Century

The random font,  I have been given for the Alphabet Soup brief is Century. I spent the majority of this afternoon researching and thinking about the typeface to help me develop a concept that is aware of the history, anatomy and uses of Century. Century is: 

• Seriffed
• American
• Designed by Linn Boyd Benton
• Release year:  1894 (1917-1923)

My initial thoughts about the font were it was very old-fashioned. On our table, we passed our each others fonts around and we each wrote down what they made us think of. The words associated with mine were: 

• Formal
• old-fashioned
• neat
• graveyard
• curved
• precise

I next looked at two different variations of Century: 

New Century Schoolbook

New Century Schoolbook: The variation of century was designed for educational texts and it quickly became the standard for any book intended for youth demographic. Its a more friendly, comfortable feeling of the typeface. The large counters and ball terminals make the shapes quite round. Putting the reader at ease

Eames Century Modern

Eames Century Modern: This actually never made a typeface. This is work of Charles and Ray Eames who played on the New Century Schoolbook style, yet it is a lot more exaggerated. Its well-crafted, the serifs are a lot more frisky and the tails curl inwards.