ET YPE
PYPE E
Table of Contents 02 08 16 24 30 36 40
Basic Sans
by Walker Madsen
Beatrice Display by Emmet Ceccanti
Bely
by Jess Hardy
Gotham
by Lucy Houghton
GT America by Alina Chiu
Roboto Slab by Solena Aguilar
Utily Sans
by Morgan Ibarra
Typography, An Introduction What is typography? Why does it matter? How does it impact our lives? The Merriam-Webster definition of “typography” is: “the work of producing printed pages from written material” or “the style, arrangement, or appearance of printed letters on a page.” How those letters, words, and sentences are styled and arranged affects how they are perceived. Good typography clarifies content, establishes hierarchy, and presents information in a manner that makes it easier to read, and, therefore, to understand. Good typography is good communication: it can start a dialog or advance an idea or make a difference in the world. Typography is also intertwined with our daily lives—we encounter type in everything from the products we buy, the signage around us, the books we read, the news we consume, and the directions we follow. Typography can be beautiful, functional, persuasive, and inviting. It can also fail, especially when there is a disconnect between how the type looks and what the text says. This book is a celebration of typography and typeface design. It is also a creative collaboration among students in Art 338: Typography II at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, during winter quarter 2020. Each student in the class researched a different typeface and contributed the pages in this book that describe and showcase their assigned typeface. The final design reflects the many talents of the students who brought this project to life. Charmaine Martinez Associate Professor of Design and Type Enthusiast Department of Art and Design California Polytechnic State University
3 | For the Love of Type
For the Love of Type | 4
The Typeface.
Basic sans is a neutral Grotesque typeface on the surface, but on closer analysis hold lots of subtle details that prove pleasant to the eye and much more comforting than your run of the mill sans serif. It comes in a wide variety of weights and supports over 200 languages. Basic Sans works well in just about any setting, but it does its best job as a sub-head or at medium sizes. Packed with tons of personality for such a neutral face and bursting with alternative characters through OpenType. Basic Sans will be a great addition to any project and as a compliment to your next typeface selection.
Whats the Story?
Released in 2016, Basic Sans is a contemporary typeface with Grotesque features designed by Daniel Hernรกndez for the Latinotype foundry. It breaks some of the rules for a Grotesque face with its more humanist nuances. Grotesque typefaces are generally characterized by their less sanitary appearance with lots of visual character and quirkiness as compared to Neo-Grotesques like Helvetica, which are generally regarded as
free of personality. This of course can be what is desired for your design, however, there is always an opportunity to use something more specific rather than generic. Grotesques are typically more geometric in their proportions but nowhere near the extremes of Geometric Sans Serifs like Futura. Basic Sans shows its more humanist side in its slightly looser letterforms that don’t conform as strictly to their geometric origins. A very subtle touch of the artists hand is present in these letterforms. Another detail about this typeface is its breath of language support with almost every accent character under the sun. Although designer Daniel Hernández does not speak of it directly, I believe this may be the result of his proud Latino heritage and cultural awareness. As an English only speaker, it could be easy to disregard accent characters as English does not have any of its own. Basic Sans supports over 200 languages with copious different accent characters to be used.
The Designer.
Born in Chile, Daniel Hernández began his type design career rather early in his career when he left for Buenos Aires, Argentina. Before he was even out of school he won a 2006 award from Argentinian magazine tipoGráfica for his first typeface Stgotic, a stylish 8-bit (eight pixels tall) blackletter design. After graduating, desiring freedom in his work, Daniel partnered with Miguel Hernández and Luciano Vergara to start the Latinotype foundry. They desired to professionalize their discipline in Chile, a place not well known at the time for its type design, and as a means to distribute Latin American type to the world. Daniel believes it important that Chile does not have the same typographic tradition that stands in the United States and in Europe as it allows him to try new things “without fear, without prejudices, without a past and with a lot of future” -Daniel
Basic Sans Black Basic Sans Bold Basic Sans SemiBold Basic Sans Regular Basic Sans Light Basic Sans ExtraLight Basic Sans Thin
Basic Sans comes in a variety of weights as well as a matching set of true italics (as opposed to oblique) and proper small caps. The numerals are tabular lining meaning that each number is given its own spacing and all numerals sit on or above the baseline. It consists of mostly uniform stroke contrast with slight variations on the shoulders of characters like the lowercase m, n, and r. In terms of readability, the x-height would be classified as medium to slightly tall making it very legible and it sits on the wider side with a slightly wider set width than average which does not make it ideal for when condense type is needed, however there are narrow and condensed versions for this purpose. The letter-forms are quite geometric in nature however the humanist and grotesque influences mean it does not follow as strict a structure as actual geometric faces.
