| Date: 1820
Designer:
William Thorne
Foundry:
Figgins / Thorowgood / Thorne
Location:
London, England
Current equivalent:
MT Falstaff shown above
See also:
Bauer Roman Extra Bold, Bodoni Poster and Ultra Bodoni, Haas Normande, Big Figgins by Matthew Carter
Technologies:
Metal (foundry)
Metal (machine)
Photosetting
Postscript
Opentype |
| Famous for:
The first typeface expressly designed for advertising posters. Applications: Advertising & Display Ubiquity:
Average use Category:
Fat Face Roman Stress: Vertical
Serifs: Hairline | | Design history:
Like an overweight copy of Bodoni or Scotch Roman, Fat Face exaggerated the stroke contrast to a logical extreme. The serifs and connecting strokes are hairline and bracketed. The earliest example of Robert Thorne's display typeface was created for advertising posters and hoardings in the newly industrialized and urbanised London, where for the first time, type that wasn't inscriptional in nature had to shout and compete for attention in a fast-moving environment. Although the punctuation of these types is nowadays often used for typographic ornament, the entire type when seen together references 19th century Victorian novelty posters. Look for the wrongly-weighted number 8 in the original. | |  |
