Only one typeface

[lars]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

in one of tschicholds writings i remember him pointing out >>a good type designer can design with only one typeface<< ... if you had to design various things with only one typeface, what would be your choice (and why)? gill sans, futura, helvetica, garamond, ... ?
mine would be gill sans, i really cant say why (sorry), i just love it.

[jfp]

I prefer to kill myself than using one typeface only.

Can you live with ONLY one book, one music CD, one wife, one child, one car, one house, one computer, one hamburger for the rest of your life? hein? ;-)

[lars]

this was supposed to be a hypothetical question but i have to admit i couldnt live without just one typeface, too ... i'll try not to wonder about your "one car" and "one house" - seems typofonderie is doing quite well? ;)

[jay]

I was wondering about the "one wife" bit...

Ah, the French ...[slightly jealous grin]

[jfp]

others can wonder about puting hamburger, wife, car, computer on same level ;-) well, its depend who they are and what they think about theses various things.

eheheh. don't make any conclusion or dream my own way of life! ;-)

[plainclothes]

Jay said: "about the "one wife" bit... [slightly jealous grin]"

are you married, Jay!? one is plenty for me!

[Chris Rugen]

I can do one family per project. But why bother with one family for everything? Thank you, pre-digital writings.

If I had to, I'd probably pick a very extensive and dependable family, for example Minion. (that's not my choice, just an example)

[gulliver]

If I had to live with just one typeface, I'd pick one that would work well as a text face at most sizes, especially small. It's easier to make a text face work as a display face than to make a display face work as a text face. As such, most sans serifs would be ruled out, although a few might be in the running, like Gill Sans, Syntax, Scala Sans, Myriad, and the like.

If we're allowing the whole typeface family, I wouldn't worry so much about having an extensive range. The old masters made do quite nicely with roman, italic and bold. Instead, I'd focus on beauty, legibility, readability and timelessness.

My choices would likely boil down to one of:

a. AGFA-Monotype or Linotype Plantin:

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/agfa/plantin/

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/plantin/


b. either Adobe Garamond or Stempel Garamond:

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/adobe-garamond/

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/stempel-garamond/


c. either Adobe Jenson, URW++ Cloister or Font Bureau Hightower:

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/adobe/jenson/

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/urw/cloister/

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/fontbureau/hightower/


d. either Adobe/Linotype Minion, Monotype Poliphilus (can I have Monotype Blado too?) or Linotype Bembo:

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/minion/

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/agfa/poliphilus/

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/agfa/blado/

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/bembo/


e. Monotype Bookman Old Style:

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/agfa/bookman-old-style/


f. either Adobe Caslon or Berthold Caslon Book & Expert:

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/adobe-caslon/

http://www.bertholdtypes.com/adobe_lib/080295000.html

http://www.bertholdtypes.com/adobe_lib/080296000.html


My final choice would probably be either Plantin or Cloister. If forced to choose, I'd probably pick Plantin, since its larger x-height makes it a bit more versatile at smaller sizes.


David

[hrant]

Plantin? What a sober choice. A man among boys, is Plantin.

hhp

[jay]

>are you married, Jay!? one is plenty for me!

Uh, I just got engaged ...

JFP seemed to be implying he'd rather kill himself than live with only one wife.

Plain*clothes seems to imply he'd kill himself if he had more than one wife.

I'm thinking that Gill Sans is a very nice typeface, even if it is too popular these days.

[gulliver]

What, no one else is willing to weigh in on this? What is the one font that you would choose if forced to?

(Consider this post to be forcing you. )

So far, we have two Gill Sanses, one hedged Minion, one Plantin with a validation, and one French player. :D

Any other choices?

David

[Hildebrant]

I have a hard time seeing gill sans and then thinking of the fact that he slept with his sister, than later on in life molested his daughter. ;)

No to mention the fact that it is liken to this:

non-designer/MS Word user = Times Roman
new-designer/I just bought a MAC user = Gill Sans

This is sure to get somones panties in a bunch ;)

for me. Hmm.. is this a text face? or can we go titling?

I'm quite fond of Mantinia as well as Goudy Sans especially if you have the photo lettering with all the original alternate and ligature characters.

hildebrant.

[Hildebrant]

"and his dog."

Yikes. That I didn't know, nor did I really want to know.

For all you incest loving Eric Gill fans I give you this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1015241,00.html

I nice little article about Gill's lost archives.

hildebrant.

[matha_standun]

I like the bit about his highly personal interpretation of Roman Catholicism which made room for adultery and incest.

He should've moved to Ireland. He would have made a wonderful parish priest.

Matha
(Irish Roman Catholic, one French wife, no hamburgers)

[matha_standun]

While I'm on the subject, has anyone read In a Strange Land? Apparently Gill mentions an afternoon he spent down the pub with the founder of Sinn F

[steve_p]

Has anyone been to Capel-y-ffin, where Gill & his companions lived for a number of years in the 1920s?

Is there anything of interest there?

I drive past it (along Gospel Pass) every now & then, and keep meaning to go & have a look, but the gravitational pull of Hay-on-Wye is too great.

[geraintf]

looks like its a youth hostel now, available for rent...

http://www.rentahostel.com/pages/hostels/england/capel-y-ffin.htm

[brennan]

maybe up the road a bit?

Interesting to read that he set up not one, but three! self-sufficient religious communities...

Bren

[germ]

Not to divert the subject back to the orignal question, because I find this side note Gill's life interesting in a disturbing way. But, in school we had a similar challenge. We had to choose 1 typeface and use it on the table of contents page for an international design magazine(1960's era Graphis) (index, articles, 3 laungages, side notes, publisher information, subscrition information...etc) The idea being to take one face and build the appropriate heirarchy and maintain readability. I chose Futura because of it's extensice family and legibility in both large, small and text sizes. It is clean, modern and geometric in nature. and for the most part sterotypically void . It was a fun & challenging when your so used to having 100's of fonts to choose from on a daily basis.
Futura

[lars]

thanks jeremy, that's exactly what the question was about. sometimes my english lacks in explaining exactly what i want

[mike gastin]

I could live with only Majoor's Scala if I had to.

[anonymous]

Bembo - I agree with David about Plantin, but as an emotional choice, comparing them both I prefer Bembo, although not as effective at smaller point sizes. However, I have to deplore the choice of Stempel Garamond - that zero.
I stayed at Capel-y-ffin for a long weekend in the 80's and although not quite a hostel it was quite spartan, good for pony treks and a very pleasant pub, a decent walk away in the ruins of an abbey. There were odd bits of sculpture I think the twelve stations of the cross which were attributed to him.

[Dan Weaver]

I would choose Jonny Lunchpail by Font Diner or Lunchbox it would force the type Nazi's to allow more designs that are readable. I'd never pick futura, what if you had to design packaging info for a small space your decenders and accenders would run into each other with the amount of information you have to provide by law. And if you made it all caps it be unreadable. Dan

[Hildebrant]

futura?

Am I the only one TIRED of seeing "techy" articles and publications set in this? I just roll my eyes anymore. Its a pain in the •••• to read in a "paragraph" setting. Am I alone on this?

hildebrant.

[fuentes bo]

Syntax