Fonts in Focus, April 2007

On a cold winter’s night, George Ryan, of Galápagos Design Group, began musing on the possibilities for a “truly original” sans serif typeface. What came out of his musing, and his always-present sketchpad, was ITC Adderville™, a typeface whose visual impact is immediate and strong. Ryan explains how he did it: “The rounded ends of its strokes and their skewed baseline contact create an illusion of dancing feet. The tops of lowercase stems emit serif buds, suggesting transition into or out of the serifed form. The spear-like lowercase stroke terminators, along with other distinctive elements such as the stylized reticulation of the lowercase ’g’ segments, the salute of that same character’s spur, and the bold, non-self-conscious ’i’ and ’j’ dots, all contribute to the playful and unique nature of this design.” The result is a friendly, lively type family whose graduated weights – book, medium, and heavy – lend themselves especially well to use at small display sizes and in short blocks of text.

Linotype Aperto™ was designed by Paul Veres in 1996 and is a typical text font in the style of Transitional faces, like its often-used cousin Times. It is available in roman, semibold and bold weights, each with its matching italic. The roman weight is complete with old style figures and small caps. Its balanced, reserved appearance makes Aperto extremely flexible, good for long texts as well as headlines.

ITC Arnova™ was designed by Genevieve Cerasoli in 1997 as a calligraphy typeface with pronounced stroke contrast and rough contours. The characters have pointed strokes and sit on the baseline leaning diagonally sometimes toward and sometimes away from one another and both characteristics give ITC Arnova a lively, dynamic feel. This font remains legible in point sizes as small as 8 and is well-suited to headlines and short to middle length texts.

Artistik™, a late nineteenth-century face, is reminiscent of Asian calligraphy, and has the appeal of the turn-of-the-century Art Nouveau are. Based on brush-drawn letters, the Artistik font looks good in many display situations. Use the Artistik font on packaging, posters and signs.

Blueprint™ is an informal typeface designed by Monotype. A stylized handwritten letterform, Blueprint fills the need for a draughtsman-like typeface. The first letters drawn were capitals, the lowercase were added later to create a fully functional typeface. Designed to look like hand lettering but without any joining lowercase, this Blueprint font family is very legible and is well suited to any casual or informal application. Excellent for use in text, Blueprint is ideal in a wide range of setting, including: manuals, letters, faxes, presentations, instruction books and packaging.

Colmcille™ was designed by a Gaelic scholar, typographer and printer, and first released by Monotype for composition casting in 1936. The design intention was to provide a Gaelic looking type which worked well as a roman text face. The digital version of the Colmcille font family has been made in collaboration with the designer’s son, Dara Ó’Lochlainn. A number of changes have been made, including a new set of figures and the addition of a bold weight. Although originally designed as a text face, Colmcille can be used for advertisements, flyers, in fact wherever a touch of Gaelic charm is required.

Linotype Cutter™ was designed by Georg Kugler in 1997. As the name suggests, the font looks like it was cut out of black cardboard pieces. Each letter has a irregular rectangle black background and they combine to form heavy rows of letter elements. The strong contrasts of the font make it good for short headlines or initials in larger point sizes and combines well with almost any text font. Georg Kugler made a second version of this theme called Linotype Schere (scissors) it is a companion typeface where the conturs of the letters are even rougher in its form.

Blueprint™ is an informal typeface designed by Monotype. A stylized handwritten letterform, Blueprint fills the need for a draughtsman-like typeface. The first letters drawn were capitals, the lowercase were added later to create a fully functional typeface. Designed to look like hand lettering but without any joining lowercase, this Blueprint font family is very legible and is well suited to any casual or informal application. Excellent for use in text, Blueprint is ideal in a wide range of setting, including: manuals, letters, faxes, presentations, instruction books and packaging.

Giddyup™ was designed by Laurie Szujewska and is a calligraphic typeface of even stroke width. Like lassos swinging through the air, the figures curl and spiral around and the dot on the i is in the form of a star. The basic forms of this informal, lively typeface find their elements in the old German writing style, as made evident by the forms of the d or the H. Laurie Szujewska expanded Giddyup with a symbol font. Cowboys, buffalo heads, stars and other characters right out of the Wild West are available in this font and allow the imagination free rein.

Heliotype™ was created by British artist Lee McAuley, who was inspired by Soviet Constructivist designs. Heliotype adds serifs to a sans serif model, allowing the characters to connect to one another. The strong, aggressive geometric appearance of Heliotype make it a great font for experimentation.

I’ve been obsessed with type since I was very young, says designer Pelle Piano. “In fact, when I was ten, I used to sneak into stores who sold Letraset sheets, and I actually stole their catalog with all the typefaces. They were perfect good-night stories for me - alphabet after alphabet!” In ITC Lingo, Piano tried out the effect of taking a very rigid underlying letter shape and representing it with “really sloppy outlines.” The underlying form is a condensed Bodoni-like alphabet, with high contrast between thick and thin strokes, but the effect of Lingo is sketchy and informal.

The 14 symbol and arrow fonts in Vialog™ Signs were designed to accompany Vialog, a specially developed font family for the transportation industry and information systems typography. These functional and clever signs harmonize with the Vialog alphabets perfectly; and they can also be used on their own or with other fonts. The extensive sets have not only the symbols for common transportation industry requirements, but also symbols for the numerous electronic and sporting devices of modern life. Included are four weights of arrows (to match the weights of the Vialog fonts), Sport Signs, Conduct Signs, Communication Signs, Community Signs, Direction Signs, and Transport Signs.