×
×
I LOVE TYPOGRAPHY

The Best Type of 2007

And the nominations are…

I had planned on publishing Typographic Detail for the Web, but Typographica has just released its annual Our Favorite Typefaces. It’s always an inspiring list, and a precursor of some of the fine things to come. Interestingly they’ve renamed it. Formerly it had been Best Fonts which is not wholly inaccurate (as the typefaces in the list are comprised of fonts); however, as Typographica’s editor writes,

Keeping these two terms distinct may be a losing battle at a time when some have already declared the words interchangeable, but we’re going to go down fighting.

This year’s list sees an improvement in the format, with larger specimens and who to look out for in 2008.

Most of the typefaces listed, you’d expect to see there, but there are also a number of nice surprises. Here are some of my favourites from the list:

Blaktur–the latest addition to my own type library–looks like Blackletter after a spring clean:

blaktur

Sacre Bleu (that I mentioned back in January):

sacre bleu

and I’m a big fan of Beowolf and BeoSans:

beowolf and beosans

And no, it’s not another of those so-called grunge fonts–a distressed version of some popular grotesk. Beowolf, created before the wonders of OpenType, introduced randomness into, not only the outlines, but the position of individual words. So, Beowolf is not new (though it’s now in OpenType format), but its sans counterpart, BeoSans is. For more about the wonder that is Beowolf, read this FontShop newsletter.

Arno Pro from Robert Slimbach, the creator of Minion, is also deservedly on the list. Nominated by Mark Simonson–who has has his own gorgeous 40s-style brush script Kinescope on the list–he writes,

Finally, the swashes. My guilty pleasure is swashes, and Arno has them in spades. In fact, when you enable the Swash Alternates feature, Arno almost becomes a different typeface, especially in the italics.

And, if like Mr Simonson, you are something of a ‘swashbuckler’, then you really couldn’t live without Arno Pro.

arno pro

The article’s who to look out for in 2008, got  me thinking about who will be awarded the next Prix Charles Peignot for excellence in type design. I know who I’d put my money on. How about you?

Thanks to Typographica for another great list. See you Sunday.

previous: Sunday Type: the sound of type

next: Sunday Type: illegible type

Typeface Categories

learn greek type desgin
font deals of the week
fonts on tape