TRADE GOTHIC BALTIMORE, MD
WINTER 2015
DECONSTRUCT
TRADE GOTHIC : DECONSTRUCT Vol. 1, No. 1 (Dec 2015) Iris Lee
Pt. 1 - Overview Pt. 2 - Anatomy of the Figure Pt. 3 - Typeface Catalogue Pt. 4 - Case Examples
O V E R V I E W
4
BREAKDOWN AND REFORMATION: TRADE GOTHIC
Trade gothic is versatile. From left wing news sites to Amnesty International - it bridges the gap between grotesques of the late 19th century and the modulated typefaces of the mid-20th century.
O V E R V I E W
5
A BRIEF OVERVIEW Trade Gothic was designed in 1948 by Jackson Burke1, a book and type designer from California. Burke has now gone on to become the director of type development at Linotype. The typeface is a simple grotesk that remains a common choice for books, magazines, and newspapers due to its spacious counters and legibility. It portrays a wonderful character and sturdiness, especially in condensed weights. Often marketed as a “workhorse� typeface- trade gothic really does it all. It features a variety of fonts within its family, ranging from an extended version to condensed, with varying weights. The main critique for Trade Gothic has been it’s various inconsistencies as a predigital-era font. In lew of this, trade gothic was redesigned in 2009 by Akira Tobayashi2. The main purpose for the redesign was to remove inconsistencies found in the original family. In addition to that, Tobayashi has also reworked the terminals, stroke endings, spacing, and the kerning. The newly revised font was then titled Trade Gothic Next. On the other hand, these irregularities have been popular with designers as it gives the text a more charactered effect rather than the sterility of digital era fonts. 1 Graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, Burke would also go on to creat the typefaces Majestic + Bold and Aurora + Italic. 2 Studied at the Musashino Art University in Tokyo, and later followed this up with a calligraphy course at the London College of Printing. Freelance type designer since 1997.
A N AT O M Y
O F
T H E
F I G U R E
6
M W
A N AT O M Y
O F
T H E
F I G U R E
7
COUNTER SPACE
Bold Condensed No. 20
Bold
Condensed No.18
Displaying the inconsistencies seen within Trade Gothic
T Y P E FA C E
Bold No.2
Regular
Light
Bold
Bold Condensed No.20
Condensed No.18
C ATA L O G U E
8
CONSTITUTE CONSTITUTE CONSTITUTE F A B R I C AT I O N FABRICATION FABRICATION
A N AT O M Y
O F
T H E
F I G U R E
9
HEIGHT COMPARISON MINOR INCONSISTENCIES:
Kx K x t lbkh f
it
In most typefaces it is common to see curved letters extend past the x-height, as curved edges occupy less horizontal space, making them appear smaller
A N AT O M Y
O F
T H E
F I G U R E
10
FOOT FETISH
dd dd Bold
Condensed No.18
Bold No. 2
Regular
T R A D E
G O T H I C
11
WINE PAIRINGS RIPE BRIE & ZINFANDEL trade gothic light didot bold
MARJORAM & TORRONTÉS¹ trade gothic bold sabon roman
MANGO & CHARDONNAY² trade gothic condensed no. 18 clarendon roman
SWORDFISH & MALBEC trade gothic bold no. 2 bell gothic light
¹It Is Particularly Effective When Trade Gothic is used in its Bold weight for headlines, to set off Jan Tschichold's classic Old Style serif face for text. Both typefaces are highly readable, with a tall x-height, and combine well.
²The Slab Serif Clarendon Attracts attention at large sizes and is also quite legible at smaller point sizes thanks to its clear, objective and timeless forms. It works particularly well when paired with the earthy naturalism of Trade Gothic.
T R A D E
G O T H I C
G
12
FIGURE A.
FIGURE B.
A N AT O M Y
O F
T H E
F I G U R E
13
h ANGLED JOINTS
A joint in a letter is the point where a stroke meets a stem. Unlike many other sans serif typefaces, a Trade Gothic joint comes to a defined point and angle.
