Reason
The reason I choose to write this post about Chunk (Five) – referred to in the rest of this post as 'CF' – is, I was working on a project for a colleague a few weeks ago and I had to download it for a design that I was given to edit. I became so enamored with the font that I decided to update my website logo using CF (see Goodarts dot Net, above). I was curious to se where CF came from and decided to spotlight the typeface in today's post. History
CF is a modern, ultra-bold slab serif designed by Meredith Mandel circa 2009. Very little detail is available on CF. Meredith Mandel says on her website that she designed it to be "reminiscent of old American Western woodcuts, broadsides, and newspaper headlines". Font-A-Day notes that CF was designed for The League of Moveable Type. The League is a collaborative of designers seeking to advance the use of type and available typefaces on the web.
With the advent of the css styling @font-face – first with IE4 and Netscape 4, then revitalized with Safari 3.1 support, now all modern browsers support the @font-face technique. @font-face allows front-end designers to code in a reference to a font file that is hosted on their server, then assign that font to a css font tag (e.g., h1, h2, p, a, etc.) that will then display that font the same to all users. This was a huge leap forward in text layout for web designers.
I started using @font-face for my own projects a little over a year ago. It is very beneficial for web designers to be able to choose what font every user will see, rather than relying on system fonts to show an approximation of what the deign intended. An alternate option was to create images for each instance of that font (e.g., headers, titles, etc.) which, in turn adds increased download to a website and lends to accessibility by allowing screen readers to directly read the instances rather than rely on alt tags.
Visual Study
For today's visual study, I submit the new Goodarts dot Net logo (also at top of page) and my new Ciricullum Vitea design:
Sources
"Chunk | The League of Moveable Type." The League of Moveable Type. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.
Cuppyhouse, Ronald. "Chunk Five | Font-A-Day." Fontaday - A new free downloadable TTF or OTF font every day!. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.
Hermann, Ralf. "The @Font-Face Rule And Useful Web Font Tricks | Smashing Magazine." Smashing Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.
Mandel, Meredith. "meredithmandel." meredithmandel. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.
Images used without permission:
http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/28893/379252/CHUNK_POSTER.jpg
