Christian Schwartz has partnered with Paul Barnes to form Commercial Type, a new type foundry based in London and New York. Please click here to visit our site.
RETAIL FONTS
Commercial Type:
Austin Duplicate Sans (NEW) Duplicate Slab (NEW) Giorgio Giorgio Sans Graphik Guardian Local Gothic Publico Stag Stag Sans Stag Sans Round Stag Stencil
Emigre:
Los Feliz
Font Bureau:
Amplitude Farnham Fritz Pennsylvania
FontFont:
FF Bau FF Meta Headline FF Meta Serif FF Oxide FF Unit FF Unit Slab
House Industries:
Casa Latino! Luxury Luxury Text Neutraface Neutraface Condensed Neutraface No. 2 Neutraface Slab Simian
Linotype:
Neue Haas Grotesk
CUSTOM FONTS UNFINISHED WORK EARLY WORK
ABOUT

   
2003. Designed by Paul Barnes. Commissioned by Sheila Jack at Harper's & Queen. Available for licensing from Commercial Type.



I first met Paul Barnes over the internet in 2002, when he had a question about the lowercase 'g' in FF Bau. If I recall correctly, he didn't like the 2-story version I had included at all and wondered why I hadn't used the "correct form", as he put it.

One of the first times we worked together was on this very loose revival of Richard Austin's work for John Bell in the late 18th century. Richard Austin was the master punchcutter who created the first British modern and the wonderful Scotch Romans. When hired to design a new headline typeface for Harper's & Queen, Britain's version of Harper's Bazaar, Paul thought to flick back through the pages of its 60s precursor, the über cool Queen. The high contrast serif headlines were lovely, but a little too expected in a contemporary fashion magazine. Some time poring through specimens in St Bride's Printing Library inspired the perfect twist: rather than taking our cues from Didot or Bodoni, we would start with Austin's first creation, turn up the contrast, tighten the spacing and make a fresh new look that would look bold and beautiful in the constantly changing world of fashion. The end result is Richard Austin meets Tony Stan, British Modern as seen through the lens of late 1970s New York.

Although Paul did the bulk of the work on this face, I'm including it here because we are licensing it through Schwartzco now that Harper's & Queen no longer has an exclusive on it. Moving from our hostelry of the 19th century, Austin looks perfectly at home in the bright lights of a glamourous night club setting the words of fashion copy whilst we sip our glasses of fine Champagne in our made-to-measure Savile Row suits whilst watching the girls walk past in their beautiful Galliano and McQueen dresses.

Roman, Medium, Semibold, Bold, Extrabold and Fat weights, with italics.







All styles include ligatures. Italic styles include a selection of swash capitals.