OpenType Features Like many typefaces, the letter a and g, when two story, will switch to a single-story variant when italicized. However basic sans allows you to use the single story version even in non-italics
through OpenType’s stylistic alternatives. Another character that can be adjusted is the uppercase I, which without a crossbar can be confused with a lowercase L.
aaaaaaa 7 | For the Love of Type
A Little Quirky Basic Sans has many quirks you would not see in other similar typefaces, examples of this are; the terminals are angled slightly off of the horizontal on characters like a, n, and s; The letter-form C’s upper terminal is angled more horizontal whereas its lower terminal is angled more vertical; The italics for this typeface adds curved strokes where they were once strait as seen in the letter K. This can change the look and feel quite a bit which might come as a surprise if you were expecting standard italics.
For the Love of Type | 8
BEATRICE DISPLAY Beatrice Display is a san serif typeface published by Sharp Type in 2018. It is meant to accompany Beatrice, a much more traditional san serif designed for large sections of text. The creators of Beatrice set out to design something entirely new. By ignoring the rules that govern most typefaces, Beatrice explores an entirely new realm of type through a new system of contrast. The display version takes this system to the extreme by offering up a super high contrast sans serif with inner thin strokes.
9 | For the Love of Type
Display of typeface weights from Sharp Type
PROCESS Lucas Sharp, the founder of Sharp Type, is not interested in “digging through the ancient tomes and finding something to revive,” but is always seeking to create something new. Beatrice is evident of this, as it was created with a unique set of “physics and rules.” Despite its unique look, the design of Beatrice began with the skeletal structure of a traditional American Gothic typeface. Its radical look and feel can be attributed to the new system of “internal contrast” (Sharp). This system puts emphasis on the outside of the letterform while turning the inner portion of the letterform into hairlines strokes.
Inner Contrast System
Sharp explains that, “the classic sans-serif convention of pinching at the intersections of strokes and bowls creates a texture of thicks and thins that behave functionally in much the same way as a standard high-contrast expansionist sans-serif, even though aesthetically it is wildly different” (Sharp).
Inner Contrast Strokes
11 | For the Love of Type
Having only been published two years ago, Beatrice is a typeface not yet widely known by the design community. The unexpected warping of the letterforms have made it an interesting display type for posters and book covers, while its feature in Communication Arts has helped to spread awareness of the typeface. Sharp Type hopes that Beatrice Display will be used as a tool by creatives of all kinds to explore the boundaries of typography. The playful, exuberant, and strong qualities of the typeface are what led Sharp to name the typeface after his mother, who was a non-conformist in the creative world.
S
S For the Love of Type | 12
G 13 | For the Love of Type
DESIGNER After growing up in Fairfax, Cafilornia, Lucas Sharp attended Parsons School of Design where he graduated with a degree in Communication Design. In 2011 Sharp published his first typeface Hera Big as part of his thesis. Since then, Lucas has released a number of typeface families and opened up Sharp Type, a digital type foundry based in New York. Sharp Type is Lucas Sharp’s latest venture after closing doors on his first design studio Pagan & Sharp Studio which was co-founded with Juan Pagan. Started by Sharp and co-founder Chantra Malee in 2015, Sharp Type has released fourteen different type families, and has recived seven international typography and design awards. Beatrice and Beatrice Display are the latest releases by Sharp Type, with help from co-designers Connor Davenport and Kia Tasbihgou. This type family is the 2018 winner of the Communication Arts Annual Typography Competition.
For the Love of Type | 14
abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 Beatrice Display Regular
Ascenders
X-Height
Base Line
display Descenders
Beatrice Display Regular Italic
abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 1234567890
15 | For the Love of Type
ANALYSIS Beatrice Display’s ultra high contrast and very tight spacing make it extremely difficult to read at body copy sizes, but an elegant and bold choice for a display type. Beatrice has a very tall x-height with shortened ascenders and descenders. Included in the family are numerous alternate characters that are available to customize the look and feel of the type. These characters include a straight sided “a,” and a wide variety of different numerals and case sensitive parentheses. The unique horizontal hairline tittle above the “i” and “j” can also be swapped out for alternate characters with a more conventional circular tittle. The capital “E” and “W” have alternate characters that play with the stroke and weight to give a different look and feel. One of the most unique characteristics of the Beatrice Display family is in how the italicized weights are constructed. The terminals on the italic characters come to a hairline point and curl upwards, adding some calligraphic influence to the letterforms. On some characters, this curl comes all the way around to form a closed counter. This is evident on the “g,” “a,” and “k” characters.
