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To celebrate 20 years, FontFont offered 20% off a selection of twenty FontFonts for twenty days. Every day, we highlighted each 20 Year Anniversary FontFont Selection by sharing additional product information, including comments from the designer. Today is the last day of the offer. Join the celebration.
FF Yoga by Xavier Dupré
The FF Yoga family is a type system by Xavier Dupré conceived for newspapers and magazines thanks to its strong personality and good legibility. FF Yoga, with its sturdy serifs is a good choice for body text, but it also serves as an original headline face with its subtly chiseled counters. The face mixes the dynamic tension of straight cuts with the balanced rhythm and elegant curves of Garalde typefaces.
FF Yoga Sans is a contemporary alternative to Gill Sans and a sober companion to the serif FF Yoga.
FF Yoga OT and Pro fonts come with standard ligatures, small caps, case-sensitive forms, lining and oldstyle figures in tabular and proportional widths, and arbitrary fractions. FF Yoga Pro fonts add support for Central/Eastern European languages like Polish, Czech, Hungarian, and Turkish.
Jason Santa Maria put FF Yoga and FF Yoga Sans to good use in his design of Jeremy Keith’s book.
DESIGNER’S COMMENTS
“My intention was to design a text face more sober than Malaga but keeping the strange angles in the counters. It’s a 2-in-1 typeface. A classic face at text sizes and a showy face at big sizes. When I see the FF Yoga fonts set for a book, I’m surprised to see how good it works!” — Xavier Dupré
To celebrate 20 years, FontFont is offering 20% off a selection of twenty FontFonts for twenty days. Every day, we’ll highlight each 20 Year Anniversary FontFont Selection by sharing additional product information, including comments from the designer. Join the celebration.
FF Mister K by Julia Sysmäläinen
It was a great temptation and challenge to design Mister K, a typeface inspired by manuscripts of Franz Kafka and named after main characters of the novels Das Schloß and Der Prozess. Kafka’s manuscripts reveal a unique handwriting style with strong calligraphic features. Looking closer, glyph shapes derived from the Latin as well as the German script popular in Austro-Hungary at the beginning of the 20th century can be distinguished in different texts. In designing the typeface, a balance had to be found between the Kafka’s strong and partly excentric letterforms and new forms to enable a steady typographic flow. Technically, Mister K is available in OpenType format and includes: several hundred ligatures (2-, 3-, 4-characters) which reflect typical sequences in different languages and reduce repetitions; alternate glyphs for “high”, “medium” and “low” connections; and stylistic alternates allowing for different kinds of cross hatching, underlining, etc. Not only for the sake of completeness but also because of the influences Kafka took from Russian literature, esp. Dostoevsky, Cyrillic characters are in the making, using Kafka’s German script and popular Russian handwriting of the beginning of the 20th century as sources.
While creating the letterforms for FF Mister K, Julia Sysmäläinen was moved to sketch pictograms in the same personal, hand penned style. Her imagination –nbsp;and digital ink – ran wild, resulting in nearly 600 images including animals, plants, stars, famous buildings, faces, food, flags, arrows, and various symbols for sports, hobbies, professions, traffic, and weather. All the pictograms of FF Mister K Dingbats are available in a single font accessible via keycode or glyph palette. Feel free to download the nifty Manual.
FF Mister K at the Travelling Letters 2010 exhibition at the Lahti Art Museum. Photo by Indra Kupferschmid.
Postcard designed by Julia Sysmäläinen for TYPO Berlin 2009 showing her typeface family FF Mister K in use.
DESIGNER’S COMMENTS
“Probably the most impressive writer’s manuscripts I have seen are those of Franz Kafka, who was and is one of my favorite writers. Kafka had a very rich handwriting style with partly pronounced calligraphic features. The rhythm and mood of the script change strongly from slow and relaxed with wide characters, to fast, tense, very tight and almost unreadable. Besides that, there are all kinds of editing/correction marks reflecting the state of affairs of the writer. Another interesting aspect is that during the course of his lifetime, Kafka used not only Latin script but also (for most contemporary readers almost undecipherable) German script popular in Austro-Hungary at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries.
