25 Classic Fonts That Will Last a Whole Design Career
Eric Gill, Adrian Frutiger and Max Miedinger are names we associate with the classic typefaces designers use on a daily basis. Their font creations are timeless designs that look right at home no matter what century we’re in. This collection of 25 classic fonts is a round up of the best and most popular fonts every designer should own. You can be sure that they will last your whole design career.
Helvetica
Who hasn’t heard of Helvetica? It’s probably the most recognised classic typeface. Originally designed 1957 by Swiss designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann
Bodoni
Bodoni is a serif typeface designed by Giambattista Bodoni in 1798. Iconically used for the Goodfellas gangster movie poster.
Clarendon
Clarendon is a fantastically fat slab serif, created by Robert Besley in 1845.
Akzidenz Grotesk
Akzidenz Grotesk was designed in 1896 by the H. Berthold AG type foundry and was used as inspiration in 1957 for the Helvetica typeface.
Avenir
Avenir is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger (recall the name? He’s also famous for another classic font, I’ll let you guess which one).
FF DIN
FF Din is a relatively new typeface compared to the veterans mentioned so far with it being created in 1995 by Albert-Jan Pool. One of my personal all time favs.
Futura
Futura is another widely used font that can be seen in countless logos. It was originally created in the 1920′s by Paul Renner.
News Gothic
News Gothic was designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1908, and has the most amazing fact of being the typeface used during the Star Wars opening credits.
Frutiger
Remember Adrian Frutiger? Needless to say he was also the designer behind the classic Frutiger typeface.
Meta
FF Meta is another member of the modern classic collection, designed by Erik Spiekermann in 1986. Meta is another of my personal favourites.
Gill Sans
Designed by Eric Gill in 1926, Gill Sans is another widely used font in graphic design. Famous uses include the London Underground signage.
Garamond
Probably one of the most famous names for serif fonts, Garamond can be found in a number of variations. Overall it’s commonly used for body text in books.
Mrs Eaves
Mrs Eaves is a recent design of a traditional serif typeface style by Zuzana Licko in 1996.
Dax
Dax, now famously used for the branding of UPS, was originally created by Hans Reichel.
Myriad
Yes, that one that appears as default in your Adobe apps. Myriad was designed specifically for Adobe by Rober Slimback and Carol Twombly.
VAG Rounded
VAG Rounded, aka VAG Rundschrift makes an appearance in countless web2.0 logos, but was originally designed in 1979 as a corporate identity for Volkswagen.
Optima
Optima is a German typeface designed by Hermann Zapf. It’s a sans-serif font on a low calorie diet with it’s thinning lines around the letterforms.
Avant Garde
Originally created for the Avant Garde Magazine, the Avant Garde font is now seen in plenty of printed headlines.
Univers
Univers is another classic by Adrian Frutiger. It has typical swiss styling and is often confused with Helvetica, or Akzidenz Grotesk.
Rockwell
Rockwell is probably the most iconic slab-serif font. Designed by Monotype in 1934 it’s now used in all kinds of designs for an eye grabbing impact.
Minion
Minion is a popular serif font designed by Robert Slimback in 1990 for Adobe. Cleverly named after the traditional naming system for type sizes.
Sabon
Sabon is another old style serif, this one however was designed by Jan Tschichold in Germany and released by Linotype, Monotype and Stempel in 1967.
Cocon
Cocon is the most recent of this collection, designed in 1998 by Evert Bloemsma, Cocon features some cool letterforms with sleek points.
Rotis
Rotis was built with exceptionally high legibility in mind. Designed by Otl Aicher in 1988.
Bembo
Bembo is one of the most popular typefaces used in books, first printed in 1496 and brought to life for the modern age in 1929.
Have I missed out your favourite?
Add your comment and let us all know your top fonts of all time.
Great post. Awesome choices of fonts
Great list. Rockwell rockz.
Awesome list! Cocon is gorgeous!
Pedantic, I know, but the London Underground font is actually New Johnston, the original of which Eric Gill used as the basis for Gill Sans.
Very true.
Nice bit of trivia there
I think Cocon is wretchedly trendy, and you should have ended with “insert your favorite current font here.”
Helvetica for King!
Cool List!
Nice list Chris – some on there I’ve not used in a while…
Thanks for this list, I gotta invest in some fonts for my new shiny iMac that I got last week! ;D
Din looks pretty solid and cocon looks rather interesting, nice round up, they all look pretty usable.
classic but still eye catching. thanks for share these listed fonts.