T R A D E
G O T H I C
14
TRADE
GOTHIC
IS HEADLINE WORTHY Designer Tony Leone writes
that Trade Gothic, especially its Bold Condensed weight, "is airy in its spacing
— especially when set as text — which gives it its pleasing character ... it plays well with others — that is, it combines nicely with more extravagant or decadent faces and can serve as a workhorse
option
with
trade gothic a more approachable
other
sans
serifs."
In
addition
to
this,
many
designers
have
considered
typeface, as its inconsistencies in width, height, and between its variations are part of what makes Trade Gothic so unique.
and blends in
A N AT O M Y
O F
T H E
F I G U R E
16
ANATOMICAL DISSECTION: THE FIGURE Font featured: Trade Gothic LT Std, Bold No. 2, 40 pt
C A j
APERTURE The partially enclosed, somewhat rounded negative space in some characters.
APEX A point at the top of a character where two strokes meet.
ARC OF STEM A curved stroke that is continuous with a straight stem.
V b H D
ARM A horizontal or upward, sloping stroke that does not connect to a stroke or stem on one or both ends.
ASCENDER An upward vertical stroke found on the part of lowercase letters that extends above the typeface’s x-height.
BAR The horizontal stroke in letters. Also referred to as Crossbar.
BOWL The curved part of the character that encloses the circular or curved parts (counter) of some letters such as d, b, o, D, and B.
A N AT O M Y
O t q Z
O F
T H E
F I G U R E
COUNTER The open space in a fully or partly closed area within a letter.
CROSS STROKE A horizontal stroke that intersects the stem of a lowercase t or f.
DESCENDER The portion of some lowercase letters, such as g and y, that extends or descends below the baseline.
DIAGONAL STROKE An angled stroke.
17
k g L i
LEG Short, descending portion of a letter.
LINK A stroke that connects the top and bottom bowls of lowercase double-story g’s.
STEM The main, usually vertical stroke of a letterform.
TITTLE A point or small sign used as a diacritical mark in writing or printing. Also known as a dot.
T Y P E FA C E
C ATA L O G U E
18
EXTENDED2 = EXTENDED(BOLD)
AB C D H I J K O P Q U V W a h o u 1 6 ! ^
F M S Y
G N T Z
b c d e f i j k l m p q r s v w x y
g n t z
2 7 @ &
E L R X
3 8 # *
4 9 $ (
A B C D E H I J K L O P Q R U V W X a h o u 1 6 ! ^
5 0 % )
F M S Y
G N T Z
b c d e f i j k l m p q r s v w x y
g n t z
2 7 @ &
3 8 # *
4 9 $ (
5 0 % )
LINEAR ELASTICITY Figure A. Manually stretched
g
g
gg
Trade Gothic Extended Trade Gothic Stretched
Figure B. In comparison to an extended lowercase g
T Y P E FA C E
C ATA L O G U E
19
(EXTENDED / 2) = CONDENSED No. 18
LINEAR ELASTICITY Figure A. Manually compressed
m
m
A B C D E H I J K L O P Q R U V W X
F M S Y
G N T Z
Trade Gothic Condensed Trade Gothic Compressed
mm
Figure B. In comparison to a condensed no. 18 m
a b c d h i j k o p q u v w
1 6 ! ^
2 7 @ &
e f g l m n r s t x y z
3 4 5 8 9 0 # $ % * ( )
T Y P E FA C E
C ATA L O G U E
20
(CONDENSED No. 18 + 2) * 0.5 = BOLD CONDENSED No. 20
A B C D H I J K O P Q U V W
a b c d h i j k o p q u v w
E L R X
F M S Y
G N T Z
e f g l m n r s t x y z
Case A. Most notably featured in VICE Magazine as a header or title font. Below is an excerpt of their pages typeset.
