Typeface Review: "Mrs Eaves"

What It Looks Like:

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It's History: Created in 1996 by Zuzana Licko and licensed by Emigre Graphics, "a digital type foundry, publisher and distributor of graphic design centered information based in Berkeley, California, that was founded in 1984 by husband-and-wife team Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko. The type foundry also published Emigre magazine between 1984 and 2005. Note that unlike the word émigré, Emigre is officially spelled without accents." (Source #1)

"Mrs Eaves is named after Sarah Eaves, the woman who became John Baskerville's wife. As Baskerville was setting up his printing and type business, Mrs. Eaves moved in with him as a live-in housekeeper, eventually becoming his wife after the death of her first husband, Mr. Eaves. Mrs Eaves is a revival of the types of English printer and punchcutter John Baskerville, and is related to contemporary Baskerville typefaces.

"Licko's selection of the name Mrs Eaves reveals an interesting story. Like his types, John Baskerville was, himself, a controversial character. He hired Sarah Eaves as his housekeeper. Eventually her husband Richard abandoned her and their five children, and Mrs Eaves became Baskerville's mistress and eventual helpmate with typesetting and printing. She married Baskerville within a month of her estranged husband's death. Selection of the name Mrs Eaves honors one of the forgotten women in the history of typography." (Source #2)

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What Type of Font It Is: Transitional: "Transitionals are, as a general rule, well suited to the setting of large bodies of text, as well as revealing considerable elegance of individual form when used for display purposes.... The italic fonts of Transitional typefaces were designed as an integral part of the face rather than as independent faces, and as a consequence reveal far greater affinity of form with the roman letters, while varying quite widely in style. They are better suited to use for emphasis or differentiation within roman text than the italics of Garalde or Humanist faces." (Source #3)

How You Can Design With It: Both elegant and with 213 ligatures, it is perfect for those who want classic style for their book or magazine.

"The typeface family includes roman, italic, petite capitals, small capitals, bold, and roman and italic ligatures. Ligatures in all variants of Mrs Eaves include the standard fi, ffi, andfl ligatures, and resurrect the classic eighteenth century ct and st ligatures. A Just Ligatures variant, available in roman and italic, contain a vast array of new ligatures, many incorporating intertwined and swash characters.

"The Mrs Eaves Ligatures sets include 213 ligatures, ranging from the common to the fanciful. The OpenType format fonts contain all 213 ligatures.

"The WordPress logotype is set in Mrs Eaves. It is also used for the titles (but not author names) on the covers and spines of the current Penguin Classics from Penguin Books. Blacktree's Quicksilver wordmark uses Mrs Eaves. Roman and petite caps. Bowdoin College uses Mrs Eaves in the college wordmark and in many other official materials. Radiohead's 2003 album Hail to the Thief prominently used Mrs Eaves in its related artworks." (Source #2)

Where You Can Get It: You may purchase various versions of Mrs Eaves via Emigre's website, located here: http://www.emigre.com/EF.php?fid=109.

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Descriptive Terms For It: book copy, classical, elegant, large bodies of text, legible, ligatures, pretty, serif, Transitional, versatile, variety, and whole family.

Sources:
- #1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emigre
- #2 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Eaves
- #3 - "The Complete Typographer: A Manual for Designing with Type" by Will Hill, 2nd Edition, p. 84

Examples:

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Typeface Review: "Bickham Script Pro"

What It Looks Like:

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Its History: "Bickham Script Pro is a script typeface based on English round hand writing common in the 18th century, and specifically on the engravings of George Bickham. It’s an ornate, romantic typeface, available in regular, bold, and semibold weights. Bickham Script Pro was created by Richard Lipton in 1997, and is available as part of the Adobe Type Library." (Source #1)

"Richard Lipton grew up in New York City and studied art and design upstate at Harpur College where he was introduced to the magic of calligraphy. He continued his lettering journey in 1974 as a freelance calligrapher, signpainter, and graphic designer and eventually established a calligraphy studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1983, Lipton began working for Bitstream, a digital type foundry and helped to make Bitstream’s type library one of the most respected in the industry. In his tenure as senior designer, Lipton developed two original type families: Arrus, and Cataneo (with Jacqueline Sakwa). In 1991, Lipton created an independent type and calligraphy studio and designed many original typefaces including BickhamPro for Adobe and Sloop for Font Bureau. Currently he is a full time type designer at Font Bureau where he develops custom fonts for international clients." (Source #2)

