Designer’s Favourite Fonts & Why
Published on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 – 12:00 am | 68 brilliant comments »
I sent out a tweet (follow me) asking my followers (and Facebook Friends) what their favourite font was and why - these were some of their replies… what about you?
For the record, at present, my favourite is Gill Sans as I find it so versatile, especially when working with other fonts.
Times. Simple, but not boring, and timeless.
Via @Carmabella
Franklin Gothic Medium and Verdana. Both are just so easy to read even at small sizes.
Via Adrian Lujan (Facebook)
Franklin Gothic Book Regular. Easy to read.
Via Dylan Lee Hodges (Facebook)
I really love the clean lines of Franklin Gothic family mixed up with classic letter forms of Adobe Caslon.
Via @BridieMacdonald
Gill Sans Light because is delicate.
Via Barbara Culinas (Facebook)
Other than Helvetica, it’s Gotham , because it’s clear, it stands out and modern… Applicable on small sizes too.
Via animate_me
Totally into GOTHAM right now. Clean, great bold-face, solid.
Chris Skinner (Facebook)
Gotham, purely because I’m Batman in disguise.
Via David Airey (Facebook)
Not THE - but A favourite: FF DIN - for clarity, the weights, more attitude but not to much character, reads in small sizes
Via @simikken
I would say Philosopher. It’s a stylish, modern font that is similar to common fonts so that it’s functional and elegant.
Via @bixtin
My favourite font is called “mutlu” because my finance has our daughter’s name tattooed across his chest in it…
Via @artbyjaz
Don’t know… for paragraphs I like Futura Lt BT, I guess because it looks clean and helps me fit all the text.
Via @edMaga
Futura, Neutraface, Garamond, Rockwell
Marcos Luis Hernández (via Facebook)
Big fan of Futura, it’s clean but has personality. I like its curves.
Sasha Endoh (via Facebook)
Futura, Verdana, and Myriad Pro I use the most.
Stan Perl (via Facebook)
Actually fond of Metroscript cause I’m on a big vintage graphic period!! Montreal is also a good sans serif one.
Via @MonsieurH
Americana is my favourite sans-serif, and Charcoal is currently my fave serif.
Lisa Du Plessis (via Facebook)
TJ Governanti (via Facebook)
Trajan Pro, classy and elegant and I love the Q in it.
Tareq Alsamman(via Facebook)
SWISS 721 family….looks classy and elegant.
Mohamed Shinaz Saeed (via Facebook)
I’m torn, it’s either Papyrus or Comic Sans. Actually, my two favorites are Sketch Block and Geo Sans Light. I find it reads so well, and looks very clean and minimal.
Via Will Higgins (via Facebook)
Christine LeBlanc Payne (via Facebook)
Comic sans! Haha, no, seriously, I think is Trebuchet and Futura .
Diane Hernandez (via Facebook)
Trebuchet… because who doesn’t like saying “Tray-boo-shay”, and it has a sturdy, even thickness to its stroke which lends itself nicely to big bold headers for websites
Jayson Akers (via Facebook)
Helvetica, Frutiger, timeless.
Sanja Karic (via Facebook)
OK someone has to say it…Bleeding Cowboys !
Brian Nelson (via Facebook)
Myriad Pro (boring I know) & Boberia
Andrea Guevara Higham (via Facebook)
I like Century Gothic, its an easy to work with font.
Maikel Beckers (via Facebook)
Garamond - totally unfazed by time, style, and trend.
Shakun Harris (via Facebook)
Helvetica, and 2nd would have to be Helvetica, just pipping Helvetica. In all seriousness though, my vote goes to Helvetica.
Via @burdzelkrai
Helvetica - swiss design at its best.
Via @loveannon
Helvetica Neue for it’s incredible versatility-Letter spacing, size and the font variations can get you thousands of new fonts.
Via @baffleinc
Helvetica - classic and contemporary, timely and timeless, all rolled into one.
Via Rafael Armstrong
The Helvetica Neue family, it just gives so much choice in one family and looks clean and sharp on screen
Via @keanrichmond
Helvetica Neue. A more refined font compared to Helvetica, versatile & simply elegant
Via @zilch
Helvetica. Since it was the cleanest and most common beautiful font i’ve ever seen.. No font is close..
Via @thematrixuum
Got to be Helvetica family - so much range in a single font in terms of variety in weight and styles and so timeless!