VICE MAGAZINE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Elis Jones
DEPUTY EDITOR
Wes Enzinna
SENIOR EDITOR
Jacob Z. Gross
PHOTO EDITOR
Elizabeth Renstrom
COPY EDITOR
Rory Tolan
ART EDITOR
Nicholas Gazin
REVIEWS EDITOR
Sean Yeaton
PHOTO-EDITOR AT-LARGE
Matthew Lerifheit
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Molly Crabapple Jean Friedman-Rudovsky Christopher Ketcham
1 2 6 7 ! @ ^ &
3 4 5 8 9 0 # $ % * ( )
Nathaniel Rich Ken Silverstein DESIGN DIRECTOR
Matth Schoen
ART DIRECTION AND LAYOUT
inkubator.ca
T Y P E FA C E
C ATA L O G U E
21
TRADE GOTHIC(REGULAR) 45˚
Bold Oblique
A H O U
B C D E I J K L P Q R V W X
a b c d e h i j k l o p q r u v w x
F M S Y
Oblique
Light Oblique
G N T Z
A H O U
B C D E F I J K L M P Q R S V W X Y
G N T Z
A H O U
B C D E F I J K L M P Q R S V W X Y
G N T Z
f g m n s t y z
a h o u
b c d e f i j k l m p q r s v w x y
g n t z
a b c d e f h i j k l m o p q r s u v w x y
g n t z
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( )
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( )
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( )
C A S E
E X A M P L E S
22
A FEW CASE EXAMPLES DEMONSTRATING THE UTILITY OF THE FONT
1. NEWSPAPER
2. MAGAZINE SPREAD
3. SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL
PUBLISHED BY AN INDEPENDENT PRESS PRINTED IN BALTIMORE, MD COPYRIGHT 1999 - 2017 ISBN 2-067-59339-7
C A S E
E X A M P L E S
23
A MOCKED UP NEWSPAPER SPREAD
ARCHDUKE ASSASSINATED! by Iris Lee
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, nephew of Emperor Joseph, and heir to the Austrian throne, and the Duchess of Hohenberg, his morganatic wife, were shot to death yesterday afternoon while driving the streets of Sarajevo, the Capital of Bosnia. An eighteen-year-old Servian student named Gavro Prinzip was arrested. An attempt to assassinate the Royal couple by means of a bomb failed just an hour or two before the murder.
V “ Princip attempted suicide and failed”
ienna, June 29 — Prinzip and a fellow-conspirator, a compositor from Trebinje named Gabrinovics, barely escaped lynching by the infuriated spectators, and were finally seized by the police, who afforded them protection. The Archduke and the Duchess were on their annual trip to the annexed Provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it was their first visit to the Bosnian capital.
The Archduke Francis Ferdinand and the Duchess of Hohenberg started out in their automobile to attend a reception in their honor at the Town Hall. Suddenly a man named Cabrinvitch, from Terbinje, who was standing among the crowd on the sidewalk, threw a bomb at the Royal car with good aim. The Archduke saw it coming and warded it off with his arm, and the bomb fell to the street and did not explode until after the Archduke’s car had passed. When the explosion occurred it resulted in the wounding of Col. Morizzi, aide-de-camp to the Archduke, and Count. Boss Waldeck, who occupied the car immediately behind that of the Archduke. Six persons among the spectators were more or less seriously injured. The Archduke immediately ordered his chauffeur to stop the car. He made enquires as to what had happened and gave orders to have the injured attended to. After this the procession to the Town Hall continues. Here the town councillors, with the Mayor at their head, were awaiting the Royal party to bid them welcome. The Royal party entered the hall and the Mayor was about to begin his address when Archduke Francis Ferdinand interrupted him and in an angry manner said: “Herr Burgomaster, it is perfectly scandalous. We have come to Sarajevo on a visit and a bomb is thrown at us.” Here he paused a moment and then said: “Now you can go on.” The Mayor then delivered his address and the Archduke made a suitable reply. The people, who by this time had heard about the throwing of the bomb at the Royal motor car, burst into loud cries of “Zivio” (the Slav form of hurrah) as the Archduke concluded his remarks. After making the rounds of the Town Hall, which occupied half an hour, the Archduke and the Duchess started for the garrison hospital to visit Col. Morizzi, the Archduke’s aide, who was injured by the bomb explosion and who had been take to the hospital in a carriage after the outrage. As the Royal car reached the corner of Rudolf Street, a man named Gavro Prinzip, who was on the sidewalk, fired several pistol shots in quick succession at the Archduke and the Duchess. The man, who was only a short distance from the car, was a good marksman. The first shot struck the Duchess of Hohenberg low down on the right side, while the second bullet hit the Archduke in the neck near the throat and pierced the jugular vein. The Duchess became unconscious immediately and fell across the knees of her husband. The Archduke lost consciousness in a few seconds after he was hit. The chauffeur put on full speed and rushed straight to the palace, where an army surgeon tried vainly first aid to the injured. Neither the Archduke nor the Duchess gave any sign of life and the only thing the head of the hospital could do was to certify that both were dead Both assassins are Bosnians. Princip attempted suicide and failed. Cabrinvitch is a compositor, who worked for a few weeks at the Government printing works at Belgrade and returned to Sarajevo a pronounced Servian Chauvinist. He made no concealment of his sympathies with the King of Servia. Both Cabrinvitch and the actual assassin, Prinzip, expressed themselves to the police in the most cynical fashion about their crimes. Continued on Page 33
C A S E
E X A M P L E S
24
A MOCKED UP MAGAZINE SPREAD
KANYE FOR PRESIDENT also by Iris Lee
A
bout six weeks ago, Kanye West raised eyebrows, elicited laughter, and got people wondering about whether or not he was serious when he said that he’d decided to run for president in 2020.