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What Type of Font It Is: Script, Italic, and Chancery - "The function of Script typefaces is primarily as a contrast to roman type and few are suitable for the setting of extended passages of running text. The more formal Chancery, or roundhand, faces can be used for introductory paragraphs, while the more expressive and gestural calligraphic Scripts should normally be used for display purposes only." (Source #3)

How You Can Design With It: "Bickham Script Pro is excellent for formal, elegant designs, especially those reminiscent of its origin in the 18th century. It also includes a number of OpenType features, including discretionary ligatures, swashes, superscripts, stylistic alternates, and cast-sensitive glyph connectors. The contextual changes that occur to the characters as one types make it an especially versatile typeface, and improves your designs effortlessly.

"Bickham Script Pro is purely a display typeface, perfect for headings and subheads. It’s commonly seen in logos, menus, invitations, annual reports, and packaging, in primarily formal, elegant designs." (Source #1)

"As one types, substitutions are made dynamically as the context changes. Not only do varied ligatures appear, but subtle changes to glyph exit and entry strokes ensure an attractive, flowing text both between letters and at word beginnings and endings." (Source #4)

Where You Can Get It: Bickham Script Pro is available for purchase here: http://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=OLS-US&event=displayFontPackage&code=1736.

Descriptive Terms For It: classical, display, elegant, formal, headings, logo, script, serif, and sub-headings.

Sources:
-#1 - http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/08/the-most-popular-fonts-used-by-designers/,
-#2 - http://www.fontbureau.com/people/RichardLipton/,
-#3 - "The Complete Typographer: A Manual for Designing with Type" by Will Hill, 2nd Edition, p. 150,
-#4 - http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/landing/bickham.html.

Examples:

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2012 copyright HitRECord.org.
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Typeface Review: "Optima"

What It Looks Like:

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Its History: "Optima is a Humanist Sans Serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf between 1952 and 1955 for the D. Stempel AG foundry [located in] Frankfurt, Germany." (Source below. #1) 

"At the Franciscan Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence on October 3rd, 1950, one visitor was looking at the 276 gravestones through quite different eyes than the other tourists. The great names of Michelangelo, Rossini, Galilei and Machiavelli held less fascination for him than the great variety of lettering carved in the stone. Because he had left his notebook behind at the hotel, Hermann Zapf sketched a few characters on a 1000 lire note." (Source below. #2)

"A delicate sans serif, characterized by its tapered stems, Optima alludes to Greek inscriptional forms without appearing archaic." (Source below. #3)

"Hermann Zapf, born November 8, 1918, is a German typeface designer who lives in Darmstadt, Germany. He is married to calligrapher and typeface designer Gudrun Zapf von Hesse.

"Zapf's work, which includes Palatino and Optima, has been widely copied, often against his will. The best known example may be Monotype's Book Antiqua, which shipped with Microsoft Office and was widely considered a "knockoff" of Palatino. In 1993, Zapf resigned from ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale) over what he viewed as its hypocritical attitude toward unauthorized copying by prominent ATypI members." (Source below. #4)

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What Type of Font It Is: Humanist Sans Serif - "Within the context of sans serif faces, the term 'Humanist' refers to faces based upon a classical or early Humanist model, in which the underlying proportions are derived from the Roman capital letter.

"Humanist Sans typefaces function well for the setting of extended text, though they do not as a rule provide for very economical setting because most have a lower x-height than the Grotesques. Heavier weights may be effectively used for smaller quantities of text, and benefit from generous leading.

"Humanist Sans faces are notable for their compatibility with classic serif types, and can be paired with a number of Humanist, Garalde, and Transitional faces that are based upon similar Roman proportions." (Source below. #5)

How You Can Design With It: "Optima is an elegant if conservative type choice, and is well-suited to understated designs. Most famously, it’s been used for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and by the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign. It’s also the official branding typeface of Estée Lauder Companies and Aston Martin." (Source below. #6)

Where You Can Get It: Available for a free download here: http://www.fontsupply.com/fonts/O/Optima.html. There are Optima alternatives available for free download here: http://www.fontspace.com/category/optima.

