Times New Roman Zine
Design Notes
I chose to do Times New Roman by Stanley Morison for this project because it has long been one of my favorite typefaces. I considered doing something else because Times New Roman is so standardized, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to thoroughly study and learn about it.
Times New Roman was commissioned by the Times newspaper out of London following Morison’s criticism of their print quality. It is a transitional serif typeface released in 1932 with the help of Victor Lardent. Victor was an advertising artist for the newspaper and drew the original letterforms. The use of the font in a daily newspaper made it an instant hit, and caught fire quickly. It is considered the standard in many areas of print, especially amongst lawyers.
When researching the origins of the typeface I found that Times New Roman actually tends to be highly criticized despite its popularity. One article I read said, “Times New Roman is not a font choice so much as the absence of a font choice.” Although I understand where this author is coming from, there is a reason the typeface is so successful. It is clean, effective, and applicable to many areas of life such as school and work. The longevity of the typeface speaks for itself.
Some distinguishing characteristics of Times New Roman are large counters which help with legibility, as well as the ascenders which rise above the cap height. The cap height and x-height are rather standard while the tracking is tighter than previous fonts.
The italic version of the typeface features different letterforms which include descenders not featured in the standard version. The bold variation is near double the width of the original while also making use of even narrower tracking.
Working with the typeface, learning all its minute details, and seeing how its anatomy makes unique were my favorite parts about this project. One thing is certain: Times New Roman is a classic typeface that may never cease to be used as the standard in many practices.
Process
