Ehmcke from 1945 to 1947 (in 1946 the Akademie der bildenden Künste (Academy of Plastic Arts) and Staatsschule für angewandte Künste merged to form the Hochschule der bildenden Künste (College of Plastic Arts)). From 1950 freelance graphic designer in Munich and Starnberg. Has been living in
[...]American designer Louis Minott created the font Davida™ in 1965.
Designer Joy Redick created the following fonts: Blackoak™ (1990), Cottonwood™ (1991, with Barbara Lind and Kim Buker Chansler), Ironwood™ (1990), Juniper™ (1990), Mesquite™ (1990), Willow™ (1990), Woodtype™ Ornaments (with Barbara Lind, 1990).
The American designer David Siegel created the fonts Eaglefeather, Graphite® and Tekton™.
Robert Slimbach was born in 1956 in Evanston, Illinois, USA.
Shortly after, he arrived in South California where he spent his childhood and his youth.
After leaving college he developed an interest in graphic design and typefaces while running a small screen printshop for manufacturing posters and greeting cards. This work brought him into contact with "Autologic Incorporation" in Newbury Park, CA.
After training from 1983 to 1985, Robert Slimbach worked as a font designer with
[...]Carol Twombly – born 13. 6. 1959 in Concord, USA – type designer. Studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and at Stanford University.
1984: is awarded 1st prize in the Morisawa type competition in Japan for he Mirarae typeface. 1988: joins Adobe and designs Adobe’s first original display typefaces (Trajan, Charlemagne and Lithos).
Fonts: Mirarae (1984), Charlemagne™ (1989), Lithos™ (1989), Adobe Trajan™ (1989), Caslon™ (1990), Myriad® (1992), Viva™ (1993), Nueva™ (1994) and
[...]Designer John Renner created the font Cheq Pi™ in 1989. Cheq Pi is a set of chessmen and related symbols.
Gustav F. Schroeder created the fonts Eccentric (1881), Romana (1892) and DeVinne™ Ornamental Regular (1894).
Designer Lennart Hansson created the following fonts: Crane, Dex Gothic, Renasci, Runa Serif™ (1996), Zip.
Montral designer Gérard Mariscalchi created the following fonts:
Baylac, Comic Strip, Evita, Lineale Schriftfamilie, Link, Marnie, ITC Redonda, Toots.
Vincent Figgins (born 1766, died 29. 2. 1844 in Peckham) created the fonts Egiziano and Monotype Ionic® (1821).
The original design of Egiziano Black is attributed to Vincent Figgins in 1815. As its name suggests, Egiziano Black is a typical example of an Egyptian, or slab serif typeface. Use the Egiziano Black font for posters and titling.
The earliest form of Ionic was brought out by Vincent Figgins in 1821 and was intended for display work. In 1863 a more refined version appeared which
[...]Ray Cruz’s philosophy is “Learn by Doing.” This is emphasized to his lettering students, and practiced throughout his career. After graduating from New York City’s High School of Art & Design, Ray continued to hone his craft by working in several of New York’s top custom lettering studios. The more he drew letters, the better he got. His expertise in custom lettering and typographic design has brought him notoriety from ad agencies, publishers, and firms
[...]Using digital technology, Philip Bouwsma synthesizes contemporary type styles with traditional and historic scripts and symbols from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. A lifelong calligrapher, Bouwsma also expresses his passion for the calligraphic form into his work. He attended the University of California at Berkeley, majoring in history and Greek. His love of letters, however, lured him away from arcane history to a career filled with art, design and the alphabet. Over the years, Bouwsma has
[...]Howard Kettler (born 1919, died 1999) designed Courier in 1955 for IBM.
Everyone recognizes it as the face originally designed for use on typewriters. A typical characteristic of older typewriters is that all characters are given the same amount of space regardless of their width. Hence, an i receives just as much room as an m, even though it is much thinner. This principle defined the look of Courier font. A line in this typeface has “holes” in what would otherwise be a
[...]Founded by Cynthia Hollandsworth Batty in the mid-1980s with the goal of creating new typefaces. There was some collaboration with the calligrapher Arthur Baker.
Steve Mehallo is an art director who lives in Mountain View, California. His clients have included large corporations, magazines, newspapers, legal and public planning firms, as well as art groups.
Mehallo enjoys mixing retro design with post modern elements, allowing good typefaces to breathe properly, and doing things with photography that confuse his parents. Lately he has also experimented with cartoon illustration.
Rotis font family
This font family consists of all versions of Rotis®, named by Otl Aicher after the village in the Allgäu where he has lived since 1972. Aicher’s goal was to design a family of fonts which could serve almost any typographical purpose. Rotis® gives an impression of both strength and generosity and all four versions can be used interchangeably with one another. Rotis® is suitable for book/text, documentation/business reports, business correspondence, magazines, newspapers,
[...]
Font Designer: Otl Aicher, 1988
Otl Aicher named his typeface Rotis® after the small village in southern Germany where he has lived since 1972. The goal was to create an aesthetic type family which could fulfil a variety of typographic requirements. The result: a remarkable sans serif and a reserved antiqua with a total of 17 weights which combine extremely well with one another.
This unification of two classic forms was almost revolutionary in 1988. Over centuries, designers had
[...]
Font Designer: Helmut Matheis, 1957
Helmut Matheis created the font Charme™ in 1957. Charme is a flowing, informal script font. Due to ist fresh and lively look, Charme works well when used frugally on letterhead, invitations, packaging, and in other casual display situations.
Berling™ Nova Sans rejoint la superfamille de fontes entreprenantes Berling Nova
Initial concepts for comprehensive type systems surfaced as early as the 1930s, yet they remained the exception. In the days of hot-metal typesetting, handbooks generally recommended creating typeface mixtures from a single type family, a family being understood as including all of a typeface’s weights, such as light, normal, semi-bold, and bold, and including all of the italic weights as well. A well-rounded type family also includes small caps, tabular and old-style figures. These days, the
[...]
Davida is a trademark of Linotype GmbH and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Clarendon is a trademark of Linotype GmbH registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain other jurisdictions.
Chaparral, Charlemagne, Cheq Pi, Conga Brava, Copal, Coriander, Cottonwood, Critter, Cronos and Cutout are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated which may be registered in certain jurisdictions.
Hiroshige is a trademark of Alpha Omega Typography.
Charme and Columna are trademarks of Bauer Types.
CG Cloister, CG DeVinne, Claire, Eclipse, Mariposa and Tresillian are trademarks of Monotype Imaging Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions.
Creepy and Rotis are trademarks of Monotype Imaging Inc. registered in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and may be registered in certain jurisdictions.
Cooper Black, Cruz Swinger and DeVinne are trademarks of The Monotype Corporation and may be registered in certain jurisdictions.
Berling is a trademark of Verbum AB.
