I was inspired to investigate my favorite typefaces of last year by all the “Top Ten Fonts of 2009” lists I’ve seen going around. I tried desperately to make my list longer than seven, but honestly I don’t know if I used more than that. (I only have 50 anyway) Keep in mind, when I say “favorite fonts of the year”, I am referring to the ones I used most, not necessarily ones that were released in 2009. New font releases rarely get me very excited anyway. This list pretty much sums up the only fonts I ever implemented in all of 2009. There is an outlier here or there, but I keep everything pretty regimented.
So here we are, my favorite fonts of 2009:
Knockout – Probably my favorite of last year. I used it everywhere. It’s so versatile, and has so many weights, that I found it really helpful for many projects.
United – You know I love this.
Din – One of my favorites of all time. I found myself using this in just about every infographic I had to create.
Miso – It’s free and comes in handy every once in a while. Found this one popping up in my freelance work a bunch.
Plantin – One of the sole serif representatives. I used this for just about every single time I had body copy. Thanks Monocle!
Futura – Had to include this after my Wes Anderson project. Didn’t use it a whole lot elsewhere, but I always check out how things look in Futura just in case. Especially for logos — Futura comes through in a pinch often.
Trade Gothic – Especially Bold No. 2. If I hear a cool word I don’t know, I will write it down so I can type it out in Trade later just to see how bad ass it looks.
Anyway, nothing too surprising up there I don’t think, but interesting to see it all in one place. List yours if you have them!
Great list!
My top 3 of this year:
ITC Avant Garde Gothic Bold
Gotham HTF
Alternate Gothic No3 D
Martin
I see you’re a fan of H&FJ too. My favourite fonts for the year [in the same manner as yours – most used and adored] are probably Archer and Sentinel by the same foundry. In my work I used the most DIN cause It’s the corporate type family of a big client I work for. Also, a bit of a cliche quote but I can’t stop using AvantGarde It’s my personal all-time favourite and It’ll probably stay like that forever 🙂 I just love it’s perfection. Also I’ve used Gotham and Futura quite a lot too. I’ve found a nice free 4-weight font in FontSquirrel, It’s called Quicksand, used It once in an identity project but It just can’t provide such flexibility as professional fonts and I gave it up tho’ it’s pretty nice and could come handy in some project.
My Top 8:
1. Akzidenz Grotesk Medium
2. Akzidenz Grotesk Bold
3. Akzidenz Grotesk Regular
4. Replica by Norm
5. T-Star Pro by Die Gestalten, (had great fun using this one my Thesis Project.)
6. Deck by Optimo
7. Univers, especially when used compressed (Hello there, scott 😉 )
8. Bodoni (had to include one with serifs, i love the neo-classical beautiful yet constructed look)
Akzidenz ruled 2009 in my book, plus a lot of fine swiss fonts in there – business as usual.
my top 5, often I only use the first 3
1. Akkurat (Sans and Monotype)
2. Akzindez Grotesk
3. Bentons Sans
4. Cellini Serif
5. Meta Sans & Serif
On 2008 i’d loved fonts from The Foundry but not anymore.
Frutiger came in very handy in 2009
1. Knockout
2. Archer (although by this point I’m sick of seeing it everywhere. still a good font)
3. Gotham
4. Futura
1. Egyptienne
2. Flama
3. Akzidenz Grotesk
4. Akkurat
5. Apex Serif
6. Stag Serif
7. Monaco (just because I seem to be coding much more now)
In keeping up with the condensed font trend, I really like Steelfish and Bebas, both of which are free.
It’s crazy how similar your list is to mine. I also have used a fair amount of Univers (condensed of course), and Adobe Caslon Pro (semibold italic).
1. goudy old style
2. Myriad
3. Archer
4. Baskerville
5. Futura
6. Univers
These are simply the fonts i use most often at the moment. i cant say that i have favorite fonts because every time i grow a liking to one, i find that it really cant be used effectively that often. Does my list scream “university work” ? haha
most used:
1. futura
2. helvetica neue
also using:
din
univers
gill
clarendon
utopia
rockwell
franklin
frutiger
so i guess you could say i don’t branch out?
Favorite font – Aller!
A post like this might benefit from having an example of the fonts that are being listed and maybe a link to a source to get the font = )
Tungsten people. Tungsten.
Oh no I forgot Avenir! Another great one for body copy.
@AEON – I am definitely a fan of H&FJ. I was going to write a review of their new one, Vitesse, but I haven’t really used it enough yet. I’ve really liked Archer when it came out, but find it waaaaay overused right now. Wrote a post about it a while ago…got me into some trouble comparing it to Papyrus haha.
@Ryan – Tungsten is amazing. Agreed.
@Chris – will do, thanks.
I pretty much default to Comic Sans and Papyrus. I don’t even know how to pronounce most of the fonts you’z guyz have been mentioning.
Omg’z I love Comic Sans & Papyrus.
@alex I was going to have an ulcer that no one mentioned Avenir! But now I can relax-ahhh.
My list would be
1.) Avenir
2.) Neuzeit S
3.) Helvetica Light (of course include the ‘mac-daddy’)
4.) Egyptienne
5.) Frutiger Stones (hah!)
LOL at the Futura link!
1. Tungsten
2. Verlag
3. Akzidenz Grotesk (or Helvetica Neue for the web)
4. Futura
5. Titillium
din is way overused font (beside helvetica)
1) Akzidenz-Grotesque
2) Cheltenham
3) DIN
4) Bodoni
5) Helvetica
6) Trade Gothic (Mainly Extended)
7) Antique Extended
8) Lubalin
9) Avenir
10) Requiem
damn that felt good…
DIN and Knockout have definitely become some favorites of mine in the past year.
