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shantellBroadway and Thorne’s Fat Face are typefaces with a long and illustrious history. Thorne’s Fat Face is the older of the two typefaces, dating back to the dawn of the nineteenth century. Its creator, Robert Thorne, was a pioneer of typography and a prominent type founder. With the advent of readily-available printing technology, there was a huge rush in print advertising. Thorne’s business was thriving under this demand, and he developed this extra-bold typeface, which was described as “fat”, in 1803.
Thorne’s Fat Face was a sensation. It was sought after by advertisers because its engorged letterforms paired with hair-thin serifs and connecting strokes made it dominate a page (Kennard, 2014, para. 1). It was well-suited for ornamentation because of its thick letters, as can be seen in this reward poster for a missing horse.
Although it was much sought-after by advertisers, critics were aghast. One referred to it as having “preposterous disproportions” (de Jong et al, 2017, p. 108) Despite the criticisms, it was a successful typeface, and ended up having a significant effect on how text was used in advertising.
Before the advent of fat typefaces, advertisements were wordy, with long narratives. Since there was no room for many words on a poster dominated by Thorne’s Fat Face, advertising evolved to use fewer words, and to be punchier and more concise (de Jong et al, 2017, p. 109).
Compare the verbosity of the preceding poster with this poster from the 17th century:
Thorne’s Fat Face made advertising quickly readable without anyone needing to squint.
The next typeface to be compared, Broadway, was and is used for other purposes altogether. Superficially, they seem quite different. Thorne’s Fat Face is turgid and bloated, especially paired with its miniscule serifs. However, Broadway is not entirely dissimilar despite its more elegant appearance. It also relies on the pairing of thick strokes with thin ones, but to a different effect.
Broadway was designed in 1927 by Morris Fuller Benton. Originally, it was created with only uppercase letterforms, but lowercase letterforms were developed in 1929 by Sol Hess (P22 Type Foundry, 2018, para. 1). Unlike Thorne’s Fat Face, Broadway is a decorative sans serif typeface, and where Fat Face evokes a feeling of snake oil salesmen and wanted posters, Broadway is the textual embodiment of the Roaring Twenties. It is the quintessential Art Deco typeface, as can be seen in this poster:
It was also used for its namesake as evinced by this original cast recording for the production of Bullets Over Broadway:
The Broadway typeface contains no descenders in its lowercase letterforms which makes it ideal for bold underlining. Its angular tangents between thick and thin also give it high contrast, making it ideal for colourful compositions (Microsoft, 2018, para. 1).
Both typefaces have a distinct appearance, and both effectively take viewers back to the times in which the letterforms were created.
And here is my study of the two typefaces, hand-drawn on fondant-covered cookies.
De Jong, C., Purvis, A., & Tholenaar, J. (Eds.) (2017). Type: A Visual History of Typefaces & Graphic Styles. Cologne, Germany: Taschen.
Kennard, J. (2014, February 6). The Story of Our Friend, the Fat Face [Blog post]. Retrieved January 24, 2018 from https://fontsinuse.com/uses/5578/the-story-of-our-friend-the-fat-face
Microsoft (2018). Microsoft Typography: Broadway. Retrieved January 24, 2018 from https://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/family.aspx?FID=86
P22 Type Foundry (2018). Broadway. Retrieved January 24, 2018 from https://p22.com/family-Broadway
Thorne’s Fat Face was a sensation. It was sought after by advertisers because its engorged letterforms paired with hair-thin serifs and connecting strokes made it dominate a page (Kennard, 2014, para. 1). It was well-suited for ornamentation because of its thick letters, as can be seen in this reward poster for a missing horse.
Although it was much sought-after by advertisers, critics were aghast. One referred to it as having “preposterous disproportions” (de Jong et al, 2017, p. 108) Despite the criticisms, it was a successful typeface, and ended up having a significant effect on how text was used in advertising.
Before the advent of fat typefaces, advertisements were wordy, with long narratives. Since there was no room for many words on a poster dominated by Thorne’s Fat Face, advertising evolved to use fewer words, and to be punchier and more concise (de Jong et al, 2017, p. 109).
Compare the verbosity of the preceding poster with this poster from the 17th century:
Thorne’s Fat Face made advertising quickly readable without anyone needing to squint.
The next typeface to be compared, Broadway, was and is used for other purposes altogether. Superficially, they seem quite different. Thorne’s Fat Face is turgid and bloated, especially paired with its miniscule serifs. However, Broadway is not entirely dissimilar despite its more elegant appearance. It also relies on the pairing of thick strokes with thin ones, but to a different effect.
Broadway was designed in 1927 by Morris Fuller Benton. Originally, it was created with only uppercase letterforms, but lowercase letterforms were developed in 1929 by Sol Hess (P22 Type Foundry, 2018, para. 1). Unlike Thorne’s Fat Face, Broadway is a decorative sans serif typeface, and where Fat Face evokes a feeling of snake oil salesmen and wanted posters, Broadway is the textual embodiment of the Roaring Twenties. It is the quintessential Art Deco typeface, as can be seen in this poster:
It was also used for its namesake as evinced by this original cast recording for the production of Bullets Over Broadway:
The Broadway typeface contains no descenders in its lowercase letterforms which makes it ideal for bold underlining. Its angular tangents between thick and thin also give it high contrast, making it ideal for colourful compositions (Microsoft, 2018, para. 1).
Both typefaces have a distinct appearance, and both effectively take viewers back to the times in which the letterforms were created.
And here is my study of the two typefaces, hand-drawn on fondant-covered cookies.
References
De Jong, C., Purvis, A., & Tholenaar, J. (Eds.) (2017). Type: A Visual History of Typefaces & Graphic Styles. Cologne, Germany: Taschen.
Kennard, J. (2014, February 6). The Story of Our Friend, the Fat Face [Blog post]. Retrieved January 24, 2018 from https://fontsinuse.com/uses/5578/the-story-of-our-friend-the-fat-face
Microsoft (2018). Microsoft Typography: Broadway. Retrieved January 24, 2018 from https://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/family.aspx?FID=86
P22 Type Foundry (2018). Broadway. Retrieved January 24, 2018 from https://p22.com/family-Broadway