This rich material made me to enter Kafka’s world a second time after having read his texts: I decided to analyze his handwriting and interpret it as a digital type family. The name “Mister K” is derived from the main character of Kafka’s works The Castle and The Trial. It was quite clear that Mister K would become a family with a number of different styles capturing various moods in the manuscripts. Thanks to OpenType feature code and many hundred ligatures/alternates, it was possible to create a lively, largely connected typographic flow. In fact Mister K is so alive, that while you are writing, the structure of the words changes continuously, not necessarily always as you had thought they would. There is something playful in this and it seems you are not just using the font but having a dialogue with it.
In short: I see Mister K not only as a font but more as the visualization of a personality. This personality originated in Kafka’s works but now lives on and leads its own life as a typeface. It appears in stories –nbsp;which I partly create myself – but also in stories that originate when others use it in new, unexpected surroundings (example: Towers Watson corporate identity).
My last addition to the font are a set of 600 pictograms following the characteristics of Mister K Regular. (Kafka liked to make small sketches when sitting in – partly boring – university courses.) These pictograms integrate well in Mister K running texts and lead to a mixed text-icon texture.” — Julia Sysmäläinen
To celebrate 20 years, FontFont is offering 20% off a selection of twenty FontFonts for twenty days. Every day, we’ll highlight each 20 Year Anniversary FontFont Selection by sharing additional product information, including comments from the designer. Join the celebration.
FF Milo by Michael Abbink
Milo was started in 2000 with the goal of creating a compact typeface with very short ascenders/descenders. Because of its compact design Milo is a workhorse typeface suitable for magazine and newspaper typography. It has modern bones with a touch of detail for distinction (especially in the italics).
With the help of Paul van der Laan for kerning, spacing and production, Mike Abbink developed Milo Serif as a companion to the Sans, but it is also perfectly suitable as a stand alone typeface or used together with any other sans serif typeface. Like FF Milo, it is a text face with the utmost legibility, perfect for setting newspapers and magazine copy. Although rooted with historical attributes it is truly a contemporary face. FF Milo Serif comes with SC, TF, OSF, LF as well as a wealth of ligatures.
TYPO Berlin 2009: Space identity by Studio Adhoc.
Sample by Frank Grießhammer.
Sample by Alexander Roth.
Sample by Stephen Coles.
DESIGNER’S COMMENTS
“The name Milo is from a resilient grain and that’s why I chose this name for the typeface. I wanted it to be a basic usable font like corn or grain is to any culture. I like the low ascenders/short descenders. The italic has unique little serifs at the end of terminals to help differentiate it from the roman. It is also a true italic and not an oblique. Together this creates a nice contrast with the roman in text.
When I first developed Milo Sans I had drawn some sketches for a serif version making sure there was some relation between the two. I always wanted them to be somewhat different but of course sharing certain relationships. The Sans was a bit easier to move forward with at the time so the serif came much later. But because Milo is all about being useful it absolutely need the serif at one point.
The main relationship between the two is the proportions and short ascenders/descenders but because of the different nature of a sans and a serif there are also distinct differences. The main goal is that they could be used together in typographical situations with an overall harmony and just the right amount of contrast. With Kievit slab there will be very little difference between the forms other than the addition of the slabs.” — Michael Abbink
To celebrate 20 years, FontFont is offering 20% off a selection of twenty FontFonts for twenty days. Every day, we’ll highlight each 20 Year Anniversary FontFont Selection by sharing additional product information, including comments from the designer. Join the celebration.
FF Dingbats 2.0 by Johannes Erler, Olaf Stein, Henning Skibbe
The original FF Dingbats font package was designed in 1993 when there was no other symbol font available except Zapf Dingbats. The FF Dingbats package was the first with some 800 symbols and icons from the world of modern communication: faxes, ISDN, disks, keyboards, … all absolutely usable. But over the following years times have been changing and quite a lot of pictograms for office communication are no longer needed – no-one uses floppy disks nowadays – or simply changed their appearance, so Johannes Erler and Henning Skibbe started a complete redesign in 2007. All pictograms have been revised and adjusted according to the latest stylistic vocabulary. Arrow and number fonts have been reworked and extended as well. All symbols have been sorted into clear categories, and the font “Strong Forms” includes the most needed symbols in a bolder version. Besides this, many symbols can be layered and coloured via an easy-to-use layering feature (see FF Dingbats 2.0 info guide PDF). All this makes FF Dingbats 2.0 a state-of-the-art font package again and probably the largest collection of contemporary symbols and icons for office communication.
