Monday, 7:01pm
6 April 2009

Golden Age of type? Or the dark ages?

Eye’s type special nominates the faces of the moment. Now name yours

In ‘Golden age?’ (Eye no. 71 vol. 18), we asked twelve practitioners – art directors, type designers, educators – to suggest examples of typefaces that characterise the Zeitgeist, and show some of their nominated fonts. Now it’s your turn.

Deborah Littlejohn asked these professionals whether the latest developments ‘indicated the emergence of a new “Golden Age” in type design, perhaps akin to that heralded by the invention of the printing press in the sixteenth century, the rise of the independent typographer in the early twentieth century or the fearless experimentation of the 1990s.’

The Type Zeitgeist panel:

Catherine Dixon selected Frutiger serif, Lirico and Samba.

Mr Keedy, aka Jeffery Keedy (commenting that ‘In terms of aesthetics and style we’re in the new Dark Ages’) had qualified praise for the Ed Benguiat collection (below) and Sweepy.

Benguiat_01

Nick Bell nominated the Modernist-style Effra, Slate, Gloriola, International, ARS Maquette, and Kris Sowersby’s National.

Nicole Dotin chose another Sowersby font, Feijoa.
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Paul Carlos was enthusiastic about Peter Bil’ak’s History and Atlantik, by Sylvia and Daniel Janssen (see below.)

Atlantik_01
atlantik_02

Sibylle Hagmann advocated Mercury and Trixie HD.

Peter Bil’ak went for Garamond Premier Pro.

William Hall, noting that ‘over-friendly toasted-cheese fonts are dead’, liked Avenir and Neuzeit.

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Khoi Vinh regretted the ‘monopoly’ of the browser fonts Georgia, Verdana and Arial. [Ed’s note; this blog is set in Georgia.]

Sean Adams reckoned that Jens Gehlhaar’s Capricorn was something of a star.

Mark Thomson found Versa, Arnhem, Seria and Nexus distinctive voices in a rather crowded room.

Alfredo Trivino was seduced by the Mediterranean accents of Majerit and Sunday Times Modern designed by Eduardo Manso, Emtype.

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What typefaces would you choose? Let us know!

Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions and single issues.