Getting Things Right

Sylvaticus — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:21:59 +0000

Daring Fireball’s John Gruber muses on the preference to toss in every possible ability tool or feature and the opposite preference, waiting until the addition can be implemented well. He asks whether it might not be better to hold off adding a new feature until it can be “done right.”

It’s an important discussion.

A new typeface from Hoefler & Frere-Jones

Sylvaticus — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:18:50 +0000

Hoefler & Frere-Jones do it again, creating a new typeface which many will want to use:

A type family originally developed for New York’s Whitney Museum, Whitney contends with two different sets of demands: those of editorial typography, and those of public signage.

Typefaces for catalogs and brochures need to be narrow enough to work in crowded environments, yet energetic enough to encourage extended reading. But typefaces designed for wayfinding programs need to be open enough to be legible at a distance, and sturdy enough to withstand a variety of fabrication techniques: fonts destined for signage need to anticipate being cast in bronze, etched in glass, cut in vinyl, and rendered in pixels.

While American “gothics” such as News Gothic (1908) have long been a mainstay of editorial settings, and European “humanists” such as Frutiger (1975) have excelled in signage applications, Whitney bridges this divide in a single design. Its compact forms and broad x-height use space efficiently, and its ample counters and open shapes make it clear under any circumstances.

Vox Sylvatici » design

Getting Things Right

A new typeface from Hoefler & Frere-Jones