Grotesque (Stephenson Blake typefaces)

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Grotesque
Grotesque No 9.png
Category Sans-serif
Classification Grotesque
Foundry Stephenson Blake

The Stephenson Blake Grotesque fonts are a series of sans-serif typefaces created by the type foundry Stephenson Blake of Sheffield, England, mostly around the beginning of the twentieth century. [1]

Contents

Stephenson Blake's grotesque faces are in the traditional nineteenth-century "grotesque" style of sans-serif, [2] with folded-up letterforms and a solid structure not intended for extended body text. [3] Forming a sprawling series, they include several unusual details, such as an 'r' with a droop, a bruised-looking 'G' and 'C' with inward curls on the right, very short descenders and considerable variation in stroke width, creating a somewhat eccentric, irregular impression. [4] [5] [6]

Much less even in colour than later families like Univers and Helvetica, they were very commonly used in British commercial printing in the metal type era, with a revival of interest as part of a resurgence of use of such "industrial" sans-serifs around the 1950s. [7] [8] [9] Writing in The Typography of Press Advertisement (1956), printer Kenneth Day commented that the family "has a personality sometimes lacking in the condensed forms of the contemporary sans cuttings of the last thirty years." [10] Jeremy Tankard has described them as the "most idiosyncratic of designs". [11] Not all versions have been digitised.

Family

Grotesque No. 8 on a metal type specimen sheet Grotesque No. 8 Type Specimen (8241109617).jpg
Grotesque No. 8 on a metal type specimen sheet
Grotesque No. 9 on a metal type specimen sheet Grotesque No. 9 Type Specimen (7982813165).jpg
Grotesque No. 9 on a metal type specimen sheet

The family of typefaces was sold by number rather than using weight names. Commonly used numbers included:

Stephenson Blake also used the terms "Condensed" and "Elongated Sans Serif" in some cases.

A particularly popular member of the family is Grotesque No. 9, a bold condensed weight, and its companion oblique. [19] Early users of "Grot No. 9" include Wyndham Lewis's 1914 avant-garde magazine Blast . [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] It returned to popularity from the 1940s, and an oblique was added in 1949. [14] Colin Banks' 1986 obituary of compositor and advertising designer Bill Morgan credits him and business partner Leon French with the face's revival: "Morgan and French had met doing Ministry of Information propaganda at the London Press Exchange. They had bullied and paid Stephenson Blake, the typefounders, to recall Grot no 9 from historic retirement as they had perceived it as the most economical and powerful letter to exploit the wartime restriction on advertising space." [25] Other designers who liked it included Allen Hutt, who described it in Newspaper Design (1960) as "the best of all Medium Sans, the famous Grotesque No. 9". [26] Grotesque No. 9 reached phototypesetting and Letraset dry transfer lettering and, unlike many of the other Stephenson Blake Grotesques, has been digitised in several releases. [27]

In the United States Roger Black, a prominent publication designer, discovered it in 1972 from a Visual Graphics Corporation phototypesetting catalogue, and came to like it. [4] He used it for designing Newsweek , commissioning a bolder custom redesign from Jim Parkinson, later released commercially. [4] [28] [29] Font Bureau, the digital typeface design studio he co-founded in 1989, also issued Bureau Grotesque, an adaptation of the whole Grotesque family with a large range of styles, co-designed by the company's other co-founder David Berlow. [4] [30] [31] Other users have included Q magazine. [32]

The Stephenson Blake Grotesques should not be confused with the first sans-serif font ever made, the capitals-only Caslon Egyptian of c. 1816 which Stephenson Blake sold, which was a quite separate design.

The first section of Wyndham Lewis' Manifesto, Blast 1, 1914, in Grotesque No. 9 BlastFirst.jpg
The first section of Wyndham Lewis' Manifesto, Blast 1, 1914, in Grotesque No. 9
Grotesque No. 9 on a poster for Jersey Right time holiday in Jersey.jpg
Grotesque No. 9 on a poster for Jersey

Similar designs include in the metal type period:

Digital period:

The modern corporate font of Sheffield, Wayfarer designed by Jeremy Tankard, is designed with some influences of the Stephenson Blake Grotesque series but predominantly based on their unrelated sans-serif Granby. [42] [43] [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sans-serif</span> Typeface classification for letterforms without serifs

