Typophile

Choose Five Typefaces to use for a Year

Duncan Forbes

A while ago me & Kris were nerding out and talking about the Vignelli thing, which led to

“what if you could only use five typefaces for a year” (Say If money was not an option).

I think I said:

Trinite
Arnhem
Galaxie Polaris
National

annd.... hmmm, maybe Serapion (I can’t remember my 5th one).

Go on try it.

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paul d hunt

if you like serapion, check out the recently released Anselm type system, it’s Serapion/Sebastion reigned in a bit for text work. This would be one of my choices, but does it count as 1 or 2 selections? or am i completely over the limit of 5? :P

T.

— Arnhem
— Quadraat
— Legato
— Fedra Serif
— Akzidenz

— Monotype Grotesque (I’ll take your spare 5th place)

Duncan Forbes

if you like serapion, check out the recently released Anselm type system

Yeah I saw these yesterday.. not sure what to make of them yet...

paul d hunt

not sure what to make of them yet...
i’ve been drooling over it, as i’ve been drooling over national grotesque as well. can’t wait to see that one come out!

Duncan Forbes

i’ve been drooling over it, as i’ve been drooling over national grotesque as well.

Haha, yeah National is nice to set, I use it heaps. Anselm will be great of course, storm is a great designer, and I really like Sebastian and Serapion (which I have been using in the last few days). I need to read about Anselm more I reckon.

kris

can’t wait to see that one come out!

Soon, bro! I had to do a whole lot of work on it, Victoria University (in Wellington) commissioned custom weights of National, National Compressed, Newzald & Newzald display. I was also working on Meta Serif at the same time, so ended up kerning a billion styles and I’m kinda over them at the mo. I need to let National & Newzald rest a while before I can get back to them and kern the SC with fresh eyes.

Now, my list. Hard, but I reckon, in no particular order:

Lexicon
Miller
Meta
Meta Serif
National

That would be enough for a year I think. I am a bit hesitant about National, but have been using it a bit and quite like it. Most of the time I get so sick of seeing/designing my own faces that I can’t stand to use them! (As Meta S was shared, that’s a bit different).

Has anyone limited themselves to 5 faces for a year?

mderousse

“Has anyone limited themselves to 5 faces for a year?”

That would be more like a few years, working as an inhouse designer, hence, why I recently stumbled on this site for inspiration. Mmm, National, Meta nice.

Two that I know I could enjoy for a year: DTL Nobel and Tribute. I don’t know how practical Nobel is for everyday use, but I really think Tribute is beautifully done. The other three I would want to use seem to be impractical choices of historical script/handwriting, that have been overused anyway.

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Eureka
Myriad
Sabon
MT Grot
FF DIN

Duncan Forbes

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