 |
| Variations of Gill Sans |
Personally I find it everywhere I go and therefore think we, as designers, have saturated the world in it, and the world (and I) can't take any more.
Where did it come from?
Gill Sans started as a signage font, that Eric Gill painted onto his friend's, Douglas Cleverdon's, bookshop front. He also painted a guide for Cleverdon to use the font in further designs.
Then, in 1928, Eric Gill was commissioned by Monotype Corporation to design Gill Sans. In 1929, Cecil Dandridge commissioned a further version for use by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), so they would have a unique typeface. Of course this is not longer the case.
Where is it used?
Monotype themselves used Gill Sans for their own logo, and over the years many iconic designs and well-known companies have adopted the font for their brand or for their published materials. Of those, notably are the BBC, Penguin's book circa 1935, Network Rail, United Colors of Beneton, Tommy Hilfiger, Saab and Philips, and another pet hate of mine, the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' posters.
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Other than these, I'm sure as you look around on you on a day to day basis, you may spot Gill Sans everywhere.
Why is it used so commonly?
 |
| One of the many uses of Gill Sans |
My conclusion
Because it saturated our world in the 90s and early 00s my mind can't help but think it feels over-used and old-fashioned now.
We have so many exquisite fonts that we can use, many of Monotype's other fonts are wonderful for both layout and logos. Why don't we update our font collections every now and then, have a spring clean and acquire something new and beautiful and enjoy using something new.
Failing that, there's always Helvetica and Garamond.
No comments:
Post a Comment