HELLO.
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS // SOPHOMORE
KATIE WHITEMAN
HELLO.
// TYPOGRAPHY & COMPOSITION
e tTHE SNOW in the mountains was melting and Bun-ny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our sit-uation. He’d been dead for ten days before they found him, you know. It was one of the biggest manhunts
r ts e c r e tin Vermont his-tory - state troop-ers, the FBI, even an army helicop-ter; the college closed, the dye fac-tory in Hampden shut down, people coming from New Hampshire, upstate New York, as far away as Boston.
e ts e c r e ts e c r e ts e c r e t
s e d o n n a t a r t t
t h e
h i s t o r ys e c r e t
“ i t w a s o n e o f t h e b i g g e s t m a n h u n t s i n v e r m o n t h i s t o r y ”
FIRST PAGE STUDY // THE SECRET HISTORY
A study in Type 2, beginning to learn to understand the relationship between type and movement.
“IT WAS ONE OF THE BIGGEST MANHUNTS IN VERMONT HISTORY.”
DONNA TARTT
T H E S E C R E T H I S T O RY
came to understand the gravity of our situation. He’d
been dead for ten days before they found him, you know.
It was one of the biggest manhunts in Vermont history
- state troopers, the FBI, even an army helicopter; the
The snow in the moun-
tains was melting and
Bunny had been dead for
several weeks before we
college closed, the dye factory in
Hampden shut down, people com-
ing from New Hampshire, upstate
New York, as far away as Boston.
HISTORYin Vermont his-
tory - state troop-
ers, the FBI, even
an army helicop-
ter; the college
closed, the dye
factory in Hamp-
den shut down,
people coming
from New Hamp-
shire, upstate New
York, as far away
as Boston.
and Bunny had
been dead for
several weeks be-
fore we came to
understand the
gravity of our
situation. He’d
been dead for
ten days before
they found him,
you know. It was
one of the big-
gest manhunts
T h e s n o w i n t h e m o u n t a i n s
w a s m e l t i n g
D o n n a T a r t t
T h e S e c r e t
D O N N A T A R T T
histoyT H E S E C R E T
before they found him, you know.
It was one of the biggest man-
hunts in Vermont history - state
troopers, the FBI, even an army
helicopter; the college closed,
the dye factory in Hampden shut
down, people coming from New
Hampshire, upstate New York, as
far away as Boston.
The snow in the
mountains was melt-
ing and Bunny had
been dead for sev-
eral weeks before we
came to understand
the gravity of our
situation. He’d been
dead for ten days
rT h e S e c r e t y H i s t o r y
Donna Tartt
and Bunny had been dead for
several weeks before we came
to understand the gravity of our
situation. He’d been dead for ten
days before they found him, you
know. It was one of the biggest
manhunts in Vermont history
- state troopers, the FBI, even
an army helicopter; the college
closed, the dye factory in Hamp-
den shut down, people coming
from New Hampshire, upstate
New York, as far away as Boston.
The snow in the mountains was m e l t i n g
// PORTRAIT ILLUSTRATION
ILLUSTRATION // PRESIDENTIAL PORTRAITS
A series of presidential portraits pushing the different styles of charicature, realism, and concep-
tual. Portraits are done in various mediums in including colored pencil, Photoshop, ink, water-
color, and chalk pastel.
// TYPOGRAPHY & LETTER FORMS
Hoefler and Frere - Jones meant for this typeface to be sweet, not saccharine; earnest, not grave. Archer is a typeface that is forthright, credible, and charming. This particular slab serif is a hybrid between antique and geometric. With its two story forms and relatively small x - height it is timidly falls in the antique classification. With its almost perfectly circular “O” and matching non-bracketed serifs, it is also classified as geometric. Archer has many features that set it apart from other typefaces. Its hairlines are graceful gestures. They are painterly uses at large sizes that have low contrast but bold forms. Archer’s numeric are also unique because they fall into the old-style classification due to its lining figures.When type foundry Hoefler & Frere - Jones released its typeface Archer two years ago, it was an instant hit among designers. Multiple corporate giants quickly swept it up for their redesigns. Smaller companies followed suit. Online, Archer became the subject of numerous blogs, with everyone from website designers to scrapbookers granting their approval. No one seemed to have anything bad to say about the slab serif and its elegant and functional, yet subtly quirky forms.
Archer was originally commissioned by Martha Stewart Living magazine in 2000. Hoefler & Frere - Jones combined elements of two opposing type styles: the plainness of antique serifs and the modernity of geometrics. Archer uses ball terminals in both the lower and uppercase forms, creating “a font that's friendly without being silly, and attractive without being flashy…well-mannered, easy to work with, and inviting to read,” according to its designers. Archer is the ideal typeface for a magazine that serves all who aspire to a do-it-yourself lifestyle of perfection. Now Archer is everywhere. A simple Google search finds the font being used for a Mexican restaurant, political news blog, church conference catalog, ski resort, file-sharing website, marketing company,charity race poster and digital scrapbook, to name a few of the 234,000 hits. Need more evidence? There's an entire blog documenting Archer's omnipresence. Not all of these implementations are conceptually inappropriate, and most are even aesthetically pleasing. But what is it about Archer that is so alluring? Why now? Archer boomed right when the U.S. economy went bust. With unemployment continuing to soar and businesses declaring bankruptcy, with newspapers and magazines folding and personal savings accounts shrinking, Americans, more than ever, crave trust, comfort, friendliness and other fuzzy feelings. Companies are responding, and Archer may be part of the solution.