Shirt designed by Justin Sloane to celebrate Beatrice.
Beatrice Display should not be used at sizes under 36pts in order to ensure legibility. One of the best pairings for smaller texts is Beatrice, as it is designed to accompany Beatrice Display. Beatrice still functions within the “internal contrat” system, but has much more subtle stroke contrast, making it easy to read at smaller sizes. In addition to Beatrice, most American Gothic typefaces will pair nicely with Beatrice Display because of their similar structure.
For the Love of Type | 16
17 | For the Love of Type
Bely.a typeface story Balance. Striking. Experimental. Released by TypeTogether in 2016, Bely is a luxurious, sophisticated spin on the classic serif style containing four text weights that ensure ease of legibility. As a classic serif Bely Text features beautifully balanced capitals. The family also includes Bely Display, a bold and expressive French-style inspired display weight which experiments with the balance of stroke contrast and both triangular and rectangular shape. Bely Display is an excellent weight for larger sizes with its striking angled and high stroke contrast. Bely includes the Latin A Extended glyph set as well as its two text weights, matching italics, and unique display style. Bely’s OpenType features allow for typographic exploration as it offers small caps, both tabular and proportional lining and old-style figures, ligatures, alternate characters, case-sensitive variants, and fractions. Since its creation in 2016, Bely has won the following awards: the TypeTogether’s Typeface Publishing Incentive Programme scholarship (2014), the French magazine Étapes for the Diploma Issue (2014), the “TransFormations” exhibition at Centre Pompidou in France (2014), and the SOTA catalyst Award (2016).
For the Love of Type | 18
19 | For the Love of Type
Roxanegataud.bio J'aime la typographie. Bely, released in 2016, is the first contribution to the type world by French-native Roxane Gatuad. Roxane Gatuad, born in 1991, is an independent typeface designer from France. After studying graphic design for four years, Gatuad enrolled in the 2012 ESAD Type programme in Amiens, France. At ESAD, Gatuad designed her first typeface and graduated with honors a few years later. In 2014, Gateau received TypeTogether’s first Typeface Publishing Incentive Programme (now named Gerard Unger Scholarship) for the design of Bely and consequently Bely was released in 2016. In 2016, Gateau received the Catalyst Award from The Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA) for the creation of Bely. Since her graduation from ESAD, Gateau had collaborated with other type designers and foundries such as Typofonderie, 205.TF, Production Type, Typefactory, and Alice Savoie. Bely is inspired by classic French-style serifs. As a young designer, Roxanne Gataud, wanted to create a bold and fearless typeface that defied the rules of both text and display weights. With Gataud at the helm, this typeface family evokes a luxurious, sophisticated demeanor, built by classical proportions and legibility. Gateau also experimented with the balance and contrast of shape, as the family itself is comprised of both bold triangular serifs on the top as well as thick, bracketed, rectangular serifs at the bottom. While Bely’s text weights were created for legibility, Bely Display was created to stun with a beautiful angled stress in each of its vowels. Furthermore, Gatuad’s final touch on this exquisite typeface was the high stroke contrast displayed in the Bely text weights and most apparent in Bely’s display weight.
For the Love of Type | 20
21 | For the Love of Type
Bely.typographic analysis An exploration of shapes. Released by TypeTogether in 2016, Bely is a luxurious, sophisticated spin on the classic serif style containing four text weights that ensure ease of legibility and a display weight that is bold and extremely experimental. Concerning Bely’s text weights, the stress is angled and the stroke contrast is medium. The typeface letter forms have larger apertures than most serifs which lends to their increased overall width. Bely text weights also include old style nonlining numerals that allow numerals to sit below the baseline. Letter forms like the capital ‘E’ display triangular serifs at their tops, with some extending off of the arms of letter forms. Although the capital ‘G’ does not have a spur, it is a unique letter form due to the fact that it displays a lower arm terminal than most serifs which extends to both the right and the left of the arm. The tail of the capital ‘Q’ letter form is unique because it displays a triangular shape and points sharply downward. Reminiscent of many slab serif typefaces, the capital ‘R’ letter form displays the rectangular serifs that adorn the base of many letter forms in the Bely alphabet. The lowercase ‘g’ is a unique, double-storied letter form whose link and loop sit below the baseline. Concerning Bely’s display weight, the stress is angled that follows the forms of the text weights; however, the stroke contrast is higher than that of the text weights. Due to the high angle contrast, letter forms like the capital ‘C’ have smaller apertures that follow the distinct angle of the letter forms. In addition, unlike the text weights, the display weight does not have old style non-lining numerals.
