Studio Edgar Jayet went into business by the end of 2022. It is dedicated to a trans-disciplinary approach to interior design, scenography, object design, publishing and research. The studio operates between Paris and Venice. The visual identity on display in this post was conceived of and designed by Sophie Hanoun of Yorgo&Co, based in Paris. The printed matter was produced at Ateliers A in Châtillon, just south outside Paris.

The design uses Eames Century Modern by Erik van Blokland for the name of the founder – in a light weight with ample letterspacing – as well as for the product titles and descriptions. Everything else, in print as much as on the website, is set from Enduro, predominantly in the Semi Light weight of normal width.

The Enduro Collection was designed by Emmanuel Besse and released by Production Type in late 2020. Enduro is a take on the genre of the industrial grotesk and comes in three families, Normal, Narrow, and Condensed. While the range in widths is restrained by choice, the range in weights is very much the opposite: seven weights per family plus their italics add up to over 40 styles and a comprehensive typographic system satisfying all needs.

Echoing British book design of the 1970s, when Peter Nicholls wrote most of these essays. The typeface itself is 21st century, but based on midcentury modern design. The book was published by Ansible Editions in the U.K.

Annual report for the nonprofit Coaching Corps, which “works to increase access to quality sports opportunities for youth in under-resourced communities.” Showcasing Coaching Corps’ activities for potential donors, participants, and sponsors. It was small for an annual report, more like a brochure in format (though with a largish, almost square page size).

California is a surfing paradise, and this retro style typographic poster is a bucket list of all the legendary spots in the Golden State to get barreled. Includes classics like Malibu Pier and San Onofre, as well as terrifying spots left only to the pros like Mavericks (65+ waves). The “California Surf Check” poster is designed by Amy Hood of Hoodzpah and the fifth edition is available in the Hoodzpah shop for purchase.

Typographic identity designed for Typographics 2016, an annual festival held in New York City that explores the roots of modern typography and current trends in the field. Each year, more than 600 design professionals and type enthusiasts attend.

For 2016, the team’s designers chose the typefaces Eames Century Modern Stencil and Eames Century Modern, designed by Erik van Blokland for House Industries, as the central branding tool for the festival. It proved to be extremely versatile. On the one hand, it worked as legible, appealing typeface for print and digital media; on the other, Eames Stencil’s curves and forms, when seen in close-up, made exciting patterns that were still recognizable as shapes derived from letterforms. The team used red and blue, and superimposed them on each other to create purple elements that worked well for collateral materials, such as a step-and-repeat wall, a tote bag, and large-scale signage. The curves of the playful sans serif Mallory, designed by Tobias Frere-Jones, made an excellent secondary typeface for body copy that complemented Eames Stencil.

An added benefit of Eames is its extensive selection of arrows and borders built into the typeface that the team had a lot of fun working with. The name badge design was made by using a script to generate endless variations by combining the border designs with the color. The script also scaled the size of the type for the first and last names of each attendant to create perfectly justified lock-ups. The range of arrows were turned into a fun photo-op background.

See also a previously published post on Fonts In Use that focused on the Typographics 2016 website.

“Hey Robot is a party game where two teams compete to get their smart speaker to say a specific word. It's a bit like Codenames or Taboo, if the friend you were playing with had an encyclopedia and was also very, very drunk.”

Frank Lantz’s colorful design uses Eames Century Modern, not designed by Charles and Ray Eames, but inspired by their work. The Hey Robot packaging appears to be inspired by the Eameses as well — specifically their use of patterns — and also the work of House Industries who published the type family and a bunch of great Eames merch that went with it.

The Hey Robot Kickstarter runs until Friday, November 22, 2019.

In this speech balloon, Eames unfortunately has been used with straight quotes.

Shop front, signage, and print applications for Bhaker House, a place for tea and coffee, sugar and spice.

Spotted yesterday in Berlin’s Neukölln district, this van could belong to photographer Björn Ewers, whose website is 314.de. Or could it belong to Rich Roat of House Industries (Las Vegas Fabulous and Eames Century Modern are used), who happens to be in town for TYPO Berlin next week?

