Type Specimens: Garamond & Centaur

December 20, 2011

tags: centaur, experimental posters, garamond, graphic design history, poster, typographic history

Historic Specimens: Slimbach's Garamond, 2011

Historic Specimens: Slimbach's Garamond (detail), 2011

Historic Specimens: From Garamond to Centaur (detail), poster, 2011

These type specimen posters serve to display the type faces Garamond and Centaur while simultaneously introducing key facets of their histories. Some stories are sharply focused on specific moments of the history of a face, such as the efforts by Adobe and Robert Slimbach to digitize classical type faces resulting in Adobe Garamond. Others take a broader view, such as the personal connections binding the stories of Garamond and Centaur. Through both approaches, these posters investigate the evolution of typography and type design as an unfolding continuum of cultural acts, both historical and individual.