For the Love of Type | 22
23 | For the Love of Type
Typeface
Serif
Bely Typeface Weights
Bely Regular Bely Italic Bely Bold Bely Bold Italic Bely Display Regular
ascent
x-height
Q G Fg Typeface Analysis
R C
abcdfg abcdfg
baseline
descent
For the Love of Type | 24
ABCDEFGHI JKLMNOPQR STUVWXYZ 1234567890 “It’s not German, it’s not French, it’s not Swiss. It’s very American.”
abcdefghi jklmnopqr stuvwxyz !@#$%&*? 6
25 | For the Love of Type
For the Love of Type
HISTORY
Gotham is described as a no-nonsense, masculine, all American typeface. Gotham is straightforward, yet has a personality of its own. It is a new typeface that feels familiar, as it hearkens back to the signage many people are so familiar with. It has become the typeface of American politics, known for its use in Barak Obama’s presidential campaign. Gotham has become a no-nonsense, working class typeface. Created by Tobias Frere-Jones, Gotham goes beyond the traditional sans serif look, escaping the bounds of the traditional grid which was used to create it. Newsweek described Gotham best, “Unlike other sans serif typefaces, it’s not German, it’s not French, it’s not Swiss. It’s very American” (Challand). Gotham was created in 2000, after GQ magazine commissioned Tobias Frere-Jones to create something “masculine, new, and fresh” (Challand). Exploring the humanist and geometric signage of the post-war building signage found around New York City, Frere-Jones used New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal as inspiration for his project. In an outtake from the film Helvetica,
Frere-Jones said “[w]e both noticed the lettering on the Port Authority Bus Terminal up on 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. The lettering over the front door is this very plain geometric letter, but its not the type of letter that a type designer would make. It’s the kind of letter an engineer would make. It was born outside of type design, in some other world and has a very distinct flavor from that” (Challand). Gotham is often critiqued as being too associated with New York City due to this, and its visual language being similar to that of the architecture of the city. Gotham became public in 2002, where it was quickly used for many brands, newspapers, movie posters, and political campaigns due to its distinctly American feel. Most notably it appeared in Obama’s HOPE campaign, which only further drove its popularity. Appearing in the FIFA World Cup logo, the Cartoon Network rebrand, Twitter, Spotify, Netflix, Saks, New York University, The Tribeca Film Festival, TV shows including CONAN and Saturday Night Live (Hawley). Gotham is everywhere. It has become such a part of culture that it is hardly worth noting when it appears somewhere new anymore.
For the Love of Type | 26
Tobias Frere–Jones
8
27 | For the Love of Type
For the Love of Type
G Tobias Frere-Jones is one of the world’s leading type designers, with over 25 years of experience creating widely used typefaces that have become a part of contemporary type language. His work includes Interstate, Poynter Oldstyle, Whitney, Gotham, Surveyor, Tungsten and Retina. He leads Frere-Jones Type, an independent type design studio in New York. He prefers a cleaner style of type, often based on historic typefaces. He has recieved the Gerrit Noordzij Prijs for his contributions to typographic design, writing and education, as well as the AIGA medal for his exceptional contributions to the field of design (Jones Type). Gotham was designed by Frere–Jones but is released through Hoeflet & Co
“Its not the type of letter that a type designer would make.”
For the Love of Type | 28
Ee Tt Hh Ff Gg Jj 10
29 | For the Love of Type
For the Love of Type
Gotham can be utilized for both body copy and headers, as its many different weights make it a highly versatile typeface. The letters have a uniform stroke and low contrast between thick and thin. Due to it being a geometric sans serif, the letters are familiar. The typeface consists of very round, almost completely circular curves, and an x-height in the middle of ascenders and descenders. There is no stress on the letters, and it has short descenders and high ascenders. There are a lot of repeated shapes found in the typeface—partly due to it being a geometric typeface—but it is found in areas other than triangles, circles and squares. For example, the lowercase u and the lowercase n are the same symbol, just flipped. The counter is offset, which creates strong vertical lines, and the typeface also has flat terminals. The crossbar is offset, meaning that while the bar is completely horizontal, the bar on the left is shorter compared to the letter form than the bar on the right of the letter form, which is longer. This creates a grounded, masculine look. The punctuation and counters are also square, which adds to this. Gotham has a total of sixty six styles, including a condensed version. This huge family allows for versatility and adaptability. Gotham has been compared to other typefaces like Futura, but Gotham has more personality than the traditional geometric sans serif. Its masculine, working class quality brings life and color to it, where some geometric sans serifs feel cold. Gotham is clean and straightforward, with a variety in its family which has allowed it to become embedded in the consciousness of modern culture. It doesn’t seem to be going anywhere for quite a while.
