Typography. Fonts. Font Families, Font faces! Just a few ways to describe my recent love. I’ve grown quite fond of letter forms and type faces, and I thought I would share some tidbits.

I’m going to be sharing my top picks of fonts, as well as some font offences (did someone says Comic Sans?!) and help you with some tips and free downloads. This will be a 3 part series, with this first part all about my top picks. Now lets get down to business!

First, I’m going to start with saying I am a huge sans serif fan. I love their boldness, impact and usually, their contemporary feel. So, as cliché as it is, I am in fact a huge user of Helvetica. Oh Helvetica… It’s extremely versatile (I have about 25 different styles of it!), readable, and is very clean. A quick look at almost any printed material and you’ll notice it, or it’s cousin Arial, is all over the place. It’s the go-to font for most young designers. While I love it, I do try (and suggest you to as well!) and find other fonts that can do the same job for sake of originality, but Helvetica is still a strong, safe font.

For those who can’t afford the massive price tag of fonts, I will give you a nice alternative that works just as well.

Helvetica
Foundry – Haas, Linotype
Released in 1957
Style – Sans Serif
Alternative free font – Arial (Comes on every single computer, unless it’s from the Stone Age. Really.)

Download Link – Paid

 

 

My love of sans serif (which, for the record is a name for a font without those feet type things, ala Times New Roman) continues with this next font: League Gothic. This font is very new to my repertoire of fonts, but when I first used it I fell in love. It’s a strong, tall font that gives impact in tight spaces. You couldn’t really set body copy in this font, but it makes for a wicked headline. The best part of League Gothic is that it is totally free! Yes, that is right FREE It comes from the lovely (also a new find!) site called The League of Moveable Type. They are a group that finds and makes open source fonts to help out all us starving artist. I’d say that’s pretty awesome, no?

League Gothic
Foundry – The League of Moveable Type
Released in 1903, re-appropriated by the LoMT
Style – Sans Serif
Alternate free font – None! This bad boy is FREE.

Download Link – Free

 

 

Next up is, yes you guessed it, another sans serif! (I used other types of fonts too, I swear!). This one is easily a favourite of mine; I use it for my own personal identity! We’re talking Futura. It’s a balanced font that is very clear and readable at any size. It’s got some punch, but can be toned down to work in lots of places. It’s got your standard curves and such, but it’s very angular and authoritative. Just to give some examples, my logo (as seen on the top banners of this blog) is set with a light variation of Futura. My business card uses it as the main font, and my invoices do too. It can easily be used in tons of places, which is why I love it.

Futura
Foundry – BauerTypes , Neufville Digital
Released in 1927
Style – Sans Serif
Alternate free font – Sadly, Futura isn’t free and doesn’t have any free fonts styled after is like Helvetica, but there is a very similar font called Florencesans which is totally free.

Download Link – Free
Download Link – Paid

 

 

Drumroll please…! This one is a serifed font. It’s another very new font to my collection, but I’m loving it none the less. Museo is a very streamlines, very modern looking font with a non traditional serif. It’s a more slab style serif and more often than not, is curved where the serifs connect. It’s a nice fun alternative to more ridgid slab serifs like Rockwell. It’s also especially nice when it’s nice and fat; it has lots of presence and impact.

Museo
Foundry – Jos Buivenga
Released in 2008
Style – Slab Serif
Alternate free font – While this is a paid font, currently (and as far as I know, always) you can get yourself free copies of certain weights of the font from MyFonts.com. Just look for the ones that are listed at $0.00.

Download Link – Free

 

 

True to my word, I am going to give you another non- sans serif font! This is another favourite of mine, and another from the lovely folks over at The League of Moveable Type. This one’s called Chunk. It’s a very chunky (as the name suggests!) and powerful font. It’s another slab serif, but this time more traditional in style with its varied line weights and traditional serif placements. It’s a great headline font, but for the sake of eyes everywhere, don’t use it in body copy!

Chunk
Foundry – The League Of Moveable Type
Released in 2009
Style – Old Style Slab Serif
Alternative free font – None! Once again, thanks to the folks at The League of Moveable Type, this ones on the house. Forever.

Download Link – Free

 

 

I’m going to end with one last powerhouse sans-serif—Univers. This font is another extremely old one that is very flexible. It has lots of space with it’s large counters and cleans lines. It comes with lots and lots of different weights, allowing it to be the only font you use on a piece and not get boring. It’s pretty similar to Helvetica, and truthfully, some people might not even be able to tell the difference. Trust me, it’s there. This is one of those types of fonts that I suggest you try out instead of the ever-so popular Helvetica.

Univers
Foundry – Deberny & Peignot , Linotype
Released in 1957v
Style – Sans Serif
Alternate free font – If you have Helvetica already, that will match quite well. If not, your standard Arial will work just fine!

Download link – Paid

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