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British Vogue (1999–2002)

Contributed by Michael Bojkowski on May 9th, 2018. Artwork published in
December 1999
.
British Vogue (1999–2002) 1
Source: State Library of Victoria Photographed at the State Library of Victoria. License: All Rights Reserved.

Gill Sans Monoline for British Vogue

I’m partly posting this in the hope that the friendly folk reading this might be able to help in tracking down the origin and status of this currently elusive typeface.

At the turn of the millennium British Vogue unveiled a new custom built typeface, to little fanfare, that would become their signature for the following two years (December 1999– December 2002, with a couple of random cover sightings in the 2010s—blink and you would have missed them).

Since then this quite radical set of letterforms have quietly slipped under the radar and into relative obscurity. This could have been due to the fact that it was based on a very traditionally British typeface Vogue had already been using previous to its introduction. Namely, Gill Sans. The new typeface… a monoline version of Gill Sans.

Now readers may have barely noticed the subtle shift but to these type-literate eyes this was a very exciting development. Whoever Vogue had commissioned to do this had managed to make Gill Sans modern again. By coercing Gill Sans’ many ticks and quirks into emulating something less hand-rendered and more machine-made it only emphasised the intriguing bizarre tensions within these over familiar forms.

So the question remains, firstly who was responsible for this? And secondly, what has happened to it? — Where has it gone? Why doesn’t it appear in any portfolios (that I could find)? Were there copyright issues involved? What is the story of this interesting edition to the Gill Sans canon? Any leads most appreciated.

The first issue to feature Gill Sans Monoline was the December 1999 special Millennium issue which featured a silver foil mirrored cover and no model, only the typeface.
License: All Rights Reserved.

The first issue to feature Gill Sans Monoline was the December 1999 special Millennium issue which featured a silver foil mirrored cover and no model, only the typeface.

British Vogue (1999–2002) 3
Source: State Library of Victoria License: All Rights Reserved.
British Vogue (1999–2002) 4
Source: State Library of Victoria License: All Rights Reserved.
British Vogue (1999–2002) 5
Source: State Library of Victoria License: All Rights Reserved.
British Vogue (1999–2002) 6
Source: State Library of Victoria License: All Rights Reserved.
British Vogue (1999–2002) 7
Source: State Library of Victoria License: All Rights Reserved.

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9 Comments on “British Vogue (1999–2002)”

  1. The light weight is not too far from regular Gill Sans Light, with some interesting differences. For example, u is stemless, bdpq are spurless (like in the bolder weights of classic Gill, a feature that was applied across all weights in Gill Sans Nova), dots are square (only in the lighter weights of both Gill Sans and Nova).

    The strict monolinearity without much optical compensation give the bolder weights a similar (anti)aesthetics as stroked type (i.e. type with a contour applied in a layout program).

  2. Matt Brown says:
    May 9th, 2018 9:55 pm

    Looks a lot like something the creative director’s friend knocked together after playing with Gill Sans for a few hours in Fontographer.

  3. It’s Gill Sans minus the quirks. Kinda like Vogue AG (Avant Garde).

  4. Speaking of which: Terminal Design’s portfolio also includes another custom hairline variant of Gill Sans: Skinny Eric was designed for SELF Magazine.

  5. “Proving once again, that all women’s magazines must have an ultra thin typeface if they are to be successful.” —Kati Korpijaakko (from Terminal Design’s website).

  6. Robin Derrick says:
    Oct 16th, 2021 9:17 am

    Ha – good spot, I was the creative director of British Vogue at the time. I had been using Gill – I liked the idea of a British font – but the quirks were throwing up issues and the heavier weights were quite ugly. So I commissioned this font as a monoline version of Gill – in a few weights – I don’t remember how many.
    I was working in Quark Express and this was still quite early days of DTP. Plus I did not have much of a budget. So it was never fully finished (no look-up tables or punctuation) So I had to optically letter space it most of the time. I can’t remember who did it for me. It was called ‘line’ – I think I still have a copy if anyone is really interested – Robin Derrick

  7. Robin Derrick says:
    Oct 16th, 2021 9:18 am

    Matt Brown’s comment above nailed it basically!

  8. Robin, thank you very much for chiming in here! Outstanding. I’m glad we can put this riddle to bed after more than three years.

    I’ve added your name to the design credits. Do you remember who made the font? If you can unearth the font file(s), we’d definitely be interested in obtaining a copy – if only to typeset a sample for this post. You can send it to info(аt)fontsinuse.com. Cheers!

  9. Hey Robin. Thanks for the reply! Much appreciated. Avid follower of your work over the years (—that Bazaar re-launch cover!—) Would be super interested in a copy of 'line’. Maybe I can fill in those missing characters for you. :) — michael@okinterrupt.email

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