Christmas HQ is a website that has put together just about everything you’ll need to make your holiday amazing.

This (fictional) publication comprises five essays, written by Beatrice Warde, Gerard Unger, Hans R. Bosshard, Paul Stiff and Ewa Repucho. All the texts take up the themes of typography, legibility and the broadly defined attitude of a designer. The contents are food for thought on the moral stance of any designer, without being a ready-made code of conduct.

The typography uses Siri and Ivar Text, both designed by Göran Söderström / Letters From Sweden (and both typefaces are named after the designer's children).

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.

The popular Red Bull TV app was updated in August 2013 with new look and new fonts. Siri is used for the interface and all design.

See more.

Visual Identity website for Booster Conference 2013. Booster is a software conference in Bergen, Norway, aimed at developers, project managers/scrum masters, architects, UX people, testers, test managers and security professionals.

Basel University’s Sprachenzentrum, its central language teaching/training facility, is celebrating its ten-year anniversary. What started out as an improvised little place staffed by one person has grown into a bustling centre of learning, teaching, and lively exchange, with now more than a thousand students enrolled in its many classes.

For the anniversary festivities I was happy to design this fine 36-page brochure, printed on two different stocks (Tempo for the images, Munken Lynx Rough for the text), along with the accompanying invitation card. The booklet presents a multifaceted image through 18 texts (in different languages) and 12 large photographs by Christian Flierl.

The client gave me the freedom to relate only loosely to existing materials; I adopted the circle (commonly used in their materials – see logo and website) as a design element in different functions, but chose the type freely. I was looking for a combination that would feel “celebratory” enough for the anniversary, but energetic, somewhat “youthful” and a little joyous – basically the opposite of tired and dusty. Siri (especially the Black, for display) and Eames (for text) turned out to make quite a striking combination, crisp and pretty and bold.

When it turned out that portions of the text needed to be set in Russian or Greek, I settled on a compromise setting those from Scotch Micro (which in terms of color, contrast, and proportion clicked quite nicely with the Eames used for Latin, much better than did the regular optical size of Scotch Modern), as I did not want to lose the Eames for the Latin-based majority of the text. For the one Russian title I was thankfully allowed to draw the needed Cyrillic glyphs matching Siri myself.

Helsingborgs Dagblad (HD) is the prominent newspaper of Sweden’s fourth largest city. Founded in 1847, in 1892 it took the step to become one of the first daily papers in Sweden. Fast-forward to 2013, wherein HD took the step from using Arial to Siri for the digital edition. The brand new responsive HD.se works on your desktop, phone and tablet.

A few years ago, I was commissioned to design a poster and program flyer for a lecture series at Basel University that focused on the reception, and literary repercussions of Ovid’s Metamorphoses throughout literary history. It was then that I came up with a composite image of the book as traveling suitcase as the central visual.

Last year, when two professors of the same university prepared to edit an academic volume on the same subject, they approached me to reinterpret the design of the poster for the book cover.

I opted to keep the key visual, but what needed a refresh was the typography. The previous materials, designed by a younger and less type-savvy me, had used Frutiger – a solid but not very interesting choice. So for this book cover I switched to Swedish Siri. Besides being a fresher – and not stereotypically Swiss – design, Siri had the advantage of being relatively dense and space-saving, useful for such a verbose title (especially since the editors wished that the subtitle be just as “visible” as the main title). The wide range of weights also came in handy – right down to the thinnest of weights used for the (potential) series ident, “Weltliteratur intertextuell”,  in vertical orientation.

The new RedBull website use the screen optimized Siri Core family for running text and a manually hinted version of Siri Black for large headings.

New swedish indie band Monde Idéal is using Siri for their debut release.

Bergman’s Video is a television series about Ingmar Bergman’s own private collection of videos. The series is packed with exclusive interviews with film makers such as Woody Allen, Robert de Niro, Francis Ford Coppola and Ridley Scott.

The title sequence was designed by Stefania Malmsten together with Göran Hugo Olsson. Type used is Siri with a custom R and some modifications done to fit the animation.

All other text uses the regular version of Siri.