In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than serif typefaces. They are often used to convey simplicity and modernity or minimalism. For the purposes of type classification, sans-serif designs are usually divided into these major groups: § Grotesque and § Neo-grotesque, § Geometric, § Humanist and § Other or mixed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arial</span> Neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface

Arial is a sans-serif typeface and set of computer fonts in the neo-grotesque style. Fonts from the Arial family are included with all versions of Microsoft Windows after Windows 3.1, as well as in other Microsoft programs, Apple's macOS, and many PostScript 3 printers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Futura (typeface)</span> Geometric sans-serif typeface

Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. It was designed as a contribution on the New Frankfurt-project. It is based on geometric shapes, especially the circle, similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period. It was developed as a typeface by the Bauer Type Foundry, in competition with Ludwig & Mayer's seminal Erbar typeface of 1926.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gill Sans</span> Humanist sans-serif typeface family developed by Monotype

Gill Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill and released by the British branch of Monotype from 1928 onwards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnston (typeface)</span> Sans-serif typeface

Johnston is a sans-serif typeface designed by and named after Edward Johnston. The typeface was commissioned in 1913 by Frank Pick, commercial manager of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, as part of his plan to strengthen the company's corporate identity. Johnston was originally created for printing, but it rapidly became used for the enamel station signs of the Underground system as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corbel (typeface)</span> Typeface

Corbel is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Jeremy Tankard for Microsoft. It is part of the ClearType Font Collection, a suite of fonts from various designers released with Windows Vista. All start with the letter C to reflect that they were designed to work well with Microsoft's ClearType text rendering system, a text rendering engine designed to make text clearer to read on LCD monitors. The other fonts in the same group are Calibri, Cambria, Candara, Consolas and Constantia.

Oblique type is a form of type that slants slightly to the right, used for the same purposes as italic type. Unlike italic type, however, it does not use different glyph shapes; it uses the same glyphs as roman type, except slanted. Oblique and italic type are technical terms to distinguish between the two ways of creating slanted font styles; oblique designs may be labelled italic by companies selling fonts or by computer programs. Oblique designs may also be called slanted or sloped roman styles. Oblique fonts, as supplied by a font designer, may be simply slanted, but this is often not the case: many have slight corrections made to them to give curves more consistent widths, so they retain the proportions of counters and the thick-and-thin quality of strokes from the regular design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Impact (typeface)</span> Sans-serif typeface

Impact is a sans-serif typeface in the industrial or grotesk style designed by Geoffrey Lee in 1965 and released by the Stephenson Blake foundry of Sheffield. It is well known for having been included in the core fonts for the Web package and distributed with Microsoft Windows since Windows 98. In the 2010s, it gained popularity for its use in image macros and other internet memes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akzidenz-Grotesk</span> Sans-serif typeface family by the Berthold Type Foundry of Berlin

Akzidenz-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface family originally released by the Berthold Type Foundry of Berlin. "Akzidenz" indicates its intended use as a typeface for commercial print runs such as publicity, tickets and forms, as opposed to fine printing, and "grotesque" was a standard name for sans-serif typefaces at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarendon (typeface)</span> Slab serif typeface

Clarendon is the name of a slab serif typeface that was released in 1845 by Thorowgood and Co. of London, a letter foundry often known as the Fann Street Foundry. The original Clarendon design is credited to Robert Besley, a partner in the foundry, and was originally engraved by punchcutter Benjamin Fox, who may also have contributed to its design. Many copies, adaptations and revivals have been released, becoming almost an entire genre of type design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">News Gothic</span> Grotesque sans-serif typeface

News Gothic is a sans-serif typeface designed by Morris Fuller Benton, and was released in 1908 by his employer American Type Founders (ATF). The typeface is similar in proportion and structure to Franklin Gothic, also designed by Benton, but lighter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephenson Blake</span> English engineering company

Stephenson Blake is an engineering company based in Sheffield, England. The company was active from the early 19th century as a type founder, remaining until the 1990s as the last active type foundry in Britain, since when it has diversified into specialist engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monotype Grotesque</span> Grotesque sans-serif typeface

Monotype Grotesque is a family of sans-serif typefaces released by the Monotype Corporation for its hot metal typesetting system. It belongs to the grotesque or industrial genre of early sans-serif designs. Like many early sans-serifs, it forms a sprawling family designed at different times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erbar</span> Sans-serif typeface