I love Din! We use Cocon in a few of our designs as well.
We just posted ‘The Webs Best Designers And Their Favourite Fonts’ blog post which features you Chris! – http://www.unionroom.com/blog/the-webs-best-designers-and-their-favourite-fonts/
Nie collection. Very useful. Thanks
Great list Chris, keep roching………I use Caslon a lot whenever i need a Serif, an addition from my part
Why do you call Minion sans-serif?
Typo / Fingers on autopilot – Post edited
Great post, and a great list. Keep on going!
Nice collection. Thanks
about myriad – it’s opentype version, myriad pro, is the font apple uses in their advertising. i call it the iPod font. useless trivia ftw.
I’m sorry, but someones gotta say it… Comic Sans! ;-)
Please! When you come up with facts in an article, do yourself a favor and have your facts straight. That way, you won’t look like an assface only interested in baiting other assfaces and making money on it. “Ooh, facts!”
Oh, btw: Do a little research on the DIN typeface ;)
Very nice list! Thnx!
If i had to drop down to one font – I would take Rockwell! :) Thankfully I don’t – beautiful variety!
“The only place Avant Garde looks good is in the words Avant Garde.”
— Ed Benguiat
I would have to add Scala and Scala Sans to the list. They aren’t used as much in general design, but they are everywhere in typographic layout.s
wow, really these fonts are sooooo beautiful
What?!? No Garamond? Not ITC’s, Adobe’s, or Monotype’s? /me faints :p
Wooooooooooooo Wooooooooooooooo. This is the Type Police! Put down the mouse! Step away from the Mac! DO NOT attempt to USE the typface ROTIS (especially semi-serif).
It’s a pet hate. Loving the other choices.
Very nice topic!
This is very helpful!
And nice information about of Autor and year creation of Font.
Garamond is my favorite.
May be put a Times New Roman?
Nice post. Enjoyed the bits of trivia. Thanks for the introduction to Din.
I am reassured by the fact that I have ALL of these fonts installed permanently. I think you could mention that Helvetica has been superceded by Helvetica Neue though
=)
Great post man!
Zapfino should be included in my opinion. I personally detest it as a font, but it is so heavily used by non-designers and I think it really stands the test of time in the public eye. Just playing devils advocate.
Great list!
Nice one! Have most of those fonts, they look really great! Got to get the cocon one, looks very sweet!
I personally use Caslon (Adobe Caslon Pro actually) a lot in place of Garamond. It has a bit of a better feel in my opinion. Great list though! Time to go typeface shopping!
This is probably the best article I’ve ever read on this site. Time to go through and make sure I actually have all of these!
Nice post. I have almost all of these, minus Cocon, which is debatable. Nice call with Mrs. Eaves!
Wait, did you sneak in Garamond or was I just blind while reading it? :(
In any case, good list.
Lovely list – thank you for posting…
Err.. Did’nt you forget Lucida Grande? I think it’s evolved as one of the most popularly used fonts on the web of late. It is one of the sleekest typefaces to have originated..
Excellent list. Trade Gothic belongs here too.
Pretty sweet list, I shuddered when I saw Rotis though, it just does nasty things to my insides.
I like the Helvetica and Myrias. I think you may want to add Papyrus too thouhg scence it’s used everywhere. I would think it would be considred in the classic class as well.
I think the Clarendon fonts is good to. I didn’t see to every remember seeing that one before. Overall, good picks.
Clarendon is definitely making a big comeback, it looks especially effective in white on bright block colour.
I probably would’ve ditched Rotis and added Agenda. But that’s personal taste.
Pretty bland list, with some odd choices (Avant Garde, Rotis, Cocon and Dax (which are fine but not very versatile)–hard to believe they should be in any designer’s top 25. But did you really have nothing worthwhile to say about these faces? I shudder to imagine (non-French) designers setting books in Bodoni or AG or, well, anything in Avant Garde.
Great post! I’m a sucker for Dax and Helvetica. Thanks for sharing.
Classic and clean. wait is this a personality test?
No Palantino??
They are gorgeous… hard to pay for freelancer though.
Hey,
Thanks. A lot of very good font ideas for my tech classroom. Regards
I don’t assume these are free? Maybe some, maybe no one?
How much do you have to pay to get all of these?
I’m thrilled to see Mrs. Eaves in there. I recently named it my favorite font ( http://ff.im/5G2Xk ) and I’m glad to see I’m not alone.