“It was born outside of type design” For the Love of Type | 30
Grilli Type Grilli Type is an independent Swiss type foundry based in Lucerne, Switzerland. Grilli offers retail and custom typefaces. They often collaborate with other designers, artists, and developers like Josh Schaub, Pieter Pelgrims, and David Elsener. All of Grilli’s team members actually work remotely which makes meetings in different time zones a huge challenge. Each of Grilli’s typefaces include a minisite that allows the type design to be appreciated by type aficionados.
31 | For the Love of Type
o t e m Welco
o l u a P
Meet the Designers GT America was created by Noel Leu and Seb McLauchlan under Grilli Type. The independent Swiss type foundry was founded by Leu and Thierry Blancpain in 2009.
Noel Leu Noel Leu is a Swiss graphic designer and type designer who travels extensively across Asia, Europe, and North America where he gives workshops. At art school, his teachers told him to “forget about type design as a career” as it was “way too difficult” and that Leu shouldn’t consider it. Leu asked other teachers and they all seemed to have the same response of typography not being able to market well and that no one would pay for it. Leu didn’t listen to them and felt rebellious. This is when he began his early design internship at the Swiss type foundry, Moire. After Leu gained more knowledge and experience, he went on to start up Grilli Type and quickly released GT Pressura as their first type family in collaboration with Moire.
Seb McLauchlan Seb McLauchlan is a self-taught type designer since his university did not offer type design as a part of their program. He spent many nights working on letters and eventually emailed Grilli type, shortly after they opened, to ask for advice and feedback on his first attempt at type design. Everytime that he thought he designed a letter that was presentable, he would email Grilli and “pester” them for feedback. After a year, he saw that Grilli was looking for an intern, so he was able to work with them after Grilli had seen his progress over the course of the year.
For the Love of Type | 32
The Story of GT America GT America is about the missing link between 19th century American Gothics and 20th century European Neo-Grotesk typefaces. Gothic typeface designs in the United States and Grotesque designs in Europe did not mature and develop separately from each other, instead, Neo-Grotesk builds on the ideas and the structures of the form and framework of the European typefaces, such as Scheltersche and Akzidenz Grotesk. GT America is essentially the bridge between American Gothic and European Neo-Grotesk with a Swiss approach. Thus GT America’s icon is represented with an American flag and a Swiss cross among it’s stars. GT America received its name similarly to Helvetica. Helvetica was named after Switzerland as it is Latin for Swiss. The name GT America reflects its country of inspiration, in this case, the United States which is known for its rich Gothic letterforms. According to Leu, “The concept was to design a Gothic typeface with a Swiss mindset, I really love Gothic type designs, but in my opinion they tend to lack a systematic approach in both details and broad planning of the type family.” GT America uses the best aspects, forms, and design features from both typographic cultures, specifically the widths and the weights and combines them to create a contemporary and versatile family. Now, the two typographic traditions have come together to form a large and functional typographic family that consists of eighty-four styles spanning across six widths and seven weights that is exclusively available through the Grilli Type foundry.
374 Glyphs GT America also includes 374 glyphs on top of all of their styles, this includes diacritics, ligatures, punctuation, math symbols, arrows, currency, circled numbers, fractions, different number styles, and tabular characters.
33 | For the Love of Type
Visual Analysis The stems of some of the characters, such as the letter ‘A’, are tapered to avoid dark spots in tight corners, this is also true in letters such as ‘b’ and ‘p’, where the angled spurs also achieve the openness in tighter corners. In all styles, there is an alternate ‘g’ character for a Swiss style look. GT America also has some other alternate characters such as the number 1 and alternate arrows depending on the style, as well as some OpenType features. GT America’s stroke endings in characters such as the S is more angled the heavier the weight. By angling the storke endings, it prevents the characters from looking as if it has closed, dark counters. Characters such as the letter ‘C, O, e, and S’ were drawn in a way that the paths would allow for both straight and curved vertical sides. According to Grilli Type, GT America’s italics are also manually corrected to fit with their Roman styles.
For the Love of Type | 34
Welcome to O’Hare International Airport
GT America
Departures
7:56 A.M.