Admitting that he was high before launching into his now-infamous speech probably made it a little more difficult for viewers to take Kanye seriously. In the wake of Donald Trump’s 2015 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, though, the question of how seriously we should take celebrity candidacies is more pertinent than it’s ever been. So, that happened. And, while it seemed like everybody had a comment on the matter, almost no one really, truly believed that Kanye West running for president was a real thing. Kanye, though, wouldn’t let the idea go. He brought it up in several interviews following the VMAs, as did wife Kim Kardashian, who said that her husband was indeed serious about the declaration.“That was news to me,” Kim told Ellen DeGeneres about a month later. “[It] wasn’t a discussion in our household. That’s a big thing to, you know, not talk to your wife about.” But Kim went on: “I believe he is serious, and I know if he puts his mind to something he’ll do his best. It’s been fascinating hearing all the conversations that’ve gone on since that announcement. I don’t know if that was planned, and I just didn’t know about it, or if he came up with that idea right then and there.”Then came the small matter of meeting President Obama and discussing the idea of Kanye West running for president with him–however informal the discussion might have been. Kanye and Kim spoke with President Obama this past weekend at a San Francisco fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee.
2020 VISION
What was the advice? “First of all,” said the President, “you’ve got to spend a lot of time dealing with some strange characters who behave like they’re on a reality TV show.“[And] saying that you have a ‘Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,’” continued Obama, “that’s what’s known as ‘off-message’ in politics. You can’t say something like that…there are a lot of people who have lost their congressional seats saying things like that….“[Plus],” Obama said, “do you really think that this country is going to elect a black guy from the South Side of Chicago with a funny name to be President of the United States? That is crazy. That’s cray!” What does Kanye himself have to say about whether or not he’s running for president? KW brushed aside all concerns and speculation in a recent interview with In Camera. It’s an extensive talk–you can check out the whole thing, in both video and transcript form, by clicking here–but Kanye states pretty unequivocally that he intends to give a 2020 presidential run everything he’s got: It had been talked about a lot for the past five years and talked about with my team and I decided I was going to announce it then….I don’t want to make comments or give opinions on what other people have done. I think [President Obama] has done a lot of great things and I think that there would be no chance of people even considering the concept of me running if he hadn’t have won….I’d like to sit with engineers and come up with solutions and alternatives for people without opportunity that end up having to go through desperate measures or feel like life isn’t worth living or that other people’s lives don’t matter. I think that the way I collaborate with people and the way I empower the people I collaborate with is a different way to look at problem solving for the world than a normal political way. I just want to ask questions. I’ve already decided that when I’m on debates and I don’t know, I’ll just say ‘I don’t know, I’ll get back to you with that,’ and I’ll just consult with the top ten, top five people on the planet and if there isn’t an absolute right answer, I’ll say, ‘These are the two highest answers that we came up with right now,’ because it’s not about me. It’s we. That’s the whole purpose.