Via @threemenoneshed
I like comic sans for fun & verdana for an elegant look
Via @beiruta
Comic sans, it makes everything patronising
Via Jon Hassall (Facebook)
No font list could be complete with out someone mentioning Comic Sans. On that note check out this short documentary on the typeface, it’s worth a watch. I loved the quote from the Comic Sans designer, Vincent Connare:
“If you love it, you don’t know much about typography, but if you hate it, you really don’t know much about typography either and you should get another hobby.”
Recommended Typography Resources
- The Top 100 Best Fonts Of All Time
- 30 Fonts All Designers Must Know & Should Own
- How To Choose A Font
- 54 Typography Resources Every Designer Should Bookmark
What is your favourite font and why?
68 comments thus far »
The Top 100 Best Fonts Of All Time
Published on Wednesday, March 4, 2009 – 4:37 pm | 97 brilliant comments »
Based on a German website, these are the top 100 best fonts of all time.
To say the least, ranking fonts is an obviously hard task… how does one measure aesthetic quality, the benefit of an item, its value to humanity and so fourth?
Well, in this particular German publication, the judges ranked the fonts by their objective and various other weighted measurements:
- FontShop Sales Figures: 40%
- Historical Value/Meaning: 30%
- Aesthetic Qualities: 30%
It is also worth noting that this evaluation consisted exclusively of licensed or commercial fonts only. Free fonts or operating system fonts were not considered, nor were fonts integral to standard software (i.e. Arial, Verdana, etc.). Font variations, which over the centuries have been individually interpreted by various Foundries, were uniquely evaluated as a class and the best variant was entered into the main judging process.
Below is a preview of the top 33 fonts and beneath this image you can find the full list of the 100 best fonts.
Top 100 Best Fonts Of All Time
Below you will find the full list of the best 100 fonts along with the designer & the year in which they were designed.
1. Helvetica [1957 - Max Miedinger]
2. Garamond [1530 - Claude Garamond]
3. Frutiger [1977 - Adrian Frutiger]
4. Bodoni [1790 - Giambattista Bodoni]
5. Futura [1927 - Paul Renner]
6. Times [1931 - Stanley Morison]
7. Akzidenz Grotesk [1966 - G nter Gerhard Lange]
8. Officina [1990 - Erik Spiekermann]
9. Gill Sans [1930 - Eric Gill]
10. Univers [1954 - Adrian Frutiger]
11. Optima [1954 - Hermann Zapf]
12. Franklin Gothic [1903 - Morris Fuller Benton]
13. Bembo [1496 - Francesco Griffo]
14. Interstate [1993 - Tobias Frere-Jones]
15. Thesis [1994 - Lucas de Groot]
16. Rockwell [1934 - Frank H. Pierpont]
17. Walbaum [1800 - Justus Walbaum]
18. Meta [1991 - Erik Spiekermann]
19. Trinit [1982 - Bram De Does]
20. Din [1926 - Ludwig Goller]
21. Matrix [1986 - Zuzana Licko]
22. OCR [1965 - American Type Founders]
23. Avant Garde [1968 - Herb Lubalin]
24. Lucida [1985 - Chris Holmes / Charles Bigelow]
25. Sabon [1964 - Jan Tschichold]
26. Zapfino [1998 - Hermann Zapf]
27. Letter Gothic [1956 - Roger Roberson]
28. Stone [1987 - Summer Stone]
29. Arnhem [1998 - Fred Smeijers]
30. Minion [1990 - Robert Slimbach]
31. Myriad [1992 - Twombly & Slimbach]
32. Rotis [1988 - Olt Aicher]
33. Eurostile [1962 - Aldo Novarese]
34. Scala [1991 - Martin Majoor]
35. Syntax [1968 - Hans Eduard Meier]
36. Joanna [1930 - Eric Gill]
37. Fleishmann [1997 - Erhard Kaiser]
38. Palatino [1950 - Hermann Zapf]
39. Baskerville [1754 - John Baskerville]
40. Fedra [2002 - Peter Bil'ak]
41. Gotham [2000 - Tobias Frere-Jones]
42. Lexicon [1992 - Bram De Does]
43. Hands [1991 - Letterror]
44. Metro [1929 - W. A. Dwiggins]
45. Didot [1799 - Firmin Didot]
46. Formata [1984 - Bernd M llenst dt]
47. Caslon [1725 - William Caslon]
48. Cooper Black [1920 - Oswald B. Cooper]
49. Peignot [1937 - A. M. Cassandre]
