Sunday, April 17, 2011

Researching typefaces.

For my context publication, I want to look a bit more in detail at the function of the typefaces I've been using for years. Why they were created, their special characteristics etc. in hopes of getting a more full understanding of typography and hopefully improve the technical skills I have along the way.

For this reason, I'm going to produce 2 chapters, each one is 10 typefaces, one chapter will be serifs, one will be sans-serifs.

Picking typefaces for the context book to really look at is important. i don't want typefaces that are all very similar, I need to ensure I pick ones that have a variety of styles, functions and approaches. With this in mind, I've looked ata few lists of top typefaces of all times.


http://justcreativedesign.com/2009/03/04/the-top-100-best-fonts-of-all-time/

The reason I did this was in order to have a look at what typefaces are considered the best and then avoid using ones from the list that are very similar to one another. For example, Helvetica, Frutiger, Univers and akzidenze grotesk are all extremely similar typefaces so its best to use 2 of the list, rather than 4.

Other important sans-serif typefaces: Gill, futura, Johnston sans (quintessentially british), VAG rounded (first rounded font, designed for Volkswagon), Optima (looks like a serif, but isn't) AvantGarde, Gotham (recently designed, insanely popular) Franklin Gothic (forerunner of typefaces like Gill)


In terms of serif faces, it's important to get a variety of looks; slab-serif, produced for print, produced for digital.

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