I'm a newbie here, and I would like to get your advice for an exhibit my local watercolor society is putting together. The exhibit will will have about 50 watercolors in a wide range of styles from very realistic to the abstract. The museum that is hosting the exhibit will take care of hanging and labeling the paintings; that's not my problem. What I do have to do, however, is to come up with a way to fill up about 22 linear feet of display cases with something to go with the exhibit. We are still trying to figure out the exact content. We will almost certainly have something about the history of the medium, and we may include some information about materials and techniques as well.
I would like to find a typeface that would work well for headlines and short paragraphs of text. It needs to be readable from at least arm's length. I would like to have italics and old style figures. I want something that is elegant and yet friendly and approachable.
Here is everything else I know that might be relevant:
* The exhibit is being held in a museum that houses a lot of material from the American Civil War. Although I have not visited the museum, I understand that a civil war era locomotive is housed in an adjacent building. The exhibit, however, is not a civil war exhibit. We don't have to do anything from the period, but I do want to be sensitive to other exhibits in the museum.
* I will be printing to a 1200 dpi laser printer---nothing fancy. I may dry mount some of the text on matboard after it is printed.
* The watercolor society doesn't have any requirements about how the display should look. They would probably be perfectly happy with Comic Sans (just kidding).
* My current collection of fonts is relatively small. I have whatever is bundled with my Mac or other software, the Adobe Type Basics, and a handful of other typefaces. I am using this project as a good excuse to add to my collection, but my budget is limited. I would like to spend around $100; $200 is my absolute maximum on this round. I am not getting paid for this project, so anything I spend comes out of my pocket.
* At present, I am intererested in some of the Goudy fonts at P22/Lanston -- maybe Californian or Deepdene -- but I'm not sure how they would work in a display. I am open to the idea of limited use of swashes or ornaments as well. Actually, I am open to just about any ideas.
I would be very grateful for any recommendations or advice.
