Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Font of the Week #10: Baileywick Gothic

   Good afternoon to everyone! I hope you’ve had a great week so far and I also wish you a Happy April! It’s time again for the font of the week. This week we will take a closer look at the third typeface in the Baileywick family called “Baileywick Gothic”.

Baileywick Gothic

   Since the other two fonts in the Baileywick family were relatively fanciful, I wanted to create a sans-serif companion to those faces that was more versatile and low-key but still retained some childlike fun. I also wanted to make sure I kept it within the whimsical style that was so indicative of Mary Blair's work. The font is partially based on a hand lettered slogan for a 1950s cigarette advertisement that Blair created the illustrations for. The font was designed in 2002 along with the other typefaces in the Baileywick set.

    Creating this font was a lot of fun because I knew it could stand alone on its own or be used in tandem with either of the other two fonts from the Baileywick family. A sans serif font is generally much more clean in its form and pared down to the basic letterforms.

   Starting with more standard letterforms, I added the whimsy and slight off-beat feel by tapering the vertical strokes in the centers, and giving them different lengths. I also added a slight modulation to the baseline which gives the typeface a more casual, “bouncy” feel.


   Because of these subtle changes in design from a formal sans serif face, Baileywick Gothic has a hand drawn feeling to it, which helps it feel homey and welcoming.

   Baileywick Gothic has been a strong seller for Jukebox and has been used on many products and commercial applications. One of my favorites was for the title screen for the “Jim O’Conner Road Show” which was a segment that was part of The Secret Life Of… which aired on the Food Network from 2004-2007. The show would explore various aspects of America’ favorite foods.


   Baileywick Gothic is part of the Jukebox library and can be purchased from Veer.


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