GT America Subfamilies GT America’s family consists of Compressed, Condensed, Standard, Mono, Extended, and Expanded. The Compressed subfamily allows is the most condensed style out of the entire family. It is also the most tightly spaced syle. The Condensed subfamily is considered to be the “space-saving” adaptation of the Standard subfamily. The Standard subfamily is optimized from text size usage. Its type proportions are narrow, however, it is spaced out widely. The Mono subfamily includes characters of all the same widths. The Extended subfamily’s type proportions are wide with a more grotesque adaptation. The Expanded subfamily is optimized for large display text and is more expressive in its design. BOARDING
Zürich, ZRH
New-York, JF
Passenger DOO / KIPP ER ger Passen R KIPPE DOO / Class Seat
PASS ARDING
BO
18A
K -York, JF
New , ZRH
Zürich
ger Passen R KIPPE DOO / g Boardin 09:10
Date 20 H 3, 20 MARC arting
Dep 09:40
Priority 4 1 2 3
lass
First C
BOARDING PASS
Boarding 09:10
K RK / JF
No. Flight GT-2016 Gate D26
Seat 18A
35 | For the Love of Type
20
Departing 09:40
New-York, JFK
Passenger DOO / KIPPER
Date MARCH 3, 2020
Flight No. GT-2016
Seat
Class
First Class
TO: NEWYORK / JFK FROM: ZÜRICH / ZRH DATE: 03MARCH
Boarding 09:10
Departing 09:40
Priority 1 2 3 4
Gate D26
Seat 18A
Priority 1 2 3 4
18A
Passenger DOO / KIPP ER
K
Seat
18A
Date MARCH 3, 20
Passenger DOO / KIPPER
YO TO: NEW H CH / ZR : ZÜRI FROM MARCH 03 : DATE Zürich, ZRH
PASS
Flight No. GT-2016 Gate D26
Seat 18A
Class
First Class
TO: NEWYOR K / JFK FROM: ZÜRIC H / ZRH DATE: 03MA RCH
Ultra Light
Thin
Regular
Medium
Bold
Black
84 Styles
BOARDING PASS
Passenger DOO / KIPPER
Zürich, ZRH
New-York, JFK
Passenger DOO / KIPPER
Date MARCH 3, 2020
Flight No. GT-2016
Seat
Class
18A
First Class
TO: NEWYORK / JFK FROM: ZÜRICH / ZRH DATE: 03MARCH
Boarding 09:10
Departing 09:40
Priority 1 2 3 4
Gate D26
Seat 18A
The family encompasses 5 widths, a monospace series, and italics, all in 7 weights. This results in GT America having 84 styles.
For the Love of Type | 36
Typeface Story
Roboto Slab CREATED IN 2013
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
37 | For the Love of Type
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.
DESIGNER TIMELINE 2001 Graduates from Brigham Young University
2005 Visual Design Director at Punchcut
DESIGNER BIO
Christian Robertson Christian Robertson received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design at Brigham Young University and then went on to be the visual design director for Punchcut, an experience design company. After Punchcut, he started working at Google in 2010 and then created Roboto in 2011 and Roboto Slab in 2013. Robertson has also helped release the Ubuntu-Title typeface. He did this through his own type foundry called Betatype, located in San Francisco, California, which is where Robertson is also from. Robertson is currently still working at Google as an Android Visual Designer and at Betatype. Christian Robertson also has a family and in his off time enjoys tending to his garden and tomato plants.
2010 Android Visual Designer at Google
2011 Creation of Roboto for Android operating system
2013 Release of Roboto Slab
2020 Robertson works at Google and Betatype, his type foundry.
Characteristics
Rbto
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890
Roboto Slab is a neo-grotesque slab serif typeface that was originally created as a default typeface for Google. Because it is a slab serif, the serifs in this typeface are large and are about the same width as the rest of the letters. What makes this typeface unique to others is that its serifs have slight, diagonal brackets that connect the serifs to the rest of the letter. This component makes the typeface more welcoming and playful than other slab serif typefaces that have no brackets between their serifs. The overall cap height of these letters is also very large, which means that if someone is designing with this typeface, they should choose a smaller point size than they would normally for subheads and headlines, for instance. Since Roboto Slab also has a large character and body width, this typeface should not be used for body copy because
Diagonal brackets
39 | For the Love of Type
No serifs on crossbars or arms
No serifs on tails
In terms of the overall sizing of Roboto Slab, the lowercase letters have a very high x-height, and small ascender and descender highs, compared to other slab serif typefaces. The thin, extra light and light weights should also only be used for large scale pieces and sizes because the stems and arms of these weights are very thin and most strokes could be considered hairline strokes.
