Dolly is a warm, fairly classic book typeface, but it’s not too stuffy and has a bit of personality. Classic book typography has been around for hundreds of years for a lot of reasons. It’s a whole genre that’s developed certain principles that work. What I like about Dolly is that it’s not overused; it hasn’t been seen all over the place, so it has a slightly fresher feel to it. And when you zoom into the details, it’s just really well put together.
Source Serif is the other direction I might go when choosing a book typeface. It’s another serif typeface, but it’s a little bit crisper and more efficient in terms of space, and comes with a broader range of weights. It’s very readable — which is great for dense typography — and it gives you the feeling of classic book typography, while also being able to do a wider range of jobs. Dolly veers a bit softer, whereas Source Serif is a little sharper.
PMN Caecilia is a readable slab serif typeface, meaning that the weights of the different details are similar. It sits somewhere between a classic book typeface and sans serif that you might use for headlines and captions or other short passages of typography. Caecilia is very sensitively drawn — it’s built around principles of readability, but has the coolness of a sans serif.
As far as big-impact display typefaces go, Cooper Black is my go-to. It’s not good at all for body text; it’s only good for things that are big and attention-grabbing. It’s got a very distinct personality that I find useful for lots of situations, because it’s older and has been popular in many different phases throughout graphic history since the early 20th century. A lot of people recognize it, and it’s got a proven track record for being warm, friendly, and approachable.
It’s the kind of typeface I’ll drop into a layout if I need something really solid and big. Then, slowly, I can consider other similar choices, and ask myself, “Do I want something that feels this nostalgic, or do I want to go with something newer, something softer, or a bit crisper?” It’s a dependable placeholder that can help you further refine in either direction.
Hobeaux Rococeaux is a totally wild and out-there display typeface. It’s big and soft and dense, a bit like Cooper Black, but it comes from a different stylistic point. Hobeaux Rococeaux is great for when you want to set something that’s very big, and very visual. This typeface is clearly not prioritizing readability: It’s all about impact and personality.
As a family, it includes a couple of styles that are meant to work in concert. You have the illustrative, florid style, the Hobeaux Rococeaux Regular; and you have the solid Hobeaux Rococeaux Background, which is meant to be a layer that goes behind that, so you can build a multi-colored font. Then, the Hobeaux Rococeaux Sherman style can be used as a text typeface for a simple caption line that’s meant to relate to that; think of Sherman as the whisper that’s made to go alongside the shout.
Rig Solid takes the idea of a big display typeface that you get a couple of versions of, but it starts playing around with dimension and different style effects. I like playing around with a font like this, because it begins crossing this line from flat letterforms to something that’s a bit more illustration-like. It takes the idea of a display typeface into another place altogether, playing around with surface and depth within a layout, and is a really great mix-and-match family of different effects.
Sans serifs get used for so many different kinds of typographic work that I like to have a few different styles handy — and I’m constantly trying to push against the stuff that’s overused. I don’t like using Helvetica, or typefaces that look too much like it. They’re valid, but pretty played out. Personally, I’m always looking for sans serifs that have a bit more personality.
Franklin Gothic is one of my go-to sans serifs. Like Cooper Black, it’s an established classic that goes back to the earlier days of the 20th century, with a pretty big family that contains a range of weights and widths — a palette of styles that can fit into different dimensions. Crisp but not too stiff, Franklin Gothic allows me to ask questions like, “Do I need something that feels angular or more constructed, or do I want to go towards something that feels a bit warmer?” It’s pretty reasonable for things like short magazine articles or short passages, and website UI headlines.
I use Alternate Gothic when I want to explore some of those same qualities as Franklin Gothic, but know that space is at a premium. Alternate Gothic is a basic family with three different weights, but they’re all condensed. The different styles go from very, very narrow to slightly wider, but they all have that same somewhat old-fashioned yet crisp feeling of Franklin Gothic. There are also a few different digitizations of the Alternate Gothic family — one of them is called ATF Alternate Gothic, where each one of those three basic weights actually gets expanded into a family of slightly different weights.
For a sans serif, Maple has a lot of personality. It’s modeled on some traditional forms, but it plays up the eccentricity in the details of some of these older models of sans serifs. It’s not too distracting, but it’s not invisible. Whereas Franklin Gothic can recede into the background, Maple is great for when you want to start drawing a little bit more attention.
Another note that I often want to try to hit with sans serif typography — and this is when I’ll go through a lot of typefaces, often when I’m trying to choose just the right thing — is a rounded sans serif. JAF Domus is one that is a lot friendlier, softer, and more open. This is a nice family because it’s got a range of weights, too. Much like PMN Caecilia, you can sort of work with different weights within the JAF Domus family to keep to a style, but for a range of uses, from things that are quieter and better for text, to things that have a bit more punch.