C A S E
E X A M P L E S
25
A MOCKED UP SCIENCE JOURNAL ETHER AND THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY Albert Einstein
An Address delivered on May 5th, 1920, in the University of Leyden HOW does it come about that alongside of the idea of ponderable matter, which is derived by abstraction from everyday life, the physicists set the idea of the existence of another kind of matter, the ether? The explanation is probably to be sought in those phenomena which have given rise to the theory of action at a distance, and in the properties of light which have led to the undulatory theory. Let us devote a little while to the consideration of these two subjects. Outside of physics we know nothing of action at a distance. When we try to connect cause and effect in the experiences which natural objects afford us, it seems at first as if there were no other mutual actions than those of immediate contact, e.g. the communication of motion by impact, push and pull, heating or inducing combustion by means of a flame, etc. It is true that even in everyday experience weight, which is in a sense action at a distance, plays a very important part. But since in daily experience the weight of bodies meets us as something constant, something not linked to any cause which is variable in time or place, we do not in everyday life speculate as to the cause of gravity, and therefore do not become conscious of its character as action at a distance. It was Newton's theory of gravitation that first assigned a cause for gravity by interpreting it as action at a distance, proceeding from masses. Newton's theory is probably the greatest stride ever made in the effort towards the causal nexus of natural phenomena. And yet this theory evoked a lively sense of discomfort among Newton's contemporaries, because it seemed to be in conflict with the principle springing from the rest of experience, that there can be reciprocal action only through contact, and not through immediate action at a distance. It is only with reluctance that man's desire for knowledge endures a dualism of this kind. How was unity to be presented in his comprehension of the forces of nature? Either by trying to look upon contact forces as being themselves distant forces which admittedly are observable only at a very small distance – and this was the road which Newton's followers, who were entirely under the spell of his doctrine, mostly preferred to take; or by assuming that the Newtonian action at a distance is only apparently immediate action at a distance, but in truth is conveyed by a medium permeating space, whether by movements or by elastic deformation of this medium. Thus the endeavour toward a unified view of the nature of forces leads to the hypothesis of an ether. This hypothesis, to be sure, did not at first bring with it any advance in the theory of gravitation or in physics generally, so that it became customary to treat Newton's law of force as an axiom not further reducible. But the ether hypothesis was bound always to play some part in physical science, even if at first only a latent part.
When in the first half of the nineteenth century the far-reaching similarity was revealed which subsists between the properties of light and those of elastic waves in ponderable bodies, the ether hypothesis found fresh support. It appeared beyond question that light must be interpreted as a vibratory process in an elastic, inert medium filling up universal space. It also seemed to be a necessary consequence of the fact that light is capable of polarisation that this medium, the ether, must be of the nature of a solid body, because transverse waves are not possible in a fluid, but only in a solid. Thus the physicists were bound to arrive at the theory of the quasi-rigid luminiferous ether, the parts of which can carry out no movements relatively to one another except the small movements of deformation which correspond to light-waves. This theory – also called the theory of the stationary luminiferous ether – moreover found a strong support in an experiment which is also of fundamental importance in the special theory of relativity, the experiment of Fizeau, from which one was obliged to infer that the luminiferous ether does not take part in the movements of bodies. The phenomenon of aberration also favoured the theory of the quasi-rigid ether. The development of the theory of electricity along the path opened up by Maxwell and Lorentz gave the development of our ideas concerning the ether quite a peculiar and unexpected turn. For Maxwell himself the ether indeed still had properties which were purely mechanical although of a much more complicated kind than the mechanical properties of tangible solid bodies. But neither Maxwell nor his followers succeeded in elaborating a mechanical model for the ether which might furnish a satisfactory mechanical interpretation of Maxwell 's laws of the electro-magnetic field. The laws were clear and simple, the mechanical interpretations clumsy and contradictory. Almost imperceptibly the theoretical physicists adapted themselves to a situation which, from the standpoint of their mechanical programme, was very depressing. They were particularly influenced by the electro-dynamical investigations of Heinrich Hertz. For whereas they previously had required of a conclusive theory that it should content itself with the fundamental concepts which belong exclusively to mechanics (e.g. densities, velocities, deformations, stresses) they gradually accustomed themselves to admitting electric and magnetic force as fundamental concepts side by side with those of mechanics, without requiring a mechanical interpretation for them. Thus the purely mechanical view of nature was gradually abandoned. But this change led to a fundamental dualism which in the long-run was insupportable. A way of escape was now sought in the reverse direction, by reducing the principles of mechanics to those of electricity, and this especially as confidence in the strict validity of the equations of Newton's mechanics was shaken by the experiments with b-rays and rapid kathode rays.
