When asked to choose two typefaces to discuss and critique I found it hard to narrow down the pack. Serif or sans serif? Open type or true type? Transitional, modern or slab? To make it easier on myself, I decided to focus on some high-quality free fonts I had recently discovered, not only to have an excuse to play around with and get to know them, but also to share some resources with my blog readers.
Ripe
Ripe was developed by designer Cameron Sweeney in 2008 and released for free to help promote the launch a typography website called RipeType in 2009. A modern-looking and unique serif, the Ripe font family consists of four separate weights containing 577 characters each. The stroke weight does not vary throughout each character and its signature seems to be the stick-straight descenders on the lower-case letters. There are also alternate letterforms with looped descenders as seen in the RipeTipe logo. You can access these via the ‘glyphs’ panel in InDesign or Illustrator.
I would argue that Ripe is a fresh, contemporary typeface and could be applied quite well in titles and headers or redrawn as an effective, aesthetically pleasing logo. I believe its downfall lies within its use as body copy because when it’s placed at a small point size, its legibility falters.
Sadly, Sweeney’s portfolio site doesn’t seem to be working at the moment so I can’t check out his other work. However, the entire Ripe family can be downloaded for free here.
Chunk
When I first saw Chunk, I started salivating. So slabby! So serif-y! So FREE! I’ve always been a big fan of blunt slab serifs like Rockwell but I’ve never been satisfied with their ultra bold weights. Seemed to me they just didn’t have enough….well, chunk!
Designer Meredith Mandel explains the origins of Chunk on her website explaining she was inspired by “old American Western woodcuts, broadsides, and newspaper headlines.”
Chunk is definitely best reserved for signage and display designs. Anything that needs to say “HEY! Listen up ‘cause I’m not going anywhere!” The amount of stability built into each character really catches the eye and calls for attention. I personally can’t wait for the right project to come along so I can use Chunk.
Chunk can be downloaded for free at The League of Moveable Type, a website started by design firm A Good Company as an open source font project.
One might think that a high quality typeface would never be given away as a free download. However, it has been shown to be an effective way to promote yourself as a type designer or your design firm.
Free font resources:
http://www.ripetype.com.au/?cat=21
http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/
http://www.creativepro.com/article/free-all-freebies-us-you
http://veer.com/free
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