A new font is born

Grant Gibson
The Observer
Sunday September 3, 2006

Typography has an image problem. At a time when designing a chair or computer is considered sexy, it’s a craft that remains defiantly unglamorous. Yet type can burrow as deeply into the collective psyche as any image. It struck me recently, when I heard the Goodies were playing at the Edinburgh Fringe, that while I remembered barely a single frame of the show, I could draw its logo.

Typography has an image problem. At a time when designing a chair or computer is considered sexy, it’s a craft that remains defiantly unglamorous. Yet type can burrow as deeply into the collective psyche as any image. It struck me recently, when I heard the Goodies were playing at the Edinburgh Fringe, that while I remembered barely a single frame of the show, I could draw its logo.

One magazine that has always been acutely aware of the importance of the typeface is the design and architecture bible Blueprint, which relaunches this month with a new bespoke headline font font – Blueprint New Era . The magazine, which was founded in 1983 by publisher Peter Murray, editor Deyan Sudjic and designer Simon Esterson, quickly developed a loyal and (as a former editor, I can tell you) vocal following . More recently, a combination of ownership reshuffl es and the launch of a brash young competitor, icon, has left it needing a shot in the arm.

Which is why the new face, designed by typographer David Quay, is so important. New Era wasn’t initially made with the magazine in mind. Inspired by lettering on the side of a corrugated-iron lorry trailer, Quay describes it now as ‘a font looking for a client’. The opportunity arose after a chance meeting at the National Portrait Gallery with an ex-student, Patrick Myles, now Blueprint art director.

He recognised that the typeface – made from a series of equally spaced vertical bars – had an architectural sensibility that fi tted well with the magazine’s content and new, reduced format. ‘I wanted something distinctive,’ he says. ‘Previously with our headlines, you wouldn’t think: that’s a Blueprint font.’ For readers who always loved the title’s epic proportions, the new font also helps to hide the fact that it will now fit more comfortably in a bag. ‘We wanted to do everything we could to make the most of the size of the page,’ says editor Vicky Richardson.

So will the redesign, which includes new columns and a cartoon from illustrator Chris Rainbow, swat away the competition? Myles is bullish. ‘I believe if my design is successful it will just say this is what Blueprint magazine is all about.’