Complimentary font to Trade Gothic Condensed?

Nia Bassett12 June 2006 · 15:59

Hi all,

I am a designer working on a poster for an in-house program that's promoting employees to take alternative transportation to work. The program is new so there are no set standards on style except I must use Trade Gothic Bold Condensed as one of my main fonts since it appears in their logo.

I am looking for a good, complimentary font to Trade Gothic. I had initially assumed I'd be using this additional font for the text, but I'm open to the idea of using it as a headline instead if it fits the bill.

Thanks to all ahead of time!

Stephen Coles12 June 2006 · 16:32

Nearly any text serif will work. Tell us more about the company and employees to get a better idea of which will fit the flavor of your poster.

Nia Bassett13 June 2006 · 08:46

It's a government organization (so pretty straight-laced), but this program is supposed to be fun.

Tiffany Wardle13 June 2006 · 08:59

I might try something friendly like Dolly and perhaps even throw in a script, such as Galaxie Cassiopeia for accent or emphasis.

Patricia Fabricant13 June 2006 · 08:59

Or you could stay within the Trade Gothic family and go sans all the way. It's a nice deep family and sans seems suitable for transportation guidelines.

RIGHT ON for public transportation. No need for those Hummers clogging the roads.

Phil Baber14 June 2006 · 05:49

Dolly was my first instinct aswell when I heard the
combination of 'straight-laced' but 'fun'. Also look at
Plantin Schoolbook. I think it was Stephen Coles who
posted it in a another post the other day, and I now
absolutely love that face. It's another serif that has a 'fun',
slightly quirky feel to it with its single story 'a' and 'g'.

On a side not, do people think Dolly is going to become
one of those overused, see it anywhere and everywhere
typefaces? I really like it, but it almost seems like it is
becoming the default typeface for 'fun' serifs.

Phil

Stephen Coles14 June 2006 · 09:15

I don't think Dolly has the potential to become overused unless it gets bundled with an OS or other software.

Chris Keegan14 June 2006 · 11:30

It's not "friendly" per se, but would work well with Trade Gothic:
http://www.fontbureau.com/fonts/Whitman

Phil Baber14 June 2006 · 17:08

I don't mean overused in Times Roman or Helvetica terms,
rather in the way that Mrs Eaves has become a default for
certain jobs for certain designers.

Phil

Joe Brown21 June 2006 · 19:10

Rotis. I've been told, is a good companion to trade gothic, although it depends on your design. consider trade gothic as the text, hence a neo-gothic/grotesk for copy then decide what best compliments a grotesk for a headline.

1) The obvious choice is a renaissane / roman, hence grotesks are a roman -sans with the same qualities., but would using a classic roman be justified in your poster theme? does it suit the style? probably not.

2) then, try viewing all the fonts from the same type designer that created trade gothic, sometimes, like adrian frutiger, they suit each other well, ex: meridian/apollo go well with univers/frutiger. since the original designer of trade gothic used early grotesks as a base, you might have to dwelve deeper.

3) Create a headline that suits the theme more than the copy. a font that conveys "transportation"... a few that come to mind are " interstate for the U.S. and Frutiger for Europe (france).

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