Karnak (typeface)

Karnak Medium in metal type

Karnak is a slab-serif typeface designed by R. Hunter Middleton for the Ludlow Typograph company.[1]

Karnak is a "geometric" slab serif, reflecting the style of German geometric sans-serifs (in particular Futura) which had attracted considerable attention in the United States and adapting the design to the slab serif structure. It copies the German geometric slab-serif Memphis.[2][3] Middleton also designed a loose copy of Futura, the sans-serif Tempo, around the same time.[4] It and other similar designs were popular in American printing during the hot metal typesetting period.

Like Memphis, Karnak has a name, after the Karnak Temple Complex in Egypt, in reference to the fact that early slab serifs were often called "Egyptians" as an exoticism by nineteenth-century typefounders.[5][lower-alpha 1]

Karnak was an influence on the design of the popular 2009 slab serif Neutraface Slab.[8][9] It is an adaptation of the sans-serif Neutraface designed by Christian Schwartz, influenced by Middleton's Tempo.[10][11][12] Archer is another well-known modern geometric slab serif in this style with a less strictly geometric design.[13][14]

Notes

  1. ↑ Although, confusingly, the term was first used to refer to sans-serifs, and the earliest slab-serifs were often called "Antiques".[6][7]

References

  1. ↑ Allan Haley (15 September 1992). Typographic Milestones. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 117–120. ISBN 978-0-471-28894-7.
  2. ↑ Devroye, Luc. "R. Hunter Middleton". Type Design Information. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  3. ↑ Tam, Keith. "The revival of slab-serif typefaces in the 20th century" (PDF). University of Reading (MA thesis). Retrieved 3 March 2016.
  4. ↑ Neil Macmillan (2006). An A-Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press. p. 135. ISBN 0-300-11151-7.
  5. ↑ Frere-Jones, Tobias. "Scrambled Eggs & Serifs". Frere-Jones Type. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  6. ↑ James Mosley, The Nymph and the Grot: the revival of the sanserif letter, London: Friends of the St Bride Printing Library, 1999
  7. ↑ Mosley, James (January 6, 2007), The Nymph and the Grot, an update, archived from the original on June 10, 2014, retrieved June 10, 2014
  8. ↑ Schwartz, Christian. "Neutraface Slab". www.christianschwartz.com. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
  9. ↑ "Neutraface Slab". House Industries. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
  10. ↑ Schwartz, Christian. "Neutraface". www.christianschwartz.com. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
  11. ↑ Berry, John D. (2006). Dot-font: Talking About Fonts (1st ed.). New York: Mark Batty Publisher. pp. 117–121. ISBN 0-9772827-0-8.
  12. ↑ "The Neutra Legacy". House Industries. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
  13. ↑ "Sentinel: historical background". Hoefler & Frere-Jones. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  14. ↑ Challand, Skylar. "Know your type: Clarendon". IDSGN. Retrieved 13 August 2015.

External links

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