Before adopting Archer, Wells Fargo's equivalent typeface was Myriad, a sans serif font known for its precision and readability. Myriad worked fine until culture shifted. Banks needed bailouts and society needed reassurance—Archer to the rescue. Colorful posters with warm images of families and phrases rendered in Archer now adorn each bank. Wells Fargo's brand agency was attracted to Archer's “contemporary personable style” that was both “down-to-earth and confident,” complementing the bank's brand. It wants to be associated with Archer's graceful gestures, secure angles, and playful ball terminals. With similar logic, Newsweek isn't the boring bearer of bad news, it's your friendly next-door neighbor.
But not everyone needs a facelift — the aforementioned ski resort certainly isn't struggling with a waning perception of trust like so many American banks. And the typeface isn't exactly free of charge. The smallest package of font weights costs $149, and it takes $399 to buy the whole family. This brings us to “Most Common Reasons for Using Archer,” number two: it's pretty. The truth is, Archer is an exquisitely designed typeface, and people recognize that. If you use it, maybe your brand will look well designed too. But an elegant typeface doesn't simply translate to universal functionality. Perhaps Typographica reviewer David John Earls said it best: “Archer succeeds where others falter. I only hope that in its use out in the wild…people give it the same level of thought.”As marvelous as so many of those slab serifs were, sadly they were let down when it came to lighter, or more usable text weights. For me, it is Archer that stood out, with H&FJ concentrating on the lighter half of the spectrum, eight weights offering a delightful range of contrast, but never venturing heavier than bold. Making a text face distinctive with a clear personality that can scale right up to display sizes is a mammoth task at the best of times, but a slab?
Yet here it is; with its judicious yet brave use of ball terminals, and blending geometry with sexy cursive forms, all brought together with the kind of historical and intellectual rigour you fully expect from this particular foundry, Archer succeeds where others falter. I only hope that in its use out in the wild (and away from that jailbird Martha Stewart)
people give it the same level of thought. Slab serifs have been evolving for two hundred years, yet the category continues to be dominated by two basic styles: Antiques and Geometrics. Antiques arise out of the same nineteenth-century tradition that produced the Modern and Scotch styles: at heart, they’re text faces, and they feature all of the qualities needed to thrive at small sizes. (Antiques customarily have the traditional ‘two-storey’ forms of a and g, and a capital R that ends in a flourish.) Our Ziggurat type-face is an example of the Antique style in full flower, captur-ing the best of what the style has to offer: it’s warm, com-forting, and persuasive. But this coziness comes at the expense of modernity, and in the wrong context even the best Antique can feel old-fashioned, musty, and irrelevant.
The Geometric is a twentieth-century riposte to the Antique. Informed by the same kind of rationalist thinking that inspired the great sans serifs of the Bauhaus, Geometrics abandon traditional forms in favor of mathematical strate-gies. A Geometric’s O is circular rather than elliptical, and its forms shed their residual contrast between thicks and thins. Geometrics usually apply this same rationalism to the wool-lier parts of the alphabet, replacing the alphabet’s beaks and tails and ball terminals with a program of matching serifs. While these faces can sometimes be bracingly modern, they’re often monotonous, and many Geometrics suffer from an astringent sting that makes them difficult to use and unwelcome to read.
When Martha Stewart Living asked us to develop a new typeface for the magazine, it seemed that a slab serif could answer much of the brief. A slab could be personable, straightforward, and credible, though it would take special effort to also make it pretty, hard-working, and frank. Archer would have to answer some formidable typographic demands, since Living is an almanac of lists, recipes, charts, diagrams, tables, calendars, and glossaries. To make the typeface frank — direct, but not brusque — we introduced subtle cues from the world of typewriter faces, which combine the ordinariness of Antiques with the modern practicality of Geometrics. We restored the vanished ‘ball terminals’ to the lowercase, and uncharacter-istically applied these gestures to the capitals as well, in order to yield a font that’s friendly without being silly, and attractive without being flashy. The result is
is a humanist slab serif style digital typeface designed in 2001 by Hoefler & Frere-Jones
for use in Martha Stewart Living magazine. The face is unique for combining the geo-
metric structure of twentieth century European slab-serifs but imbuing the face with a
domestic, less strident tone of voice. The typeface has been used for, among other
things, branding for Wells Fargo and is a main font for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Hoefler & Frere - Jones
2001
Slab Serif
1970 // 1971
Johnathan Hoefler & Tobias Frere - Jones
a typeface that’s well - mannered, easy to work with, and inviting to read.
ABCDEFGHIJKLNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghi jk lmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890&!/?{}
The Humanist
Archer
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
1. Apex, horizontal stroke, rests on apex like a hat2. Lighter crossbar, less interior congestion
3. Ampersand, slab serif
6. Lowercase itallics, curved tails
9. Ball terminals
4. Lowercase g, 1 story, no links
7. Flat serif, no brackets8. Symmetrical “w”, no bracket on apex
11. Ball serif12. Descending stem on ? character
5. Flaired tail
Hoefler and Frere - Jones meant for this typeface to be sweet, not saccharine; earnest, not grave. Archer is a typeface that is forthright, credible, and charming. This particular slab serif is a hybrid between antique and geometric. With its two story forms and relatively small x - height it is timidly falls in the antique classification. With its almost perfectly circular “O” and matching non-bracketed serifs, it is also classified as geometric. Archer has many features that set it apart from other typefaces. Its hairlines are graceful gestures. They are painterly uses at large sizes that have low contrast but bold forms. Archer’s numeric are also unique because they fall into the old-style classification due to its lining figures.When type foundry Hoefler & Frere - Jones released its typeface Archer two years ago, it was an instant hit among designers. Multiple corporate giants quickly swept it up for their redesigns. Smaller companies followed suit. Online, Archer became the subject of numerous blogs, with everyone from website designers to scrapbookers granting their approval. No one seemed to have anything bad to say about the slab serif and its elegant and functional, yet subtly quirky forms.
