TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Sat Mar 25 11:12:47 EDT 2023

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ABOUT

Fontsmith [Jason Smith]

Jason Smith is the British corporate typeface designer who founded Fontsmith in 1997, where he retailed his own designs from his office in London. He has created a typographic identity for the Post Office in the UK. Phil Garnham was one of the in-house type designers. In January 2020, Fontsmith was acquired by Monotype.

Smith's custom typefaces include Casey, Seat, Tractebel, PPP Healthcare, Powergen, Allied Irish Bank, UUnet, Channel 4, and Saudi Aramco, Champions (2009: for the UEAFA Champions League), Colgate Ready (2014: for Colgate, covering Latin, Cyrillic, Eastern European, Devanagari and Thai), More4 (2005, for the Channel 4 Adult Entertainment channel), ITV (2006, for the ITV network), BBC ONE (2006, for the BBC), Post Office Sans (2003), Severstal (2009), and Moto GP (2020: a custom techno / sports font).

Vernon Adams and Fontsmith got into a quarrel about Vernon's Mako, which was submitted and rejected by Fontsmith, which published its own similar typeface Lurpak a few weeks later.

Most of Jason Smith's typefaces are now at MyFonts, after Monotype's take-over in 2020:

• FS Albert (2002). A soft-edged sans family by Jason Smith, Mitja Miklavcic and Phil Garnham. Followed by Emanuela Conidi's FS Albert Arabic. In 2007, Jason Smith designed the custom typeface Xerox Sans (+Condensed) as a modification of his FS Albert, to which Greek and Cyrillic alphabets were added as well.
• FS Aldrin (2016). A rounded sans by Phil Garnham.
• FS Alvar (2007, Jason Smith and Phil Garnham). A modernist utilitarian headline font family inspired by the work of Alvar Aalto.
• FS Benjamin (2018). A flared sans serif by Stuart De Rozario.
• FS Blake (Emanuela Conidi). A sans with some inherent tension.
• FS Brabo (2015, Fernando Mello). Named after Brabo in Antwerp, FS Brabo was inspired by the Plantin Moretus museum and the garalde styles (Bembo, Garamond, Plantin). FS Brabo won an award at Tipos Latinos 2016.
• FS Clerkenwell (2004, Jason Smith and Phil Garnham). A slab serif.
• FS Conrad (2009). A multiline display face by Phil Garnham.
• FS Dillon. Influenced by the Bauhaus quest for simplicity.
• FS Elliot (2012). By Nick Job.
• FS Emeric (2013, Phil Garnham). A large humanist slightly angular sans family. Dedicated web site.
• FS Hackney. An assertive sans typeface family by Nick Job.
• FS Industrie (2018). A 70-style techno / mechanical sans family by Fernando Mello and Phil Garnham.
• FS Ingrid. A humanist sans family by Jason Smith.
• FS Irwin (2017). An incised typeface inspired by New York, FS Irwin is a sans serif with calligraphic roots.
• FS Jack (2009, Jason Smith and Fernando Mello). A confident sans family that was awarded at Tipos Latinos 2010.
• FS Joey (2009, Jason Smith and Fernando Mello). An organic sans typeface family.
• FS Kim (2018). A joyful display typeface family by Krista Radoeva.
• FS Kitty (2007, Jason Smith and Phil Garnham). In the Japanese kawaii style.
• FS Koopman (2018). A sans family designed by Andy Lethbridge and Stuart De Rozario. A hybrid sans workhorse that takes inspiration from Swiss grotesks, American gothics and early British grotesques
• FS Lola (2006). Originally designed for Wechsler Ross&Portet by Phil Garnham, it is advertised by Fontsmith as a transgender type.
• Lost + Foundry (2018, Pedro Arilla and Stuart de Rozario). The Lost & Foundry family of seven fonts includes FS Berwick, FS Cattle, FS Century, FS Charity, FS Marlborough, FS Portland and FS St James. The campaign was developed by Fontsmith, M&C Saatchi London and Line Form Colour. The crumbling typefaces of Soho were recovered to be sold online as a collection of display fonts, to fund the House of St Barnabas's work with London's homeless. Fontsmith's designers Stuart de Rozario and Pedro Arilla worked with M&C Saatchi London to develop the fonts.
• FS Lucas (2016). A geometric sans by Stuart de Rozario.
• FS Maja. A curvy display typeface.
• FS Matthew. A sans family.
• FS Me. Mencap, a British company that works with people with a learning disability, asked Smith to design a font, FS Mencap (also known as FS Me), for the learning disabled---easy to read, yet elegant. Codesigned by Jason Smith, Mitja Miklavcic and Phil Garnham.
• FS Meridian (by Kristina Jandova). A rhythmic geometric sans family with circular forms.
• FS Millbank (2015). A wayfinding typeface family by Stuart de Rozario.
• FS Neruda (2018, by Pedro Arilla). A transitional storytelling text family named after Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.
• FS Olivia (2012). An angular poetic text typeface family by Eleni Beveratou.
• FS Ostro (2018, Alessia Mazzarella). A modern typeface family in text and display versions. It brings warmth and fresh air to the cold Italian didones. Its more subdued and less contrasted text version was influenced by Scotch romans. There are also genetic elements of Spanish display types.
• FS Pele (2007). An ultra fat typeface by Jason Smith and Phil Garnham.
• FS Pimlico (2011, Fernando Mello). A humanist display sans.
• FS Rigsby (2005). A sans.
• FS Rome (Mitja Miklavcic and Emanuela Conidi). An all caps Trajan typeface.
• FS Rufus (2009). A slab serif by Mitja Miklavcic, Jason Smith and Emanuela Conidi. Described by them as benevolent, quirky, peculiar, offbeat, jelly beans and ice cream, a retro eco warrior.
• FS Sally (Jason Smith and Phil Garnham). FS Sally Pro won an award at Granshan 2016.
• FS Sammy (Satwinder Sehmi, Jason Smith). A script typeface.
• FS Shepton (2015). A calligraphic brush script by Andy Lethbridge.
• FS Siena (2016). A luxurious fashion mag typeface given a new life in 2016 by Krista Radoeva. Jason Smith had started drawing Siena 25 years earlier. It is delicate, oozes style, and shows touches of Peignot in its contrast.
• FS Silas Sans (2008, Jason Smith, Bela Frank, Fernando Mello and Phil Garnham).
• FS Silas Slab (2015, Bela Frank).
• FS Sinclair (2007-2008). A rounded octagonal typeface by Jason Smith and Phil Garnham.
• FS Sophie (2004). A feminine sans typeface.
• FS Split Sans and FS Split Serif (2019, Jason Smith and Fernando Mello). Has a variable type option.
• FS Truman (2012, Jason Smith and Fernando Mello). A sans family.
• FS Untitled (2016, Jason Smith and Fernando Mello). Developed for screens.

EXTERNAL LINKS
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INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Commercial fonts (small outfits) ⦿ Readability & Legibility ⦿ Octagonal typefaces ⦿ Greek/Coptic ⦿ Cyrillic type design ⦿ Type for TV ⦿ Type design in the United Kingdom ⦿ Bauhaus and type design ⦿ Corporate typefaces ⦿ Scotch Roman ⦿ Modern style [Bodoni, Didot, Walbaum, Thorowgood, Computer Modern, etc.] ⦿ Variable fonts ⦿ Typefaces inspired by the Trajan column in Rome ⦿ Bembo ⦿