In typography, Erbar or Erbar-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface in the geometric style, one of the first designs of this kind released as type. Designer Jakob Erbar's aim was to design a printing type which would be free of all individual characteristics, possess thoroughly legible letter forms, and be a purely typographic creation. His conclusion was that this could only work if the type form was developed from a fundamental element, the circle. Erbar-Grotesk was developed in stages; Erbar wrote that he had originally sketched out the design in 1914 but had been prevented from working on it due to the war. The original version of Erbar was released in 1926, following Erbar's "Phosphor" titling capitals of 1922 which are very similar in design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Britannic (typeface)</span> Typeface

Britannic is a sans-serif typeface family that was sold in metal type by Stephenson Blake. It is a "modulated" or stressed sans-serif design, in which the vertical lines are clearly thicker than the horizontals. The Klingspor Museum reports that it was originally created by the Wagner & Schmidt foundry of Leipzig, Germany. In design it is intended for headings, advertisements and signs rather than continuous body text. Stephenson Blake advertised it as "just the right note for an advertising or display panel".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Display typeface</span> Font that is used at large sizes for headings

A display typeface is a typeface that is intended for use in display type at large sizes for titles, headings, pull quotes, and other eye-catching elements, rather than for extended passages of body text.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Permanent Headline</span> Display sans serif typeface

Permanent Headline is a bold, highly compressed sans-serif typeface in the neo-grotesque style. It was designed by Karlgeorg Hoefer for the type foundry Ludwig & Mayer in Frankfurt am Main. It was released from 1964 and later issued by a range of companies in phototypesetting and digital versions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Granby (typeface)</span> Humanist sans-serif typeface

Granby is a sans-serif typeface designed and released by the Stephenson Blake type foundry of Sheffield from 1930.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Tankard</span> British type designer

Jeremy Tankard is a British type designer. Tankard has designed retail fonts independently and for FontShop and Adobe. Corbel was designed for Microsoft and has been included in Microsoft Office and Windows since 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bliss (typeface)</span>

Bliss is a humanist sans-serif typeface family designed by Jeremy Tankard.

