Colophon Type Foundry — Aperçu

posted by Amber Weaver October 22, 2018

Colophon Type Foundry is a group of guys who are absolutely smashing the type design game. This week we’ve chosen to feature their Aperçu typeface, a design that began conception in December 2009 which was then trialled & tested throughout a number of design commissions through the following year. The conceit behind Aperçu was to create a synopsis or amalgamation of classic realist typefaces: Johnston, Gill Sans, Neuzeit & Franklin Gothic. Becoming, a sum of parts, building upon its initial reference points to create an extensive and usable family.

After finding out a little more about what inspired the face design, it was the calligraphic Naskh style with a reference to the geometry and letter shapes of Aperçu Latin that was the initial starting point. According to the Colophon team, this style has been used over the centuries for long texts due to its optimised organic letter shapes. However, Aperçu Arabic is a less organic and more geometric interpretation of the Nashk style; a modern Arabic sans-serif based on a calligraphic style.

Since its release in August 2010, Aperçu quickly found its position in the market, being used across a variety of different media and sectors around the world across a multitude of touch-points. To name a few, the face has also been utilised by leading visual institutions such as MOMA, De Wiels, Zeit Magazine and the Walker Art Centre amongst many others. Finally, between its release in 2010 and the present day, numerous extensions into further weights, extended language support and enhanced OpenType features allow for dynamic control across a wide range of outputs, check out this talented teams work via the links below!

www.colophon-foundry.org

Here are People of Print, we’re huge fans of Colophon. We showcased their wonderful work in our 9th issue of Posterzine which has continued to stay the very top of our best sellers. Shop below!