very ornate and elegant
something with a modern edge
timeless and classic

How big is your budget?

Didot & Akzidenz

Thanks for the leads AS & MM... Frank, the project is already over budg. I'm involved in this one purely out of love for this collaborative, so saving money everywhere possible is fairly key. Sometimes I wonder why it's so hard to convince people that you get what you pay for in the land of fonts - but as you know even some clients that can appreciate this fact, just do not have a decent budget to work with.

What are you designing? Record sleeves? Are you looking for display fonts, or text fonts?

Your question is very broad. “Ornate and elegant” could be a script, but I’m not sure if that would fit your project. There are some very dramatic contemporary script fonts available quite cheap.

“Modern edge, timeless and classic” makes me think of a neutral sans serif of some kind, perhaps two dramatically different weights for contrast.

That’s just what first popped into my head. Could you fill us in on what exactly you’re intending to use it for, and who your audience is? Also: have the client used any other typefaces before?

This is basically a re-design of a layout first done by an illustrator who was not concentrating on the actual layout of the piece as much as the illustration. The pieces I have been given will evolve into a record sleeve. The style of the overall piece is quite eclectic. This musician is essentially collaborating with a variety of electronic musicians of differing styles.

The illustrations are somewhat ethereal, and have a bit of a timeless quality b/c they are embellishments added to the top of (for lack of a better description) very beautiful high fashion photographs.

I left the style specifics of my question rather broad on purpose b/c I am starting from zero and can imagine several different combinations working. I will need a print font for both the title and the musicians name, as well as (if not the same)fonts for all of the internal copy text, or secondary information. Right now I am spending a significant amount of time simply looking for possible title/name heading fonts. As to neutral sans serif combos, the best mock up I've done on that front used bauhaus, which seems viable. Though I have been looking, I haven't found any elegant script or anything deocrational or ornate that is working yet.

The audience for this piece will vary. A broad description would be: the spiritual side to dj culture/underground art. There are no pre-existing font uses for the client to consider. Though most of the supporting artists involved in this project have previous releases, this will be the first release of the headlining artist - so we are creating that image now. I would say that it is as important that my final choices come across as 'fresh' or 'modern' as they do 'seasoned' because while the beats are very edgy, the vocals are based on ancient mantras.

Thank you ahead for any thoughts. I checked out your website ff, and enjoyed your work quite a bit.

Thank you, Flash! (Do you have a real name?)

If the illustrations are very busy I’d consider a neutral sans. An alternative that is both classic, timeless and has a modern edge is Graphik! You’ll have to contact Commercial Type for pricing. Graphik has the qualities to work both as a display face and as a text face.

Shameless promotion: Noir is rather ornate, while still clean.