The Helvetica of EnglandGill Sans Std

Gill Sans StdThe Helvetica of England

Gill Sans StdThe Helvetica of England

Designed by Anthony ZubiaPublished 2011

GDES 1314.02 Typography IEssay by Jessica Helfand

How it all began...

Eric Gill, the artist behind Gill Sans Std.

Eric Gill (born in1882 as Arthur Eric Rowton Gill) was an important British sculptor, artist, and typeface designer. He cre-ated this font, Gill Sans, in a search to design the ultimate legible sans-serif text face. His inspiration was Edward Johnston’s sans serif lettering for the London Underground known as Johnston Sans. The typeface was designed to function as a text face as well and has been a popular choice for decades. Originally released as a single weight, many variants were added over the years, extend-ing the versatility of the typeface. While his personal life was later discovered to be rather controversial, Eric Gill died in 1940 but his art lives on and as well as his other typfaces such as Perpetua and Joanna which were named after his daughters.

Gill Sans lends itself for many types of jobs. It has clean lines but lacks the symmetry and geometry of Futura or Univers. This makes it a bit friendlier and more artistic looking. Many people seem to dislike the heavier weights of this font but in the end, Gill Sans is still often referred to as the Helvetica of England.

The sketch of the lowercase “g” in 1933.

The sketch for Gill Sans Italic in 1928. The sketch for Gill Sans Extra Bold in 1931.

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Changes & Variations

As the weights increase from Light to Ultra Bold, the lowercase “g” is no longer an “eyeglass” shape.

Gill Sans Light and Regular have some differences. Gill Sans Light (1) has stroke details and round bowls while Gill Sans Regular (2) has flattened bowls and has lost the stroke detail.

The three variations of the “a” in Gill Sans Std.

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bdpqbdpqgxgxgxgxgx

1

2

A Royal Family of Fonts

Regular

Italic

Bold

Bold Italic

Light

Light Italic

Condensed

Bold Condensed

3

Bold Extra Condensed

Light Shadowed

Shadowed

Extra Bold

Extra Bold Display

Ultra Bold Condensed

Ultra Bold

“Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket..”

-George Orwell

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

-Winston Churchill

“A day without laughter is a day wasted.” -Charlie Chaplin

“Death is just life’s next big adventure.” -J K Rowling

“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

-William Shakespeare

“Art is skill, that is the first meaning of the word.” -Eric Gill

Regular 14/16pt

Italic 14/16pt

Bold 14/16pt

Bold Italic 14/16pt

Light 14/16pt

Light Italic 14/16pt

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Regular 10/12 pt | The good man is the reasonable man, and the good work is a reasonable work. In typography the use of colour is a reasonable and not a fancy matter, & as every extra colour involves an extra printing, the expense alone places a curb upon the exuberance of the craftsman.

12/14 pt | The good man is the reasonable man, and the good work is a reasonable work. In typography the use of colour is a reasonable and not a fancy matter, & as every extra colour involves an extra printing, the expense alone places a curb upon the exu-berance of the craftsman.

Italic 10/12 pt | The good man is the reasonable man, and the good work is a rea-sonable work. In typography the use of colour is a reasonable and not a fancy matter, & as every extra colour involves an extra printing, the expense alone places a curb upon the exuberance of the craftsman.

12/14 pt | The good man is the reasonable man, and the good work is a reasonable work. In typography the use of colour is a reasonable and not a fancy matter, & as every extra colour involves an extra printing, the expense alone places a curb upon the exuberance of the craftsman.

Bold 10/12 pt | The good man is the reasonable man, and the good work is a reasonable work. In typography the use of colour is a reasonable and not a fancy matter, & as every extra colour involves an extra printing, the expense alone places a curb upon the exuberance of the craftsman.

12/14 pt | The good man is the reasonable man, and the good work is a reasonable work. In typography the use of colour is a reasonable and not a fancy matter, & as every extra colour involves an extra printing, the expense alone places a curb upon the exu-berance of the craftsman.

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Bold Italic 10/12 pt | The good man is the reasonable man, and the good work is a reasonable work. In typogra-phy the use of colour is a reasonable and not a fancy matter, & as every extra colour involves an extra printing, the expense alone places a curb upon the exuberance of the craftsman.

12/14 pt | The good man is the reasonable man, and the good work is a reasonable work. In typography the use of colour is a reasonable and not a fancy matter, & as every extra colour involves an extra printing, the ex-pense alone places a curb upon the exuberance of the craftsman.

Light 10/12 pt | The good man is the reasonable man, and the good work is a reasonable work. In typography the use of colour is a reasonable and not a fancy matter, & as every extra colour involves an extra printing, the expense alone places a curb upon the exuberance of the craftsman.

12/14 pt | The good man is the reasonable man, and the good work is a reasonable work. In typography the use of colour is a reasonable and not a fancy matter, & as every extra colour involves an extra printing, the expense alone places a curb upon the exuberance of the craftsman.

Light Italic 10/12pt | The good man is the reasonable man, and the good work is a reasonable work. In typography the use of colour is a reasonable and not a fancy matter, & as every extra colour involves an extra print-ing, the expense alone places a curb upon the exuberance of the craftsman.

12/14pt | The good man is the rea-sonable man, and the good work is a reasonable work. In typography the use of colour is a reasonable and not a fancy matter, & as every extra colour involves an extra printing, the expense alone places a curb upon the exuber-ance of the craftsman.