Archer was originally commissioned by Martha Stewart Living magazine in 2000. Hoefler & Frere - Jones combined elements of two opposing type styles: the plainness of antique serifs and the modernity of geometrics. Archer uses ball terminals in both the lower and uppercase forms, creating “a font that's friendly without being silly, and attractive without being flashy…well-mannered, easy to work with, and inviting to read,” according to its designers. Archer is the ideal typeface for a magazine that serves all who aspire to a do-it-yourself lifestyle of perfection. Now Archer is everywhere. A simple Google search finds the font being used for a Mexican restaurant, political news blog, church conference catalog, ski resort, file-sharing website, marketing company,charity race poster and digital scrapbook, to name a few of the 234,000 hits. Need more evidence? There's an entire blog documenting Archer's omnipresence. Not all of these implementations are conceptually inappropriate, and most are even aesthetically pleasing. But what is it about Archer that is so alluring? Why now? Archer boomed right when the U.S. economy went bust. With unemployment continuing to soar and businesses declaring bankruptcy, with newspapers and magazines folding and personal savings accounts shrinking, Americans, more than ever, crave trust, comfort, friendliness and other fuzzy feelings. Companies are responding, and Archer may be part of the solution.
Before adopting Archer, Wells Fargo's equivalent typeface was Myriad, a sans serif font known for its precision and readability. Myriad worked fine until culture shifted. Banks needed bailouts and society needed reassurance—Archer to the rescue. Colorful posters with warm images of families and phrases rendered in Archer now adorn each bank. Wells Fargo's brand agency was attracted to Archer's “contemporary personable style” that was both “down-to-earth and confident,” complementing the bank's brand. It wants to be associated with Archer's graceful gestures, secure angles, and playful ball terminals. With similar logic, Newsweek isn't the boring bearer of bad news, it's your friendly next-door neighbor.
But not everyone needs a facelift — the aforementioned ski resort certainly isn't struggling with a waning perception of trust like so many American banks. And the typeface isn't exactly free of charge. The smallest package of font weights costs $149, and it takes $399 to buy the whole family. This brings us to “Most Common Reasons for Using Archer,” number two: it's pretty. The truth is, Archer is an exquisitely designed typeface, and people recognize that. If you use it, maybe your brand will look well designed too. But an elegant typeface doesn't simply translate to universal functionality. Perhaps Typographica reviewer David John Earls said it best: “Archer succeeds where others falter. I only hope that in its use out in the wild…people give it the same level of thought.”As marvelous as so many of those slab serifs were, sadly they were let down when it came to lighter, or more usable text weights. For me, it is Archer that stood out, with H&FJ concentrating on the lighter half of the spectrum, eight weights offering a delightful range of contrast, but never venturing heavier than bold. Making a text face distinctive with a clear personality that can scale right up to display sizes is a mammoth task at the best of times, but a slab?
Yet here it is; with its judicious yet brave use of ball terminals, and blending geometry with sexy cursive forms, all brought together with the kind of historical and intellectual rigour you fully expect from this particular foundry, Archer succeeds where others falter. I only hope that in its use out in the wild (and away from that jailbird Martha Stewart)
people give it the same level of thought. Slab serifs have been evolving for two hundred years, yet the category continues to be dominated by two basic styles: Antiques and Geometrics. Antiques arise out of the same nineteenth-century tradition that produced the Modern and Scotch styles: at heart, they’re text faces, and they feature all of the qualities needed to thrive at small sizes. (Antiques customarily have the traditional ‘two-storey’ forms of a and g, and a capital R that ends in a flourish.) Our Ziggurat type-face is an example of the Antique style in full flower, captur-ing the best of what the style has to offer: it’s warm, com-forting, and persuasive. But this coziness comes at the expense of modernity, and in the wrong context even the best Antique can feel old-fashioned, musty, and irrelevant.
The Geometric is a twentieth-century riposte to the Antique. Informed by the same kind of rationalist thinking that inspired the great sans serifs of the Bauhaus, Geometrics abandon traditional forms in favor of mathematical strate-gies. A Geometric’s O is circular rather than elliptical, and its forms shed their residual contrast between thicks and thins. Geometrics usually apply this same rationalism to the wool-lier parts of the alphabet, replacing the alphabet’s beaks and tails and ball terminals with a program of matching serifs. While these faces can sometimes be bracingly modern, they’re often monotonous, and many Geometrics suffer from an astringent sting that makes them difficult to use and unwelcome to read.
When Martha Stewart Living asked us to develop a new typeface for the magazine, it seemed that a slab serif could answer much of the brief. A slab could be personable, straightforward, and credible, though it would take special effort to also make it pretty, hard-working, and frank. Archer would have to answer some formidable typographic demands, since Living is an almanac of lists, recipes, charts, diagrams, tables, calendars, and glossaries. To make the typeface frank — direct, but not brusque — we introduced subtle cues from the world of typewriter faces, which combine the ordinariness of Antiques with the modern practicality of Geometrics. We restored the vanished ‘ball terminals’ to the lowercase, and uncharacter-istically applied these gestures to the capitals as well, in order to yield a font that’s friendly without being silly, and attractive without being flashy. The result is
is a humanist slab serif style digital typeface designed in 2001 by Hoefler & Frere-Jones
for use in Martha Stewart Living magazine. The face is unique for combining the geo-
metric structure of twentieth century European slab-serifs but imbuing the face with a
domestic, less strident tone of voice. The typeface has been used for, among other
things, branding for Wells Fargo and is a main font for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Hoefler & Frere - Jones
2001
Slab Serif
1970 // 1971
Johnathan Hoefler & Tobias Frere - Jones
a typeface that’s well - mannered, easy to work with, and inviting to read.
ABCDEFGHIJKLNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghi jk lmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890&!/?{}
The Humanist
Archer
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
1. Apex, horizontal stroke, rests on apex like a hat2. Lighter crossbar, less interior congestion
3. Ampersand, slab serif
6. Lowercase itallics, curved tails
9. Ball terminals
4. Lowercase g, 1 story, no links
7. Flat serif, no brackets8. Symmetrical “w”, no bracket on apex
11. Ball serif12. Descending stem on ? character
5. Flaired tail
TYPE STUDY // ARCHER
A comprehensive study on the Hoefler and Frere - Jones’ typeface, Archer. Explores the specific
characteristics within the slab serif along with the inclusion of the history of the font and biogra-
phies of the typographers.
Hoefler and Frere - Jones meant for this typeface to be sweet, not saccharine; earnest, not grave. Archer is a typeface that is forthright, credible, and charming. This particular slab serif is a hybrid between antique and geometric. With its two story forms and relatively small x - height it is timidly falls in the antique classification. With its almost perfectly circular “O” and matching non-bracketed serifs, it is also classified as geometric. Archer has many features that set it apart from other typefaces. Its hairlines are graceful gestures. They are painterly uses at large sizes that have low contrast but bold forms. Archer’s numeric are also unique because they fall into the old-style classification due to its lining figures.When type foundry Hoefler & Frere - Jones released its typeface Archer two years ago, it was an instant hit among designers. Multiple corporate giants quickly swept it up for their redesigns. Smaller companies followed suit. Online, Archer became the subject of numerous blogs, with everyone from website designers to scrapbookers granting their approval. No one seemed to have anything bad to say about the slab serif and its elegant and functional, yet subtly quirky forms.
Archer was originally commissioned by Martha Stewart Living magazine in 2000. Hoefler & Frere - Jones combined elements of two opposing type styles: the plainness of antique serifs and the modernity of geometrics. Archer uses ball terminals in both the lower and uppercase forms, creating “a font that's friendly without being silly, and attractive without being flashy…well-mannered, easy to work with, and inviting to read,” according to its designers. Archer is the ideal typeface for a magazine that serves all who aspire to a do-it-yourself lifestyle of perfection. Now Archer is everywhere. A simple Google search finds the font being used for a Mexican restaurant, political news blog, church conference catalog, ski resort, file-sharing website, marketing company,charity race poster and digital scrapbook, to name a few of the 234,000 hits. Need more evidence? There's an entire blog documenting Archer's omnipresence. Not all of these implementations are conceptually inappropriate, and most are even aesthetically pleasing. But what is it about Archer that is so alluring? Why now? Archer boomed right when the U.S. economy went bust. With unemployment continuing to soar and businesses declaring bankruptcy, with newspapers and magazines folding and personal savings accounts shrinking, Americans, more than ever, crave trust, comfort, friendliness and other fuzzy feelings. Companies are responding, and Archer may be part of the solution.
Before adopting Archer, Wells Fargo's equivalent typeface was Myriad, a sans serif font known for its precision and readability. Myriad worked fine until culture shifted. Banks needed bailouts and society needed reassurance—Archer to the rescue. Colorful posters with warm images of families and phrases rendered in Archer now adorn each bank. Wells Fargo's brand agency was attracted to Archer's “contemporary personable style” that was both “down-to-earth and confident,” complementing the bank's brand. It wants to be associated with Archer's graceful gestures, secure angles, and playful ball terminals. With similar logic, Newsweek isn't the boring bearer of bad news, it's your friendly next-door neighbor.
But not everyone needs a facelift — the aforementioned ski resort certainly isn't struggling with a waning perception of trust like so many American banks. And the typeface isn't exactly free of charge. The smallest package of font weights costs $149, and it takes $399 to buy the whole family. This brings us to “Most Common Reasons for Using Archer,” number two: it's pretty. The truth is, Archer is an exquisitely designed typeface, and people recognize that. If you use it, maybe your brand will look well designed too. But an elegant typeface doesn't simply translate to universal functionality. Perhaps Typographica reviewer David John Earls said it best: “Archer succeeds where others falter. I only hope that in its use out in the wild…people give it the same level of thought.”As marvelous as so many of those slab serifs were, sadly they were let down when it came to lighter, or more usable text weights. For me, it is Archer that stood out, with H&FJ concentrating on the lighter half of the spectrum, eight weights offering a delightful range of contrast, but never venturing heavier than bold. Making a text face distinctive with a clear personality that can scale right up to display sizes is a mammoth task at the best of times, but a slab?
Yet here it is; with its judicious yet brave use of ball terminals, and blending geometry with sexy cursive forms, all brought together with the kind of historical and intellectual rigour you fully expect from this particular foundry, Archer succeeds where others falter. I only hope that in its use out in the wild (and away from that jailbird Martha Stewart)
people give it the same level of thought. Slab serifs have been evolving for two hundred years, yet the category continues to be dominated by two basic styles: Antiques and Geometrics. Antiques arise out of the same nineteenth-century tradition that produced the Modern and Scotch styles: at heart, they’re text faces, and they feature all of the qualities needed to thrive at small sizes. (Antiques customarily have the traditional ‘two-storey’ forms of a and g, and a capital R that ends in a flourish.) Our Ziggurat type-face is an example of the Antique style in full flower, captur-ing the best of what the style has to offer: it’s warm, com-forting, and persuasive. But this coziness comes at the expense of modernity, and in the wrong context even the best Antique can feel old-fashioned, musty, and irrelevant.
The Geometric is a twentieth-century riposte to the Antique. Informed by the same kind of rationalist thinking that inspired the great sans serifs of the Bauhaus, Geometrics abandon traditional forms in favor of mathematical strate-gies. A Geometric’s O is circular rather than elliptical, and its forms shed their residual contrast between thicks and thins. Geometrics usually apply this same rationalism to the wool-lier parts of the alphabet, replacing the alphabet’s beaks and tails and ball terminals with a program of matching serifs. While these faces can sometimes be bracingly modern, they’re often monotonous, and many Geometrics suffer from an astringent sting that makes them difficult to use and unwelcome to read.
