In this new section of Lazy Blog, which we will call ‘The Type Corner,’ I want to try to introduce you to some new fonts and emerging foundries that are taking the market by storm, and which I hope will prove useful for your future projects.
Alberto Perera — 10 October 2024
Massimo Vignelli – whom I believe we all know – claimed that only six fonts were enough to handle all the projects in a graphic design career.
Vignelli’s six pillars were: ‘Helvetica,’ ‘Times New Roman,’ ‘Futura,’ ‘Garamond,’ ‘Bodoni,’ and ‘Century Expanded’; if absolutely necessary, you could add: ‘Optima,’ ‘Univers,’ ‘Baskerville,’ and ‘Clarendon.’
Perhaps Vignelli was right, just as it’s possible that Albe Steiner was correct when he wrote that «rules allow for greater creativity and freedom».
However, in this new space, I want to dedicate myself to exploring the unknown, introducing you to new fonts and foundries that are emerging and taking over the market, and which I hope will be useful for some of your future projects.
So there’s no time to waste, let’s dive right into this first installment of The Type Corner, with the first five fonts.
Suggested books
1. CoFo Holz
Recently released, ‘CoFo Holz’ by Contrast Foundry is a serif font that sits between a world of circles and softness and one made of triangles and sharp edges. Holz means ‘wood’ in German, as the inspiration for this font comes from some serifs found in the 18th-century ‘American Wood Type’. The font is available in seven weights and in a variable version; go give it a try!
P.S: For those curious to learn more about wood type, I recommend this book by James Clough, available at The Printing Office.
2. GT Pantheon
Grilli Type is one of the most popular foundries at the moment. Among its latest custom typefaces designed for exclusive use, you’ll find clients such as Figma, Pinterest, and WeTransfer. A few weeks ago, it launched ‘GT Pantheon,’ a serif typeface born from a trip to Rome and inspired by the city’s architecture and engravings scattered throughout the streets of the capital. Its serifs are cut, and the overall feel starts with a classic vibe, but in its precision, it also touches on brutalist architecture. You can try it out here.
3. Sonora
In 1974, the Letraset version of ‘Sonora’ was released, a typeface that became popular in musical applications of that decade. Lineto has now officially released the digital version of the typeface, which has been expanded and refined together with Rosmarie Tissi, the designer who originally created it. The font is quite distinctive and was born out of a rebellion against traditional Swiss graphic design, which had made Helvetica an omnipresent and perhaps overused dogma for that era.
4. Unitled
This is a font I often come back to because I like it a lot. Klim Type Foundry is one of my favorite foundries, and the ‘Untitled Sans’ and ‘Untitled Serif’ project is very interesting. The philosophy behind the typeface lies in the qualities that Stanley Morison saw in ‘Times New Roman’: the merit of not appearing to have been designed by anyone in particular. The two font families are anonymous in the most positive sense of the word: they serve the designer’s layout perfectly, without almost any claim to add style.
5. Booton
‘Booton’ is a new sans-serif font developed by Display Type Foundry, created for the digital age. Readability and versatility are at the heart of the design, but there are also some more technical details, such as the ninety-degree curves of some of the letters, which give a more technological spirit to the whole font.
That’s it, I hope you enjoyed this first installment of The Type Corner, see you next time!
Alberto Perera is a graphic designer and content creator who explores topics related to the world of design. Through his Instagram profile named «alberto.redko», Alberto share contents related to publishing and to the graphic design universe, recommending books and authors, telling anecdotes about the great voices of world design, and reconstructing the history of logos and brands we all know.