Monday, March 12, 2012

too much . . . zapfino?

"Zapfino is a calligraphic typeface designed for Linotype by typeface designer Hermann Zapf in 1998. It is based on an alphabet Zapf originally penned in 1944. As a font, it makes extensive use of ligatures and character variations (for example, the lower case letter d has nine variations). --From the Wikipedia article about Zapfino

When I was getting started as a cover designer, I used to turn to Zapfino reasonably often because of its elegant letter forms, and the EXTENSIVE glyph palette. Five years later, I tend to stay away from it because I started seeing it everywhere. Because it's a display font, it's instantly recognizable. Is it time for Apple to add a brand new calligraphic typeface/font to its programs as a substitute? Has Zapfino possibly been overused?

Deborah Norville yarn at JoAnn Fabric




Sidewalk advertising sign for local lingerie store




Display of Christmas party ware at Fred Meyer




JoAnn Fabrics mailer




Hummingbird Organics logo (from their website)




Bread wrapper from Fred Meyer bakery




Premarin Vaginal Dryness Cream ad in Country Living magazine




(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)

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