Typographic Zine and Type Specimen

Project Requirements:

After selecting a typeface family, research the typeface designer and typeface applications. You will develop a concept and theme for the zine, explore opportunities to contextualize your theme and the designer’s work by considering biographical, literary, cultural and historical reference points to inform visual content and typographic interpretation.

Reflection:

Being that zines are used to address “difficult” topics such as discrimination, sexism, and politics, I knew I wanted to use a typeface created by a woman. I learned that women worked behind the scenes in the world of type design for years, but did not actively enter the eld until the late 20th century. Even then their contributions were frequently credited to men. The comprehensive lists of female-designed typefaces pale in comparison to the number and recognition of their male counterparts. An even larger problem presented itself in the hunt to find a woman of color typeface designer on Adobe Fonts. It was honestly really disappointing to see not only the lack of women designers but also the lack of diversity.

I ultimately chose the typeface “Adelle” by Veronika Burian and José Scaglione. Burian and Scaglione are cofounders of Typetogether, an independent type foundry for print and editorial use. Burian is also one of the founders of Alpabettes.org, a blog dedicated to promoting and supporting the work of all women in type and lettering. Seeing women actively fighting to promote and embrace diversity in a field as niche as type design is so encouraging to the impact we can have as designers: representation matters.

Adelle is a slab serif font created for intensive editorial use with mainly newspapers, magazines, and the web in mind. It is a multipurpose typeface due to its flexibility, character, and versatility. The personality of the type shines as it is made larger and also becomes increasingly identifiable.