50. Bell Gothic [1938 - Chauncey H. Griffith]
51. Antique Olive [1962 - Roger Excoffon]
52. Wilhelm Klngspor Gotisch [1926 - Rudolf Koch]
53. Info [1996 - Erik Spiekermann]
54. Dax [1995 - Hans Reichel]
55. Proforma [1988 - Petr van Blokland]
56. Today Sans [1988 - Volker K ster]
57. Prokyon [2002 - Erhard Kaiser]
58. Trade Gothic [1948 - Jackson Burke]
59. Swift [1987 - Gerald Unger]
60. Copperplate Gothic [1901 - Frederic W. Goudy]
61. Blur [1992 - Neville Brody]
62. Base [1995 - Zuzana Licko]
63. Bell Centennial [1978 - Matthew Carter]
64. News Gothic [1908 - Morris Fuller Benton]
65. Avenir [1988 - Adrian Frutiger]
66. Bernhard Modern [1937 - Lucian Bernhard]
67. Amplitude [2003 - Christian Schwartz]
68. Trixie [1991 - Erik van Blokland]
69. Quadraat [1992 - Fred Smeijers]
70. Neutraface [2002 - Christian Schwartz]
71. Nobel [1929 - Sjoerd de Roos]
72. Industria [1990 - Neville Brody]
73. Bickham Script [1997 - Richard Lipton]
74. Bank Gothic [1930 - Morris Fuller Benton]
75. Corporate ASE [1989 - Kurt Weidemann]
76. Fago [2000 - Ole Schafer]
77. Trajan [1989 - Carol Twombly]
78. Kabel [1927 - Rudolf Koch]
79. House Gothic 23 [1995 - Tal Leming]
80. Kosmik [1993 - Letterror]
81. Caecilia [1990 - Peter Matthias Noordzij]
82. Mrs Eaves [1996 - Zuzana Licko]
83. Corpid [1997 - Lucas de Groot]
84. Miller [1997 - Matthew Carter]
85. Souvenir [1914 - Morris Fuller Benton]
86. Instant Types [1992 - Just van Rossum]
87. Clarendon [1845 - Benjamin Fox]
88. Triplex [1989 - Zuzana Licko]
89. Benguiat [1989 - Ed Benguiat]
90. Zapf Renaissance [1984 - Hermann Zapf]
91. Filosofia [1996 - Zuzana Licko]
92. Chalet [1996 - House Industries]
93. Quay Sans [1990 - David Quay]
94. C zanne [1995 - Michael Want, James Grieshaber]
95. Reporter [1938 - Carlos Winkow]
96. Legacy [1992 - Ronald Arnholm]
97. Agenda [1993 - Greg Thompson]
98. Bello [2004 - Underware]
99. Dalliance [2000 - Frank Heine]
100. Mistral [1953 - Roger Excoffon]
Further Resources:
- 100 Best Fonts PDF (In German)
- The 100 Best Fonts Website (Translated via Yahoo)
- 30 Fonts All Designers Must Know & Should Own
- How To Choose A Font
- 54 Typography Resources Every Designer Should Bookmark
So what other fonts should be included in this? What fonts shouldn’t be in this list? Vent your spleen below.
97 comments thus far »
20 Typefaces To Start A Designer’s Career
Published on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 – 12:01 am | 90 brilliant comments »
I recently came across a great discussion in the archives of Typophile from 2003 called 20 Typefaces To Start A Designer’s Career and it needs to be revived.
As a design student myself, I notice that typography is one of the hardest parts that students seem to face… most students are able to come up with extremely creative, innovative and well designed material however as soon as type is needed… well, let’s just say, it could need some more work.
20 Typefaces Are Perfect
Take this quote from a teacher in the Typophile discussion:
“I think 20 type faces is perfect. This is what I tell my class to begin with. The idea that you need hundreds of typefaces is ridiculous. When I was in school I had thousands upon thousands of bad typefaces. I hoarded anything I could get. This only helped confuse me when it came to choosing an appropriate face. It was a breath of fresh air to just delete them all off my hard drive. I only use about 10 or so at any moment in my career. Type can be tricky and hard to deal with. It is best to have fewer faces and understand the ins and outs of each one. This is the only way one can expect to master a typeface and type in general.” - Jay Wilkinson
I can agree with Jay on this as I was also guilty of having every font under the sun, however, after the first year of University I quickly learned otherwise - it is best to master a few faces.