Gpb Ascender
X-height
Descender
Strokes taper when bowl meets stems
Large bowls, counters, and eyes
ROBOTO SLAB WEIGHTS
Roboto Slab also carries no serif with its crossbars or arms, as seen in E, F, t, and f. The tail on the uppercase Q also contains no serif. This typeface also has very large counters and eyes and fairly small vertex spaces and crotch angles.
RRRRRR
these heights, along with the large serifs, make this typeface difficult to read at a small scale.
Thin
Light
Regular
Medium
Bold
Cap-height
Black
Small vertex and crotches
For the Love of Type | 40
the story, Utily Sans is a contemporary sans serif typeface hailing from the type foundry LatinoType. It is the collaboration between Argentinian type designer Alfonso García and Venezuelan type designer Rodrigo Fuenzalida, and was released in 2019. Utily Sans itself is based off of geometric forms much like Futura, but has a very notable inclination toward humanism.
The intention of Utily Sans was to be a versatile typeface that can work well for anything from editorial design to packaging, and both body and display text. It was also designed with the intention of being used for branding and identity that requires fluid design cohesion when dealing with varying media and print options. This is easily supported by its wide range of weights and OpenType options.
Utily Sans was born from the question,
“
yS
What would the world be like if Paul Renner had had a greater inclination towards humanism rather than geometry?
41 | For the Love of Type
”
Utily S Sans
&
the designers. LatinoType Foundry’s goal is to “design new typefaces remixing diverse influences related to our South American identity with high quality products for the contemporary design industry.” The foundry, which was started in 2007, is based in Concepción and Santiago. It was initiated by Daniel Hernández and Luciano Vergara to bring typography to Latin America in a way that previously had only existed in the United States and in Europe. Through a wide range of genres and styles, LatinoType has become one of the most successful type foundries on MyFonts. As designers they feel a strong tie to their cultural identity and are eager to bring more of the world of type to Latin American countries.
43 | For the Love of Type
Alfonso Garcia
Utily Sans was created by two designers from LatinoType, Alfonso García and Rodrigo Fuenzalida. Along with being a type designer for LatinoType, García is a freelance graphic designer and a professor at the National University of San Juan in Argentina. As for Fuenzalidad, he is mainly fascinated by calligraphy and incorporates a calligraphic style into many of his typefaces. He, like García is also a freelance graphic designer on top of being a type designer for LatinoType.
Rodrigo Fuenzalidad
Utily Sans
boasts simple geometric forms with humanist shapes and holds up in long bodies of text. The typeface, as described by the type foundry it was born from, “looks like Futura, but has a feel closer to Garamond.� Utily Sans is comprised of six different weights, and each weight is accompanied by an italic version. The typeface also contains an alternate character set, small caps, lining figures, old style numbers, and options for uppercase ligatures for display text. Along with supporting over 200 Latin-based languages, Utily Sans is also the first typeface from LatinoType that supports Cyrillic characters, making it both inclusive and versatile. Utily Sans was designed to be used for a variety of text styles, from display to body text, and it is extremely adaptable to due its wide range of weights.
For the Love of Type | 46
Utily Sans
features geometric shapes with a humanist feel. There are a few specific characters that stand out in this typeface and lend to its unique style, specifically the lowercase g, t, and r. These are just some of the characters that have stylistic alternates within the typeface. Others include the uppercase A, G, M, N, Q, V, W, and Z, as well as the lowercase a, g, I, j, r, t, u, v, and w. They even supply stylistic alternates for special characters like the ampersand and ‘at’ symbol. For the lowercase r, there is a stylistic alternate for the standard r which is just a single stroke for the stem and a dot just to the right of it, where the arm of the r would typically be. It is a very simple design but creates a very unique and fun feel that typically
47 | For the Love of Type
isn’t seen in a geometric typeface.The lowercase t also has a unique feature in that it has a relationship between the stem and arm on the left side that is similar to that of Gill Sans, where the space is filled in to create a triangle, adding to the geometric feel. Overall, the typeface has a large x-height which makes for good legibility even at a small point size. There is also a large ascender height and the counters in all the different weights also maintain a circular shape, which is typical for most geometric typefaces. Utility Sans also is made up of monolinear strokes, making the weight of characters of the typeface consistent throughout. Overall, Utily Sans is the perfect combination of a geometric and a humanist style typeface.
One unique aspect of the lowercase ‘g’ is that it has a very stylized link while still maintaining an open bowl. It features both a hard edge that fits with its geometric roots, but the open bowl and ear give it a friendlier feel.
