What drives trends in typeface design? Is it the typeface designers —or perhaps the marketing departments of type foundries and font distributors? Some think that small boutique font providers may be the source of what’s typographically new and hot. Others believe it’s graphic designers who set the trends.

To get to the bottom of this mystery, we contacted four type design and font experts to get their opinions. Two are from large type foundries and two run small boutique type design studios. Bruno Steinert is the managing director of Linotype GmbH in Germany—clearly a major provider of new typeface designs. Robin Nicholas is the senior type designer at the UK Type Drawing Office of Monotype Imaging and very involved in determining what new typefaces go into the Monotype library. Freda Sack is the senior type designer and principal of Foundry Types in London, a small but influential typeface provider. Finally, Richard Kegler is the lead type designer and principal of P22, the U.S.- based provider of many “historical” fonts that have virtually become household names. In addition to finding out from our experts what sets type trends, we also got their views on directions for future typeface development.

IT'S ABOUT GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
Our experts generally agree that, one way or another, it’s not solely the type foundries or type designers who set type usage trends. Instead, the graphic design community mainly determines which new typefaces become popular and which do not. Kegler believes that typeface popularity might be born out of imitation. “Design trends, like fashion, can be unpredictable,” he says. “They can also be deliberately driven by big ad agencies. Graphic designers want to be original, but seeing exciting work can, at times, inspire a designer. A designer may subconsciously take ideas from work they see. I suppose Tuscan wood types could become popular if they showed up in interesting contexts in design annuals and high pro. le campaigns. Like fashion, design trends can be irrational and ironic for kitsch’s sake.”

Nicholas agrees. “I don’t think it’s the typeface design community driving the trends; it’s really the user of the fonts—the graphic designer—who determines what typefaces are used most and potentially become typographic trends. Type trends are also driven by the design agencies and large branding companies that continually look for something new.”

Steinert has somewhat of a different view. While he also thinks that a few graphic designers set the trends, it is emulation by both graphic and typeface designers that drives trends. “Graphic designers often use typefaces they’ve seen other designers use,” he says. “To some extent, typeface designers act the same way. When a new trend arises, such as the use of handwriting and script fonts, many typeface designers will try to tackle the new genre themselves.” Steinert cautions, however, “Typefaces are tools to be used, and the needs of the communication dictate the majority of the trends we see. Whether it’s newspaper production or how fonts render on screen in office applications, end users want fonts tailored to their needs. Graphic design is a service industry, and so is typeface development.”

TOP LEFT: FOUNDRY PLEK Medium and Bold were used in a poster design to promote “My London, My City.” TOP RIGHT: FOUNDRY WILSON Book and Book Small Caps and FOUNDRY FLEK Regular were used to promote “Painted Speech.” BOTTOM LEFT: MENHART, the 1930s typeface by Czech designer Oldrich Menhart, has recently been made available in digital form. BOTTOM RIGHT: ITC ANIMA, by Olivera Stojadinovic, renders the question moot by exemplifying the qualities of grace, charm, and readability.

IT'S ABOUT GREAT TYPEFACE DESIGNS
Sack takes yet a different view. She thinks the typeface comes first, then the trend. “I suppose we would like to think we set some of the trends when we make certain typefaces available,” she says. “Once these start to be used and specified and seen more often, more people will want to use them. I also believe that ‘exclusivity’ is a draw. Small, independent type foundries always have a certain amount of exclusivity as their fonts can only be licensed from the source.” Sack also thinks that it takes time for typographic trends to germinate. “There’s a period of time when a good typeface starts to settle in and become an accepted typeface to use. If the design is not ephemeral, then this is the time when it becomes a classic. This used to take about 10 years. Now it’s a much shorter period of time.”

To some degree, Steinert agrees. “Sometimes, graphic designers make certain fonts popular in ways we never expected. Look at Zap. no, for instance, which Linotype licensed to Apple several years ago. This typeface is being used all over the planet. It’s a really big design trend—and a democratic one. Zapfino became a hit because it’s distinctive, versatile, and exceptionally beautiful.”

CLASSICS OR CLICHÉS
Scripts, handwriting designs, and sans serif typefaces have clearly dominated the typographic landscape. Typefaces like Papyrus, Cezanne, and, of course, sans serif faces like Frutiger and Franklin Gothic have gained near-ubiquitous status—ultimately making them no longer trendy typefaces but classics—or clichés, depending on the typeface and personal opinion. What will replace these designs? Sack thinks that slab serifs are the next big typographic thing. “There will always be sans—but there is a variable ‘era/seasonal’ demand for other styles which is more fashion and style generated. For example there’s a trend at the moment toward egyptienne or slab serif typefaces such as Lubalin Graph and Rockwell in magazine use, and recently there’s been a reemergence of ’70s type styles and of the more decorative ITC and Letraset typefaces like Tiffany and Caxton. I’ve even seen some Arnold Bocklin recently.”