Hum:

Cornish is nationally recognized as a premier arts college, and one of only three fully accredited private colleges in the US dedicated to both performing and visual arts. Facing declining enrollment, the head of institutional advancement tasked Hum with increasing prospective student enrollment, retaining current students, and guiding Cornish to a new market position.

While the printed matter (and even the website mocks found on Hum Creative’s site) use Eames Century Modern, the actual website reverts to ITC Century.

Pruna (plum) is a Valencian micro-publisher of books in Catalan. We cover various areas of knowledge and literature without prior plans or obsessions. Just like plums, the books can be of all colors: green and light yellow, purple, dark red, black, orange, amber or gold. Each book is unique.

“Typographics is a 10-day design festival devoted to contemp­orary typo­graphy, with talks, work­shops, and tours focusing on where typo­graphy is today and where its future may lie. It will be held at The Cooper Union in New York City.”

Comunicas is a magazine about creativity and trends in marketing and communications. 

An accordion book that unfolds an atlas of Argentinian horse race gambling and tango cabalistic characters, an urban bestiary of talismanic lucky charms and chance. On the visibly printed side, the characters and their fate are revealed. On the reverse, only glowing in the dark, constellations are seen. School project designed for typography II, at the University of Buenos Aires.

Fonts In Use just turned three. That seems young, but it’s something like a teenager in internet years, right? Regardless, the more significant milestone came in mid-2012 when we launched the Collection, opening the archive to public submissions. Since then, we’ve experienced a growth spurt: the site now documents and discusses* over 3,200 designs using at least one of over 1,700 typeface families from hundreds of foundries. (*I use the present tense because Fonts In Use is a living archive — one in which entries of any age are easily accessible, cross-referenced, and with comment threads that are always open for new insights and discussion.)

Ok, numbers are nice, but what thrills us most about the new platform is what it can do. Over the last few months we improved our typeface pages, adding high-resolution samples, space for biographical information, and links to sources and related typefaces. We gave account holders the ability to create Sets and “Like” Uses. We expanded the Collection pages so they show more Uses and take advantage of wide screens. And we deployed an bunch of other enhancements that are best covered in another post.

We also welcomed new writers to the Blog so we can publish more frequent typographic histories, observations, and critiques.

Today, we celebrate our birthday with a few party favors. Introducing the first of an annual awards show. What follows is the “best of Fonts In Use in 2013”, as dictated by our editorial staff. This list of font uses and users is a glimpse into contemporary type-driven graphic design. We hope it surfaces content from the collection that you may have missed, and sparks you to contribute your own work — or work you admire — to the growing archive.

Uses of the Year

To us, great typography means thoughtful type choices used in skillful or unusual ways. The work below reached the pinnacle of that standard in 2013. The winners include designs from a range of formats, from exhibition and poster design to websites and book covers. They represent designers and studios from around the globe. And they span the gamut of typeface styles, both old and new, from over a dozen different foundries.

Big Plans Exhibition Design
Designed by Jessica Svendsen and Julia Novitch
Using Bureau Grot and Letter Gothic

1941: The Year That Keeps Returning Book Cover
Designed by Rumors
Using Puncho and DTL Fleischmann

Image, Building, Object Film Series Posters
Designed by James Goggin
Using Plak and an unreleased typeface by Laurenz Brunner

The Bling Ring Trailer and Posters
Designed by P+A and Silenzio Communication
Using Dom

Designing News
Designed by Francesco Franchi
Using Domaine, Atlas Grotesk, and Atlas Typewriter

Uses of the Year

Honorable Mentions

Stitching in my own way: The embroideries of Iris Todd

Stalkr Brand and Website

Kunst am Spreeknie Schöneweide Art Festival

2013 Pitchfork Music Festival Announcement

2013 Pitchfork Music Festival

2013 Pitchfork Music Festival App

Gargalo Nº 1, 2, 3, 4

Bambudda

Achtung: Berlin Symposium

Messages by Dillon Francis Music Video and Album Art

Belvedere Square Market Sign

Fritz Müller Sparkling Wines

Users of the Year

These graphic designers and studios produced several pieces that our staff recognized as exceptional typography. For this award we looked at all the Uses in the Collection credited to a designer, not just the work produced in 2013. (When we say “Users” we mean “font users”. The best users of the site are honored in the next section: “Contributors of the Year”.)