When Martha Stewart Living asked us to develop a new typeface for the magazine, it seemed that a slab serif could answer much of the brief. A slab could be personable, straightforward, and credible, though it would take special effort to also make it pretty, hard-working, and frank. Archer would have to answer some formidable typographic demands, since Living is an almanac of lists, recipes, charts, diagrams, tables, calendars, and glossaries. To make the typeface frank — direct, but not brusque — we introduced subtle cues from the world of typewriter faces, which combine the ordinariness of Antiques with the modern practicality of Geometrics. We restored the vanished ‘ball terminals’ to the lowercase, and uncharacter-istically applied these gestures to the capitals as well, in order to yield a font that’s friendly without being silly, and attractive without being flashy. The result is
is a humanist slab serif style digital typeface designed in 2001 by Hoefler & Frere-Jones
for use in Martha Stewart Living magazine. The face is unique for combining the geo-
metric structure of twentieth century European slab-serifs but imbuing the face with a
domestic, less strident tone of voice. The typeface has been used for, among other
things, branding for Wells Fargo and is a main font for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Hoefler & Frere - Jones
2001
Slab Serif
1970 // 1971
Johnathan Hoefler & Tobias Frere - Jones
a typeface that’s well - mannered, easy to work with, and inviting to read.
ABCDEFGHIJKLNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghi jk lmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890&!/?{}
The Humanist
Archer
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
1. Apex, horizontal stroke, rests on apex like a hat2. Lighter crossbar, less interior congestion
3. Ampersand, slab serif
6. Lowercase itallics, curved tails
9. Ball terminals
4. Lowercase g, 1 story, no links
7. Flat serif, no brackets8. Symmetrical “w”, no bracket on apex
11. Ball serif12. Descending stem on ? character
5. Flaired tail
Hoefler and Frere - Jones meant for this typeface to be sweet, not saccharine; earnest, not grave. Archer is a typeface that is forthright, credible, and charming. This particular slab serif is a hybrid between antique and geometric. With its two story forms and relatively small x - height it is timidly falls in the antique classification. With its almost perfectly circular “O” and matching non-bracketed serifs, it is also classified as geometric. Archer has many features that set it apart from other typefaces. Its hairlines are graceful gestures. They are painterly uses at large sizes that have low contrast but bold forms. Archer’s numeric are also unique because they fall into the old-style classification due to its lining figures.When type foundry Hoefler & Frere - Jones released its typeface Archer two years ago, it was an instant hit among designers. Multiple corporate giants quickly swept it up for their redesigns. Smaller companies followed suit. Online, Archer became the subject of numerous blogs, with everyone from website designers to scrapbookers granting their approval. No one seemed to have anything bad to say about the slab serif and its elegant and functional, yet subtly quirky forms.
Archer was originally commissioned by Martha Stewart Living magazine in 2000. Hoefler & Frere - Jones combined elements of two opposing type styles: the plainness of antique serifs and the modernity of geometrics. Archer uses ball terminals in both the lower and uppercase forms, creating “a font that's friendly without being silly, and attractive without being flashy…well-mannered, easy to work with, and inviting to read,” according to its designers. Archer is the ideal typeface for a magazine that serves all who aspire to a do-it-yourself lifestyle of perfection. Now Archer is everywhere. A simple Google search finds the font being used for a Mexican restaurant, political news blog, church conference catalog, ski resort, file-sharing website, marketing company,charity race poster and digital scrapbook, to name a few of the 234,000 hits. Need more evidence? There's an entire blog documenting Archer's omnipresence. Not all of these implementations are conceptually inappropriate, and most are even aesthetically pleasing. But what is it about Archer that is so alluring? Why now? Archer boomed right when the U.S. economy went bust. With unemployment continuing to soar and businesses declaring bankruptcy, with newspapers and magazines folding and personal savings accounts shrinking, Americans, more than ever, crave trust, comfort, friendliness and other fuzzy feelings. Companies are responding, and Archer may be part of the solution.
Before adopting Archer, Wells Fargo's equivalent typeface was Myriad, a sans serif font known for its precision and readability. Myriad worked fine until culture shifted. Banks needed bailouts and society needed reassurance—Archer to the rescue. Colorful posters with warm images of families and phrases rendered in Archer now adorn each bank. Wells Fargo's brand agency was attracted to Archer's “contemporary personable style” that was both “down-to-earth and confident,” complementing the bank's brand. It wants to be associated with Archer's graceful gestures, secure angles, and playful ball terminals. With similar logic, Newsweek isn't the boring bearer of bad news, it's your friendly next-door neighbor.
But not everyone needs a facelift — the aforementioned ski resort certainly isn't struggling with a waning perception of trust like so many American banks. And the typeface isn't exactly free of charge. The smallest package of font weights costs $149, and it takes $399 to buy the whole family. This brings us to “Most Common Reasons for Using Archer,” number two: it's pretty. The truth is, Archer is an exquisitely designed typeface, and people recognize that. If you use it, maybe your brand will look well designed too. But an elegant typeface doesn't simply translate to universal functionality. Perhaps Typographica reviewer David John Earls said it best: “Archer succeeds where others falter. I only hope that in its use out in the wild…people give it the same level of thought.”As marvelous as so many of those slab serifs were, sadly they were let down when it came to lighter, or more usable text weights. For me, it is Archer that stood out, with H&FJ concentrating on the lighter half of the spectrum, eight weights offering a delightful range of contrast, but never venturing heavier than bold. Making a text face distinctive with a clear personality that can scale right up to display sizes is a mammoth task at the best of times, but a slab?
