Frere-Jones characterized the simplicity of the type as the kind of letter an engineer would make, not the kind a designer would make. The letterforms are reminiscent of 1920s sans-serifs like Futura when lettering and architecture were reduced to the bare essentials. About his strategy, Frere-Jones stated, “I suppose there’s a hidden personal agenda in the design: to preserve those old pieces of New York that could be wiped out before they’re appreciated.” His primary influence came from the Eighth Avenue facade of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Camera in hand, Frere-Jones walked the streets of Manhattan to find source material in the vernacular lettering of older buildings. Tobias Frere-Jones and Jesse Ragan spearheaded the typeface design with inspiration from Frere-Jones’ hometown of New York City. According to Jonathan Hoefler, editors claim they needed something to lend an established and credible voice to the magazine. GQ magazine initially commissioned the Gotham typeface, whose editors sought a fresh, masculine, and geometric sans-serif font. Gotham is widely considered one of the most successful typefaces designed in the twenty-first century. In addition, digital technologies revolutionized the structure of typography with OpenType fonts to include opportunities for animation, three-dimensional font, distortions, font lightening, and other dynamic features. Thus, different media can support various typographical functions, freeing the printed specimen to perform more artistically. Nearly all media use today is screen-based, whether it be via television, phone, or laptop. In addition, specimens provide a glimpse of a typeface’s attributes, style, and nuances of its letterforms. These also aid in selecting fonts available to purchase for a designer’s font library. Now, printed specimens allow us to study typefaces, choose and plan typography, and better understand letterforms. Printing houses and type designers have used specimens since the fifteenth century as sales tools. Type Specimens typically include the development and designer of the typeface. These sheets showcased each letter, number, and special character available in particular fonts, as well as oblique and bold variants. Photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash Origin of Type SpecimensĮarly printers and type founders created specimen sheets to showcase their typographical options for customers.
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