Along with the standard basic shapes and office iconography, FF Dingbats 2.0 includes updated versions of the human forms that made the original FF Dingbats famous.
The OpenType layer feature makes it easy to colourize the Dingbats. See how it works.
DESIGNER’S COMMENTS
“Things weren’t always better in the old days, just different!
In the summer of 1992 I graduated from the Muthesius Academy, School of Applied Arts, in Kiel with a degree in communication design. My thesis was called ‘Care Pack’, a typeface with information and warning symbols for packaging. FSI – FontShop International liked the concept and published it that year as FF Care Pack – for a recent graduate this was a pretty great thing. Even better was the subsequent suggestion by Jürgen Siebert, at the time in charge of marketing for FSI – FontShop International, that I should consider creating a modern alternative for ITC Zapf Dingbats. Though a system font and thereby pre-installed on most computers, Hermann Zapf’s symbol font was incomplete and often impractical as a design aid. Jürgen and I imagined a font system that was more comprehensive and systemised – a real source of help in the daily life of a designer in need of pictograms, arrows and other shapes and symbols. The result was FF Dingbats, launched in 1993, the same year Factor Design was founded. Thousands of licences have since been sold and the fonts have become a fixture in communication design worldwide.
The world has changed since 1993. Internet, mobile phones, and countless other innovations permeate our lives at home and work. Communication is different, at least from a technological standpoint. It was these advances in technology that got us thinking about a contemporary FF Dingbats two years ago. Jürgen Siebert (now in charge of marketing at FontShop Germany) and I (still a partner at Factor Design) decided on an extensive update. They’re finished now – the FF Dingbats 2.0, which now have their own microsite. Cutting edge, both in content and design. The FF Dingbats 2.0 Booklet we produced to introduce the new symbols and pictograms of FF Dingbats 2.0 also was a chance to reflect on the changes that have taken place in the past 16 years. We asked industry experts how the many technological advances at work and in our daily lives revealed themselves. And I tried to show what an average working day looked like in 1993 and how it looks today. The principal realisation of this particular piece is that I’m just as exhausted at the end of the day as I was 16 years ago.
I’d like to thank my partners Uwe Melichar and Olaf Stein who made it possible for me to work on this project. I’d especially like to thank Henning Skibbe, without whose design talents FF Dingbats 2.0 wouldn’t have been possible. Enjoy!” — Johannes Erler
To celebrate 20 years, FontFont is offering 20% off a selection of twenty FontFonts for twenty days. Every day, we’ll highlight each 20 Year Anniversary FontFont Selection by sharing additional product information, including comments from the designer. Join the celebration.
FF Instant Types by Just van Rossum
Just as popular as Erik van Blokland’s FF Trixie are the FF Instant Types by Just van Rossum. Named after the places they come from, the fonts are alphabets from the world around us. We see them every day, but do not really see the letters as typefaces. Instant Types makes those alphabets available to the digital typographer.
The original stencil typeface designed by Le Corbusier which was the model for FF Flightcase, on the cover for Nicholas Fox Weber’s Le Corbusier: A Life, designed by Peter Mendelsund.
Album sleeve for Eat Me, Drink Me, the sixth album for shock-rocker Marilyn Manson, featuring FF Karton for the album title.
FF Confidential on the movie poster for Loverboy.
Cover for Key, The New York Times Real Estate Magazine, Fall 2006, designed by Carin Goldberg using FF Dynamoe.
DESIGNER’S COMMENTS
“Previously Erik and I already had the idea to digitise our handwriting and an old typewriter. Doing this series seemed like a logical continuation.
The stamps for Stamp Gothic were from a children’s play set my brother and sister (10 and 8 years older) used to play with, so they were already pretty worn out. Confidential was from a set of office stamp letters, given to me by Joan Spiekermann. Dynamoe are the impressions of the typical squarish letters used in the Dymo label writers – the name is derived from a Frank Zappa track called Dinah Moe Humm. Karton was based on the cardboard boxes arriving at FontShop; Flightcase on a stencil letter alphabet my father had.
