Illustrated Font Swatch
Fedra Sans was designed by Peter Bilak and was released in 2001. It is a multilingual contemporary sans serif typeface developed for visual identities, designed to work equally well on paper and on the computer screen. Fedra Sans appears to work exceptionally well in small point sizes, while it is elegant and distinguishable in larger ones. Also available in an alternate version with more subtle construction principles.
Mrs Eaves is a transitional serif typeface designed by Zuzana Licko in 1996, and licensed by Emigre, a typefoundry run by Licko and husband Rudy VanderLans. Mrs Eaves is a revival of the types of English printer and punchcutter John Baskerville, and is related to contemporary Baskerville typefaces. Licko's selection of the name Mrs Eaves reveals an interesting story. Like his types, Baskerville was, himself, a controversial character. He hired Sarah Eaves as his housekeeper. Eventually her husband Richard abandoned her and their five children, and Mrs Eaves became Baskerville's mistress and eventual helpmate with typesetting and printing. On the death of Mrs Eaves estranged husband, she married John Baskerville within the month. Selection of the name Mrs Eaves honors one of the forgotten women in the history of typography.
Erik Spierkermann’s original brief for the German Post Office in 1984 called for a font optimized for “the detailed requirements of small type on bad papier". This earlier font (PT 55) was not accepted by the customer and the project was cancelled. Finally launched under the FF Meta brand name, it was one of the most popular typefaces of the last decade, often referred as "the Helvetica of the 90’s”.
Designed by Jonathan Barnbrook in 1992. It is called Manson, named after the mass murderer Charles Manson, which by virtue of its chiseled appearance, a blend of the medieval and the modern, became one of the most frequently used faces for book jackets and CD covers related to themes of horror and violence. For Barnbrook, this was an artistic experiment in the ways the look and name of a typeface determine how others will use it. After many complaints he changed the name to Mason, which is the name the typeface can be bought as today.
The Trajan font was designed in 1989 by Carol Twombly for Adobe. Trajan is based on the inscriptional capitals from the Trajan column in Rome, built AD 113. The Trajan font includes a classical set of capitals for use in magazines, advertising and brochures.
Gudrun Zapf von Hesse designed the first sketches of Alcuin in 1986. The namesake of this typeface was an advisor of Charlemagne and was responsible for the writing reform of the Carolingian era. Alcuin was born in 735 in England, became an abbot in Tours and died there in 804. It was the idea of Zapf von Hesse to develop a modern text type based on the forms of the Carolingian miniscule. To create a text type that is excellent for a wide variety of applications, typical handwritten elements had to be discarded while still retaining the flow and character of handwriting. Alcuin is the successful result.
Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed between 1924 and 1926 by Paul Renner. It is based on geometric shapes that became representative visual elements of the Bauhaus design style of 1919–1933.[1] Commissioned by the Bauer type foundry, Futura was commercially released in 1927. Futura has an appearance of efficiency and forwardness. The typeface is derived from simple geometric forms (near-perfect circles, triangles and squares) and is based on strokes of near-even weight, which are low in contrast. This is most visible in the almost perfectly round stroke of the o, which is nonetheless slightly ovoid. In designing Futura, Renner avoided the decorative, eliminating non-essential elements. The lowercase has tall ascenders, which rise above the cap line.
The uppercase characters present proportions similar to those of classical Roman capitals.
Times New Roman first appeared in 1932 in The Times of London newspaper, for which it was designed. It has subsequently become one of the world’s most successful type creations. The original drawings were made under Stanley Morison’s direction by Victor Lardent at The Times. It then went through an extensive iterative process involving further work in the Monotype Type Drawing Office. Based on experiments Morison had conducted using Perpetua and Plantin, Times New Roman has many old style characteristics but was adapted to give excellent legibility coupled with good economy. The Times New Roman font family is narrow in relation to its apparent size, and is strong in color with a crisp and clean appearance. Both Times New Roman and its condensed companion combine vertical and diagonal stress, but achieve utility and even color by a logical and skilful manipulation of both weight and condensation. Widely used in books and magazines, for reports, office documents and also for display and advertising.
The Cholla typeface family was designed by Sibylle Hagmann in 1998-99 and named after a species of cactus she encountered in the Mojave Desert. Cholla was originally developed for the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.There, art director Denise Gonzales Crisp and associate designer, Carla Figueroa, collaborated with Hagmann to create a series of fonts that would offer a great deal of variation. Gonzales has said:"This combination could have a long life, and be timely. I also saw – at least in the beginnings of Cholla – forms that connoted hybrid, of inter-connection, of human and machine growing together. These notions seem appropriate for a school that teaches design and art.”
