In the beginning there was the …

In 1845, the first Clarendon typeface was published, designed by Robert Besley and cut by Benjamin Fox. At that time, Clarendon was mainly used for emphasis in reference books. Actually, it later became synonymous in England with ‘bold font weight’, a label which After Napoleon’s military campaign in Egypt, Egypt became the focus of European society’s interest. Anything new in some way was tagged ‘Egyptian’.

can still be found in some older English dictionaries. For many long established printers, Clarendon is still another name for typography in bold fonts. There is very little information as to the source of the name Clarendon. De Vinne states in Plain Printing Types (1900) that Clarendon was initially produced for the Clarendon Press of Oxford University to serve as poster type as well as for side headlines in diction aries and reference books. English sources do not support this explanation but it is admitted that the name could well relate to the Oxford publishing house. In any case, Clarendon was a big commercial success. Besley praised its features in 1850 as follows:‘The most useful fonts for a printer’s business are the Clarendons: they produce a striking word or line on handouts as well as they do on a front page, and still, they do not suppress other lines; they were produced extremely carefully so that

they can be outstanding and visible, at the same time preserving a graceful contour, thereby avoiding both the clumsy, hardly elegant form of the Linear Sans (Grotesk) or Egyptian, and the standard form of an Old Style (Antiqua) which has become bold by long usage.’ The idea of using a bold style for emphasis rather than an italic succeeded with Clarendon, at some places still true today, mainly in newspapers. At the time Linotype introduced machines with the two-font-technology, the second font was, if not an italic, inevitably a Clarendon. Later on, typesetter manufacturers would produce bold styles for many popular Old Styles, thus becoming indepen -

dent of a standardized bold style. At the time of its introduction, Cla rendon was a bold, narrow typeface. But soon after its appearance, there were wide and even light styles in use. There had been similar typefaces prior to Besley’s Clarendon which were called Ionic, for example the 1844 version of Caslon. Ionic’s sturdiness was the reason for making it the choice to be the basis for a newspaper typeface developed by Linotype in the 1920s; an early version of a series of newspaper typefaces of significant relevance and influence in the history of typography in the 20th century. As soon as copyright protection ended after three years, Clarendon was copied in great extent, much to the dislike of the copyright owners.

In the 1850s, Clarendon was internationally considered to be a ‘good-to-have’ add-on for commer cial typesetting. During the years from 1839-1847, Johann Christian Bauer moved his Bauersche Gießerei (foundry) from Frankfurt to Edinburgh, and later on upon his return to Germany, he brought the latest Egyptian typefaces back home. In 1850, he introduced Clarendon to mainland Europe. After this period of success, Clarendon declined in popularity for some time. However, it returned As soon as copyright protection ended after

stronger than ever with the introduction of cons-

three years, Clarendon was copied in great

tructed Egyptian typefaes. Fonts like Memphis or

extent, much to the dislike of the copyright

time of ‘Egyptians’. Others names like Girder, City

owners.Thorowgood retired from business in

or Beton are linked to their time period.

1849, and the company name was changed to Robert Besley & Co.

Rockwell, Pharaon or Scarab come from this period. Some of the names bluntly relate to the flourishing times.After world war II, designers tried to begin again where the intellectual and creative movement had stopped: the 20s and 30s. The emergence of the older slab serifs, especially those with wide forms, strirred fresh interest in the Egyptian – but this time focused on Clarendon. Besley’s wide modification became the master for German Clarendon versions as well as for the Bruce Foundry in New York, and the Cincinnati Foundry, the first two American firms to release Clarendon. In the 19th century, Claren dons and Egyptians had flourished. The post war period would let them thrive again.

