Recommendation to pair with Galaxie Polaris?

[Member kjp…]

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Hello everyone,

I'm looking for a type family to pair with Galaxie Polaris, for web use. We'll be using this one in the body copy throughout the site. The client is a university, in case that adds any desired context.

Galaxie Copernicus is presently on the table, but I'm not sure of what else. Any suggestions? Thank you.

[Member Mar…]

Certainly Galaxie Copernicus could work. It seems though that the "issue" is that too many typefaces could pair up with Galaxie Polaris. I worked for a company before that once paired Frutiger Light for the body text with Trinité for headings. I haven't seen what they did with these typefaces myself, but to my mind they were probably a very good pair, even though at first glance it seems an unlikely choice as they have nothing at all in common, except perhaps for their quality. I can imagine if you use a light weight of Galaxie Polaris it could pair up with a lot of bold serif typefaces.

I suppose in order to make proper suggestions we ought to know more about the project. What do you want to convey? I can imagine something that contrasts well with Galaxie Polaris could work well. Something like Alegreya perhaps. However, that may just be too calligraphic. Skolar may be an excellent choice. Also because it was designed for academic publications. But maybe you require something more elegant?

I haven't looked at web fonts though, but perhaps these suggestions could send you in the right direction to find a suitable typeface yourself.

[Member kjp…]

Martin:

Thank you for your thoughtful reply.

The client is a top tier business school and Polaris is the identity typeface. If you were to look at our collateral, you may find much of it leans conservative, but by and large, we have the necessary scaffolding to select a typeface that doesn't fall in the realm of "business conservative."

Copernicus remains on the table because it is Polaris's sister, but also, because the typeface is presently being used in one of our running print publications. The actual "official" secondary font is Hoefler, but it has fallen into disuse and many of us find it drab. A serif such as Hoefler does not convey the visual style of where the school is now, in 2014/15.

So with that said, perhaps another way to look at this is: what are similar typefaces to Copernicus, that pair well with Polaris, and are friendly yet not overly experimental or expressive? I believe your Skolar suggestion is right on the mark, while Alegreya (though I love it so) is too calligraphic.

[Member Mar…]

I haven't checked for compatibility with Polaris and I haven't checked if these typefaces have web fonts, but here are some serif typefaces that may work:

Adelle
Adriane Text
Argos
Arietta
Carat
Farnham
Fénix
Freight Text
Galliard
Milo Serif
North
Novel
Pepone
Periódico
Plantin
Premiéra
Swift
Trola Text
Verdigris

I added a few more classical typefaces, but I get the feeling you may be looking for something a bit more robust. I think some of the best options are Adelle, Skolar and Galaxie Copernicus.

[Member kjp…]

Martin:

Long time coming but wanted to offer a huge THANK YOU for your recommendations.

We're going to run with pitching Copernicus and Skolar at present with perhaps a third in our pocket in case people feel underwhelmed.