WEEK 9 TYPE JOURNAL
1) “STEELE [trying not to laugh] Gym”—This is me taking a walk in the ‘ol neighborhood again. This appears to be a mix of fonts. I’m wondering: do people do this to not have to pay for using one particular typeface? By “designing” their own, as it were? Anyway, I believe this most closely resembles Franklin Gothic— and condensed, most likely. The only thing that throws me off of that is the capital “R”. This makes me think it could be something called Pragmatica, a very expensive typeface, btw, inspired by Helvetica and developed by a couple of Russians. I’d say the whole thing was Pragmatica but the cross stroke in the cap “E” isn’t as short as it is in the sign. Franklin was designed in 1902 (Gothic simply meant sans serif at this time, btw. Named after Benjamin Franklin, actually, but typographically speaking, was “inspired” by Berthold’s Akzidenz-Grotesk, one of my most hated titles to spell. The acronym is retard though so, eh, whatever.)
2) “Symmetry”—think this is a hand soap maker (found at work). I cannot figure out what this is, more than likely it was designed with the logo. I just love the logo and typologo so much (as far as typography goes), that I thought I’d include it. Anyway, I focused on the “y”—I’ve seen that kind of “y” before and got something called Skirt when I looked it up, but the “s” and “e” were so different. It seems so obvious in a way, but I think that’s the beauty of this design, too.
3) “Multilink”. A trash-hauling company (neighborhood walk again). This is a seriously adjusted and italicized Pragmatic, I believe (speak of the devil). Square dots to the “i”s and swooshed shoulders and bowls on the “m” and “u”. Obviously, the “m” is enlarged and probably a “black” part of this typeface family.
4) “Minnesota Parent Magazine”—Yes, there’s an actually magazine for Minnesota Parents. An example of Minnesota nice, I guess. Anyway, this is Egyptian Text FS and I can’t find too much about this typeface but I think it must be heavily used as this serifed font is both approachable and really, really cheap, according to FontSpring. It features a single, open-tiered “g”, very spacious bowls, fairly unmodulated strokes and light slab and bracketed serifs. Also, round dotted “i”s. Very non-threatening to be sure.
5) “Garner’s Modern American Usage” This is Core Sans D and it’s either of the condensed variety or very light. A very legible sans serif, according to some, due to it’s high x-height (hmm). More curves than the Grotesque or Neo-grotesques, it’s thus probably Humanist. It’s so simplified it’s hard to note anything interesting about it, though it is so clear. Like the Geometrics there’s a great deal of balance between the letters—stems and cross strokes are precisely parallel and unmodulated, the “U” is oval, even and lacking a terminal. So simple.
