Billboard featured Olivia Rodrigo, singer of the hit song “Driver's License” as a cover star on the May 15th 2021 issue of their bi-monthly magazine. The pastel complimentary colors make this image striking, but it's hard to ignore the bold use of the Pacifico with a subtle drop shadow. The stylized characters of the L and T seem to appear as if the magazine designer used an old version of the typeface, but the loopy letterforms are unmistakable. Pacifico makes an appearance in the band across the top of the page, in the same subdued chartreuse as the magazine's title.

The cover was likely designed by Billboard creative director Andrew Horton. The photograph was taken by David Needleman. Rodrigo wears a floral, ruffled Rodarte shirt, a blush cowboy hat from Gladys Tamez Millinery, and Marc Jacobs drop plastic heart earrings.

Started while studying for their Masters Degree in Design, Lille Bräu is a German craft beer that has a focus on design as well. Using GT Sectra as a basis, the packaging is as well crafted as the recipe.

Absolute Photo, the UK’s first monthly iPad-only photography magazine was packed with interactive features, video and audio and needed a font set that reflected all of that. The combination of the contemporary Solano Gothic with the Stencil version complemented the gear/product features, while Austin worked perfectly alongside the lifestyle features.

A groundbreaking new launch in the Formula One sector. This monthly magazine uses the serif typeface Austin to give a high-end, classic feel. Alongside Austin, the condensed MVB Solano Gothic, ITC Avant Garde and Farnham were also incorporated.

The Italian textile company Kiton specializes in custom tailoring and sets great value upon perfect craftsmanship and tradition. The pride and the classic, professional work is illustrated on the website of the luxury company. MVB Solano Gothic is used here for headlines and section headings entirely in capital letters combined with Miller (often in Italic) for quotes, subheads and smaller text passages as well as Arial for continuous text.

“Delicious drink mixes to poison your night and the tasty breakfast antidotes to ease the morning pain. This set of 6 double sided coasters features popular drink mixes on one side, and the breakfast recipe to cure the hangover it causes the next morning. Drink too many vodka-filled ‘Ninja Turtles’? A breakfast with ‘The Shredder’ should help sop up all your shame.

Each coaster set comes with a title coaster, 6 popular drink concoctions, and 6 hangover-curing breakfast recipes. They are screenprinted on ultra thick blotter paper made specifically for sopping up condensation. Coasters are formatted with an ingredient list, preparation guide, and short description featuring fun facts or history of the item.”

— Fifty Five Hi’s

“I was commissioned by Men’s Health (UK) magazine to illustrate the cover of a weight loss supplement and several headings within in a similar style. The brief was to integrate the type into the dial of some bathroom scales using the condensed sans-serif typeface Solano Gothic.” — Luke Lucas

Fortune, May 23, 2011 cover featuring an illustration by Carl DeTorres.

Two-time National Magazine Award winner John Korpics has a lengthy editorial design resume that includes Premiere, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, InStyle, Fortune, and now ESPN The Magazine where he just joined as Creative Director. One of his final acts at Fortune was the annual “500” issue. It’s always a hefty production, but this year’s is a particularly typographic feast.

Infographics using MVB Solano Gothic and Geogrotesque.

Click to enlarge.

The core of Fortune’s typography is MVB Solano Gothic. The typeface was originally made by Mark van Bronkhorst for the Bay Area city of Albany, designed to work alongside the community’s early 1900s architecture. With its sturdy, utilitarian geometry derived from sign lettering of the era, Solano can feel slightly vintage, but the standard variant is more sober than the Retro and Round members of the family.

I was surprised to open Fortune and find what could be considered a character actor playing such a central role. But Korpics proves with Solano that some “display” typefaces can be more versatile than we assume. Besides setting headlines and teasers, Solano performs admirably in infographics and even the “500” issue’s essential lists and tables.

A table set in MVB Solano Gothic with italics in Geogrotesque.

Alice Alves found this font for me after I asked her to do some research on strong, condensed, somewhat geometric sans serifs. Most any magazine will need a condensed sans for something and I thought this one fit my idea of the brand. The more I played with it the more I saw that it would hold up well in a lot of different places, which is why you see so much of it. — John Korpics

Despite this unexpected flexibility, there’s only so much a typeface can do if it has just one condensed width and no italics. In these cases the wider Geogrotesque by Eduardo Manso fills in nicely. Its straight sides and lack of frills make it appear almost of the same family — a close cousin at least.

Fortune’s section heads, using a modified and shaded MVB Solano Gothic, were created by Tal Leming.

MVB Solano Gothic, Vitesse, Miller, and Geogrotesque make up this article intro.

Three contrasting faces — Vitesse, MVB Solano Gothic, and Brunel — play off each other for the headline. Miller for text.

Vitesse opens a sidebar paragraph of MIller.

Miller, Brunel, and Vitesse round out the house typefaces of the magazine. Miller is a solid, conservative choice for text, grounding what is otherwise a fairly progressive palette — which is important if you want to keep those buttoned-down business types reading. Korpics added Vitesse later. He says “all my designers were begging to add a slab”. It serves well for small heads, eyebrows, and even short texts.

When Fortune competitor Condé Nast Portfolio folded in 2009, they left behind a beautiful asset: Brunel. This “English Modern” was designed by Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz for Portfolio who used it until their closure. Korpics swooped in and snagged it for Fortune.

Brunel, MVB Solano Gothic, and Vitesse.

Brunel for initial caps. Miller for text.

That’s some pretty clumsy, unreadable spacing in this headline. I blame ill-advised use of Optical spacing. Click to enlarge.

Fortune’s current art director, Michael Myers, played a major role in the design of this issue. He also created the interior illustrations for the “500” feature. These follow a host of similarly styled typographic pieces he’s contributed to the magazine over the year. The “500” found on the feature’s contents page is loosely based on the condensed geometry of Solano:

Each character in this illustration was based of a square grid of 8×17. Part of the concept, as with many of the more subtle communications in the magazine, is to pick up on the idea of data/information graphics. The colored bars within the letterforms are a wink to that. — Michael Myers

 

Illustrations by Michael Myers along with text set in Brunel, Geogrotesque, MVB Solano, and Miller.