So. Design deity Andy Budd (who's just plain cool) started this whole "Desert Island Fonts" thing... and I could have just ignored the meme, but I love fonts... love love love them. There's just something so magical about how the curve of an "a" or the swoosh of a "Q" can convey so much.
At any rate, here's are my "six fonts I'd use if I could only own six"... and like almost everyone else, I'm referring to font families which can actually include dozens of typefaces. But who's keeping score, right?
Helvetica Neue
Adobe Garamond Pro
P22 Edward Hopper
Stephanie Marie
Officina
Voluta Script Pro
Of course, this isn't really fair. I have 1500 fonts in my library, and choosing just six comes down to my choosing what would get me the most mileage... without regard to the 20 or so fonts whose attack I find wholly enchanting — if only _because_ they can't be used so widely.
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6 comments:
I'm an aspiring font snob, and totally get your fascination with a beautiful typeface. I know my tastes may run to the pedestrian, but I'm currently coveting:
Bembo (the lowercase f just does it for me)
Futura
I've worked a great deal in Galliard (I like the cut used in the scriptures with the shorter x-height, but I've worked with the regular size most often), Adobe's Caslon, and Minion.
Anyway, great entry. And I really like your blog.
You're very kind, Justin.
For me, Rs and Qs are the clincher... the stroke on the upper-case Q and the Rs are just so difficult to do well, that I make the (erroneous) assumption that if the font designers can do them well, that they probably do everything else well, too.
Anyway... I appreciate the kind words. I hope to see you around in the future!
Oh, and be sure to click-through to Andy's posts on typefaces for more typographic goodness.
I already clicked through, bookmarked, and will be coming back in the future. (And was happy to see that some of my favorites were cited by those guys, too!)
I'm with you on the tail of the upper-case Q. Have you seen the Q in Adobe's Caslon Pro? It's quite nice without being too flashy.
Yes, I have... Caslon is nice.
: )
No fair: that's NINE typefaces.
: P
And what, pray tell, is wrong with Officina? It's understated and versatile.
I love Akzidenz, but who _needs_ a grotesque when they have the entire Helvetica Neue family?
Didot is nice... but feels too much like Bodoni, without the fine detailing.
I'd not seen Filosofia before... that's a lovely font. Of course, nearly everything that Emigre touches is gold.
Hoefler is also a great foundry... what do you think of their Mercury Text?
And I'm sorry... but Gotham is just nasty.
* shivers *
Good thing we're friends... that last choice was a whopper.
Oh, and Rusty... why scripts, or just why those?
I use "hand writing" a lot, and Hopper is one of the best out there... legible, quirky. Stephanie is a great all-round script: very legible. Very open... but not overtly feminine (at least to my eye).
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