(To appreciate how remarkable this change is, here is a sample of what the old one looked like). The revamped Rembrandt identity pretty much fueled this post and rekindled my hope that Copperplate Gothic could look simply amazing. Jekyll manages to suppress its icky alter ego. For your consideration - and for my personal inspiration in my continued, but still elusive, attempts to master it - I have gathered some instances where Copperplate Gothic’s Dr. Set in the right size, with the proper letterspacing, and in the serendipitously fitting context, this typeface can become surprisingly fulfilling, providing a dual sense of gravitas and freshness. And when you break down the character set to its individual forms it’s like picking ripe from rotten cherries - some are delicious, others are rather offensive.ĭespite the unflattering words so far, there is a certain point, as seldom as a lunar eclipse, when the characteristics that make Copperplate Gothic such a nuisance can turn it into a strong, sophisticated and enigmatic typographic statement. Characteristics that on their own, and in other typefaces, render pleasant forms become an odd Frankenstein in Copperplate Gothic. Jekyll ready to shine from its own evil cast.ĭesigned by Frederic Goudy in either 1901 or 1905, depending on which source you choose, Copperplate Gothic occupies a strange niche in the typographic world: It’s wide, it has no proper lowercase (only small caps) and, despite its Gothic (= sans) classification, it features the smallest, peskiest serifs known to humankind. Hyde side of Copperplate Gothic, there is a valiant Dr. Copperplate Gothic’s default ubiquity and, by consequence, broad misuse, has procured it a place among The Designers’ Holy Hatred Font pantheon reigned by Papyrus and Comic Sans - and while there is still no campaign to ban Copperplate Gothic, it does have its detractors.
It looks its (sarcastically) best when cheaply engraved on creamy linen stock or on gold-colored vinyl on the door of a private dick’s office. as an option for off-the-rack, template designs for business cards, wedding invitations or restaurant menus that one could order from Kinko’s or. Equally, it’s not surprising to find it listed - under business, elegant, serious, traditional, etc. A typeface now bundled in most Macs and PCs, readily available for PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and, for the more daring and less considerate, as live text for HTML. Yet there is one typeface - perhaps my typographic Moby Dick - that has taunted me for a long time, unwilling to submit to my will, teasing me with the possibility of greatness: Copperplate Gothic.Ĭorrect. Eaves, Serifa, Avance, Akzidenz Grotesk, Matrix Script… I have given all of these, and more, a go with mixed, but always fulfilling, results. Through it all, I have always made time to explore typefaces and see if I can tame them. But just as well, there are typefaces that I will never be able to make look good, or even convincing: There is Abadi, an odd sans serif that I have had to use that is impossible to equalize as a pleasant viewing experience at any size unlike thousands, I can’t get a grasp on Helvetica, I set it too tight, too loose, too big, too small, too blah and something like Bodoni or Didot, proves too fragile for my sometimes blunt approach. with tracking at +10, mamma mia, you could read the whole Bible in one seating or something quirky like my favored Cooper Black, that somehow manages to look great under any typographic circumstance. for long stretches of text Caslon, on the other hand, at 9 over 12pts. Some are inherently easy to use: Gotham looks great in uppercase, generously letterspaced and slightly big, and then I avoid using it at 9pt. Over the years I have learned to master a few typefaces, knowing at what size, with which letterspacing and with how much leading they will look its best.
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