In 1951, the English foundry Stephen Shanks & Sons released three Antique forms of which the second was a true Clarendon. The same year, the Scottish foundry Miller & Richards offered a wide Egyptian typeface. The Swiss Haas’sche Schriftgießerei published an excellent Clarendon cut by Hermann Eidenbenz in Basel, and Bauer released Fortune, called Volta in Germany. Volta, however, was formally not as good as the other ones. Stephenson Blake went back to the original punches of the Fann Street Foundry for the development of Consort in 1953. Consort Bold Condensed matches Thorowgoods’s resp. Besley’s Clarendon of 1845. In 1956, American Type Founders Assoc. released a new typeface based on the Clarendon-model, and hired type designer Freeman Craw to draw it. Apart from

some minor differences in weight and

logo is set in Clarendon, too. Even in pa -

proportion, Craw’s version is very close

ckaging typography for semi-luxury goods

to Haas’sche’s Clarendon. In 1960, Lon-

(food and tobacco), Clarendon is often used

don-based Monotype released their New

(e.g. Langnese).

Clarendon, maybe not as well done as the Haas version.

Why do we need yet another new Clarendon? -

Neutra, designed by Albert Kapr, is a redesign of forms found in one of Schelter & Giesecke’s font books.

During the transition from hot metal to photo type, and just a few years later, to digital type, plenty of new Clarendon ver-

The Clarendon designs of the 50s were

sions have been published, most of which

more or less restricted to hot metal, even

differ significantly from the original (Her -

if some of them were made available for

mann Eidenbenz’s version of 1953). Be -

photo typesetting. Meanwhile, the technical and typographical requirements for a type design like Clarendon have become much more

sides, today’s technology allows type to be set in any size, very large sizes in fact, for instance for ad banners, city light posters, blow-ups and the like. Existing Clarendon

extensive. Clarendon is still immensely

fonts, almost all of them based on drawings

popular, e.g. it is used in one of Levi’s

for text sizes, do not live up to such require-

ad campaigns, in the Quest magazine,

ments. Hence, it is time for a new, improved

or on numerous DVD covers. Clarendon

version of this typeface classic. This new

is widely used in Southern Europe and

version should be produced with today’s

in Great Britain. For example, titles and

modern font design tools to satisfy the

headlines of the newspapers El Mundo

needs in terms of technical and design qua -

and La Stampa are set in it. Moreover, the

lity for very large sizes. Additionally, most

magazines ars mundi, anyway and doin’

of today’s existing Clarendons are limited

fine use it, the latter ones being quite

to the basic Latin character complement.

young publications. Sony’s well-known

Clarendon deserves more than this, and it is getting better now!

Finally, the new version of this longly neglected classc is available now to find its proper place next to all the other classics like Garamond, Didot Bodoni, Calson which have been available in revised and extended form for quite a while already. We would now like to present

Drawing this new version of Clarendon, the designer had in mind to create highly accurate, sensitive character forms which render to full effect in very large sizes. On top of that, ClarendoNeo is closely linked to the original design of Eiden benz. All in all, it is lighter than any of the existing versions to make its combination with related typefaces a little easier. ClarendoNeo should be used for sizes starting at 180p and higher. For smaller sizes starting at 36p, there is a second design with adjusted spacing for serifs in lower case glyphs n, m, u, w, x and y. Below, please find the currently available character sets for ClarendoNeo:

Björn Altmann was born in 1975 in Kiel. Finishing high school (Gymnasium) and alternate civil service, he studied Law for five semesters at the university of Kiel before he switched both the university and the subject. He went to Wismar to study communication design and media. His main focus: typography and corporate design. One of his first tasks was to draw typeface classics in large sizes. That was when his fascination for Clarendon started. He experimented with it, produced photograms and moulds. After trying out pixel fonts, he decided to transfer his Claren don drawings into FontLab. Realizing that the digitizing and the production would take a long time, he made this ambitious task the subject of this dissertation. During his guest semester (2006) at the Kunsthochschule Kassel with Ott + Stein and with Christof Gassner, Björn Altmann expanded his experience and know-how in book typography and book design. This came in handy for his dissertation with Hanka Polkehn and Bernard Stein (KHS Kassel). 2007 Dissertation (with honor) Subject New drawing of Clarendon and studies of Egyptian type history

Imprint Design: Björn Altmann

Current Occupation

Type: ClarendoNeo and Univers

Designer at Fortune Street, London

© 2007 B. Altmann