Digitising the fonts went fairly quickly. I actually spent a lot more time drawing additional glyphs to complete the character sets and subsequently adding the Cyrillic and Greek.” — Just van Rossum
To celebrate 20 years, FontFont is offering 20% off a selection of twenty FontFonts for twenty days. Every day, we’ll highlight each 20 Year Anniversary FontFont Selection by sharing additional product information, including comments from the designer. Join the celebration.
FF Quadraat by Fred Smeijers
Fred Smeijers’ FF Quadraat offers a crisp interpretation of typographic tradition. Originally designed for the Dutch design company with the same name (now it is called the “Lab”), Quadraat combines Renaissance elegance with modern ideas on construction and form. It looks back to the sixteenth century from a contemporary point of view, as seen in its decisively geometric serifs. Smeijers wanted it to be a traditional serif face, as economic as Times New Roman but with less contrast, as balanced as Plantin but more elegant.
Over the years several versions have been designed: Quadraat Sans and Serif, Display and Headliner. The fonts in FF Quadraat Display are strong, but they aren’t of the loud-mouthed, fun-font variety. They strive for a sort of noticeability we don’t see much anymore. FF Quadraat Sans follows a trend which was originated by Jan van Krimpen who designed Romulus, a classical typeface and to which he added some sans serif variations. It was not until the late eighties that this idea became more popular. The well known designs from our days are ITC Stone or FF Scala for example. Both typefaces give designers the opportunity to make use of well adapted sans serif variations. FF Quadraat which started with a serif version follows this young tradition. Sans serif typefaces can look very much alike, especially in the bolder variations. This is certainly not the case with Quadraat Sans. Quadraat Sans is like its serif companion a typeface with a rather strong character of its own. Thus, it was not that easy for the designer Fred Smeijers to make a gesture as strong as its serif companion without neglecting traditional proportions. But he obviously succeeded in giving the sans version a lively and humane character. This can be most clearly seen in big word images and is still there in text sizes, although in a more discreet way. So Quadraat Sans has display qualities, is an efficient typeface and suitable for longer texts at the same time.
Sketch for FF Quadraat Italic.
Sketch for FF Quadraat Display Regular Italic.
First specimen for FF Quadraat.
Overview of all the Quadraat variants in an advertisement in Items graphic design magazine.
Fred Smeijers standing in front of a billboard with an announcement for SNS Bank set in FF Quadraat Sans Bold.
FF Quadraat used for text and display purposes in the London Review of Books, designed by Peter Campbell.
FF Quadraat Sans used on the packaging for Lancôme Miracle for men.
Brochures promoting the winter market in Gent.
DESIGNER’S COMMENTS
“The London Review of Books has been using the Quadraat typeface for 16 years continuously, and the typeface itself is now 18 years old. Looking back I think it is safe to state that Quadraat is not only a success but also a very influential typeface. It clearly showed what could be done with tradition and how to renew and expand it for contemporary use. This quality is why Quadraat, together with a few other type designs, could be seen as stepping stones for contemporary type design.” — Fred Smeijers
Lavigne Text
& Lavigne Display
The well-received Lavigne Display now has a companion optimized for ease of reading at small sizes. Lavigne Text is as striking as more ornamental faces like Cochin and DeVinne, but with a structure designed for long reading. It features generous x-height, short ascenders and descenders, open counters and simplified details that improve its reproduction at small sizes.
Released by Font Bureau 15 years ago, Anisette has been a favorite of those seeking an elegant Art Deco look. Later, Jean François Porchez added new value to the family by developing a lowercase that combines the sobriety of geometrical typefaces with an unexpected tension in certain curves. More surprises are found in the highly original ‘r’, ‘l’, and ‘g’.
With Tangier, Richard Lipton continues to explore the possibilities of the elegant Spencerian form in its infinite variety. Inspired by lettering on a catalog cover, Lipton developed this lively series, exuberant yet disciplined, with a black weight that pushes the boundaries for contrast in a script. Captivated by Tangier’s flair and sprightly joie de vivre, Glamour magazine incorporated two weights into their 2008 redesign. Now you can have it for yours.
