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Avenir

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Avenir

This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven —If the Devil is Six then God is Seven.Text by Elliott Earls

Designer/EditorA

venir Ave

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This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven —If the Devil is Six then God is Seven.Text by Elliott Earls

Daisy Lanier

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Table of Contents

5. comparesAvenirtosimilartypefaces

6. showcasesobliquevariations

7. exhibitssmalltitles

8/9. demonstrateslineweightvariations

10/11. displaysparagraphsettings

12. experimentswithalignment

13. mimicksabookdisplay

14. illustratesglyphs

15. featuresextendedparagraphsettings

16. colophon

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Avenir Vs. Other Fonts

Futura Light Helvetica Light

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Frutiger 45 Light

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Avenir 35 Light

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How do you design letterforms?

How do you design letterforms?

How do you design letterforms?

How do you design letterforms?

How do you design letterforms?

How do you design letterforms?

35 Light Oblique

45 Book Oblique

55 Roman Oblique

65 Medium Oblique

85 Heavy Oblique

95 Black Oblique

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It is in traditional figure drawingstudio classes that one learns how to

To be successful in this process, one learns that the mind must be quieted.

Thehandandtheretinamustmoveinsymbioticlockstepastheybothtracethephysicalline.It’sthroughthisprocessthatonecanlearntotrustnotthemind,buttheRETINA.

85 Heavy 24 pt.

45 Book 18 pt.

85 Heavy Oblique 26 pt.

55 Roman 15 pt.35 light 10 pt.65 Medium Oblique 12 pt.

55 Roman 12 pt.

lock the movement of the retina to

themovementofthehand.

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that one develops a feel not magically, or schools, but through rigorous application,

explanatory, the term “exclusively formal extrapolation”

35 Light

45 Book

55 Roman

65 Medium

85 Heavy

95 Black

It’s really a question of priorities and balance. an individual sets out upon the arduous

How do you design letterforms?

Kick it old skool style.

Drawthembig,witharulingpenandPlaka,andsomeProWhite.

Focus on the serifs or the termination of the character.

Don’t so much understand how a letter is drawn:

experience how a letter is drawn.

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that one develops a feel not magically, or schools, but through rigorous application,

explanatory, the term “exclusively formal extrapolation”

It’s really a question of priorities and balance. an individual sets out upon the arduous

How do you design letterforms?

Kick it old skool style.

Drawthembig,witharulingpenandPlaka,andsomeProWhite.

Focus on the serifs or the termination of the character.

Don’t so much understand how a letter is drawn:

experience how a letter is drawn.

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I often found my gaze transfixed, nay

locked, upon the upper eyelid of a

typical brunette with brown eyes.

I should point out that these women wore heavy blue eyeshadow, regardless of their complexion or eye color. Because at that historical moment it was an established scientific fact that if one wore enough blue eyeshadow, the eye would look blue!45 Book 14/17

95 Black 18/22

Something was horribly wrong here!

95 Black Oblique 30/35

The clash of color. The slavish adherence to dress code at the obvious expense of personal dignity. The spurious and questioning folklore or “weird science” underpinning it all.35 Light Oblique 14/20

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«

»It was the 80’s.

35 Light 12/16

95 Black 36 pt.

If we look at Blue Eyeshadow, for instance, it’s important to first point out the origin of the name. For to name it is to claim it. Needless to say, in 1984, in ohio, we wore mullets withouta hint of irony. We thought we were tough and “new wave,” and we thought the chicks would dig it. Yeah, the chicks. It was all about the girlies. And let me assure you, they had an equally distorted and perverse interpersonal aesthetic. It was the 80’s. The guys had mullets or “boy hair,” and the girls wore tons of foundation, white lipstick, and blue eyeshadow.

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The gap between language

and experience

becomes a gaping

hole as one begins to discuss

issues of craft.

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The great artist or designer is s/he who is

no longer

constricted by the rules.85 Heavy 33/40 95 Black 48/50

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I’m not suggesting that one develops a feel magically, or through attendance at the finest schools, but through

rigorous application, and through working damn hard at aquiring a set of very concrete skills, then

forgetting them.45 Book Oblique 18/18

45 Book 14/18

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55 Roman 12/18

I’m an advocate of practice informed by theory and life. It’s

really a question of priorities and balance. And I’d like to be clear

here. I am not suggesting that the type design

process necessarily adheres to a strict

taxonomic progression.

Whenanindividualsetoutupon

thearduousjourneyofdesigning

atypeface,Isuggestthatthe

generativeformalimplusecan

belocatedinoneofthreeareas:

historicalrevival,vernacular

interpretation,orexclusively

formalextrapolation.While

historicalrevivalandvernacular

interpretationareselfexplanatory,

theterm“exclusivelyformal

extrapolation”mayneedsome

elaboration.

85 Heavy 17/24

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QZ

KAvenir typefaceDesigned by Adrian Frutiger

Printed on 60 lb. paper92 brightness

Bound using staples

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