Morris Fuller Benton, an engineer, became head of type design at the American Type Foundry (ATF) in 1900. During Benton’s lifetime, he eventually came to design over 220 typefaces. Between 1902 and 1905 Benton released the first series of Franklin Gothic typefaces. He continued to release variations of the font, such as extra condensed, oblique and condensed shaded through the year 1914. During this time, there were already various Gothic typefaces. What makes Franklin Gothic stand out is the slight thinning of the bowls where they connect to stems. Another feature that makes Franklin Gothic different from other Gothic or Grotesque typefaces is the double-bowled lowercase g and the curled a. Most gothic fonts had lost these features by this time, but Benton kept them. The typeface has not only survived, but still remains popular to this day. Victor Caruso added book and medium weights in 1980. In the 1990s, David Berlow created condensed, compressed, and extra compressed. When compared to most sans-serif typefaces, Franklin Gothic has a larger x-height, making even the smallest fonts readable. Though it is legible when it’s small, Franklin Gothic is often a chosen display font for advertisements and newspapers.
Theme: Big Newspaper Story (I’m thinking “Oil Spill in the Gulf: One of the Biggest Environmental Disasters of All Time”)
Creator: Morris Fuller Benton (bio) (“Tony Hayward (Morris Fuller Benton), CEO, BP”)
Character set: “Key Players in Spill”
I really want to go with a big story from this year, but all I could think of is BP, which is not exactly a positive tale. I don’t know if I should make the creator of the font the CEO of BP. Thoughts? Suggestions? Anyone?
Krista, nice idea about bringing it into a contemporary story. Other subject ideas besides BP: economy, unemployment, housing, political shift. Like the idea of making Benton one of the CEOs or something like that.
ReplyDeleteAs for your research, a little more of an official bio on Benton.