Novel and uncategorizable, Costa was born as a corporate typeface for Costa Crociere, an Italian cruise company. The idea was to create a sort of Mediterranean style, referencing the line’s more exotic ports of call.
Harfang
André Simard’s angular serif face is easy to read in long texts, advertising copy, annual reports and the like; but one that also provides a crisp and stylish appeal in more prominent display settings. The “Harfang” is a Snowy Owl, the official bird of Simard’s native Québec.
Hermes FB
Already a cult favorite among discerning designers who look past more common straight-sided sans serifs, Hermes has just become a much more versatile typeface. Get the new family and take advantage of additional weights, italics, and alternate glyphs (‘a’, ‘g’, ‘w’, ‘W’, ‘M’).
To celebrate 20 years, FontFont is offering 20% off a selection of twenty FontFonts for twenty days. Every day, we’ll highlight each 20 Year Anniversary FontFont Selection by sharing additional product information, including comments from the designer. Join the celebration.
FF Unit by Erik Spiekermann
FF Unit was designed by Erik Spiekermann and produced by Christian Schwartz. FF Unit is the grown-up, no-nonsense sister of Spiekermann’s famous FF Meta. With FF Unit, puppy fat is off, some curves are gone and the shapes are tighter. While FF Meta has always been a little out-of-line and not exactly an over-engineered typeface, FF Unit is less outspoken and more disciplined. It is – like FF Meta – very suitable for use quite small and large, but FF Unit lacks some of the diagonal strokes and curves that give FF Meta its slight informality. However, FF Unit is not cold or uptight, just cool: no redundant ornamentation, just a lot of character. The tighter shapes make it suitable for big headlines set tight. Smaller sizes benefit from the increased contrast between vertical and horizontal strokes and open spacing. Thin and Light perform well set large, displaying the characters to their advantage. There is a great difference in weight between the Thin and Ultra, providing a good range of weights for contrasting combinations. Alternative characters (a, g, i, j, l, U, M) make for interesting headlines. The Small Caps are a bit larger than normal, making them suitable for abbreviations and acronyms. The many weights include old style, regular, and tabular figures.
FF Unit Rounded started as an exclusive typeface Erik Spiekermann designed with Christian Schwartz’s help for Gravis, the biggest Apple dealer in Germany. They needed something friendly but precise, to be used on-screen, on signs, in print and on T-shirts. Gravis Round only has two weights, and when Spiekermann wanted to make a complete family, he turned to Erik van Blokland, inventor of the Superpolator software. Erik ran several trials to establish the right amount of roundness for each weight. The lighter weights have almost no flat bottom, whereas the bold weights have straight bottoms on the main strokes, met by rounded corners. The radius had to be different for each weight, so Erik showed me alternatives as little movies with a slider to try out different versions. They all had a number to them so Spiekermann and Schwartz could decide what worked best for which weight. The Superpolator also took care of a lot of the issues with internal curves and those problematic areas where curves meet straight lines or – even more complex! – diagonal ones. There remained quite a bit of manual intervention which was carried out by FSI’s able experts. FF Unit is serious enough to be rounded without becoming a sausage face or one only suited for comic strips. It looks friendly without losing its precision and changes its appearance quite dramatically as it grows in size.
When Kris Sowersby, Christian Schwartz and Erik Spiekermann were designing the parameters for FF Meta Serif, the trio spent quite some time on details like the thickness and the shape of the serifs – should the face veer towards a slab with blocky, heavy serifs or should it be more of a traditional book face? In the end, they went for a “normal” serif face with fairly solid serifs, but some thick-thin contrast and counters that aren’t totally parallel to the outside shape of the letters. Stronger and thus more useful than Times New Roman while not as constructed as Rockwell. They did, however, like some of the explorations into a “humanist slab” so much, that Spiekermann and Schwartz asked Kris to develop the initial sketches further as a companion for FF Unit, as it looked good with heavier serifs. FF Unit Slab is a fairly condensed slab which pulls a punch in bold headlines and looks surprisingly good in text with its typewriter-like discipline.
