Fonts to love

For this article, I immediately thought of Biscotti. I first saw it in Brides Magazine in 2005, when I was planning my wedding. I really wanted to use it for my invitations: I mean, obviously, it’s romantic. It is like an update to one of the classic scripts that I always saw engraved in other stationery. Biscotti is so clean and simple in its elegance… still formal, yet friendlier. I couldn’t find it anywhere but had always wondered about it. I was pleasantly surprised years later when I saw it was (originally) released by Font Bureau, and designed by Cyrus Highsmith, now with Occupant Fonts. Duh, of course!

I love the sharp contrast in Marlide Display, especially in the heavier weights where you really get to see a lot of personality in the typeface. I love that it is now available in a variable format, so you can dial in exactly the weight you’re looking for. I also love that it’s designed by Sibylle at Kontour foundry; She is great to work with, a wonderful teacher, and produces amazing design work.

Big. Bold. The opposite of Helvetica! Giza is, for me, the quintessential slab serif typeface. It has the core characteristics of the great Egyptians—what the English foundries called the Antiques from the 19th century.

Moderno (Font Bureau) is the closest from the period. But you can have fun pairing Giza with opposites like Canto (Lipton Letter Design), a hand-drawn old-style.

The visual arts are too diverse for me to ever pick one favorite, but among our latest additions, I love Zubtrak Stencil Black for its deft combination of cleverly arranged, primitive forms and its visual balance. Black weights are always tricky because interior white space becomes so rare that some letters close up and create dark, uneven spots in a line of text. Zubtrak’s stencil features let letters breathe and offer more opportunity to distribute white space evenly, so one can enjoy the texture and energy of an entire word or sentence. And while its simple, triangular forms are something of a hallmark, all its round shapes help legibility and give this typeface an appealing, lively personality.

If one needed a text companion, a solid neo-grotesque like Acumin (Adobe) would be about right, but for a little added funk, I’ll bet Salford Sans (Manchester Type) would make a great fit.

I’m a huge fan of The Freight Collection: I used Freight Big for my wedding invitations, and the collection has a typeface for almost any use. Micro is my favorite because it’s extremely functional in its proposed use (tiny, tiny, tiny sizes on a screen) and it has a casual and friendly vibe, like your favorite pair of jeans, or that one record store guy who’s actually friendly. It also has some nib pen-like characteristics, which I always love to see in type; this is especially apparent in the italic styles. Secretly, it works great at larger sizes, too; I’ve been using it as the logotype for my small press for a few years now!

Of course, it works with other types in The Freight Collection, especially Freight Sans, but I think it would also be a fun pair with a soft, rounded sans, like Fillip (Elefonts) or Puffin Display Soft (Bold Monday). The roundness would counter Freight’s angles and they have a similar friendly demeanor.

Farnham may not be the trendiest font of the moment, but it is both incredibly versatile and incredibly expressive. This is a feat of design which is almost impossible to achieve, so as a type designer, I admire it immensely. My friends always ask me for font recommendations for their resumés and I always say Farnham. Farnham. Farnham.

Dolly is a warm and beautifully crafted text typeface—not old-fashioned, but reassuringly familiar. It has an overall feel that is solid, but when you see the details, there is so much liveliness. I appreciate the restraint of the family: It has just a few styles, but it’s perfect for the well-considered articulation of some text.

ATF Alternate Gothic is exactly the kind of crisp, orderly display typeface I like to use against something with Dolly’s understated elegance. ATF’s revival is particularly useful in that it provides a range of weights from which to choose exactly the right text color.

Originally hand drawn as an homage to Herb Lubalin’s Pistilli Roman, DiSpigna Ultra is exactly that: Ultra! I love how the ultra-stark contrast from ultra-fat to ultra-thin is so refined. I love how the lowercase j is so flirty with the swish of its booty (tail). I love the ampersand and all its alternates.

Sonar Sans (Famira Fonts) which has a bit of a 70s feel to it… or something more grotesque, like Arboria (Type-O-Tones) or Dinamit (Revolver). I also like Bilo (Bold Monday) and Realist (supertype).

While Akzidenz-Grotesk is one of my all-time favorite faces, I have a soft spot for humanist sans faces. Realist by supertype’s Martin Wenzel merges these two affections seamlessly. It is straightforward and approachable, with 48 styles to fit every needed situation. Realist Wide Black offers impact, while Realist Narrow Thin Italic gives a dose of elegance; the styles in-between offer everything in-between.

Embury Text (Victoria Rushton) is readable and expressive, which highlights the humanist aspects of Realist. With Realist as the display and Embury as the text, you can create a variety of tones.

Parry reinterprets the XIX century classic pair of Egyptian and grotesque styles, adding some contemporary bits that make it suitable for modern graphic design practice. In addition, it’s a family that I “discovered” and have liked since I was in graphic design school.