@ a lot of people. I also love Akzidenz Grotesk. It’s always funny when people say, “Oh cool Helvetica”, and you can say ‘nope’. People love to point out Helvetica and it’s always fun to correct them. (of course the reverse happens to me all the time, but usually with Rockwell for some reason. I never can get that one)
1. DIN (although I think it’s already overused. I see it in every commercial)
2. Champion
3. Bell Gothic
4. Frutiger
5. Rockwell
Great post Alex! I don’t do much typography these days, but it’s nice to see some seriously tasteful new type choices in those listed, as well as all of my favorite classics. I’m going to have to add some of these freeware faces to my computer and maybe make up a type sample sheet with them.
not a bad list at all.
personally i used alot of
gotham
sansa
stainless
on the sans front.
serif’s i don’t think i had a particular fave as i find serif’s tend to be more finicky and projects that require serifs i usually end going through tons of them before one ‘fits’, and that one is usually one that won’t work for the next (take mrs. eaves, i loved it for one project, then on another i tried it and i couldn’t believe how unfit it was).
Ah, too bad you missed my Gerusa!
Personal favorites used during 2009:
Memphis (especially Light)
Neutraliser Serif
Taz
Sugar Pie
What..no papyrus?
C’mon! Hippie restaurant menus need love too!
1. Univers condensed light and bold
2. Swift
3. Kievit
DIN? More like top font of the year 2000! Kidding. Sort of…
To be honest though, I just used it today.
I’ve been having to use far too much Avant Garde this year.
1. News Gothic
2. Vinyl (similar to Miso)
3. Avenir (similar to DIN)
4. ITC Bodoni Italic
5. Sassoon
6. Anything by H&FJ
Where’s ‘Museo’, 😉 one of my favourites of last year!
@ Gareth
I’m with you on that one. Museo is excellent and you can’t complain about the price.
Malabar came out in 2009 and fulfilled all my newspaper-style-serif-font needs.
Currently using alot of Gotham Black/Black Italic, Avant Garde, Knockout, Modern 216
This is my 2010 list for you Alex:
1. Morgan Sans
2. Klavika
3. Charter
4. Agency
5. Infinity
6. Aachen
7. Vista Sans
Use these typefaces and you won’t be sorry. You’re Welcome.
Agree with many from your list:
• Knockout is a beautifully designed face and offers great flexibility (one of my faves)
• I’ve got to add Bryant Pro from Process Type Foundry
– Ryon
You forgot the capital “U” in your article image.
1. AvanteGarde (especially bold, overexposed but I really dig it)\
2. Avenir
3. Futura
4. Rockwell
5. Glypha
6. And most certainly…Tungsten.
Interstate for ever!
1. DIN
2. Serifa
3. Akzidenz-Grotesque
4. Minion Pro
5. Garamond Premier Pro
6. Garage Gothic
7. Univers
Thanks for the heads up on Miso. I downloaded it and am looking forward to using it.
Cheers.
In no particular order, here are my 7 favourite and most used…
Droid Serif (stunning serif font!)
Caecilia (truly awesome square serif!!)
Androgyne
Liberation Serif (free!)
Turnpike
DIN (of course)
Bauer Bodoni
My company uses Gill Sans, so I guess that was my most used font of 09. Personal faves though are Stag, Museo & Georgia (brilliant for web).
One word: BAUHAUS!
do you really pay the full price for those fonts? i would love to have them but definitely dont have $300 to drop… 🙁
Are you going to have a Top Seven Free Fonts of 2009 post? Free being the key word. 🙂
Helvetica neue ultra thin
Akzidenz medium
Gotham Thin
Avant Garde medium
Aachen modificate
Din
theSans
Futura
LOL fonts are SO personal.
As a useful sans DIN is nice. Seems somehow more accessible than the fontographic royalty (Helvetica and Univers) I like Myriad, Frutiger and Avenir for the same reasons.
Seems like serf fonts are even more personal (well except perhaps for Comic sans – mention comic sans in a group of designers at your personal risk. Same with Papyrus)
Can’t go wrong with Minion Pro on the serif side.
the link you set up for Futura is linking to a Wes Anderson page. 😉
Just thought I’d let you know.
1. Din
2. Mr Jones (the italic!)
3. League Gothic
4. Futura (all caps) 🙂
what would be the best way to get these fonts if you dont have a couple hundred lyin around….? i would really like to get some. escpecially United.
Anonymous: save up the dough for the good ones. Find freely distributable fonts if the client’s budget is tight.
When our shop sees a brand new client on the horizon that seems decently flush, our Art Director tends to spec a new font we don’t have, and build the font purchase into the budget. (Clever chap!) 10 years back we bought the entire Adobe font library when it came out. Still not enough fonts for us font addicts.
everything that you ever need to say can be said with
Comic Sans or Papyrus.
marker felt is great too
especially if you want people to take you seriously
Interstate FTW!
Interstate FTW!
did anyone else notice that in the blog graphic… in the first alphabet, in all caps… the U is missing… ?
hmmmm.
1. Locator
2. Tungsten
3. Bryant Pro
4. Univers
5. Vitesse
6. Stratum 2
7. Gotham Rounded
What do u guys think about DIN next ?
“If I hear a cool word I don’t know, I will write it down so I can type it out in Trade later just to see how bad ass it looks.” … man, that’s sexy.
1. DIN (all time favorite!!)
2. Avenir
3. Neutra
4. Caslon 224