One could also argue whether 20 is a suitable number or not, however, I believe it is a good starting point… To contradict this point I have also written an article called 30 fonts all designers must know & should own.
Don’t Use Free Fonts
Another point that is made in the article is to not use free fonts. Take this quote from Keith Tam.
“I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of students downloading free fonts off the ‘net for their projects. More often than not they end up using something poorly made without even realising that it is not a ‘professional quality’ font. It’s dangerous. It’s such a bad influence for them because they’ll end up thinking that fonts are free and anyone can make fonts. Not a good idea. I think it’s a typography instructor’s duty to teach their students how to discern the differences between well and poorly made typefaces, and about the legalities of typeface licensing.”
I can relate to this as I see so many design students download free fonts… including don’t say it - Coolvetica. Limit yourself to a few families and you will be surprised at the outcome. You may also want to see the Top 7 Fonts Used By Professionals.
Update: I am not saying to rule out free fonts completely… in fact my logo uses the free font delicious. There are certainly some very well designed free fonts out there however the problem arises when trying to distinguish a good typeface from a bad one… I recommend this best free quality fonts post for starters or this list of 40 excellent free fonts from Smashing Magazine.
20 Typefaces To Start A Designer’s Career
Although there were many other ‘top 20′ lists in the original post I believe the twenty below would be my pick from the ones suggested in the article. In no particular order:
Centaur
Jenson
Bembo
(Adobe) Garamond
Minion
Times New Roman
Baskerville
Mrs Eaves
Bauer Bodoni
Didot
Clarendon
Rockwell
Serifa
Franklin Gothic
News Gothic
Helvetica Neue
Univers
Futura
Frutiger
Copperplate Gothic
What say you?
90 comments thus far »
Top 7 Fonts Used By Professionals In Graphic Design
Published on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 – 9:35 am | 167 brilliant comments »
All though there have been many other most used font posts, most of them outline fonts used by the ‘not-so-well-trained’ designer. In this post I want to outline the fonts that are often used by the more ‘professional’ of designers.
This article is the third article of four in this series.
The Four Part Series
- Top 7 Most Overused Techniques & Elements Used in Graphic Design
- Top 7 Most Overused Icons / Shapes Used in Graphic Design
- Top 7 Fonts Used by Professionals In Graphic Design
- Top 7 Most Overused Stock Images Used in Web Design
Top 7 Most Used Fonts Used By Professionals In Graphic Design
1. Helvetica
Without a doubt, Helvetica is the most heavily used font by professionals (and also by the not so professional) in graphic design. Although some praise the font, many believe that it is spaced too tightly.
And as Vivien pleas in her 16 most overused fonts article, “Understand that you can’t always rely on Helvetica to illustrate and deliver your every message. Helvetica is not perfect for everyone and every occasion.”
2. Trajan
Trajan finds its way into many Hollywood movie posters and anything remotely to do with religion, law, marriage, class or the past. You can check out the flickr pool for more uses of Trajan.
A bit of history on the font Trajan… Trajan is an old style serif typeface designed in 1989 by Carol Twombly for Adobe. The design is based on Roman square capitals, as used for the inscription at the base of Trajan’s Column from which the typeface takes its name.
3. Garamond
Although there are many versions of Garamond, the most used version today is the Adobe Garamond version (as seen above) released in 1989. Garamond is a great font for magazines, textbooks, websites and long bodies of text and was recently named the second best font (after Helvetica) by a German publication.
4. Futura
Futura is a font that comes up often in large displays, logos, corporate typefaces and in books where small text is needed. It is based on geometric shapes (near-perfect circles, triangles and squares) which became representative of the Bauhaus design style of 1919–1933. Futura has an appearance of efficiency and forwardness. Some do hate the font though.
5. Bodoni
Bodoni is a great font for headlines, decorative text and logos. Bodoni has a narrow underlying structure with flat, unbracketed serifs. The face has extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes, and an overall geometric construction which makes it a very aesthetic looking font.
6. Bickham Script Pro
Used mainly for formal occasions, Bickham Script Pro is a font which does the job well… Cameron Moll even recommended it in his article “Typefaces no one will get fired for using.” The ‘not-so-trained’ designer usually vouches for Vivaldi instead which is one of America’s most hated fonts. Another great alternative would be Sloop.
7. Frutiger
The Frutiger font family is neither strictly geometric nor humanistic in construction; its forms are designed so that each individual character is quickly and easily recognised. Such distinctness makes it good for signage and display work and it is often used in Web 2.0 Logos.
