20 APRIL 2012 | RELEASES
New release: 3 new widths of Guardian Sans Headline
Guardian Sans Headline has undergone a major expansion with the addition of three narrower widths: Narrow, Condensed, and X Condensed. Each is available in 9 weights with italics. Creating a condensed humanist sans serif is often a difficult proposition, as the round and friendly forms have a tendency to look squashed and ungainly. However, the subtle squareness of curves in Guardian Sans Headline allows the new widths to fit in naturally with the original design. Guardian Sans Headline is thoroughly unadorned, making it adaptible to many tasks, combining not just with Guardian Egyptian, but with a wide range of other typefaces as well. With 72 fonts now in total, Guardian Sans Headline has expanded beyond its newspaper roots, and is ideal for editorial design, corporate identities, signage systems, and general graphic design.
This family expansion has been expertly carried out by Commercial Type designer Berton Hasebe, under direction from Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz, who designed the rest of the family for The Guardian's major redesign in 2005. These new widths were first seen in Al Triviño's redesign of the regional newspapers for the Vocento group in Spain and in a redesign of Sydsvenskan in Malmö, Sweden.
Each of the three new widths is particularly well suited to its own set of uses. Graphic designers often need sans serifs which are compact enough to increase economy without feeling explicitly like a condensed typeface. Guardian Sans Headline Narrow is this sort of weight, particularly useful in corporate identities and signage programs. Headlines of all kinds usually have one thing in common: a lot to say with not enough space to say it in. Guardian Headline Sans Condensed solves this issue without looking cramped or squashed, keeping the same quiet, neutral tone of the normal width. The most condensed of the new Guardian Sans Headline widths, the X Condensed, exaggerates the subtle squareness of the original design, allowing it to maintain the humanist forms without sacrificing its economy. Particularly useful in editorial and newspaper situations, it truly turns the Guardian Sans Headline family into a complete workhorse. Please click here to see more.
12 JANUARY 2012 | RELEASES
New release: Marian by Paul Barnes
Commercial Type is pleased to announce the release of Marian, a new typeface family in 19 styles designed by Paul Barnes. Marian is a series of faithful revivals of some of the greats from the typographic canon: Austin, Baskerville, Bodoni, Fournier, Fleischman, Garamont, Granjon, Kis and van den Keere. The twist is that they have all been rendered as a hairline of near uniform weight, revealing the basic structure at the heart of the letterforms. Together they represent a concept: to recreate the past both for and in the present.
Stretching over a period of nearly two and a half centuries from the mid sixteenth century to the early nineteenth century, they represent a period when the serif typeface as used in book typography was the dominant style. From the high Renaissance of Granjon and Garamont through to the Scotch roman; all the styles are represented: old style, transitional, and finally the modern. Painstakingly researched from original sources, together they represent a concept album of cover versions of the standards of type design.
Faithful to the originals, Marian comes with small capitals in all nine roman styles, with lining and non-lining figures, with swash capitals (1554, 1740, 1800 & 1820), alternate and terminal characters (1554 & 1571). And like the hidden track so beloved of the concept album, Marian is completed by a Blackletter based on the work of Henrik van den Keere. Please click here to see more.
07 OCTOBER 2011 | RELEASES
New release: Austin Hairline
When we first designed Austin in the middle of the last decade, we always imagined that it was as extreme as it could possibly be. Well of course it wasn't, as our new release Austin Hairline amply demonstrates. Designed by Berton Hasebe in a single weight, it really can only be used in the largest sizes: 100 point and above. Commissioned originally for WSJ, the weekend fashion lifestyle magazine of the Wall Street Journal it pushes the contrast between thick and thin strokes to the maximum. Its design will seem suitable in editorial design and where large type is needed; posters, advertising hoardings, and the largest of book titles. Particularly exquisite are the wonderfully elegant and fine italic swash capitals. Click here to see more.
30 NOVEMBER 2010 | RELEASES
New release: Dala Floda by Paul Barnes
Today we announce our final release of 2010, Dala Floda, designed by Paul Barnes. Originally inspired by worn gravestone lettering and lettering on shipping crates, this typeface has its roots in the typefaces of the Renaissance but adds the twist of being a stencil letterform. First designed in 1997 for a logotype, Dala Floda eventually became the headline typeface for the art magazine frieze in 2005 and was used as the basis for our own logotype. Dala Floda is unusually full-featured for a display typeface, with small caps available in all roman weights and contextual swashes, alternates, and an extensive set of historical ligatures in all italic weights. Click here to see more.
