Davis-Bodoni

History: The famous typesetter, Giabattista Bodoni, was born in February of 1740 in Saluzzo, Piedmont, Italy. Giabattista was the son of a printer; he learned from his father and utilized his skills in the Vatican for several years. During his time there, he was under the guidance of the Duke of Parma, which proved to be a fruitful. Bodoni produced several spectacular quartos and folios that surpassed others at the time. When it came to type, Giabattista astounded the art world. His fonts were said to be “pseudoclassical” looking. Bodoni’s fonts were set apart by the contrast of the thick lines versus thin lines. Another notable attribute of his font was the sloped serif accompanied by the ninety-degree angle baseline serif. At the same time, Baskerville and Didot tried to compete but Bodoni’s font rose above the rest. Later in Bodoni’s career, he published the book "Manuale Tipografico" which included 100 roman, 50 italic and 28 Greek minuscule fonts. In 1813, Bodoni died in Parma, Italy at the age of seventy three.

Type: The Bodoni font has a few variations in style: Roman, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic. The rights to Bodoni are owned by the Bauer Type Foundry, which also owns several other popular fonts. Bodoni is used in fancy, luxurious looking advertisements. Typically, it is used as a headline font and is rarely used for body copy. Over the years, Bodoni has been revived into new styles while still maintaining the signature look. Designers complain that when Bodoni gets smaller than twelve point, it begins to lose its readibility.

Concept: For my concept, I’d like to model it after a fine dining menu/wine menu. In the menu I would like to include a five-course menu, each course representing a different style of the font. I want to make it look upscale and formal.