JOST

ON OWEN EARL

ON JOST*

Jost* was designed by Owen Earl from the indestructible type* Foundry, debuting in June 2017. It was inspired by the legendary Futura typeface designed by Paul Renner in 1927, taking this historic typeface to a new level in modern times. Jost* was created to take all the best elements of Futura and enhance its functionality, with a larger x–height and more balanced capital forms. Additionally, Jost* included features not possible in the time of Futura. Jost* contains alternative character sets where you can choose to use the iconic single story “a” of Futura, or double–story as well. Jost* also includes tabular numbers and the default proportional numbers. Jost* was also previously known as Renner*, the name was changed due to copyright infringement over the name “Renner,” and in part to pay tribute Heinrich Jost, a German designer who aided Paul Renner in bringing his typographic ideas to life. Just as of September 2018, version 3.3 of Jost* includes the support of over 50 languages and 18 styles. Updates on July 13, 2019 (Version 3.4) and January 01, 2020 (Version 3.5) added full Romanian support, Cyrillic (Russian), and fixed any metadata issues that arose previously. Owen Earl with indestructible type* has a true love for typography. In the short five years he’s been creating fonts, he’s worked for several companies but enjoys most working on a smaller scale. His passion involves making valuable, functional, versatile, and contemporary typography.

With indestructible type*, the goal is creating highly versatile and timeless typography that would hold well in any situation. Even within the name of the foundry is its mission statement, making type indestructible in its accessibility, modernism, and overall having such a broad range of use.

Undeniably, any designer will want these typefaces, including Jost*, in your back pocket. Look for an asterisk at the end of any indestructible type* and you’ll know you have a keeper.

TYPE ANALYSIS

THE BREAKDOWN

Jost* the typeface, contains nine weights and two styles, for a total of 18 style options. These styles include weights from hairline to black, with italics for each. Today, Jost* is available as a TrueType Font (TTF), an OpenType Font (OTF), and as a web font. With Jost* as an OTF, you, as the designer, are able to manipulate the typeface more intricately, setting the precise weight and italic angle of your choice. Like its early inspiration, Futura, Jost* is a geometric sans–serif, taking from shapes such as circles and squares to build the letterforms. In the style of Futura, Jost* serves as a modern sans-serif go-to, adaptable for many applications.

TYPE ANALYSIS

ALL THE GOOD STUFF

Jost* contains no serifs, or “feet” attached to any letterform. Jost* maintains a uniform stroke weight that is consistent throughout various letterforms.

There are slight variations that occur with shoulders, such as in the lowercase ‘h’ and ‘n,’ as well as in the stress within letterforms like a lowercase ‘d.’ Jost*, unlike Futura, features angular terminals in the lowercase ‘r,’ ‘f,’ and ‘e,’ whereas Futura keeps its vertically or horizontally cut terminals. With apexes, Jost* contains some that come to a perfect pointed triangle, consistent in the uppercase ‘A,’ ’N,’ and ‘M.’ Speaking of the uppercase ‘M,’ Futura’s letterform shows a vertex that extends down to the baseline, differing from Jost*, where the vertex only extends a little past halfway from the x-height to the baseline. Overall, the letterforms of Jost* have a more narrow set-width and larger x-height, which aids the ascenders in appearing taller. Additionally, descenders, and most notably in the ‘J,’ swoop below the baseline and then curve out with its tail. The lowercase ‘j’ mimics the tail of the uppercase letterform, where Futura keeps its sharp cutoff at the baseline, ditching the tail. More quirks of Jost* appear in the lowercase ’t,” with the cross stroke being centered with the stem, with Futura’s being off-centered, and also with the ‘u,’ which has a spur in comparison to its parent typeface.

Uniquely, Jost* has the options to keep the iconic single-story ‘a’ of Futura, or spice things up with a double-story alternative. In all these ways, Jost* makes for a quirky take on a classic sans-serif typeface.

Roboto Slab CREATED IN 2013 Typeface Story

In first approaching the idea of creating Roboto, Christian Robertson wanted to create something that had flexibility to it and could be converted into a lot of styles and weights. Robertson was working with Google when they pitched him to create a default typeface for their new Android applications and sites. Robertson wanted to create more than just a regular and bold, so he created medium weights for the regular, mono, and slab versions.

M M M

Since this type was to be a default, it had to be easily adjusted to fit different types of uses and tones. Roboto, in all its forms, has sophisticated aspects, with its big counters and strong angles, but also some playful aspects, with circular dots and curved shoulders.

This typeface was first created in 2011, but since Robertson knew that this type would be widely used for digital screens, he made sure that it could easily be updated and altered so that it is a growing and still relevant typeface. The Roboto Slab was then created in 2013 to be used with and next to the original Roboto, Roboto Condensed and Roboto Mono.

While some grotesks distort their letterforms to force a rigid rhythm, Roboto doesn’t compromise, allowing letters to be settled into their natural width. This makes for a more natural reading rhythm more commonly found in humanist and serif types “

— Google Fonts

This type family has since been the default typeface for Android users and for other Google systems such as Google+, Google Play, YouTube, and Google Maps.