HISTORY
News Gothic, a sans-serif typeface, was designed by Morris Fuller Benton. It was released by the American Type Founders in 1908. Benton not only designed the typeface with two lighter weights and a medium weight using the name "News Gothic," but also a light weight version called "Lightline Gothic." One might notice its similarity in structure to Franklin Gothic; this is likely because it was also designed by Benton.
Benton was born on November 30, 1872. His father, Linn Loyd Benton worked in typography and was the inventor of the pantographic punchcutter, which greatly simplified typesetting. After establishing a drawing office, Linn Loyd Benton entrusted Morris Fuller as his assistant.
Morris soon took over, and after the founding of the ATF, Benton became the head of the design department there from 1900 to 1937. He worked relentlessly, creating type designs every year, which, by the end of his career, totaled to 221 typefaces.
The font itself offers a more humanist tone when compared to other grotesque typefaces. It retains classic, two-story structures for the lowercase a and g. Stroke width also varies slightly throughout which creates a more organic feel than more geometric typefaces. Its uses vary from newspaper and magazine publishing to iconic pop-culture designs. ABBA used News Gothic for its logodesign. Lady Gaga used the typeface for her album cover of The Fame Monster; however, there is dispute whether it is news Gothic or Fanklin Gothic. Chances are, Benton wouldn't mind it either way. News Gothic Bold was used in the opening crawl text for Star Wars. Polaroid, from the late 50's to the 80's, adopted the typeface for its logo as well as most of its packaging and documentation.
News Gothic remains, to this day, a very versitile typeface offering a moderate tone and design in a sea of geometric and neo-grotesque forms. Its classic execution and more recently expanded family of weights and styles makes it a must-own for designers.
CONCEPTS
I like the idea that a couple of musical artists have used the font in their designs. This makes me think about the little booklets that often come with CDs. Maybe making News Gothic a band or the debut album for Morris Less or Fuller or Hell Benton. Song lists, lyrics in different weights, etc.
Another idea would be to play off of the Polaroid factoid. Basically have a Polaroid catalogue-thing. I dunno, that's a less exciting idea. Bam.
Hey David,
ReplyDeletegood research! I like the idea of a music insert since it's essentially the proportions of a real one. you could do track titles, lyrics, producer credits, etc. with the type reference.