Type Field Guide

ARCHER

Hoefler

&

Frere-Jones

B o l d , d i r e c t, f e m i n i n e

SWEET BUT NOT

SACCHARINE BOLD DIRECT

FEMININE

Friendly, Delicate, Personable, Credible, Clear, Beautiful.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3

Z채hringer Edelgr채fler Archer was chosen for the redesign of the wine company labels and logo.

History & Foundry

Includes the reasoning for Archer's specific look, and the genetic DNA that creates the typeface. Also contains information about the type foundry that built Archer: Hoefler & Frere-Jones.

Archer uses ball terminals in both the lower and uppercase forms. Archer is the ideal typeface for a magazine that serves all who aspire to a do-it-yourself lifestyle of perfection.

7 Cliques

A mix of an antique and a geometric slab serif, Archer has the historical authority of a typewriter face, while staying modern and clean.

True slab serifs without brackets and multiple weights allows Archer to become a face that is legible at almost any size.

Neat Facts

Fine details are what make this typeface unique and recognizable.

This face introduces ball terminals in their lowercase characters as well as their uppercase.

Giving Archer a very feminine and interesting feel when read.

9

13

Uniqueness

Inappropriate Usage

Archer's complete family: including glyphs, weights, and different variations of characters.

Complete with descriptions and details about each character.

Grand Budapest Hotel Archer is featured in the Grand Budapest Hotel poster and advertisement. The embellishments within the typeface compliment the Indian style that is featured in the film.

Also includes information about the languages that are supported within the glyphs of Archer. Very useful information if you are communicating with another culture! Or even a friend or neighbor that doesn't speak the same language.

11 Archer in Action

Archer in its natural habitat: clean, highlighted, and used in a more feminine application.

Examples of Archer in appropriate usages, both in print and digital productions.

When type foundry Hoefler & Frere-Jones released its typeface Archer, it became the subject of numerous blogs, with everyone from website designers to scrapbookers granting their approval. No one seemed to have anything bad to say about the slab serif and its elegant and functional, yet subtly quirky forms. But Archer's instant stardom raises questions about its appropriateness. Can a font with such a defined character properly suit so many purposes?

Where She's From

Hoefler & Frere-Jones

WHERE SHE'S FROM Archer’s Skeleton

To make the typeface frank — direct, but not brusque — Hoefler & Frere-Jones introduced subtle cues from the world of typewriter faces, and combine the ordinariness of Antiques with the modern practicality of Geometrics.

A+A =A

Typewriter Face

Typewriter History

Just about every typewriter face is a Slab Serif. There are hundreds to choose from, from Courier to ITC American Typewriter immortalised in Milton Glaser’s I ‘Heart’ New York logo. The heavy-weight, no-nonsense serifs of the typewriter types are wellsuited to this particular form of printing, and perform well on even the poorest quality paper.

3 . Archer History

Geometric Face

Geometric History

Geometric sans serifs are exactly what their name suggests. Instead of being derived from early Grotesques, like a Neo-Grotesque, or from calligraphic and engraved forms like the Humanist sans, they are built on geometric shapes. The characters often have optically circular bowls and are otherwise typically very rectangular, sharing many components between the various glyphs.

HOEFLER & FRERE-JONES

Archer

Archer History

There are thousands of slab serif types available today; some are simply digitised oldies; others are sans serifs and geometric sans serifs with slab serifs stuck on; others still, rise above the crowd and bring something fresh to this style of type. Archer from H&FJ is perhaps one of the best slab serifs for setting extended text. It comes in numerous weights, has an excellent italic accompaniment, and just looks damn good. And, of course, the heavier weights and caps work beautifully for display.

Hoefler & Frere-Jones

A typographic duo that was comissioned to create an original typeface for the Martha Stewart Living magazine. The company's body of almost 800 fonts includes the architecture-inspired Gotham and the eponymous Hoefler Text, a font developed for Apple to demonstrate advanced type technologies. The type foundry boasts a list of famous clients, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Tiffany, Nike, and more. The duo has since split up, Frere-Jones believes that Hoefler tricked him into transferring ownership of several fonts, including Whitney, to Hoefler & Frere-Jones in exchange for 50% equity of the company.

What is a Foundry?

A type foundry is a company that designs and/or distributes typefaces; a type manufacturer.

The name originated in the days of metal type when type was made from molten lead.

4 . Archer History

Hoefler & Frere-Jones

Cliques

CLIQUES

A The Majestic Slab-Serifs

Slab-serifs are blocks of weight that are attatched to the base and cap lines of each character. These serifs provide greater readablility and visual stability. For these reasons, Archer can be trusted to deliver information, but because of the feminine aesthetic, we have to be choosy concerning the applications of this marvelous typeface.

5 . Archer Classification

Ee Pp Tt

The Groovy Geometrics

These geometric forms give Archer a very modern appeal. It is easy on the eyes and fluid to read at small sizes because of the large x-height. Very useful in informative settings.

M O V Ball-Terminal Gal

Ball terminals are similar to the jewelry a woman puts on: nice without it but it gives our characters an extra "oomf" when they go out in public. These ball terminals set Archer apart from other "plain" slab-serifs.

j

6 . Archer Classification

Q Hoefler & Frere-Jones

Neat Facts

NEAT FACTS

Glyphs are variations of individual letterforms, also known as alternates, within a certain typeface.

