Essay & Bio: News Gothic
News Gothic is a realist sans-serif typefaces designed by Morris Fuller Benton, and released by the American Type Founders (ATF) in 1908. The typeface was originally drawn in two lighter weights, a medium text weight using the title News Gothic, and a closely related light weight marketed under the name Lightline Gothic. The typeface family was enlarged in 1958 with the addition of two bold weights. News Gothic is similar in proportion and structure to Franklin Gothic also designed by Benton.
News Gothic, like other Benton sans serif typefaces, follows the grotesque model. Shapes which distinguish it from the neo-grotesque are the two-story lowercase a and the two-story lowercase g. Also distinctive are the blunt terminus at the apex of the lowercase t, and the location of the tail of the uppercase Q completely outside the bowl. The letter forms are compact, and descenders are shallow. The typeface differs from other realist sans-serifs in its organic shapes and subtle transitions of stroke width, all contributing to a less severe, humanist tone of voice. For much of the twentieth century News Gothic was used in newspaper and magazine publishing.
News Gothic is available in standard, condensed, and extra condensed widths, each with a matching bold and italic. The standard width typeface is available in light, standard, demi, and bold weights, each with a matching italic. The condensed and extra condensed widths are ideal for use in tables and parts lists.
Because there is no active descendant of the American Type Founders Corporation making digital typefaces, News Gothic has been revived in digital form in many different versions from different sources. Adobe, Monotype, Linotype, Bitstream and The Font Bureau all have their own versions.
Morris Fuller Benton (November 30, 1872 – June 30, 1948) was an influential American typeface designer who headed the design department of the American Type Founders (ATF), for which he was the chief type designer from 1900 to 1937. Benton was America's most prolific type designer, having completed 221 typefaces, ranging from revivals of historical models like ATF Bodoni, to adding new weights to existing faces such as Goudy Old Style and Cheltenham, and to designing original designs such as Hobo, Bank Gothic and Broadway. Benton's large family of related neogrotesque sans-serif typefaces, known as "gothics" as was the norm at the time, includes Alternate Gothic, Frankilin Gothic, and News Gothic. All were more similar to, and better anticipated, later realist sans-serif typefaces such as Helvetica than did the other early grotesque types of his contemporaries.
Concept:
Not really sure where to go with this. News Gothic was mainly used in magazine and news paper publishing so I was thinking I could go in that direction but again, not too sure on how to approach this. I was thinking of redesigning or reinventing an already existing publication, or just coming up with one all together. Suggestions anyone??
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Great research and bio! You could redesign an existing but it may be easier to incorporate your content if you came up with your own magazine. Perhaps a design related magazine. You could call it "Kern That!" :-). Have a table of contents, letter to the editor, articles, etc. That work with your content.
ReplyDeleteI love it...Now can I use existing articles from other design related magazines, like CMYK or Communication Arts, or do I have to come up with my own?
ReplyDeleteno need to reinvent the wheel. you can use existing things. the major idea is that the headlines and subheads are referring to your font. you could always use the articles to demonstrate the different typesetting layouts (ex. left justified 11/15 News Gothic bold)
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