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candlelight, scratching painstakingly written messages to one’s friends and neighbors using quill pens. This really happened, back in ancient times. Like back when there were mummies and dinosaurs. Before television. Like when Daddy was little. Printing is what you do when you write

letters one at a time, as opposed to script, which is when you write letters so-that-they-connect-to-each-other-Iike-this. Printing is also used to describe what happens when machines (called presses) get hold of all those words, all that typography, and actually press the letters, together, onto paper. Paper is a word that occasionally causes

people to wrinkle up their noses and describe a time when it was customary to wear burlap shoes and sit hunched over, by candlelight, scratching painstak-ingly written messages to one’s friends and neighbors using quill pens. This really happened, back in ancient times. Like back when there were word processors and 8-track tapes. Before computers. Like when Mommy was little. Now here’s the really confusing part. A

lot of people say print is dead. Flat and not moving. Dead, like when we drive down our road and see a rabbit or a woodchuck that didn’t make it across in time? The whole concept of roadkill is something I had hoped to put off for a few years, but I think it’s important for us to get clear about one thing. Print isn’t dead, sweetheart. It’s just sleeping.

Dear Fiona: You are turning two in a few weeks and I think it’s high time you understood a thing or two about graphic design. After all, you are part of Generation ABC and what are ABCs, after all, but typography? And what is typography, you ask? A good question. Typography is letters (and numbers) and

why they look the way they do. Sometimes letters are BIG AND LOUD and some-times letters are small and quiet. Typogra-phy can make words look good. It can also make words look bad. But the way they look-whether they’re pink or purple or big or small or quiet or noisy or happy or scary or funny or weird, well, that’s some-thing that comes from typography. Which is also called type. Which is sometimes called print. Which is a word that occasionally causes

people to wrinkle up their noses and describe a time when it was customary to wear burlap shoes and sit hunched over, by

Sticks and Stones Can Break My Bones but Print Can Never Hurt Me: A Letter to Fiona on First Reading The End of Print

21 March 2000

by Jessica Helfand

WITH APOLOGIES TO FAY WELDON, JANE AUSTEN, AND DAVID CARSON

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So as you begin to learn your ABCs, remember that your mind is like a giant alarm clock that wakes those letters up so that they spell something, so that they mean something, whether they’re on TV or in a book or scratched on the side of a wall somewhere. And while you’re at it, remember that S isn’t the same as 5 and I isn’t the same as 1. Remember that 1 lOV3 U isn’t the same as I LOVE YOU even though it looks cool. Remember that anything that looks cool probably won’t look cool for very long. Remem-ber that very long means, well, probably about a day-and-a-half. Remember that pictures may speak louder than words, but that words speak volumes. Remember that sometimes typography can help you understand something or react to some-thing or feel a certain way faster, but that it probably won’t help resolve conflicts beh-veen embittered nations or advance your capacity for reason or prevent you from getting bee stings or tick bites or chicken pox. Remember that spelling mistakes are celebrated in email but not tolerated in lit-erature. Remember that literature is made up of stories that are what they are be-cause someone wrote them down, letter by letter, word by word, intending for them to be read and remembered and retold for years and years and years to come. Remember that this is why your father and I want you to learn your ABCs, in the order in which they were intended to be learned, even though you can, and will,

mix up the magnets on the refrigerator to proudly spell words like HRLDGSNO and WSIGEFOO and PSTWE1202GE. Someday when you read the work of Ger-trude Stein or look at the work of David Carson you will make sense of such verbal and visual and perceptual aberrations, but until then, my sweet girl, remember that your ABCs are what helps you to read, and reading is what opens up your mind so that you can learn about anything you want. Turtles. Communism. Particle phys-ics. Reading feeds your brain and helps your mind to grow. So today’s Goodnight Moon is tomorrow’s Charlotte’s Web is next year’s Elmer and the Dragon and before you know it you’ll be reading Thomas Hardy and Thomas Mann and A. S. Byatt and V. S. Naipaul, just as your parents did, and our parents did and with any luck, your chil-dren will. And even though we read them printed on papcr and you will very likely read them emblazoned on a screen, do you know what, Fiona? It doesn’t matter, because no matter what the typography does (or doesn’t do), and no matter what print is (or isn’t), words are just ideas wait-ing to be read. And reading will never die. Reading is your ticket to the world.

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Title: 12/14 ptText: 10/12 pt

ABC: BoldBIG AND LOUD: Extra Bold

I LOVE YOU: Extra Bold DisplayHRLDGSNO: Extra Bold Display

fish & chipsLondon

Queen Elizabeth

Big Benroyalty

english muffins

Light Shadowed 48 pt

Shadowed 48 pt

Extra Bold 30 pt

Extra Bold

Display 60 pt

Ultra Bold Condensed

60 pt

Ultra Bold 25 pt

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Light Shadowed

Shadowed

10

AB

YZ

Aa Bb Cc Dd

Ww Xx Yy Zz

CD EF GH

WXUVST

Aa

Aa

Extra Bold Display

Extra Bold

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Bb Cc Dd

Ww Xx Yy Zz

Bb Cc Dd

Ww Xx Yy Zz

Aa

Aa

Ultra Bold Condensed

Ultra Bold

12

Bb Cc Dd

Ww Xx Yy Zz

Bb Cc Dd

Ww Xx Yy Zz

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This book was printed at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. The paper used is copy paper and the binding is short

edge saddle stitched.