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This week I thought we could look into a
font designed by an incestuous bastard.
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| Alphabet image from: identifont.com |
“Incestuous
bastard” I hear you cry! Well let’s delve a little deeper shall we. A man named
Eric Gill created the iconic Gill Sans typeface back in 1926, and he also
created fear in his daughters, sisters and dogs eyes (yes, dogs.) You see Mr
Gill kept a diary and in this little diary are tales of sexually abusing his
two eldest daughters, claims of sexual acts with his sisters and it even goes
so far as to say that he shagged his dog (omfg) Now I don’t know about you, but
I’m glad this guy is dead, and fingers crossed, in hell. He died in the 40’s
due to lung cancer so at least he left this earth in pain. There is many
controversy surrounding Eric Gill, some say his artistic achievements should be
withdrawn, yet others have found his reputation has strengthened due to this
publicity. As they say, any publicity is good publicity. Now enough of the man,
more of the font; Gill Sans is a British sans-serif typeface and was released
by the Monotype foundry in 1928. Based off of the Johnston typeface used on the
Underground, the humanist form of Gill Sans is distinguished throughout the
world. The type was plastered all over the LNER (London and North Eastern) Railway
System in its early days; the company’s menus, signs and promotional material
all featured the font. With its roots set in British-ness, the BBC even uses
it.
Oh I should
probably mention that Eric Gill was also a printmaker, stonecutter and
sculptor, but quiet frankly I don’t like him, so that’s all I’m going to say.
Johnston
Agenda
They
all look like siblings; watch out guys, Eric is coming for you.
Lower case “a”
arm has a much heavier weight that the rest of its body
Lower case “d”
has a flat bottom, whereas “p” and “q” have flat tops
Oblique
terminals
Upper case “j”
has a descended tail below the baseline
The iconic
lower case “g” consists of a Peculiar Ear parallel to the baseline
Capital “R” and
“Q” have calligraphic tails
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| Images from: detepe.sk / memnahadr.com / pinterest.com |
Penguin Books jacket design is in Gill Sans,
placing the font on bookshelves around the globe.
As stated above, the BBC throws the type
all over our tv screens. A subtle nod to the British design world.
This Giant Crab Soup packaging. I stumbled
across this on Pinterest and it features our tasty type in a clean way. Nice
job Querida
Carmen.
The thicker weight of Gill Sans is greeted with open arms by a lighter British font, Baskerville Italic.
(because of the rape)
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Information sourced from:
All images are my own unless otherwise stated.
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