References

  1. ↑ Stephenson Blake & Co (PDF) (in German). Klingspor Museum . Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  2. ↑ Berry, John. "A Neo-Grotesque Heritage". Adobe Systems. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  3. ↑ Baines, Phil; Haslam, Andrew (2005). Type & Typography. Laurence King Publishing. p. 73. ISBN   978-1-85669-437-7.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Shaw, Paul (18 April 2017). Revival Type: Digital Typefaces Inspired by the Past. Yale University Press. pp. 193–4. ISBN   978-0-300-21929-6.
  5. ↑ Dodd, Robin (2006). From Gutenberg to OpenType: an illustrated history of type from the earliest letterforms to the latest digital fonts. Lewes: Ilex. p. 126. ISBN   9781904705772.
  6. ↑ White, Alex W. (6 September 2016). Listening to Type: The Art of Making Language Visible. Skyhorse Publishing Company, Incorporated. p. 572. ISBN   978-1-62153-538-6.
  7. ↑ "Grotesque Type and an Indian Pilot". Thyrsus Press. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  8. ↑ "Elisha Pechey" (PDF) (in German). Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  9. ↑ Print Design and Production. p. 56.
  10. ↑ Day, Kenneth (1956). The Typography of Press Advertisement. pp. 86–8.
  11. 1 2 Tankard, Jeremy. "Wayfarer". Jeremy Tankard Typography. Retrieved 31 July 2016. Application of the original Granby Condensed type was, however, difficult practically. It was not available in digital form, and felt to be just too condensed, with the proportion of ascender to x-height, too uncomfortable for use on the signing project. So there arose an opportunity to design a new typeface and at the same time tailor it to the specific needs of the Sheffield project. It was also an opportunity to widen the typographic references for the new font. I was keen to look at other early sans serif types, especially those from Stephenson, Blake and most notably their Grotesque series. These most idiosyncratic of designs are full of warmth, have an informal rhythm and a vitality to their shapes, all of which help create interesting word patterns. The rhythm of Wayfarer is similar to that of Granby, but it is combined with an approach to character detailing which echoes the informal variety found in the Grotesques.
  12. 1 2 "Grotesque No. 6 & 8 in use – Fonts In Use".
  13. 1 2 Hutchings, R. S. (1963). The Western Heritage of Type Design. London: Cory, Adams & Mackay Ltd. pp. 85–7.
  14. 1 2 "New-Old Types". Alphabet & Image 8: Stop Press: 2–3. 1948. We have also seen advance proofs of an italic form to what is probably the most widely used of all the condensed sans serif types, the famous Grotesque Series No 9. The italic version which has long been needed is virtually a sloped roman in accordance with latter-day typographical-doctrinal requirements. Two or three characters have been revised, notably the lower-case a, in order to sort more logically with the roman. The fount which is here set forth is an advance showing, and we are asked by Stephenson Blake to say that the full range of projected sizes will not be ready for a month or so, so please reserve requests until next year.
  15. ↑ "Grotesque No 9 – Webfont & Desktop font « MyFonts".
  16. ↑ "Grotesque No. 9 in use – Fonts In Use".
  17. ↑ Lambert, Frederick W. (1972). Letter Forms: 110 Complete Alphabets. Courier Corporation. pp. 12, 48–9. ISBN   978-0-486-22872-3.
  18. ↑ "Transport Age magazine covers". 1 December 2014.
  19. ↑ Hardwig, Florian (2 March 2017). "BLAST: Review of the Great English Vortex No. 1, by Wyndham Lewis (ed.)". Fonts in Use. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  20. ↑ Yiannakopoulou, Konstantina. "How BLAST magazine has changed literature". Typeroom. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  21. ↑ Mattern, Isabelle (13 January 2013). "U5 #3 – Blast/Bless: Grotesque No. 9". Isabelle Mattern (blog). Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  22. ↑ Mattern, Isabelle. "Blast/Bless: Grotesque No. 9". Isabelle Mattern (blog). Archived from the original on 14 October 2016. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  23. ↑ Leveridge, Michael E. (2000). "The Printing of BLAST". Wyndham Lewis Annual VII (2000). 7. The Wyndham Lewis Society: 20–31. ISSN   0142-6214 . Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  24. ↑ Banks, Colin (1986). "Obituary: Bill Morgan". Designer: 9.
  25. 1 2 Hutt, Allen. Newspaper Design. Oxford University Press. pp. 110–122. The best of all Medium Sans, the famous Grotesque No. 9 [is] also available in a full Monotype range, italic as well as roman, designated Headline Bold (Series 595).
  26. ↑ Lamacraft, Jane. "Rub-down revolution". Eye. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  27. 1 2 Parkinson, Jim. "Balboa". MyFonts. Parkinson Type Design. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  28. 1 2 "Balboa Plus User Manual" (PDF). Jim Parkinson. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
  29. 1 2 "Bureau Grotesque". Type Network. Font Bureau.
  30. 1 2 Schwartz, Christian. "Bureau Grotesque". Christian Schwartz. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  31. ↑ Cowles, Andy (26 October 2012). "'There are no skeletons in the closet, and I got knighted, so that proves it, doesn't it?'". Coverthink (blog). Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  32. ↑ "Sans-Serifs & Grotesques (Miller & Richard) in use – Fonts In Use".
  33. ↑ "Headline MT". Linotype.com. Retrieved 14 April 2018. Headline Bold is a sans serif face in the nineteenth century English Grotesque tradition. The Headline Bold font is based on types from the Stephenson Blake type foundry called Grotesque no. 9.
  34. ↑ "Bureau Grot in use – Fonts In Use".
  35. ↑ Parkinson, Jim. "Balboa Shaded". MyFonts. Parkinson Type Design. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  36. ↑ Coles, Stephen. "New Additions: November 2014". Identifont. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  37. ↑ Talbot, Adrian. "Kilburn". MyFonts . Talbot Type. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  38. ↑ Heck, Bethany. "Sporting Grotesque". Font Review Journal. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  39. ↑ "Sporting Grotesque". Velvetyne. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  40. ↑ Huang, Wei. "Work Sans". Github. Retrieved 7 January 2018. Work Sans is a 9 weight typeface family based loosely on early Grotesques — i.e. Stephenson Blake, Miller & Richard and Bauerschen Giesserei...Overall, features are simplified and optimised for screen resolutions – for example, diacritic marks are larger than how they would be in print.
  41. ↑ Bramley, Ellie Violet (13 January 2015). "Subliminal power of city fonts". The Guardian . Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  42. ↑ Tankard, Jeremy. "Commissions: Connect Sheffield". Jeremy Tankard Typography. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
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