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Omnes 34 Omnes34 Omnes
Omnes designed by Joshua Darden.
Omnes is an extremely versatile, elegant and simple sans serif and can be used for many purposes as it has a wide array of weights available. It is capable of displaying a loud, bold presence as well as being refined and composed in its lighter weights. It has sixteen total styles, eight different weights paired with an italic version of each weight. This range of styles and weights gives Omnes the power to draw different feelings and moods while still upholding a consistent personality in its family. This font also pairs very well with other fonts as its personality doesn’t overpower them.
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Omnes was originally released in 2006 but expanded in May 2018 with new widths of SemiCondensed, Condensed, and Narrow. Two more extensions, Cyrillic and Arabic, were published in January of 2019. It was initially created as the typeface for a national retail chain brand before becoming more available to the public. Darden Studios prides itself on creating fonts that can be used by more than just themselves so using and downloading Omnes is very accessible to everyone.
Its non-geometric, curved forms pay homage to round Grotesque fonts in the 19th century that were featured in the visual style of the Bauhaus. The influence of the Bauhaus is very apparent in the visual appearance of the typeface in subtle ways. It plays with the concepts around geometry, cleanliness and based on elementary shapes. Omnes was created for “no-nonsense” editorial work as well as in a variety of other contexts and purposes. For example, Omnes was used in the 2009 monthly magazines, Tennis, which covers most of the important news from the world of tennis. With its variety of weights, it was used on the cover as well as the medium weight for smaller sized text in the interiors of magazine spreads. Its large family of weights and styles gives it the adaptability to be used in logos, titles, body copy, headers and much more.
Darden Studios
The typeface Omnes was created by type designer Joshua Darden along with the members of his type studio. Darden Studios, based in New York, seeks typography that is intentional in its contemporary technical and design expectations. It is made up of a group of individuals started by Joshua Barden and continued by Joyce Ketterer. Many of the members work on multiple projects at a time but use the studio as a base. “We pursue typography that is the result of earnest inquiry, suited to contemporary technical and design expectations, and rooted in the values and practices of five centuries of typefounding” (Darden Studios). In creating their fonts, they want other people to use and experience their typefaces not just themselves. They believe that “Good typography withstands the whims of fashion. It is aware of its time and place but functioning far into the future” (Darden Studios).
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Typeface Analysis
Omnes is versatile and flexible due to its range of weights and physical attributes. The nonitalic, regular weights have a vertical stress and an overall consistent stroke width. The heavy weights have inflated letterforms and feature exaggerated crescent terminals. The middle weights are useful for text and have very similar features to the heavy weights. The lighter weights express a sense of poise with and get down to a hairline of 0.5 points. Overall, the strokes of the typeface end in rounded edges and are not very angular.
When typesetting, Omnes tends to be set wide which is great for taking up space like in headers or titles but sometimes isn’t as ideal for other occasions like body text. Since the Omnes styles were wide, Darden Studios also released a condensed version of the typeface. The font pack also includes many features and options such as Superscript figures, multiple forms of letters, Inferior figures and Ordinals. It is popular due to the letters having accents that are subtle and unexpected curves. Although mostly rounded, Omnes does have some geometric cues like in the terminal of the “j” in the middle weights. Most of the terminals are rounded, rectangular edges but with some of the terminals they have a hard edge on one side and a round edge on the other. The lowercase “g” is notable as the ear extends and stands out in attention. In the italics, there is a subtle curve at the end of some of the strokes that is incredibly smooth. Many of the joints are also not completely rounded or angular but somewhere in between. The thickness of the strokes overall are consistent and have little contrast.
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