FF Unit Slab can be mixed with FF Unit, of course, but also works as companion to FF Meta, while FF Meta Serif looks good when mixed with FF Unit – whether for headlines or small text like captions. The two families share a common heritage and like to hang out with each other.
The three variants of FF Unit.
The FF Unit super family consists of FF Unit, FF Unit Slab, and FF Unit Rounded.
Alternates in FF Unit.
HBT (Healthcare Benefit Trust) 2007 annual report designed by Karacters Design Group.
FF Unit used for Atlanta magazine.
Best Care Home website designed by Colin Lewis, featuring FF Unit Rounded Bold & Black.
FF Unit Slab is the new typeface of the world’s largest global newspaper Metro International.
FF Unit Slab wallpaper.
DESIGNERS’ COMMENTS
“Unit started as an exclusive face for my new studio, United Designers, just like Meta started for that studio back in 1991 (after the initial Post Office project). So, of course, it comes from the same brain and hands. And it will set tightly, it is very legible in small sizes and has two very light weights.
Call it incest, but – as Jean-François Porchez pointed out on Typographica – all Frutiger’s faces look like Frutiger’s faces and Gerard Unger’s look Dutch and like Gerard Unger’s. And every book by Norman Mailer reads like a book by Norman Mailer. And shouldn’t they? That’s half the reason why people like them. If a writer has achieved certain status by writing books that people want to read, it is a fairly safe bet that the next book won’t be a complete waste of time. While the plot may be predictable, at least you know the guy can write.
The deviation between text faces can only be about 5%, so Unit is a development of all the other faces I did before, but it won’t be the last one. All my faces have addressed a specific problem: Meta for small sizes, Officina to combine typewriter and typesetting, Info for signage (with blunt corners to facilitate cutting by plotters), and Unit for small sizes as well as large display.” — Erik Spiekermann
“While FF Unit is FF Meta’s “grown up sister”, FF Unit Slab and FF Meta Serif are more like second cousins. While Meta’s seriffed companion plays up all of the organic quirks found in the original sans, Unit Slab’s serifs are decidedly no-nonsense and un-selfconscious. The sturdy and plain forms of the original lent themselves to a very straightforward serif treatment, inspired in part by mid-20th century typewriters, particularly where serifs have been left off of the left sides of stems to keep the counterforms open. A slightly customised version made its debut in the corporate identity of edenspiekermann_, Erik Spiekermann’s new Berlin- and Amsterdam-based design consultancy.” — Christian Schwartz
To celebrate 20 years, FontFont is offering 20% off a selection of twenty FontFonts for twenty days. Every day, we’ll highlight each 20 Year Anniversary FontFont Selection by sharing additional product information, including comments from the designer. Join the celebration.
FF Nexus by Martin Majoor
Between 1988 and 1994 Martin Majoor designed FF Scala and FF Scala Sans. The idea behind FF Scala was to design a serif, humanistic typeface from which a sans serif version would be derived. Majoor called it: “two typefaces, one form principle”, and it would become the basis of his type design philosophy. Since FF Scala’s release, the combination of a serif and sans version has proven to be highly successful in corporate, book, and newspaper design. Ten years later, Majoor expanded his idea of two typefaces, one form principle into three typefaces, one form principle, with a new family of typefaces as a result. Majoor calls this the “nexus principle”, nexus being the Latin word for connection. From 2002 to 2004 he designed FF Nexus, a family of three connected typefaces including a serif, a sans serif, and a slab serif version. He is convinced that the serif should come first, then the serif, and finally the slab serif.
Nexus started as an alternative for FF Seria with shorter ascenders and descenders, but the design quickly became its own typeface with additional changes in the proportions and details, including a redrawn italic. The result is a workhorse typeface that borrows some of its structure from FF Scala, but adds the slab-like FF Nexus Mix and the corporate monospaced FF Nexus Typewriter to the set. When the Nexus family was released in 2004, it was one of FontShop’s first Opentype font families. Its advanced layout features, such as built-in small caps in all weights, four different sorts of numbers, alternate glyphs, etc. make it an extremely versatile type system. In addition Majoor designed two sets of swash capitals, and two sets of swash lowercase endings.
