HELVETICA

• Created in 1957
• A “Grotesk” sans-serif (any early sans-serif essentially)
• Created to compete with Akidenz-Grotesk
• Updated to be more legible and consistent in 1983 (christened Helvetica Neue)
• A film was made about it
• Thx, to simplebitsdan for CC photo! BTW, I met Dan at ALA SF in 2008. Awesome dude.

Gill Sans

• Created in 1928 by Eric Gill
• A “Humanist” sans-serif (a calligraphic sans-serif essentially)
• Originally intended as a painted storefront lettering for a bookstore
• Beloved for the quirks and personalities that each letter form has
• Thx, to Y.Liu for the photo!

Futura

• Created in 1924-1926 by Paul Renner
• A “Geometric” sans-serif (geometrically oriented essentially)
• It has a reputation of efficiency and straight forwardness. Logically, IKEA has a font based on Futura
• Has roots from Bauhaus movement but much more useful and has aged better
• Thx, to Nick Sherman for CC photo!

Franklin Gothic

• Created in 1902 by Morris Fuller Benton
• Some classify this as a “Realist” sans-serif (basically a generic sans-serif) but I don’t agree. FG can be badass. That’s why I choose this pic.
• Was and is still used tremendously in newspaper/magazine ads. I would say the reason for that is the wonderful condensed versions that look great even capped.
• Thx, to DC/WB for image!

Univers

• Created in 1954 by Adrian Frutiger
• Classified as a “Realist” sans-serif
• A number system is used to describe weights
• This family has 44 faces (possibly why it requires a dewey decimal system to pick out a thickness!)
• Thx, to vistavision for the CC image!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 11:39 pm and is filed under Design, Print Design, Top Lists, Typography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.