Descriptive Terms For It: book copy, classical, Humanist, large blocks of text, legibility, logo, modern, readable, and sans serif.

Sources: 

- #1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optima, 

- #2: http://www.100besttypefaces.com/11_Optima.html,

- #3 and #5: "The Complete Typographer: A Manual for Designing with Type" by Will Hill, 2nd Edition, p. 110 and 117, 

- #4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Zapf, 

- #6: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/08/the-most-popular-fonts-used-by-designers/.

Examples:

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Typeface Review: "Bank Gothic"

What It Looks Like:

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Its History: Created by Morris Fuller Benton in 1930, "'Bank Gothic' as a typeface made exclusively of small capitals, which adds to the technical impression it creates. Morris Fuller Benton took inspiration from a late-19th-century gravestone, whose inscription he recorded by taking a rubbing.

"In February 2007, Linotype released a wonderfully reinterpreted and expanded version of Bank Gothic, Morris Sans, designed by Dan Reynolds under type director Akira Kobayashi. For the first time, the geometric typeface was available in three weights and two widths, with a lowercase and a great number of extras. The new typeface takes its name from its original 'inventor'." (Source below.)

It is part of a family of fonts with a long range of varieties of weight such as Light, Light Condensed, Medium, Medium Condensed, Bold, and Bold Condensed.

Poster for the movie "I, Robot" featuring the typeface Bank Gothic.
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What Type of Font Is It: Grotesque Sans Serif - "developed in the 19th century, [they] evolved from display type, sign-writing, and architectural lettering. Grotesques combine legibility with visual interest and are well adapted to a range of functions, from informational signage to display typography, exploiting the dynamics of space, scale, and alignment." (Source below.)

How You Can Design With It: With its legibility useful as a way to communicate something in a short and bold burst of text, like a poster or book cover, but can also be used in smaller blocks of text.

Where You Can Get It: Available for a free download here: http://fontzone.net/font-details/BankGothic+Md+BT+Medium/ and http://www.fonts101.com/fonts/view/Uncategorized/53668/BankGothic. There are Bank Gothic Alternatives available for purchase here: http://www.fontshop.com/fontlist/alternatives/bank_gothic/.

Descriptive Terms For It: all-caps, classical, large blocks of text, modern, readable, sans serif, scifi, strong, technical, versatile, variety, and whole family.

Sources: http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-46711.html, http://www.100besttypefaces.com/74_Bank+Gothic.html, "The Complete Typographer: A Manual for Designing with Type" by Will Hill, 2nd Edition, p. 118, and http://www.typeoff.de/2008/04/10/this-typeface-will-break-your-heart/.

Examples:

Poster for the movie "Gridiron Gang" featuring the typeface Bank Gothic.
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Poster for the movie "Event Horizon" featuring the typeface Bank Gothic.
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Poster for the movie "Ironman" featuring the typeface Bank Gothic.
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Typeface Review: "Eras ITC"

What It Looks Like:

Its History: Created by Albert Boton and Albert Hollenstein in 1976. Described as "a modernistic late 20th-century face, animated by asymmetrical curves and open counters." (Source below.) Comes with a variety of typefaces including Light, Medium, Contour, Black, Heavy Black, and Semi-Bold.

What Type of Font Is It: Humanist Sans Serif, "the term Humanist refers to faces based upon a classical or early Humanist model, in which the underlying proportions are derived from the Roman capital letter." (Source below.)

How You Can Design With It: Meant for the ease of reading large blocks of text, but it can also be used, in a large text size, as a way of grabbing someone's attention.

Where You Can Get It: You can get it for free here: http://fontzone.net/font-details/Eras+Normal/ or any innumerable places online.

Descriptive Terms For It: classical, ease of reading, large blocks of text, modern, sans serif, asymmetrical curves, open counters, whole family, variety.

Sources: http://fontzone.net/font-details/Eras+Normal/ and "The Complete Typographer: A Manual for Designing with Type" by Will Hill, 2nd Edition, p. 110 and 116.

Examples:

"Eras Bold ITC" typeface in use.
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"Eras Bold ITC" being used at the very top of the card.
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