COVER

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

By using this book, you’ll be creating
vintage work in no time. Flip through
the book to learn about popular
typefaces in the 1950’s, and decide
what fits best with your design. Don’t
want to flip through the whole book?
Click on what you want to read in the
table of contents and it will take you
directly there.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Futura 10 News Gothic
2 Clarendon 11 Bodoni
3 Railroad Gothic 12 Cheltenham
4 Bulletin Typewriter 13 Neutraface
5 Volta 14 Commercial Script
6 Beton 15 Latin Wide
7 Sackers Gothic 16 Univers
8 LTC Garamont 17 Optima
9 ITC Founders Caslon
Don’t forget! Click on the font you want
to see and it will take you there.
 FUTURA
Paul Renner released Futura in 1927, and it has stood the test of time. Inspired

by the Bauhaus design principals and his forward thinking, Renner sought out to

create a modern typeface with basic geometric shapes. Futura is still one of the

most loved sans-serif typefaces, and a “go to” among designers.

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Josefin Sans

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 CLARENDON
Robert Besley released the original Clarendon typeface in 1845, which was

named after Oxford’s Clarendon Press. It was a significant change, compared

to the slab-serif’s at that time. Many font foundries released their own versions

of it after the original patent expired. Monotype reworked Clarendon to what

we know today and released it in 1935.

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Trocchi

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 RAILROAD GOTHIC
In 1906, Railroad Gothic was designed by the American Type Founders.

This typeface has always been intended to be set at large sizes since it was

specifically created for railroad signage. Railroad Gothic is an all caps font,

and is often used for journals or large signs.

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Bebas

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 BULLETIN TYPEWRITER
Designed by Darren Scott, Bulletin Typewriter was influenced from advertise-

ments during the Industrial revolution. These advertisements were impactful,

and Scott found a way to put a contemporary twist on Bulletin Typewriter,

creating a typeface that is still rooted in the 19th century.

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RM Typerighter

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 V O LTA
Volta was designed by Walter Baum and Konrad Bauer of Bauer Type Foundry.

This typeface was released in 1955, inspired by Bodoni but taking on new

characteristics. “New Transitional Serif,” which is what Volta is often referred

to, was created for new print technologies. Printers were dealing with large

runs and cheap materials, and Volta was created to compensate for the lack

of materials.

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Ultra

source 5
 BETON
Another classic released from Bauer Type foundry in 1936, this one was

designed by Henrick Jost, an in house designer at Bauer. Newspapers

and advertisements were growing in importance, and typographers started

focusing on how to set headlines and text apart, but still grabbing the reader.

Beton became one of the slab typefaces that did exactly that.

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Enriqueta

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 SACKERS GOTHIC
Monotype Design Studio created Sackers Gothic based off of Western Letters

that are often found at historical sights like Trajans column, where it is often

found engraved in stone.

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Copperplate Adobe subscription!

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 LT C G A R A M O N T
Fredrick W. Goudy, the man who created the Goudy typeface, designed and

released LTC Garamont in the early 1920’s. To set his typeface apart from the

well known Garamond, he called this version ‘Garamont.’

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Garamond Adobe subscription!

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 ITC FOUNDERS CASLON
The original Caslon typeface was created by William Caslon and was a favorite

to Benjamin Franklin. As technologies have developed, the differences in each

revival are slightly noticeable. ITC Founders Caslon is one of the many revivals

released.

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Goudy Serial Regular

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 NEWS GOTHIC
News Gothic was designed by Morris Fuller Benton and released by the

American Type Founders in 1908. It was inspired by Franklin Gothic, which was

also designed by Benton. This typeface took on a softer form, and was intended

to have two weights: medium and light.

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Franklin Gothic Adobe subscription!

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 BODONI
Giambattista Bodoni created Bodoni which was inspired by the ideas of John

Baskerville. Bodoni was considered an extreme option based on the idea

of increasing the stroke contrast for the developing print technology.

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Abril Fatface

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 C H E LT E N H A M
Remember Morris Fuller Benton? Cheltenham was originally developed in 1896

by Bertram Goodhue and Ingalls Kimball, and it was drawn at 14” high. After

these drawings were completed, they were given to Benton to turn into a final

design, which was not released until 1902.

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Raleigh Serial Regular

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 N E U T R A FAC E
Richard Joseph Neutra was the inspiration for the House Industries typeface,

Neutraface. Richard was a notable figure in architectural design history; he

grew up with aspirations of being an architect, interned with Franklin Lloyd

Wright, then moved on to create some of the most notable architectural design

projects in history, including the Lovell Health House.. Neutra had an attention

to detail which extended to the signage of his buildings. House Industries took

on the task of creating Neutraface based off of the signage that they could find

on Neutra’s buildings. From the material they could find, an entire alphabet was

then created in this style.

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Josefin Sans

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 COMMERCIAL SCRIPT
Commercial Script was inspired by copperplate calligraphy. The Barnhart

Brothers & Spindler were the designers behind the original typeface, and

Morris Fuller Beton redesigned it in 1906. The redesigned version from Beton

was released from American Type Founders in 1908.

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Birds of Paradise

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 L AT I N W I D E
Stephenson Blake released Latin Wide in 1883, and in years to follow various

versions were released from several type foundries.

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Indubitably NF Regular

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 UNIVERS
Deberny & Peignot, a french type foundry, released Univers in 1957. Adrian

Frutiger, who was the art director at Deberny & Peignot, took on the challenge

of creating a sans serif typeface that could be used for long sets of text. Adrian

started sketching in 1954, and it was released as a commercial typeface in 1957.

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Roboto

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 OPTIMA
Herman Zapf started creating Optima in 1950, while on a trip to Italy. Herman

was inspired by letters that he found in cemeteries, which lead to his goal of

creating a typeface that was inspired by a roman typeface, but did not “occupy

a square footprint.”

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Oregon

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