The full family has a warmth and subtlety that have, in recent years, made it popular for the smaller scale of body text in magazines and booklets.
Close Contenders
Here are some other fonts many ‘professional’ designers use quite often; Gills Sans, FF DIN, Franklin Gothic, Bembo, Rockwell, Avenir, Avant Garde, MrsEaves, Gotham, Sabon, Warnock Pro. Notice that none of these are fonts are downloadable for free?
Still type hungry? Why don’t you check out 30 Fonts All Designers Must Know & Should Own.
Do you agree? What other fonts would you add to the list?
167 comments thus far »
FREE 27 Page Type Classification eBook
Published on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 – 11:48 am | 44 brilliant comments »
Just Creative Design has just released their first eBook and it is only available to Just Creative Design subscribers - ensured by a password hidden at the bottom of your RSS feed!
If you were following me on Twitter then you would have heard about this release three days ago and if you have had your eyes peeled you would have noticed a banner at the bottom of your RSS feed with a link to the official page but never fear, I have released it to all subscribers now.
For full information on what it’s all about and how to get the free type classification eBook go check out the official page Type Classification eBook Page. Enjoy.
44 comments thus far »
What is a Font Flag? What is a Font Specimen Sheet?
Published on Monday, March 17, 2008 – 9:41 am | 27 brilliant comments »
Do you know what a font flag or font / type specimen sheet is? Here are the answers as well as an example made by myself for typography class at university.
What is a Font Flag?
A font flag is a poster – a visual ‘sell’ – presentation of the style, feel, mood and aesthetic sense of a particular font. It deals with the emotive, pictorial, poetic or pragmatic sense of the font. It may recall the sense of history, the classification group, notable or famous uses. It is about appeal – looking good.
What is a font specimen sheet?
A font specimen sheet is about measurement specifics, display of the font – all characters and expressions, at differing point sizes, paragraph setting, leaded or tracked. Upper Case and Lower Case, title box, formal identification of the font - its name, classification, designer/typographer, the foundry – and a demonstrated showing of ‘font family’ characteristics – weights/shade in print.
My take on making a font flag and specimen sheet
For typography class at University we could choose any typeface we wished and then we had to make up a font flag and a font specimen sheet, here is the result, as well as a title page.
I chose Bodoni because it is so unique and because I wanted the challenge of working in an Didone (Modern) font, something I have never done before.
I made the background in Photoshop from about 8 different layers, then merged them and imported into Illustrator. The rest was done in Illustrator. You may notice that the Fibonnaci Sequence or golden mean has been the inspiration for these designs.
The characteristics of a Didone (Modern) type face.
- Thick vertical strokes.
- Thin horizontal strokes.
- Fine hairlines.
- Straight serifs.
- Extreme contrast between the thick and thin stokes.
- Curved letters balanced and slightly compressed.
- The angle of stress is vertical.
- Prints best on a smooth matt finish, white paper with black ink.
A thing worth noting on most digital Bodini fonts is that they suffer from a particular kind of legibility degradation known as “dazzle” caused by the alternating thick and thin strokes, particularly from the thin strokes being very thin at small point sizes. For more info on this see Bodoni on Wikipedia.
Bodoni Font Flag
Bodoni Font Specimen Sheet
Typography Title Page (For a little typopgraphic pdf book we are creating.)
Need to brush up on your typography skills?
- Top 5 Typography Resources of all time
- 30 Fonts That ALL Designers Must Own
- How To Choose A Font
- ilovetypography - A typography blog
- 54 Typography Resources Every Designer Should Know
Feedback / Suggestions / Constructive Criticism is appreciated. I would love to hear your feedback.
27 comments thus far »
30 Fonts That All Designers Must Know & Should Own
Published on Sunday, March 2, 2008 – 11:04 pm | 214 brilliant comments »
Here are 30 of the Best Fonts / Typefaces that every designer must / should own sorted by alphabetical order. There are 15 serif fonts and 15 sans-serif fonts. These fonts will last you your whole career!
A brief description of what each font is best suited for is provided however are not limited to this.
There are some top free cool fonts that are downloadable in this collection and some that come with your operating system… the others are not so free but they sure will help you improve your typography! They include original PC, Mac and Truetype fonts.
You may also be interested in How To Choose A Font or the Top 5 Typography Resources of all time. Also don’t forget to subscribe! Read more »
214 comments thus far »
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