Yet here it is; with its judicious yet brave use of ball terminals, and blending geometry with sexy cursive forms, all brought together with the kind of historical and intellectual rigour you fully expect from this particular foundry, Archer succeeds where others falter. I only hope that in its use out in the wild (and away from that jailbird Martha Stewart)
people give it the same level of thought. Slab serifs have been evolving for two hundred years, yet the category continues to be dominated by two basic styles: Antiques and Geometrics. Antiques arise out of the same nineteenth-century tradition that produced the Modern and Scotch styles: at heart, they’re text faces, and they feature all of the qualities needed to thrive at small sizes. (Antiques customarily have the traditional ‘two-storey’ forms of a and g, and a capital R that ends in a flourish.) Our Ziggurat type-face is an example of the Antique style in full flower, captur-ing the best of what the style has to offer: it’s warm, com-forting, and persuasive. But this coziness comes at the expense of modernity, and in the wrong context even the best Antique can feel old-fashioned, musty, and irrelevant.
The Geometric is a twentieth-century riposte to the Antique. Informed by the same kind of rationalist thinking that inspired the great sans serifs of the Bauhaus, Geometrics abandon traditional forms in favor of mathematical strate-gies. A Geometric’s O is circular rather than elliptical, and its forms shed their residual contrast between thicks and thins. Geometrics usually apply this same rationalism to the wool-lier parts of the alphabet, replacing the alphabet’s beaks and tails and ball terminals with a program of matching serifs. While these faces can sometimes be bracingly modern, they’re often monotonous, and many Geometrics suffer from an astringent sting that makes them difficult to use and unwelcome to read.
When Martha Stewart Living asked us to develop a new typeface for the magazine, it seemed that a slab serif could answer much of the brief. A slab could be personable, straightforward, and credible, though it would take special effort to also make it pretty, hard-working, and frank. Archer would have to answer some formidable typographic demands, since Living is an almanac of lists, recipes, charts, diagrams, tables, calendars, and glossaries. To make the typeface frank — direct, but not brusque — we introduced subtle cues from the world of typewriter faces, which combine the ordinariness of Antiques with the modern practicality of Geometrics. We restored the vanished ‘ball terminals’ to the lowercase, and uncharacter-istically applied these gestures to the capitals as well, in order to yield a font that’s friendly without being silly, and attractive without being flashy. The result is
is a humanist slab serif style digital typeface designed in 2001 by Hoefler & Frere-Jones
for use in Martha Stewart Living magazine. The face is unique for combining the geo-
metric structure of twentieth century European slab-serifs but imbuing the face with a
domestic, less strident tone of voice. The typeface has been used for, among other
things, branding for Wells Fargo and is a main font for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Hoefler & Frere - Jones
2001
Slab Serif
1970 // 1971
Johnathan Hoefler & Tobias Frere - Jones
a typeface that’s well - mannered, easy to work with, and inviting to read.
ABCDEFGHIJKLNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghi jk lmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890&!/?{}
The Humanist
Archer
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
1. Apex, horizontal stroke, rests on apex like a hat2. Lighter crossbar, less interior congestion
3. Ampersand, slab serif
6. Lowercase itallics, curved tails
9. Ball terminals
4. Lowercase g, 1 story, no links
7. Flat serif, no brackets8. Symmetrical “w”, no bracket on apex
11. Ball serif12. Descending stem on ? character
5. Flaired tail
// CRITERION COLLECTION PACKAGING
DVD PACKAGING REDESIGN // SLACKER
A packaging redesign of the Criterion Collection’s 1991 cult-classic, Slacker. Packaging includes
DVD case, DVD, insert, and movie poster. All imagery illustrated by hand.
// PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIMENTATION
BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY // “LONG EXPOSURES”
“Long Exposures” is a black and white photo concentration focusing on creativity through long
exposures. A combination of pinhole, film, and digital photography, this concentration explores
the limits of capturing a moment in time.
// POSTERS FOR KU
twitter.com/SUAevents facebook.com/SUAeventsSUAevents.com 785-864-SHOW
ELECTION WATCH PARTY
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6TH AT 5:00 PM
OBAMABARACK
U N I T E D S T A T E S P R E S I D E N T
ROMNEYMITT
F O R M E R M A S S A C H U S E T T S G O V E R N O R
VS
UNION
MAKINGHISTORY
FOOD
KANSAS
FREE
T R A D I T I O N S A R E A
B E G I N S S E R V I N G
IN THE
COME WATCH IT
WITH US
AT 6:00 PM
STUDENT UNION ACTIVITIES // POSTERSAs a graphic artist for KU’s Student Union Activities, I’ve had the opportunity to design for a vari-
ety of different events happening around campus.
// SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING
THE TAKE OUT EXPERIENCE // YELLO SUB
A project focusing on sustainable packaging for Yello Sub, a local sandwich restaurant in Law-
rence. Branding includes bag, single sandwich carrier (folds out into placemat), stickers, menu,
logo, and typeface. All branding had to include some element from the restaurant’s existing logo.
Typeface:
CHICKEN SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order # MEAT SPECIALTIES
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #......................... SEAFOOD SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #.........................
CHICKEN SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order # MEAT SPECIALTIES
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #......................... SEAFOOD SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #.........................
DELI CLASSICS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
order #
olives
other
......................... DELI CLASSICS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
order #
olives
other
..................................................TASTY CREATIONS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #
CHICKEN SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order # MEAT SPECIALTIES
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #......................... SEAFOOD SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #.........................
CHICKEN SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order # MEAT SPECIALTIES
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #......................... SEAFOOD SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #.........................
DELI CLASSICS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
order #
olives
other
......................... DELI CLASSICS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
order #
olives
other
..................................................TASTY CREATIONS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #
CHICKEN SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order # MEAT SPECIALTIES
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #......................... SEAFOOD SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #.........................
CHICKEN SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order # MEAT SPECIALTIES
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #......................... SEAFOOD SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #.........................
