LESSONS

Type Categories, part 07: Slab Serif

Type Categories, part 07

Slab Serif, circa 1825

Originally heavily bracketed serifs, with little variation between thick and think strokes, these faces responded to the newly developed needs of advertising for heavy type in commercial printing. Examples shown: Clarendon, Rockwell, and Serifa

Information cited from: A Type Primer by John Kane and The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

QUICK REMINDER… If you aren’t on the Red News mailing list, you might want to sign up now. We’re going to be sending out our latest “insiders” newsletter very soon. Click “Get the Red News” or “Sign Up Now” in the right hand column to get plugged in.

And now, onto the type lesson for the day. Slab Serifs!

During the early 19th century, especially in Britain, letter drawers began creating thicker versions of common European printing letterforms. These new letter styles were called slab serif or square serifs, and they began to appear throughout British society and began widespread acceptance by artists, artisans, printers, and typefounders. These new faces came to represent the age of industrialization, and also the beginnings of advertising. When slab serifs came on the scene, they marked the birth of type that would be marketed specifically for their “display” use. In case you didn’t know already, many typefaces are created for display or headline use only. They are optimized for their appearance when shown large, and aren’t intended to be used for body text.

More recently, in the 1960′s, Adrian Frutiger designed a well-known slab serif called Serifa. Since then it’s enjoyed widespread popularity. Around the same time he also designed Univers, which is not a slab serif rather a san serif, but happens to be Reddoor’s body typeface for our brand. Serifa and Univers harmonize nicely with each other, so we thought we’d give them a type shout-out here.

rd_loves

Many of the typefaces in the slab serif family are based on woodtype faces that were popular in the Wild West. One example of this “western” style is Neo Contact, a typeface popularized by the way it is used by Marlboro. Here’s one of the original Marlboro Man ads, created in 1967.

marlboro

Slab Serif, circa 1825
type_timeline slab_serif
These type samples show the heavily bracketed serifs, with little variation between thick and think strokes. These faces were perfect for the newly developed needs of advertising and heavy type in commercial printing. Examples shown above are: Clarendon, Rockwell, and Serifa.