Top Five Timeless Fonts
Fonts are everywhere around us – they are on the city billboards we see, on the pages of the books we read, and in fact right here in front of you.
Fonts have become so engraved in our day-to-day lives that we seem to take them for granted – they just seem to exist independently, somehow appearing everywhere we look. But every experienced designer knows how crucial choosing a font is.
In this article we chose to analyse five fonts for you that are universal, all-purpose, and that seem to never fall victim to the ever-changing times.
Helvetica
Perhaps one of the most recognised from the list, and rightfully so. Helvetica is neutrality and timelessness expressed in a typeface – designed in Switzerland in 1957 by Swiss designers Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman, Helvetica became an embodiment of everything Switzerland represents, that is modernity, versatility, and simplicity.
Helvetica today is very distinguishable for its sleek look, with its square ‘s’, two-storied ‘a’, and overall oblique style that is very typical of every grotesque and neo-grotesque font. Being so universal, readable, and clear, ever since 1957 many notable brands utilised Helvetica in either their titles or advertisements, for instance Lufthansa, BMW, Nestlé, and Apple until 2015. With many variations of Helvetica out there, this is the font that will certainly defy time, being easily adaptable for advertising, print, and digital.
Bodoni
In 1798 Bodoni set out to create a new typeface that he instilled with beauty, clarity, and a dash of Italian elegance. Initially influenced by the typeface Baskerville, Bodoni combined alternating thick and thin strokes, then gave his letters a rounded aspect, and voilà!
While some of Bodoni’s counterparts complained that the font was unreadable and unclear, even nowadays Bodoni’s typeface continues to take the world by storm. Ever since 1798, there have appeared tens of new variants, digital adaptations, and revivals of the original Bodoni font. Eventually, Bodoni became the go-to for many big fashion brands like Giorgio Armani, Vogue, Calvin Klein with their iconic “CK”.
Other notable names that opted in for Bodoni’s elegant timelessness include Hilton hotels and a musical Mamma Mia!
Avenir
Meaning future in French, Avenir represents a contemporary take on the classic modernist typefaces, combining in itself the past, the present, and the future. Created by Adrian Frutiger in 1987, this geometric sans-serif from the start was meant to be modern, organic, and neutral, in order to fit into any kind of text or title. Avenir is recognised as a much softer and legible modernist typeface today, with its perfect circles, softer geometric forms, and perfect two-storey ‘a’.
Witnessing the grand success that Avenir has been boasting since the 20th century, many designers have been reviving the typeface and adapting it to contemporary times, manifested in Avenir Next and Avenir Next Rounded. With its overpowering versatility, modernity, and “sophisticated meets trendy”, Avenir is not only the main typeface of the big players like Disney+ or Snapchat – in fact, Avenir is considered to be so clear-cut and understandable that many cities and universities across the world today adopted it as their main typeface, including the city of Amsterdam and several of universities in the US.
Futura
Since its creation in the 1920s, Futura has gained a status of somewhat of an ‘Original Gangster’ of the modernist and futuristic typefaces out there.
Titled as the grandfather of the geometric sans-serifs, Futura encompasses every modernist element, from its sharp cuts, geometric curves, and rounded aspect. Created in Germany, Futura guarantees permanence, with its lack of excessive decorum, overpowering efficiency, clarity, straightforwardness – much like the Germans themselves.
While an old-school classic, Futura is profoundly and perpetually modern and therefore is used in many logos today, particularly of those brands that are defined by the overall futurist, minimalist, clear look, such as IKEA and Gillette.
Palatino
Yet another typeface influenced by the Italians on our list, Palatino is the epitome of a properly manifested revival of the fonts from the past. Palatino’s creator, Hermann Zapf who designed the typeface right after the World War II, was a well-known master in calligraphy. However, Zapf fully understood that simply copying old texts would not work in today’s climate. He decided to make Palatino legible, sleek, round, slightly tilted, with larger letters, and very clear even when it is poorly printed.
While there are many easily adaptable typefaces on our list, out of all the fonts Palatino is the one universal font that dominates the contemporary printing industry, with millions of magazines, catalogues, periodicals, and books, both fiction and non-fiction, now using Palatino for its beautiful letterforms, ligatures, and numerals that are perfectly legible in print and digital.
Wondering which typeface is best for your brand’s visual identity? Get in touch!