DELI CLASSICS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
order #
olives
other
......................... DELI CLASSICS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
order #
olives
other
..................................................TASTY CREATIONS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #
CHICKEN SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order # MEAT SPECIALTIES
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #......................... SEAFOOD SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #.........................
CHICKEN SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order # MEAT SPECIALTIES
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #......................... SEAFOOD SUBS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #.........................
DELI CLASSICS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
order #
olives
other
......................... DELI CLASSICS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
order #
olives
other
..................................................TASTY CREATIONS
lettuce
tomato
mayo
cheese
olives
other
order #
// SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING
THE TAKE OUT EXPERIENCE // PROTOTYPESA good number of prototypes went into creating the final product for Yello Sub.
// BRANDING THROUGH ILLUSTRATION
BRANDING A FOOD TRUCK // MOOSE STUDY
Jumpstart in branding for a food truck; an extensive study on a moose; an exploration of different expressive styles.
MOOSE :: KATIE WHITEMAN
MOOSE :: KATIE WHITEMAN
MOOSE :: KATIE WHITEMAN
MOOSE :: KATIE WHITEMAN
MOOSE :: KATIE WHITEMAN
MOOSE :: KATIE WHITEMAN
// RESTAURANT BRANDING
r i s e , s h i n e & d i n e
BRANDING A FOOD TRUCK // MO’S
Rise, shine, and dine; complete branding for the hypothetical food truck company: Mo’s,
r i s e , s h i n e
D I N Ew w w . m o ’s . c o m5 6 0 - 2 9 1 - 2 9 1 9
O R D E R H E R E
r i s e , s h i n e & d i n e
M E N UToast ..............................$1.00Eggs...............................$0.50Bacon............................$0.75Oatmeal.......................$3.00
Co�ee............................$1.00Apple Juice..................$0.75Orange Juice...............$0.75Milk.................................$3.00
w w w . m o ’ s . c o m / 5 6 0 - 2 9 1 - 2 9 1 9
&r i s e , s h i n e
M O ’ S B R E A K F A S T D I N E R
D I N E
r i s e , s h i n e & d i n e
r i s e , s h i n e
D I N Ew w w . m o ’s . c o m5 6 0 - 2 9 1 - 2 9 1 9
O R D E R H E R E
r i s e , s h i n e & d i n e
M E N UToast ..............................$1.00Eggs...............................$0.50Bacon............................$0.75Oatmeal.......................$3.00
Co�ee............................$1.00Apple Juice..................$0.75Orange Juice...............$0.75Milk.................................$3.00
w w w . m o ’ s . c o m / 5 6 0 - 2 9 1 - 2 9 1 9
&r i s e , s h i n e
M O ’ S B R E A K F A S T D I N E R
D I N E
r i s e , s h i n e & d i n e
r i s e , s h i n e
D I N Ew w w . m o ’s . c o m5 6 0 - 2 9 1 - 2 9 1 9
O R D E R H E R E
r i s e , s h i n e & d i n e
M E N UToast ..............................$1.00Eggs...............................$0.50Bacon............................$0.75Oatmeal.......................$3.00
Co�ee............................$1.00Apple Juice..................$0.75Orange Juice...............$0.75Milk.................................$3.00
w w w . m o ’ s . c o m / 5 6 0 - 2 9 1 - 2 9 1 9
&r i s e , s h i n e
M O ’ S B R E A K F A S T D I N E R
D I N E
r i s e , s h i n e & d i n e
// BRANDING APPLICATIONS
Packaging concept:
BRANDING A FOOD TRUCK // APPLICATIONS
Complete branding for the hypothetical food truck company: Mo’s. Deliverables include: Inter-
changible logo, menu, truck design, iPad/iPhone application, coffee cups (large (boy scout) and
small (cub scout)).
Front page (click badge-like “o” to enter) Menu Home Page // Each brand icon, different page to navigate to
Menu // Look & larn your options be-fore visiting them on the trailheads
// BOOK JACKETS
s t r e e t c a r
n a m e d
d e s i r e
t . w i l l i a m s
that are st i l l part of the way we think
and feel and move. . . In this play as in no
other, wil l iams was able to do his part ic-
ular thing, to take the fragments of his
divided self and turn them into the dratis
personae of an ideal confl ict .”
str
ee
tca
r n
am
ed
de
sire | te
nn
es
se
e w
illiam
s
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee"
Wil l iams III was an American
writer who worked principal ly
as a playwright in the
American theater. He also
wrote short stories, novels ,
poetry, essays, screenplays
and a volume of memoirs.
t e n n e s s e e w i l l i a m s
Disturbed Blanche DuBois
moves in with her s ister in
New Orleans and is tormented
by her brutish brother- in- law,
Stanley Kowalski , while her
real i ty crumbles around her,
just l ike a paper lantern.
s t r e e t c a r n a m e d d e s i r e
“In Streetcar Wil l iams found images and rhythms
– Jack Kroll , Newsweek
STELLL
AAAAHHLLLLLLLLL
HHHHHHHHHHHH
LLLLLLLLLLL
streetcar named desire | tennessee w
illiams
s t r ee tcar named des i re t ennessee w i l l iams
[The low-tone clarinet moans. The door upstairs opens again.
Stella slips down the rickety stairs in her robe. Her eyes are
glistening with tears and her hair loose about her throat
and shoulders. They stare at each other. Then they come
together with low, animal moans. He falls to his knees on
the steps and presses his face to her belly, curving a little
with maternity. Her eyes go blind with tenderness as she
catches his head and raises him level with her. He snatches
the screen door open and lifts her off her up and bears her
into the dark flat.]
Stanley [with heaven-splitting violence]:
STELLAAAHHH!Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves
in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish
brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, while her reality crumbles around
her, just like a paper lantern.