The use of the word “Mix” in the name FF Nexus Mix stems from Majoor’s idea that a slab serif actually is a mix of a sans and a serif.
FF Nexus Typewriter used on 2009 Warsaw Autumn billboard.
Font Focus pamphlet by Wim Westerveld.
Book covers by Jan Willem den Hartog.
Poster design by Jan Willem den Hartog.
DESIGNER’S COMMENTS
“FF Nexus was initially the short ascender/descender version of Seria. But then it got out of hand and it became a whole new typeface. For me it is the best typeface I have created so far, even if my first typeface FF Scala is still more popular. With Nexus Mix I introduced a third family member in my type design philosophy, and I am pleased this slab version did not come to be a stand alone typeface – it functions best when accompanied by serif and sans.
The happiest period in my type design life was when I worked on FF Nexus Serif Italic Swash. I found out it was impossible to create one ideal series of swash capitals, so I decided to make two. The best decision was to make lowercase ending swashes for all 26 characters, and not for just a selection.” — Martin Majoor
To celebrate 20 years, FontFont is offering 20% off a selection of twenty FontFonts for twenty days. Every day, we’ll highlight each 20 Year Anniversary FontFont Selection by sharing additional product information, including comments from the designer. Join the celebration.
FF Cocon by Evert Bloemsma
By historical standards, the FontFont library is a young library. Most of the designers behind it were still at school when digital type started to free type design and production from its industrial constraints and the division of labour. Among those young designers, Evert Bloemsma was one of oldest and most experienced. He digitized his first typeface at URW in 1987, still on a big mainframe computer. The FontFont library released all his idiosyncratic faces: FF Balance (1993), FF Cocon (1998/2001), FF Avance (2000), FF Legato (2004). All of Evert’s work was concerned with finding new answers to the old challenges of reading under various circumstances, in different media.
Bloemsma’s second typeface, like FF Balance, questions conventional principles of type forms. It tackles an aspect that is part and parcel of the tradition of type design, so much so that it is hardly noticed any more: the origin of letterforms in handwriting.
We all know the small spurs of the lowercase letters a, b, d, g, h, m, n, p, q, r and u. They are relics of the hand-written word where a round form is attached to a straight line. Bloemsma decided to find out what the result would be if they were left off; this proved a difficult starting point for a typeface. His experiment with a letterform with completely straight terminals turned out unsuccessfully. Finally, he let a calligraphic element in through the back door: the terminals of the stems and extenders were given an elegant asymmetrical rounding, creating the suggestion that the characters were drawn with a round brush. These ingenious curves seem to have a practical function as well: they propel the eye forward from left to right, an effect similar to that of FF Balance’s unconventional stress.
When writing about Cocon, Bloemsma has described it as a ’serious typeface’, apparently referring to the many hours of experimentation that went into the design, as well as the wide spectrum of possible uses. In large sizes, Cocon is a display face with beautiful details, while in small sizes it remains surprisingly readable. In spite of its claims to seriousness, Cocon is a family of seductive, voluptuous fonts. Since its release it has been used for a multitude of purposes, from architectural books and design catalogues to the packaging of Durex condoms. The British National Lottery, too, chose FF Cocon as its corporate font.
Durex brand using FF Cocon
Three Sisters Cereal branding by KartungKemp
The National Lottery’s logo, designed with FF Cocon
A 20-minute little something by Nina Stössinger, playing with her newly-licensed font family FF Cocon.
DESIGNER’S COMMENTS
“Type designers should beware of unthinkingly adapting and repeating accepted conventions. Typography is full of traditions, and is therefore a field full of designer pitfalls. Before getting to work, you must be aware of all these conventions passed down to us, otherwise you won’t succeed in adding something substantial.
In my first sketches for Cocon I made an attempt at erasing every trace of handwriting. Even an ‘autonomous’ typeface such as Helvetica contains many references to writing in its stems and terminals. It was more complicated than expected to eliminate those elements and yet retain a convincing, natural-looking result.” — Evert Bloemsma
 Founded by Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody in 1989, FontShop is the original independent retailer of digital type. We offer more than 100,000 fonts from dozens of expert-selected foundries, including our house brand: FontFont.
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