California Type Foundry (21st century)

TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Mon Apr 15 06:50:18 EDT 2024

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California Type Foundry (21st century) [Dave Lawrence] This type foundry was started in 2019 by Dave Lawrence, perhaps to honor and revive the California Type Foundry from the 20th and 19th centuries. Their typefaces: CAL Bodoni Casale (2019). This typeface has been painstakingly crafted from hi-res scans of 4 original Bodoni printings. It is a splendid reproduction, although the ear of the lower case g is too small with respect to the overhangs on the lower case a and r. CAL Bodoni Terracina (2020). An italic didone family. CAL Bodoni Palazzo (2020). An exact reproduction of Bodoni's largest display caps typeface. CAL Bodoni Ferrara Origin (2020). A spectacular display serif. Hermanz Titling (2021). A chiseled capitalis monumentalis titling font in Trajan style based on inscriptional caps drawn by Hermann Zapf. Oceanwide (2021). He describes this revival of one of Frutiger's forgotten geometric sans designs: Back in 1968, Frutiger was approached by Pentagram to make a design for British Petroleum. They wanted a "new version of Futura". However, they wanted him to make a couple adjustments. First, they felt that Futura was "too fiddly." By this, they meant that it narrowed too much at the joins. (Joins are for example where the round and straight parts of the 'd' meet.) This is something that is necessary for small print text (to prevent ink clogging), but is not necessary at large sizes. Second, they wanted it to be entirely geometric, using the circular shape with minimal optical corrections. Unfortunately this font was not even used very consistently in the BP brand. A haphazard mix of Futura and Frutiger's BP font ensued. It was then replaced by another font design very soon after. My design is different in several ways. First, the commas and quotes are a more modern style. I tried his original commas, but these just didn’t work to 21st century eyes. Second, in his drawings, Frutiger went for a more standard u with a downstroke on the right. However, Oceanwide has a simpler u. Third, I made more optical adjustments. At the direction of his employer, Frutiger reluctantly put no font optical corrections into the letters. So I think my optical adjustments are similar to what Frutiger would have wanted. Fourth, I extended the weight into the light and extra light ranges. Fifth, the rest of the font I created according to the principles of Adrian Frutiger, but with no sources for inspiration. Here is Frutiger's design philosophy, in his own words: "If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape. The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page... When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful." The words about the spoon were the ones I kept in my mind as I tried to make the curves ultra smooth, and the shapes ultra simple.	EXTERNAL LINKS California Type Foundry (21st century) [Buy fonts] [Designer info] Creative Market page MyFonts search Monotype search Fontspring search Google search INTERNAL LINKS Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Commercial fonts (small outfits) ⦿ Type scene in California ⦿ Modern style [Bodoni, Didot, Walbaum, Thorowgood, Computer Modern, etc.] ⦿ Ornamental caps typefaces ⦿ Typefaces inspired by the Trajan column in Rome ⦿