Archer is an OpenType font, which are fonts that are virtually limitless in the number of characters they can contain. In preparation for moving its library into OpenType, Hoefler & Co. established the Language Research Program in 2005, in order to develop updated specifications for its Latin-based character sets. The initial product of this research is our Latin-X® character set, which expands the reach of a typeface to an additional 200,000,000 readers worldwide. This character set reflects not only a more accurate awareness of the political landscape of language, but the most up-to-date understanding of cultural norms. Numerics within Archer also hold a wide variety: Lining and Old-Style numerics can adapt to any preferred look a design is trying to acheive. Archer also holds Tabular figures, that are numerics set to a fixed width, making charts and information easier to organize and read.

Archer's glyphs contain ligatures: graceful combinations of two letterforms, and beautiful fractions.

Fractions

Fractions within a typeface can get very clustered, but Hoefler & Frere-Jones have circumvented that problem by including harmoniously formed fractions within the glyphs. ⅓ ⅖ ⅚ ⅞

7 . Archer Glyph Details

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz

Identification

Archer has very distinctive characters within its library. Ball terminals have been reintroduced into the lowercase of the monoweight slab-serif. Characters such as "S, C, A and Q" hold the DNA of this typeface. Numerals also hold the DNA of the typeface, even as they come in many forms. Archer's vast collection of numerals makes this typeface easily adaptable to any situation.

Old-Style 1234567890 Lining 1234567890 Tabular 1234567890 Circular 1234567890

8 . Archer Glyph Details

Hoefler & Frere-Jones

Uniqueness

UNIQUENESS

Talk About a Big Family

Slab Serif

Ball Terminal

SQA

Archer would have to answer some formidable typographic demands, since Living is an almanac of lists, recipes, charts, diagrams, tables, calendars, and glossaries. To make the typeface frank — direct, but not brusque — we introduced subtle cues from the world of typewriter faces, which combine the ordinariness of Antiques with the modern practicality of Geometrics. We restored the vanished ‘ball terminals’ to the lowercase, and uncharacteristically applied these gestures to the capitals as well, in order to yield a font that’s friendly without being silly, and attractive without being flashy. The result is a typeface that’s well-mannered, easy to work with, and inviting to read.

Cc

Crossbar

Swash

9 . Archer History

@@@ @@@ @@

Aa Bb Cc Book

Aa Bb Cc

Aa Bb Cc

Book Italic

Medium

Aa Bb Cc

Aa Bb Cc

Aa Bb Cc

Medium Italic

Semibold

Semibold Italic

Aa Bb Cc

Aa Bb Cc

Aa Bb Cc

Bold Italic

Light

Aa Bb Cc

Aa Bb Cc

Light Italic

Extra Light

Aa Bb Cc

Aa Bb Cc

Aa Bb Cc

Thin

Thin Italic

Hairline

Bold

Aa Bb Cc Extra Light Italic

Aa Bb Cc Hairline Italic

Unique Characteristics of Archer

When Martha Stewart Living asked us to develop a new typeface for the magazine, it seemed that a slab serif could answer much of the brief. A slab could be personable, straightforward, and credible, though it would take special effort to also make it pretty, hard-working, and frank.

Monoweight

The basis of Archer's design is monoweight: all lines are the same width within the typeface. There are slight differences withing the weights, true, but they are so slight that it is almost dismissive.

10 . Archer Characteristics

Hoefler & Frere-Jones

Archer in Action

ARCHER IN ACTION

Panisto Rebrand

The rebrand of a tea, coffee, and flour shop in Belgium. The feminine quality of the swashes and the crown give this logotype the correct backing it needs to use Archer in a beautiful way.

Alan Bennett's Smut

Bennett's book that chooses to explore readers' private desires, without being too forward. Hence, the cup reference to more sexual ideas. Archer in this use is very lady-like while helping to conceal mature content.

11 . Archer Usage

Martha Stewart Living Magazine

The original usage of Archer, Martha Stewart owns this face! The use of the face in recipies, diagrams, and decorating do-it-yourself tips gave Archer its distict voice of "the mother that knows best, but can still be stylish, too."

12 . Archer Usage

Hoefler & Frere-Jones

Inappropriate Usage

INAPPROPRIATE USAGE Archer's Specific Look

Archer was created with a specific purpose and design in mind: to be direct and clear, yet to have a delicate typographic beauty.

April 23, 2015

Quaker

We love Quaker as much as the next guy, but this redesign makes no sense. It lost its historical context when it tried to to with Archer's geometry. Keep trying Quakers, you almost "quacked" it.

NEW YORK TIMES

Serious News Articles

Pretty Type for Serious Articles

DRASTIC TYPE CRIMES EVERYWHERE Is Archer Right for Serious News?

In May 2008, Newsweek hired the prestigious design firm Number 17 to make over the magazine. But the adoption of Archer for its interior type resulted in some public skepticism of its use. Andrew Boardman, designer and writer of the blog Deckchairs on the Titanic, echoed common complaints when he wrote that Archer “is so over-used and inelegantly styled [in Newsweek] that reading the magazine is an exercise in futility.” He became so focused on the slabs and dots of the typeface that it became “like reading a garden.” Boardman admitted that Archer is a “great display face, but it doesn't work for Newsweek.

13 . Archer Inappropriate Usage

Wedding Invitations

Archer was specifically designed for decorative, yet functional magazine copy. In a wedding invitation, Archer is too informative and not formal enough for the copy, no matter how beautifully Hoefler & Frere-Jones designed the typefae.

14 . Archer Inappropriate Usage

Cited Copy Sources I Love Typography. Jun 20, 2008. Blog.

Fontshop Glossary. 2015. Web. Hoefler & Co. Archer. 2008. Web.

HOEFLER & FREre-jones