Pentagram

NYC Beaches identity

InsideOut SF poster diptych

Rockaway Beach Installations

The Printing House identity

This storied New York-based studio is well represented in our collection not just because they are famous or produce so much newsworthy, visible work, but because they obviously love type. Pentagram makes good use of a wide range of typefaces and they document that work well, writing about their type selection and giving credit to the font makers.

Nina Stössinger

“Zu bürgerlicher Eintracht und Vertraulichkeit”

10 Jahre Sprachenzentrum

kobebeef

Ästhetik des Opfers

Nina Stössinger is a Swiss designer of books and identities who uses a variety of typefaces (many of them very new) from various sources and lucidly articulates her choices on her site and Fonts In Use. We recognize her here not for her 2013 work, but for her rich contributions over the last three years. She can be excused for using less type recently because she’s been quite busy learning more about how to make it: Stössinger is currently a Type and Media graduate student at KABK in The Hague. She writes about that experience too.

Solo

Gargalo Liqueur

Deseo & Psiquiatría

Gargalo Wine

El valor del tiempo perdido

Solo is a Barcelona studio founded in 2011 by Óscar Germade. Their work for a range of luxury brands and editorial publications is characterized by restraint, setting stages in which the type itself is the focal point.

Studio Laucke Siebein

Angewandt Exhibition Materials

KinderKulturMonat (ChildrenCultureMonth)

Poster for Typography Lectures at HBK Saar

Flexa Creations Color Chips

Like Stössinger, this nod to Studio Laucke Siebein is more of a multi-year achievement award. Dirk Laucke (Amsterdam) and Johanna Siebein (Berlin) give new life to unusual and forgotten typefaces in their decidedly modern work.

Users of the Year

Honorable Mentions

Thomas Alberty, New York Magazine

Arem Duplessis, The New York Times Magazine

The New York Times Digital

TGG Hafen Senn Stieger

Robb Rice

Richard Turley, Bloomberg Businessweek

Contributors of the Year

Since we opened the site to public submissions in mid-2012, these Fonts In Use visitors contributed the most interesting and discussion-provoking Uses to the Collection. Not only did they upload good images of great work, but bonus points were awarded for adding insight, commentary, or critique.

Chris Purcell

After over 30 years as a designer and lettering artist at Hallmark Cards, Chris Purcell retired in 2012. Their loss is our gain: Chris has been a voracious contributor to Fonts In Use since then, adding over 40 Uses to the Collection. His submissions are broad ranging, covering many different industries, formats, and periods. The examples are sometimes from his own collection or documented with his own photography. And many of them are more than a simple image upload: they include his commentary, which often generates further discussion.

Mille Bornes Card Game (1960 Edition)

13-inch Lucite® ruler (1970s)

Smithsonian Magazine Table of Contents (1989 & 2013)

Maurice Meilleur

Along with some of his own fine work, Maurice Meilleur has contributed several pieces by other designers. Maurice is an MFA student in graphic design at the University of Illinois, and his literate, academic approach is very welcome among our ranks. We’re grateful for Maurice’s extra effort in spotting interesting work, writing a useful description, and producing good imagery, either from his own photos or images generated from PDFs.

University of Illinois

Isotype: Design & Contexts

De:Bug Magazin

Patch Hofweber

Patch Hofweber is a American ex-pat living in Malmö, Sweden. His contributions number over 20 to date, and focus on web and identity design, two areas of his own multidisciplinary expertise. He sometimes supplements his submissions with a bit of typographic critique, an attribute that served him well as one of our rare guest writers on the Fonts In Use Blog.

