RETAIL
CUSTOM: PUBLICATIONS
Please note that, except where indicated, these typefaces are not available for licensing.

Amplitude Headline Benton Modern Caslon's Egyptian FF DIN Condensed Bureau Grotesque Guardian Houston Popular Poynter Agate Display Stag Vectora Thin
CUSTOM: CORPORATE DESIGN & OTHER UNFINISHED EARLY WORK

 
2004-2005. Commissioned by Mark Porter at The Guardian. Designed with Paul Barnes. Not available for relicensing until 2008.



From the very beginning, designing a new sans serif for The Guardian felt like a losing proposition. The Guardian has become synonymous with Helvetica. But once the Egyptian had emerged as the primary display face, we were free to draw the Sans as a backup face, and I think it's really effective in this role. It's clearly made out of the same parts as the Egyptian, so it combines comfortably with it, but doesn't grab undue attention. If they do end up using it for most of the magazine headlines, as we discussed at one point, I think it will do a good job of maintaining the same look while being noticeably different.

As much as we wanted this face to look like a classic Doric - after all, we designed it using the exact same methods the old typefounders used to make their sans serifs - it ended up looking very Dutch, with a hint of Johnston. And as much as we didn't want it to look anything like Gill Sans, the influence crept in here and there.



We also drew dropcaps for the Sans, just in case.

Hairline, Thin, Light, Regular, Medium, Semibold, Bold, Black and Ultra weights, with italics, plus Thin and Black Dropcaps.





More about each part of the family:

Guardian Egyptian Guardian Sans Guardian Text Egyptian Guardian Text Sans Guardian Agate

Helvetica is a trademark of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG and its subsidaries.