Typeface Review: "Garamond"

What It Looks Like:

Picture found here.

It's History: "Garamond is an old-style serif typeface, named after punch-cutter Claude Garamond. Adobe Garamond and Stempel Garamond were both based on this original typeface from the 16th century, and Granjon and Sabon were heavily influenced by it. There are a few unique characteristics of Garamond, including the small bowl of the lowercase 'a' and the small eye of the 'e'." (Source #1)

Claude Garamond's
portrait using the font
Garamond.
Picture found here.

"Robert Slimbach redesigned Garamond for Adobe in 1989. "Moderate contrast, and a more rounded form and evenness of stroke than Linotype or Stempel versions, make Slimbach's one of the most readable Garamonds. It is available with swash italics, some elegant terminal letters, ornaments, and titling capitols." (Source #2)

What Type of Font It Is: Garalde - "Garaldes include some of the most attractive and well-designed text faces in current use. They are highly legible but visually lively. As with most historically based faces, the adaptation of these letters for changing print technologies has had varying effects upon their integrity of form.

"All typefaces originating in hand-cut punches showed a considerable variation of form according to size, with the serifs relatively heavier and the modulation of stroke width less pronounced at smaller sizes. These considerations are crucial to the effective design or adaptation of Garalde faces, and distinguish quality recuts and original faces in the Garalde tradition."(Source #3)

Picture found here.

How You Can Design With It: "Garamond’s greatest strength is its legibility and readability. Garamond is one of the most legible serif typefaces, especially for use in print applications. It’s also one of the most eco-friendly typefaces in terms of ink usage. The original punches and matrices were sold to Christopher Plantin upon the death of Claude Garamond, and were in turn used in many printers, adding to its rise in popularity. Garamond revivals were created as early as 1900. Garamond is an excellent choice for printed materials, including books and reports, due to its high legibility in print." (Source #1)

Where You Can Get It: You can buy the font at FontShop. There is also an Apple site that let's you try it out before purchasing it, located here. Or download from a range of cheaper versions of it at DaFont.

Descriptive Terms for It: Book copy, Garalde, large blocks of text, large bodies of text, legible, Old Style, Old Style Serif, readable, redesign, variety, and whole family.

Sources:
- #1 - http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/08/the-most-popular-fonts-used-by-designers/
- #2 - The Complete Typographer: A Manual for Designing with Type" by Will Hill, 2nd Edition, p. 80
- #3 - The Complete Typographer: A Manual for Designing with Type" by Will Hill, 2nd Edition, p. 72

Examples:

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Picture found here.

Picture found here and also available for purchase.

Picture found here.

Picture found here and also available for purchase.

Typeface Review: "Optima"

What It Looks Like:

Picture available here.

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)

Picture available here.

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:

Picture can be found here.

Picture can be found here.

Typeface Review: "Bank Gothic"

What It Looks Like:

Got picture here.

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.
Picture available here.

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.
Picture available here.

Poster for the movie "Event Horizon" featuring the typeface Bank Gothic.
Picture available here.

Poster for the movie "Ironman" featuring the typeface Bank Gothic.
Picture available here.