Nice icon.

It's great that you're concerned a lot with readability, but remember that this special issue is specifically about Design - so I think your display font at least should be "self-conscious" in this respect. The trick will be finding a text font that has "attitude" but remains very readable.

I'm partial to wedge-serif fonts, and the other day I saw a magazine cover using Alias's Key really well. For a text companion to that you could choose a bunch of things, like Swift or FF Olson. Whitman might be nice too although I think it's a bit too "soft-spoken" for this, I think.

BTW, narrowness isn't always more economical, because a wider font can be set smaller while looking the same size as a larger narrow font. It depends a lot on your column width and frequency of linebreaks.

hhp

Thanks for the info Hrant!

Finally found Key in Veers webpage. Seems a nice choice, only concern would be about its width. Do you think it can be a problem?

Swift it's a nice font. But too expensive for this project and maybe I'd never take real benefit of it (Hey, I'm sure that it deserves its price).

Following the style you suggested, I discovered Corel's Humanist 712 Slabserif BT in my vault. Do you think that can substitute Olsen? Or maybe it loses the "swifted" serifs that make Olsen better for this application?

All the best
Vicente


PS Any chance you send me a scan of this cover magazine, so we can get inspired for using Key typeface?

> only concern would be about its width.

I guess it can be a problem sometimes - but I have virtually no experience using fonts so I'm not sure. Maybe James (Montalbano) can help.

> Humanist 712

That might be a good compromise, although it's kind of a "hybrid" slab. Some people might feel its retro vibe, but that can be good too these days. But anyway, don't choose a slab/wedge font because I like it. If you decide to go with Key however it does make sense.

> send me a scan

Hey, I try to limit my purchase of magazines that I'm interested in, much less something that just has a nice cover! :-) But I'll try to find what magazine it was so you can track it down. I do remember that Key was used to set the name of the magazine, and it was a short name, with a "k" in it.

hhp

>Hey, I try to limit my purchase of magazines that I'm interested in

Oh, sorry, I understood you already had this magazine. Of course you don't have to do nothing regarding that.

Thanks for all your suggestions!

Vicente

OK, I checked: it's "bike" magazine.
But like I said, I don't know if they use Key for more than just the name.

hhp

bike? That's not Key.

-- K.

Oooops. What is it?

hhp

The interior uses predominantly FF Olsen (along with FF Meta). The title looks like a slightly customized version of Olsen Bold -- wider and blacker, with modified terminals on the 'k'.

(FF Olsen Bold)

-- K.

Thanks!
Wow, I was way off. It's funny that I was thinking of Olsen too though.

I really like the mods they did for the title - especially the removal of that trap in the "b" (although it's strange that there wasn't one on the "k" too).

BTW, considering you said you don't exercise, I assume you collect magazines then? :-) Or maybe you just like bikes (like Gill with his trains).

hhp

Ha. Every now and then I collect magazines that grab my typographic attention. I just did a round recently. That's how I happen to have the recent issues of Bike and Men's Fitness handy.

I write it off as R&D. ;-)

-- K.

Hi again Hrant & Ken
Thanks for all your suggestions.

We're finally going for FF Olsen for main text.
Think it will be our base font for some time.

Unfortunately I couldn't convince the client to spend more money in a display face (Key) so I'll look alternatives in my font vault, although i seem to have a lot of grunge freefonts not very suitable for that.

Do you think it'll be possible to get a PDF sample of bulk text in FF Olsen 9-10 pt to show to the client before buying it?
FonFont doesn't seem to provide it :-( and MyFonts.com doesn't sell it yet.

Vicente

Since I'm a certified wedge-serif freak, I contacted Morten back in December for a PDF of FF Olsen. At that time he said he was working on one - I haven't followed up. But my inquiry was "academic" in nature; if you dangled a potential sale in front of him it might make a difference... :-)

You can send him an email through his Typophile profile:
http://www.typophile.com/cgibin/board-profile.pl?action=view_profile&profile=morten-users
If that doesn't work let me know. And if he does provide a "sharable" PDF, I'd like to see it too.

BTW, it looks like some weights of Olsen will work fine for display as well.

hhp

I'll followup Olsen's answer regarding the PDF sample if allowed.

BTW I've found an affordable display face for text

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/sudtipos/mister-giacco/
http://www.sudtipos.com.ar/fonts-giacco.htm

I think suits well with the magazine content.
What do you think about it? Will it go well with FF Olsen?

Vicente

Yes, I think Mr Giacco might work out great.

hhp

Officina Serif has a similar feel to Olsen but is slightly more condensed if that's still a concern.