Avenir Avenir
Avenir Avenir
Avenir Avenir
Avenir
1
2
Avenir
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This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven —If
Text by Elliott Earls
Avenir
Avenir
2 Designer/Editor
the Devil is Six then God is Seven.
Text by Elliott Earls
Avenir
Avenir
67
Daisy Lanier 3
Table of Contents
16. colophon
4
Avenir Vs. Other Fonts
Avenir 35 Light Frutiger 45 Light Futura Light Helvetica Light
Aa Aa Aa Aa
Bb Bb Bb Bb
Cc Cc Cc Cc
Dd Dd Dd Dd
Ee Ee Ee Ee
Ff Ff Ff Ff
Gg Gg Gg Gg
5
35 Light Oblique
How do you design letterforms?
45 Book Oblique
How do you design letterforms?
95 Black Oblique
6 How do you design letterforms?
It is in traditional figure drawing
85 Heavy 24 pt.
studio classes that one learns how to
45 Book 18 pt.
lock the
movement of
the retina to
85 Heavy Oblique 26 pt.
The hand and the retina must move in symbiotic lock step as they both
trace the physical line. It’s through this process that one can learn to trust
not the mind, but the RETINA.
55 Roman 12 pt.
7
35 Light How do you design letterforms?
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45 Book
sestyle.
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uoudDraw
ra them
55 Roman
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,yllacFocus
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65 Medium
t o n l e e f
the serifs or the termi
oitacDon’t
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85 Heavy
a s u o r o g
so much understand how
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8
lamrhow
95 Black
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o s t e s l a u d i v i
en and Plaka, and some Pro White.
d n i n
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ination of the character.
e n o t a
h g u o r h
w a letter is drawn:
t t u b , s l o o
u
awn.
l c x e “ m r e t e h t ,y
9
r
I should point out that these women wore heavy blue
eyeshadow, regardless of their complexion or eye color.
Because at that historical moment it was an established
scientific fact that if one wore enough blue eyeshadow, the
eye would look blue!
45 Book 14/17
The clash of color. The slavish
Something adherence to dress code
at the obvious expense of
was horribly personal dignity. The spurious
and questioning folklore or
wrong here! “weird science” underpinning
95 Black Oblique 30/35 it all.
35 Light Oblique 14/20
I often found my
gaze transfixed, nay
locked, upon the
upper eyelid of a
typical brunette with
brown eyes.
95 Black 18/22
10
»It was the 80’s.
95 Black 36 pt.
12
I’m not suggesting that one develops a feel magically,
or through attendance at the finest schools, but through
rigorous application, and through working damn
hard at aquiring a set of very concrete skills, then
45 Book Oblique 18/18 forgetting them.
45 Book 14/18
13
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35 Light Glyphs
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I’m an advocate of practice
informed by theory and life. It’s
really a question of priorities and
balance. And I’d like to be clear
When an individual set out upon here. I am not suggesting
the arduous journey of designing
a typeface, I suggest that the
that the type design
generative formal impluse can process necessarily
be located in one of three areas: adheres to a strict
historical revival, vernacular
interpretation, or exclusively
taxonomic progression.
85 Heavy 17/24
formal extrapolation. While
historical revival and vernacular
interpretation are self explanatory,
the term “exclusively formal
extrapolation” may need some
elaboration.
55 Roman 12/18
15
Q
Avenir typeface
Z
Designed by Adrian Frutiger
K
92 brightness
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17
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