Are you always in the lookout for new shiny and trendy fonts?
I shall confess: I do that too. It’s my only one of my design sins. I absolutely love type. Give me some free time and I’ll be looking at font catalogs for hours.
But believe me –and I say this to myself too– you don’t really need that trendy new font to make exceptional designs.
Let me introduce you to Massimo Vignelli.
Massimo Vignelli was an Italian graphic, industrial and architecture designer. One of the most important designers of the 20th century. And he really made simplicity the ultimate ground for his work.
Does this map look familiar?
It’s the NYC subway map designed by Vignelli himself in 1972, which became an undisputed symbol of modern information design.
And how about this logo?
This is also Massimo Vignelli’s work. He designed it in 1967 and American Airlines used this same logo for 45 years.
Now, this guy -and please excuse my colloquialism- is also famous (and some times criticized) for sticking to just a few typefaces in everything he designed.
This is how I picture this…
Imagine you’re forced to move to a deserted island and you can only take with you 6 fonts (a normal everyday situation, amirite?).
That’s kind of what he did. Only a handful of fonts for everything.
And it went great for him, of course.
As Vignelli said in an interview:
“There are two main font families: serif (elzevirs) and sans-serif (grotesks). In both families there are some (few) great typefaces, the rest is commercial production. Among the serifs we have Garamond, Bodoni, Baskerville, Century Expanded, and Clarendon. Among the sans we have Futura, Gill Sans, Helvetica, Univers, and Optima. Sometimes it is possible to use a font with a weird look, but only to set a title or a logotype. There is no need to design a new font: What matters is the typographical structure, not the typeface!“
–Massimo Vignelli for designculture.it
[Ok, I had to google “elzevirs” myself – It’s a style of printing type with firm hairlines and stubby serifs, named after Lodewijk Elzevir, a Dutch printer born in 1540]
So…
I don’t think I can massimo-vignelli my font toolbox that much, it would be too hard and too limiting for me.
But after over a decade of working in graphic and web design –and in Vignelli’s spirit– here’s what I did:
I finally sat down and put together a list of the noblest and most professional serif and sans serif typefaces that I think you can find out there.
And that are more than enough to cover almost every kind of design project you may work on.
So, in no particular order, let me introduce you to my favorite serif and sans serif typefaces that I think are both timeless and beautiful.
My Top Serif Fonts
Playfair Display
Merriweather
Garamond
Freight
Lora
Libre Baskerville
Baskerville
Recoleta
Didot
Abril Display
Cormorant Garamond
Prata
IBM Plex Serif
Big Caslon
Miller
Spectral
Source Serif Pro
Bodoni
My Top Sans Serif Fonts
Acumin Pro
Neue Haas Unica
Proxima Nova
Avenir Next
Nunito Sans
Lato
HK Grotesk
Karla
Work Sans
Montserrat
Open Sans
Roboto
Poppins
Futura
Helvetica Neue
Gotham
Aktiv Grotesk
Barlow
Nexa
TT Commons
Archivo
Bebas Neue
Cooper Hewitt
Geomanist
Franklin Gothic
The bottom line:
I’m so happy I put together this list. It’s like when…
Uhmm…
Ok, I don’t think I can come up with an analogy. But I know I sleep better knowing there’s a list I can come to when I need to pick a safe, noble font.
Hope this is useful for you too.
—Mai
Sources:
http://www.designculture.it/interview/massimo-vignelli.html
https://99designs.com/blog/famous-design/remembering-massimo-vignelli-modernist-master/
https://fontsinuse.com/uses/14164/massimo-vignelli-s-a-few-basic-typefaces
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massimo_Vignelli
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodewijk_Elzevir
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/elzevir
Nice selection, thanks Mai.
Stefano
Glad you liked it, Stefano 🙂