Emigre has released a new typeface called Tribute. In my opinion, it’s going to be the next typeface of choice for designers ‘round the world (think Mrs. Eaves popularity.) The caps and roman version are a thing of beauty. The italics are not that good. Read all about it at Typographi.ca.
>What do you mean by new trend?
My bad, I didn't word that very well. What I meant is that it could be the new typeface of choice for a lot of designers. Just like Mrs. Eaves, which is the biggest selling Emigre typeface of all time, and Filosofia.
I didn't mean to imply a trend in typeface design. Sorry.
On Feb.20.2003 at 10:41 AMNot that practicality is an impediment to a face becoming popular, but there are some things about Tribute that would caution me against using it for serious body text. The roman "N", the oddly narrow italic "A", and the ubiquitous Emigreish italic "y" with its long leftward reach--I think these would stick out too noticeably in body copy. Certain serifs in the capitals of the roman are similar to Dante, but I'm not too crazy about the "T."
And speaking of Mrs. Eaves, I never did get it. I mean, it's nice and it's pretty and all, but it's never struck me as really elegantly clear and serious. Scala, I would say, is elegant and serious in the way that Bembo, Garamond 3, or Janson are. I suppose I am talking mainly about text type for long text, since my background is book design. Mrs. Eaves got jumped on (er, so to speak) because it seems like designers thought it was a new classical design. Same with Filosofia, though to a lesser extent. They're great designs, don't get me wrong, but I just always felt like they weren't exactly what everyone thought they are.
On Feb.20.2003 at 12:38 PM>Mrs. Eaves got jumped on
HAHAHA. Nice choice of words.
The lowercas "g" of Tribute is kind of weird too. We'll just have to see. Parting from Heine's other typefaces I do see it intended as more of a display font than a text font. But that has never stoped anybody from doing such thing.
>speaking of Mrs. Eaves, I never did get it
I don't think there was much to "get." It just caught on like wildfire and everybody agreed that it was a cool typeface. I never liked it for text, 'tis very round. But for headers, I did like it, especially the caps.
>Same with Filosofia, though to a lesser extent.
I have deep, loving, feelings for Filosofia. I hate that it's been so overused. In both good and bad ways.
On Feb.20.2003 at 12:55 PMIsn't it fair to say that most of Emigre's faces--even the one's labeled for text/body copy--are really display faces at heart?
On Feb.20.2003 at 01:23 PM>most of Emigre's faces--even the one's labeled for text/body copy--are really display faces at heart?
I think that would be very fair. I've seen some really good applications of Emigre fonts as body text. It's rare, but when they are well type set, it's a thing of beauty.
On the other hand... and this is something I did. I was very young and kind of not sure what I was doing. I set my whole thesis (all 100+ pages of it) in... ready?... Dead History! 9 pt. to make matters worse.
Shame on me.
On Feb.20.2003 at 05:19 PMShame on you, Armin! Everyone knows 9pt is too small to read!
I'd agree, Darrel, that Emigre's faces are about 98% display, but I've seen several books set in Mrs Eaves. There's a very beautiful smallish Jamaica Kincaid book called My favorite plant that's the best use of Mrs. Eaves for text I can think of. But one could also say this book is too precious to read, or that it's really an object book. Not that there's anything wring with that.
On Feb.20.2003 at 07:14 PMI don't like it. There's something about it that just feels like it's trying to be "period," which annoys me. This is differentiated from something simply being period, where you don't really notice it as a separate quality.
Hate Remedy. Dalliance is fun. I made a spider and several bug heads of various types out of the flourish set.
Incidentally, what's with the weird reticence over what face it was based on? They go to lengths telling you it's from a photcopy of a reprint blahblah of a type specimen and even by who, but never name the thing.
*mutters* I always forget how damn ugly the Emigre site is...
On Feb.20.2003 at 08:26 PMTribute could be a text face, but I'd have to see how that lc "g" behaves to know for sure. Mrs Eaves can be used for text only at larger sizes, and only if you fix the spacing (which is like a loose bicycle, as Robin Kinross once wrote). Eidetic on the other hand is highly usable. That's it for text faces as far as Emigre's current library is concerned... But I for one am hopeful for their future!
BTW, 9 point is fine like in a newspaper,
as long as the x-height is big enough.
hhp
On Feb.22.2003 at 07:01 PM
What do you mean by new trend? The neo-classical nature of the face or the face itself? Seems to me the whole classical typography (small caps, ornaments, swash characters) thing has been a trend for a while now...
On Feb.20.2003 at 10:36 AM