Julius: The Cards

Örnbergsauktionen 2013

A List Apart 5.0

Contributors of the Year

Honorable Mentions

Mine Creek

Robin Rendle

Michael Bojkowski

Contributors of the Year

Font Foundries & Providers

Letters from Sweden

TypeTogether

Rosetta

FontFont

bb-bureau (Benoît Bodhuin)

Editions 205

Sudtipos

Font Bureau

Webtype

Contributions of the Year

This is a placeholder for a future award, meant for those non-staff contributions that are exceptional in their visual documentation, critical analysis, and/or historical research. To get that ball rolling for 2014, here are a few Uses that were popular or controversial from last year:

Volksbühne Berlin Poster Campaign

The Other Times Modern

Cheers Logo and Opening Titles

Myspace 2013 Rebrand

Hessian

The Third Man Movie Poster

The Great Gatsby Film Promotion

2013 Tesla Model S Dashboard Display

Yahoo! Logo (2013)

Fonts In Frequent Use

In addition to the typefaces represented by our featured Uses and Users of the Year (most of which are shown in the main sidebar at the top of the page), the font families shown at right appeared most frequently in 2013 designs posted to Fonts In Use. This list only represents work in our Collection, so these certainly aren’t the most prevalent typefaces in all design today — that would be overlooking system/app bundled fonts, Core Web fonts, freebies, other perennially popular typefaces like Gotham, Interstate, and Neutraface, and revivals of classics like Caslon and Garamond. Yet they do reflect part of the current design zeitgeist: all sans serifs, most (except Alright Sans) are firmly in the static Gothic, Grotesque, or Geometric models. An odd outlier is ITC Serif Gothic. Nick Sherman has discovered that Lubalin and Di Spigna’s 1972 design is seeing a curious revival.

Early Users

Our observant co-editor Florian also noted these early adopters of typefaces newly released in 2013 or late 2012: Macula for Colin Smith, Audree for AwardsLine, Berlingske for A-Magasinet, Line for Rodeo, Domaine for Designing News, Magasin for Elle Decoration, MVB Solitaire for Assembly, FF Quixo for Publishing Design syllabus, FF Mark for Bench, Baton for L’Histoire du Diable, FF Dora for Gewone Letters, Landmark for Parc Olympique, Vinter for Queensland Ballet, and LL Circular for a number of uses.

What did we miss? With over 2,000 Uses added to the site in 2013, there is surely more typography worth honoring. What were your favorite font uses of 2013? Link ’em up in the comments below. And if your favorite design is not already in the Collection, now is the time to contribute. Your participation is vital to this endeavor.

For this mid-century furniture retailer in Brighton (UK) New York firm Ghostly Ferns chose the warmer side of modernism, using Eames Century Modern for the logo, Archive Antique Extended (roughed up wood type, similar to Hellenic Wide), and Cabin, a humanist sans inspired by Johnston and Gill. The overall effect works pretty well, and really puts me in the mood to buy some vintage goods.

There’s a possible technical pitfall, though. I wonder if the Archive Antique webfonts really hold up at small sizes on Windows. I welcome readers on that OS to chime in. Otherwise, I can’t think of a really good Hellenic Wide alternative for the web. Dispatch Extended is probably the best bet. 

One other problem: other text, set in Georgia, is generally too small, which is especially troublesome when the text runs the full width of the site. 

Still, the site a handsome effort worthy of the company name, and it seems to be serving them well.

London-based agency The Plant recently designed a new look for the English family-owned “food-to-go” company EAT:

EAT create great food-to-go with an attention to detail and curiosity that’s unique in their sector. Staffed by a team of committed foodies their menu is a constantly changing offer of old favorites and new treats. Every ingredient and recipe is carefully chosen and it’s this sentiment of “Handcrafted” that defines the essence of the EAT brand.

A crafty, considered attention to detail — and a refreshing no-bullshit attitude promising “real food”, and with style too — comes across beautifully in the identity that relies largely on various styles of Eames Century Modern given ample space and framed in various borders, mostly in white on a variety of flat color backgrounds. Colors are also chosen to represent different product categories; product details and ingredients are openly and proudly communicated. The project includes packaging, shop signage and posters etc., but also digital signage for in-store menus — see The Plant’s beautiful project showcase.

Essays and quotes by the Eames family: Charles+Ray Eames, Lucia Eames, Carla Hartman, Byron Atwood, Lucia Dewey Atwood, Eames Demetrios, Lisa Demetrios

Edited by Gloria Fowler and Steve Crist

Published by AMMO Books

Edited by Jim Heimann, introduction by Steven Heller
Hardcover, 2 vols. in slipcase, 24 × 33.6 cm, 720 pages