“In Streetcar Williams found
images and rhythms that are still
part of the way we think and feel
and move...In this play as in no
other, williams was able to do his
particular thing, to take the
fragments of his divided self and
turn them into the dratis personae
of an ideal conflict.”
– Jack Kroll, Newsweek (1973)
moves in with her sister in
New Orleans and is
tormented by her brutish
brother-in-law, Stanley
Kowalski, while her reality
crumbles around her, just
like a paper lantern.
DISTURBED BLANCHE DUBUOIS
“In Streetcar Williams found images
and rhythms that are still part of the
way we think and feel and move...In
this play as in no other,
williams was able to do
his particular thing, to
take the fragments of his divided self
and turn them into the dratis personae
of an ideal conflict.”
– Jack Kroll, Newsweek (1973)
STELLL
AAAAHHLLLLLLLLL
HHHHHHHHHHHH
LLLLLLLLLLL
streetcar named desire | tennessee w
illiams
s t r ee tcar named des i re t ennessee w i l l iams
[The low-tone clarinet moans. The door upstairs opens again.
Stella slips down the rickety stairs in her robe. Her eyes are
glistening with tears and her hair loose about her throat
and shoulders. They stare at each other. Then they come
together with low, animal moans. He falls to his knees on
the steps and presses his face to her belly, curving a little
with maternity. Her eyes go blind with tenderness as she
catches his head and raises him level with her. He snatches
the screen door open and lifts her off her up and bears her
into the dark flat.]
Stanley [with heaven-splitting violence]:
STELLAAAHHH!Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves
in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish
brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, while her reality crumbles around
her, just like a paper lantern.
“In Streetcar Williams found
images and rhythms that are still
part of the way we think and feel
and move...In this play as in no
other, williams was able to do his
particular thing, to take the
fragments of his divided self and
turn them into the dratis personae
of an ideal conflict.”
– Jack Kroll, Newsweek (1973)
moves in with her sister in
New Orleans and is
tormented by her brutish
brother-in-law, Stanley
Kowalski, while her reality
crumbles around her, just
like a paper lantern.
DISTURBED BLANCHE DUBUOIS
“In Streetcar Williams found images
and rhythms that are still part of the
way we think and feel and move...In
this play as in no other,
williams was able to do
his particular thing, to
take the fragments of his divided self
and turn them into the dratis personae
of an ideal conflict.”
– Jack Kroll, Newsweek (1973)
tennessee wil l iams
“IT WAS THE FIRST IN EARLY MAY.”
D A R K E V E N I N G
C H A P T E R O N E / P A G E T H R E E
S T R E E T C A R N A M E D D E S I R E
s t r e e t c a r
n a m e d
d e s i r e
t . w i l l i a m s
that are st i l l part of the way we think
and feel and move. . . In this play as in no
other, wil l iams was able to do his part ic-
ular thing, to take the fragments of his
divided self and turn them into the dratis
personae of an ideal confl ict .”
str
ee
tca
r n
am
ed
de
sire | te
nn
es
se
e w
illiam
s
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee"
Wil l iams III was an American
writer who worked principal ly
as a playwright in the
American theater. He also
wrote short stories, novels ,
poetry, essays, screenplays
and a volume of memoirs.
t e n n e s s e e w i l l i a m s
Disturbed Blanche DuBois
moves in with her s ister in
New Orleans and is tormented
by her brutish brother- in- law,
Stanley Kowalski , while her
real i ty crumbles around her,
just l ike a paper lantern.
s t r e e t c a r n a m e d d e s i r e
“In Streetcar Wil l iams found images and rhythms
– Jack Kroll , Newsweek
C H A P T E R 1 / P A G E 3
E A R L Y I N M A Y . ”
s t r e e t c a r n a m e d d e s i r e
t e n n e s s e e w i l l i a m s
“IT WAS THE FIRST DARK
o f a n e v e n i n g
DESIGNING BOOK COVERS // STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
Three seperate book jackets for Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire. Project require-
ments required one type-based design, one image-based design and one non-computer design.
// BOOK JACKETS
DESIGNING BOOK COVERS // STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
Three seperate book jackets for Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire. Project require-
ments required one type-based design, one image-based design and one non-computer design.
Non-computer design is hand-cut paper held up to a lamp and photographed.
t e n n e s s e e w i l l i a m st .w i l l i a m s
st
re
et
ca
r n
am
ed
de
si
re
“I can’t stand a
any more than I can
or a vulgar action.”
t e n n e s s e e w i l l i a m s
a rude remark
Disturbed Blanche DuBois
moves in with her sister in
New Orleans and is
tormented by her brutish
brother-in-law, Stanley
Kowalski, while her reality
crumbles around her, just
like a paper lantern.Thomas Lanier “Tennessee”
Williams III was an American
writer who worked principally
as a playwright in the
American theater. He also
wrote short stories, novels,
poetry, essays, screenplays and
a volume of memoirs.
t e n n e s s e e w i l l i a m st .w i l l i a m s
st
re
et
ca
r n
am
ed
de
si
re
“I can’t stand a
any more than I can
or a vulgar action.”
t e n n e s s e e w i l l i a m s
a rude remark
Disturbed Blanche DuBois
moves in with her sister in
New Orleans and is
tormented by her brutish
brother-in-law, Stanley
Kowalski, while her reality
crumbles around her, just
like a paper lantern.Thomas Lanier “Tennessee”
Williams III was an American
writer who worked principally
as a playwright in the
American theater. He also
wrote short stories, novels,
poetry, essays, screenplays and
a volume of memoirs.
3Chapter 1
It is the first dark of an evening
early in May. The sky that shows
around the dim white building is a
peculiarly tender blue, almost a
turquoise, which invests the scene
with a kind of lyricism and
gracefully attenuates the atmosphere
of decay.