Courtesy link: http://www.emigre.com/EF.php?fid=83

The first thing I thought of when I saw this face was Mitropa – the Central European Sleeping and Dining Car Company.

Given that John Downer, the designer of Brothers, is a sign painter by trade (with undergraduate and graduate degrees in fine art), I’d guess that he brought that hand-made aesthetic to his design for Brothers. That doesn’t rule out the possibility that his references included type found on old shipping crates, and that your microbrew logo designers worked from similar sources.

If you can provide the name of the brewery (or the logo book), I’d love to compare it to Brothers.

But you are quite right about the ubiquity of the style. I see it everywhere these days. Much like the “hipster” logo style that involves some form of crossed line elements and “rustic” type, the steampunk/woodcut/hand-carved aesthetic of Brothers (and typefaces like it) has become shorthand for “authentic.”

All to entice young professionals with too few frames of reference and too much disposable income to spend three times the going rate for a basic cast iron frying pan (a la Best Made Company).

Resist the urge to resort to shorthand.....

James’ suspicion is on target. Fonts In Use has some evidence of Brothers’ popularity in the alcoholic beverage industry. And, as K.C. alludes, Brothers is also a common ingredient in what we call the “Hip Traditional” pastiche.

It might be popular but some of that may be the brands that FontsInUse decided to show. Do a Google images search for Alcohol Logo and you'll see tons of brands using different fonts.

There's unpleasant gender connotations as well. Hipsters used to be at least a bit challenging of traditional gender roles – now embodying a faux ultramasculinity is all the rage, with the so-called "lumbersexual" trend. Brothers is almost always used in applications which are socially constructed as tediously, single-mindedly masculine in contemporary society; no matter its orgins as neutral, slightly refined signage, it's now reduced to boorish, unrefined cliché.

Hi Kthomps5,

the logo is for Fidelis Co. : http://fidelisco.com

In the book "Logo Lounge 8" the designer asserts that they "traveled to nearby Aurora, Oregon, to look for examples of nineteenth-century product crates"

The Fidelis Co. logo simply uses Brothers bold. It is in no way hand-lettered or invented.

Now, that doesn't mean the designers didn't look at 19th century crates. They may have done that, then found an existing typeface that perfectly embodied that aesthetic.

> no matter its orgins as neutral, slightly refined signage

Styles change over time. Music, art, graphics, hair styles, clothing, language, all these things gradually change.

Wear a polyester leisure suit that was popular in the 1970s and you'll be laughed at. Write a letter in the flowery language people used in the 1800s and people will think you're weird. Things change.

I'm the designer of the Fidelis Co. Brand. Of course the typeface used is Brothers! I simply wasn't asked which typeface it was in the interview. The spirit I used Brothers in was indeed inspired by typography on antique shipping crates.

Brothers is a strong display typeface, especially when used to convey a specific visual language. It was perfect for this particular client and business, at the particular time that the mark was designed. I agree that this style of typography has recently exploded into ubiquity, and I love that Brothers is a 15+ year old typeface enjoying a newfound popularity.

As the owner of an all women-run design studio, I'm highly enjoying the investigation into Brother's connotations of "socially constructed as tediously, single-mindedly masculine in contemporary society" etc. I don't disagree. Those connotations work perfectly with the business this mark represents.

Brothers returned to its roots (sort of).
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153021076835873&set=a.10151549...