Franklin Gothic

For my Typography class, we were assigned to a certain font, write 300 words about it, and make a poster using only typography.

I'm not quite finished but here it is so far:



Those of you interested in learning more about Franklin Gothic or if you would just like a helping of my witty sense of humor, here's the essay I wrote and included in the poster:

Franklin Gothic is a sans-serif modernist typeface created by Morris Fuller Benton in 1902. It was named in honor of the American printer Benjamin Franklin. Hence the Franklin at the beginning. “Gothic” is a term for typefaces which originally meant sans-serif, and is becoming increasingly out-dated. Much like the contemporary Gothic culture.

Types of Franklin Gothic include: Franklin Gothic, Condensed, Extra Condensed, Italic and Condensed Shaded. Types of Franklin Gothic not included: Diet Franklin Gothic or Franklin Death Metal. (Although there is Hot Metal and Cold Metal). Franklin Gothic has been known by many different names such as the imaginative Gothic #1, Gothic #16, Square Gothic Heavy. Variations/copies of Franklin Gothic have been implemented by such companies as Alphatype, Autologic, Berthold, Compugraphic, Dymo, Star/Photon, Mergenthaler, MGD Graphic Systems, and Varityper.

Distinguishing features of Franklin Gothic are such things as (apart from being a bold sans-serif typeface) the double story g and a, the ear of the g (is it not cute?) and the tail of the Q. Franklin Gothic fell out of use around the 1930's, however, with fonts such as Futura and Helvetica, sans-serif fonts like Franklin Gothic experienced a revival and it is still popular today.

Franklin Gothic appears in many places, such as New York University, ROCKY, The Dark Knight, (the movie, not Batman), and Cardiff University. It was once believed to be in the famous opening crawl of Star Wars, but later it was said to be News Gothic. However, News Gothic is based on Franklin Gothic, and Franklin Gothic is still used in the subtitles of the Star Wars Films. Other places you'll find Franklin Gothic are the computer/quiz game You Don't Know Jack, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, section headlines of the N.Y. Times, the Showtime logo, and the Onion magazine's printed publication. In the 1980's, it was used in Nickelodeon's intertitle and in CBS Sports. Finally Franklin Gothic can be found in many places most of us may not have heard of like Frederator Studios, the art of Lawrence Weiner, The PBS Series “The Electric Company,” and many more.

And of course, this poster.