FIGURE A.
As in empty space, so too in the interior of material bodies, the ether, and not matter viewed atomistically, was exclusively the seat of electromagnetic fields. According to Lorentz the elementary particles of matter alone are capable of carrying out movements; their electromagnetic activity is entirely confined to the carrying of electric charges. Thus Lorentz succeeded in reducing all electromagnetic happenings to Maxwell's equations for free space. As to the mechanical nature of the Lorentzian ether, it may be said of it, in a somewhat playful spirit, that immobility is the only mechanical property of which it has not been deprived by H. A. Lorentz. It may be added that the whole change in the conception of the ether which the special theory of relativity brought about, consisted in taking away from the ether its last mechanical quality, namely, its immobility. How this is to be understood will forthwith be expounded. The space-time theory and the kinematics of the special theory of relativity were modelled on the Maxwell-Lorentz theory of the electromagnetic field. This theory therefore satisfies the conditions of the special theory of relativity, but when viewed from the latter it acquires a novel aspect. For if K be a system of co-ordinates relatively to which the Lorentzian ether is at rest, the Maxwell-Lorentz equations are valid permanently with reference to K . But by the special theory of relativity the same equations without any change of meaning also hold in relation to any new system of co-ordinates K' which is moving in uniform translation relatively to K . Now comes the anxious question: – Why must I in the theory distinguish the K system above all K' systems, which are physically equivalent to it in all respects, by assuming that the ether is at rest relatively to the K system? For the theoretician such an asymmetry in the theoretical structure, with no corresponding asymmetry in the system of experience, is intolerable. If we assume the ether to be at rest relatively to K , but in motion relatively to K' , the physical equivalence of K and K' seems to me from the logical standpoint, not indeed downright incorrect, but nevertheless inacceptable. Continued on page 34
T Y P E FA C E
C ATA L O G U E
§ Ç Æ Ø Ð Ñ Û Ü Ý Þ ß à á â ã ä å æ è ç é ê ë ì í î ï ð ñ ò ó ô õ ö ƒ ž Ž œ
NOVELTY ITEMS 3 a o ¡ ¦ ¨ © « ¬® ¯ ± µ ¶ · ¸ » ¼ ½ ¾ ¿ × ÷ Ł ł ı þ ˇ ˉ ˘ ˙ ˛ ˜ Ω μ π † ‰ ‹ › ‡ • … ™ ℓ ∆ √ ∞
26
T Y P E FA C E
C ATA L O G U E
€
$¥ £
£ ¢
27
€
$¥ £
ƒ
DEAL OF THE CENTURY: €
$¥
£
£
¢
€
$¥
£
£
¢
€
$¥
£ €
$¥ £
€
$¥ £
€
$¥ £
£ ¢
€
$¥ £
¢ €
$¥ £
£
ƒ £
£
ƒ
ģ
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
¢£
£
£
$¥ £ $¥ £ $¥ £ $¥ £
ƒ
¢ €
$¥
$¥
ƒ
¢ €
$¥
£
ƒ
¢ €
$¥
$¥
ƒ
¢ €
$¥
£
ƒ
¢
€
$¥
$¥
ƒ
¢
€
$¥
£
ƒ
¢
€
$¥
ƒ £
$¥
ƒ
¢
€
$¥
ƒ £
¢ €
$¥
¢
¢
£
50% OFF! £
ƒ £
€
$¥
£
¢
€
$¥
ƒ £
€
$¥
ƒ £
¢
£
ƒ £
€
$¥
ƒ
¢
¢
£
ƒ
ƒ £
€
$¥
£ ¢
£
ƒ
¢
€
$¥
£ ¢
£
ƒ £
€
$¥
£
¢
£
ƒ
¢
€
$¥
ƒ
£
£
ƒ
$¥ £
¢
ƒ
IRIS LEE
Typeface Designer: Jackson Burke Typeface Used: Trade Gothic
Created with Adobe InDesign CC Printed with Aficio SP 8200DN on Gloss Text Paper