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Fann Grotesque

Fann Grotesque's upright styles do not reference any particular historical design but rather aim to capture the broader spirit of the 19th century British Grotesque type genre, exploring its idiosyncrasies and imperfections. The designs draw inspiration from a number of British type foundries including Stephenson Blake, Day & Collins and Miller & Richard — whose specimens we were fortunate enough to examine at the magnificent St Bride Library in London.
The floral italics adopt an unusually cursive style for a sans serif — a gesture sparked by a page from a Fann Street Letter Foundry type specimen. By no means a revival, we used the notion of The Fann Street Letter Foundries' intriguing italics as a catalyst to develop our own designs. The calligraphic forms combined with the severe 16° angle create a dramatically different texture to the upright styles, contrary to the subtlety of obliques (slanted uprights) that are typical of a sans.
A particularly high contrast between thick and thin strokes give the letterforms a confidently audacious appearance and help to create an overall balanced color in passages of text. The generous spacing allows Fann to function well at a range of sizes, making it a suitable candidate for a book typeface. At its extremes, the Thin and Black styles are geared towards larger display uses.
Fann Grotesque is a sturdy sans serif workhorse, available in 9 weights — Thin, ExtraLight, Light, Book, Regular, Medium, SemiBold, Bold and Black — all with corresponding true Italics. It is available to license in both Standard (‘STD’) and Professional (‘PRO’) versions, the latter containing a range of additional OpenType features and Small Caps.
Version
1.003
Designer
Colophon Foundry
Release
2019
Category
Sans Serif, Grotesque
Pairings
BURGESS
Specimen