Could anyone tell me where Gill's typeface 'Joanna' has been seen before? Publications, advertisements, identities...anything would be helpful! Thanks!
If i remember correctly Gill set a book of his in it.
here's an example (a reprint, but remains faithful in type choice)
The paperback edition of Gill's An Essay on Typography, published Stateside by David R. Godine, is set in Joanna. The colophon even mentions that Joanna is one of Gill's least used typefaces.
Joanna has been used a number of times with University Press books -- I designed a book for the University of Illinois Press, set using Linotron 202 Joanna. I forget the title, but can look it up if you really need it.
In spite of that, Gill's best text font available in major foundry form (i.e., Linotype, Monotype) was probably Pilgrim. I remember a lecture by Ron Costley where he remarked that none of Gill's fonts was a very good for setting book-length text. Afterwards, I asked him about Pilgrim, & as I remember, he did allow it could be quite good for text, just damaged by the poor character fit in the Linotron 202 offering. With PostScript, that could be easily fixed.
FWIW
more examples from typophile: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:typophile.com%20joanna
I used it for the running text in a book called The Downtown Book but not on the cover (that was AG)
http://www.amazon.com/Downtown-Book-York-Scene-1974-1984/dp/0691122865/r...
Kent's improvements on Joanna are very subtle; I admire his work here very much, especially the larger counter for the lower case a, which sets a tone of clarity and balance throughout all Whitman usage. For me, the Joanna italics, which seem to belong to another family, serve as an unwelcome speed-bump for the reader, though others love them for precisely that effect...also Joanna's figures seem crude, whereas Whitman's figures look right to the point of transparency.
All in all, the appearance of Whitman allowed me to get the Joanna roman look without the Joanna problems. Whitman seems so right it achieves transparency.
@mondoB
Nonsense :) Look at the example Jongseong posted – "Tromdomskonstens …". The italics might be unusual, but come up beautifully and in an effective contrast to the text set in regular.
BTW. I love the richness of existing typefaces, i'm looking forward to new typefaces to come. I don't look for an "ideal typeface fits all"-thing!
Look at the example Jongseong posted – “Tromdomskonstens …”. The italics might be unusual, but come up beautifully and in an effective contrast to the text set in regular.
Though, to be fair, it's a bit of a loaded-dice example since those italicized words happen to be much longer than the roman words on the page.
From the sublimity of "Victorian Review," I take you to what many consider the height of ridiculousity: ice fishing. Book designer Brian Donahue has submitted sample pages for a photo book on that subject, and he's used Joanna as his text face:

I was not thrilled when I read his note before opening the file, for Joanna has never been a favorite of mine. I like the "idea" of Joanna, but have rarely seen it used well. But this book may help me appreciate the face. It is well suited to the matter. Its overall sharpness evokes that first great lungfull of cold winter air. Its "f" looks like something one could catch an eelpout on. I'm really happy with the choice.
My dislike of Joanna goes back to metal days. Few USA Monotype houses had mats for Joanna, so if one wanted Joanna, choice was limited. Los Angeles Typefounders set a lot of horrendous Joanna for me once. It appeared that sorts had been cast on wrong set widths, and the line composition had to be re-worked by hand.
& the first versions I saw for photo and digital also had major problems. So I just put it out of mind. "Victorian Review" and this ice fishing book suggest I should re-look at the face.
At times in the past when I wanted the "feel" of Joanna I used Chaparral. Whitman is, of course, a much better face for text setting.
powers
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