For the Love of Type | 48
Works Cited Walker Madsen: Basic Sans My Fonts. “Creative Characters Interview with Daniel Hernández, January 2012.” Edited by Jan Middendorp, Creative Characters Issue #54, MyFonts, Jan. 2012, www.myfonts.com/newsletters/cc/201201.html. P., Greta. “What Are Grotesque Fonts? History, Inspiration and Examples.” Creative Market, 21 Aug. 2017, creativemarket.com/blog/grotesque-fonts. Shoaf, Jeremiah. “Basic Sans Font Combinations & Free Alternatives” Typewolf, 2018, vwww. typewolf.com/site-of-the-day/fonts/basic-sans.
Emmet Ceccanti: Beatrice Display Sharp Type. “About Us.” Sharp Type, sharptype.co/typefaces/beatrice-display/. Sharp Type. “Beatrice Display.” Sharp Type, sharptype.co/typefaces/beatrice-display/.
Jess Hardy: Bely “Bely.” TypeTogether | High Quality Fonts and Custom Type Design, 2020, www.type-together. com/bely-font. “Roxane Gataud.” TypeTogether | High Quality Fonts and Custom Type Design, 2020, www. type-together.com/roxane-gataud.
Lucy Houghton: Gotham Challand, Skylar. “Idsgn (a Design Blog).” Back to Idsgn (a Design Blog), 22 July 2009, idsgn.org/ posts/know-your-type-gotham/. Hawley, Rachel. “How This One Font Took over the World.” The Outline, 26 Apr. 2019, theoutline. com/post/7356/gotham-font-is-everywhere?zd=1&zi=ocvz4cci. “Jones Type.” Frere, 2015, frerejones.com/about. Končal, Petr. “Tobias Frere-Jones.” Design History Research, 7 Dec. 2010, designhistoryresearch. wordpress.com/category/tobias-frere-jones/. Murray, Morgan L. “Gotham.” The History, Style and Use of Type, 23 June 2014, morganlmurrayims224researchtopic.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/gotham/.
49 | For the Love of Type
Alina Chiu: GT America “GT America,” Grilli Type, 2016, www.grillitype.com/typeface/gt-america. GT America. “GT America Typeface,” 2016, www.gt-america.com/. Hutton, Julian. “Interview: Seb McLauchlan’s International Type Education.” Desktop: The Culture of Design, 22 July 2014, desktopmag.com.au/features/ switzerland-shanghai-wellington-seb-mclauchlans-journey-type/. info@fiascodesign.co.uk, Fiasco Design -. “Swiss Graphic Designer and Grilli Type Cofounder Noël Leu • Inkygoodness.” Inkygoodness, inkygoodness.com/features/ grilli-type-cofounder-noel-leu/. Riechers, Angela. “American Gothic Meets Swiss Grotesk, New GT America Typeface Is the Best of Both Design Worlds.” Eye on Design, AIGA, 27 May 2017, eyeondesign.aiga.org/americangothic-meets-swiss-grotesk-new-gt-america-typeface-is-the-best-of-both-design-worlds/. Shoaf, Jeremiah. “GT America Font Combinations & Free Alternatives.” Typewolf, www.typewolf. com/site-of-the-day/fonts/gt-america.
Solena Aguilar: Roboto Slab Coles, Stephen. “Roboto Was a Four-Headed Frankenfont.” Typographica, 19 Oct. 2011, typographica.org/on-typography/roboto-typeface-is-a-four-headed-frankenstein/. Dunham, Ethan. “Roboto Font Free by Christian Robertson: Font Squirrel.” Latest Font, 24 Oct. 2011, www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/roboto. Isaac, Mike. “Google Unwraps Ice Cream Sandwich, the Next-Generation Android OS.” Wired, Conde Nast, 3 June 2017, www.wired.com/2011/10/android-ice-cream-sandwich-3/. Robertson, Christian. “Christian Robertson. Interface, Type Designer.” Christian Robertson. Interface, Type Designer, www.christianrobertson.com. Robertson, Christian. “Making Material Design: Refining Roboto.” YouTube, Google Design, 28 May 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WxACOHm0_g. Shoaf, Jeremiah. “Roboto Slab Font Combinations & Similar Fonts.” Typewolf, www.typewolf. com/site-of-the-day/fonts/roboto-slab.
Morgan Ibarra: Utily Sans “Utily Sans.” Latinotype New Home, LatinoType, 2019, latinotype.com/display-weights?font=222. “Utily Sans: A Humanist Geometric Sans Serif From LatinoType.” Blog.youworkforthem.com, You Work For Them, 20 Sept. 2019, blog.youworkforthem.com/2019/09/20/ utily-sans-a-humanist-geometric-sans-serif-from-latinotype/.
For the Love of Type | 50