Nicholas also believes sans serifs will continue to be the main typefaces of choice among graphic designers. “I think sans serifs will dominate for a long time. The reason is because they’re easier to use. It’s also simpler to get good results with sans serif typefaces. With more and more type designers not having formal training, sans serif is an undemanding solution for them. Sans serifs also have a recently proven track record.” He also echoes Sack in what the next possible trend may be. “We’re seeing slab serifs crop up in several ad campaigns and I think these could become quite popular. Slab serifs are an easy step from sans serifs, as slabs are more like sans but with the serifs added. They’re not quite as demanding as other serif type styles.”

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
Each expert looks to add to their typeface library in different ways. Sack says, “New additions often choose themselves. When any of us have a design in mind—when the muse strikes—we try to get the initial concept down on paper as sketches.” She concedes that a number of new designs grow out of custom projects. “Ideas for new foundry fonts are often triggered during the concept development of a new design for a particular client.”

Linotype and Monotype Imaging, however, have a much more structured approach. Linotype has a type selection committee that meets several times a year to determine what goes into its library. According to Steinert, “We have several criteria we use when judging submissions to our library, including originality and intended application. There’s a personal role to play as well; we enjoy working with younger, up-and-coming designers, and we’ll occasionally encourage the development of a new typeface from designers we have not worked with before.” Monotype Imaging also has a selection committee. “We decide what new typefaces go into our library through our type review board,” says Nicholas. “The board is made up of our senior design team, representatives of our type sales staff, as well as type community experts we invite to the meetings. We look at each of the potential typefaces without regard for their designers—all designs are viewed ‘anonymously.’ We judge the faces strictly on their design merits and

long-range potential.” DIGGING INTO THE PAST
Kegler has yet a different process for adding new designs to the P22 library. “The typographic ‘archaeological’ research we do often unearths some more exotic and rare species of lost typefaces. The desire to add new designs, however, keeps a dynamic mix of ‘old’ and ‘new’ in our release cycles.” Kegler views the five libraries offered by P22 as having individual personalities or “reasons for being.” Kegler says about 200 faces a year have been added to the libraries in the last two years. “Over the next year, we may be a bit more judicious in our releases and have about 50 new and updated designs.” Monotype Imaging has added six new typeface families into each of the Monotype and ITC libraries this year. “We’re looking at similar numbers for upgrading typefaces to OpenType Pro status in order to cover all the Latin European languages,” says Nicholas. Linotype saw the release of about a dozen new typeface families in 2006, in addition to adding language support to thousands of existing fonts and revising four type families for Linotype’s new Office Alliance system. “Each of the Office Alliance fonts,” says Steinert, “shares the same width and metrics and can be easily exchanged within text without forcing new line breaks. The fonts have also been optimized for the best possible on-screen display for devices such as PDAs—very important for flexible office environments where the desktop or laptop computer may not necessarily be the most important business tool.”

NEW MARKETS, NEW FONTS
Looking to the future, the experts see opportunity aligning with the changing ways in which typefaces are being adapted to customer use. Nicholas says, “We’re addressing certain new market segments. For example, we’re building a typeface library for developers for use on mobile phones. We now have faces that range in themes from ‘romantic’ to ‘powerful’ for integration into user interfaces, applications, content, and games for the small screen.” According to all the experts, OpenType figures prominently into current and future library additions. Steinert notes, “Through OpenType, we’re expanding character sets to include all the European languages and even some non-European ones as well.” Sacks agrees, “At the moment, that’s what we’re concentrating on— developing our existing library into OpenType and adding language extensions.”

The growing popularity of OpenType is also helping foundries invigorate old favorites. Kegler says, “Our expanded OpenType version of Cezanne is giving the design new life. Many designers know Cezanne right away when they see it and can be reluctant to use Cezanne because of its ubiquity. Our OpenType version offers so many subtle variations on the face that it’s hard to identify it even by those who know it well. OpenType still seems to have untapped possibilities.”

Improving selection for non-Latin fonts remains challenging. Comments Nicholas, “Many factors, including the operating systems and applications being used, are contributing to the difficulties of bringing forth off-the-shelf non-Latin designs. Gradually, thanks to OpenType and Unicode, challenges will be solved. When we have standards to work with, we can make retail products out of different scripts of the world. We’re also looking to secure alliances with foundries that can help us in regions such as China, Japan, Korea, and other countries. When I say alliances, I mean people, which is really what it’s all about—people designing or reviving fonts and providing access to them all over the world.”