Egyptian Extended

[Godal]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

Hi all,

I am currently working on a college project, where I have been asked to create a poster based on a typeface. The typeface I have been given is Egyptian Extended, and I'm sort of struggling with finding any good info on it. I've looked in both " From Gutenberg to Opentype" and "Type & Typography", but I'm still sort of confused. As far as I can see, the typeface was designed by Robert Thorne, or rather, he started cutting it right before his death in 1820. The name has parallels with ancient Egyptian architecture, because of the square black serifs, and there was a lot of interest in Egypt at that time, since Napoleons fleet just got defeated in the Battle of the Nile in 1798, the Rosetta Stone, and all that jazz. Now, am I completely lost here, or am I on to something? It seems like there's a fair amount of information on the characteristics of the typeface, but not on the actual history. I tried a quick Google-search, but that only resulted in God-knows how many pages on "Walk Like An Egyptian" Extended Version by The Bangles. All valuable information will be appreciated!

Anders

[Alessandro Segalini]

Read what Monotype writes about Rockwell.
Keith Tam wrote an essay that traces the historical developements of slab-serif typefaces in the 20th century.

[eliason]

Books might be helpful. There's a short chapter in Tracy's Letters of Credit, for one.

[Godal]

Thanks! Yeah, I grabbed what I could find of books before the college library closed today, we got the brief late this afternoon and are supposed to present research for the typefaces tomorrow morning. The stuff from both Monotype and Keith Tam is great, thanks again.

Anders