Journal Assignment #2 Morris Fuller Benton (Franklin Gothic)

Franklin Gothic was designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1902 for American Type Founders, although not released till 1905. Franklin Gothic was created as a realist san serif, or in the new-grotesque category meaning they stemmed from the grotesque movement but were considered slightly more elegant with more variation in width (www.bruceclay.com/design/type.htm).

Franklin Gothic was designed to be thicker and more contrasting on paper than it's predecessor News Gothic, also created by Benton (gdpsu.typepad.com). In the picture to the right, News Gothic is displayed as a much stiffer lightweight font and it is easy to see why Franklin Gothic was the more aesthetic choice.



Franklin Gothic differs from other neo-grotesque faces with its characteristic letters like the lower case g and i and the uppercase Q (people.artcenter.edu/~ljohnson1/specimen.pdf). The g is double story with a distinctive ear that gets wider off the counter. The tail of the g is elegant in its varying weight. The Q shows a vertical axis yet is dynamic in its thinning weight towards the cap height and baseline.

Franklin Gothic was "updated" in 1980 by ITC, International Typeface Corporation. They created medium, book, demi, and heavy faces which basically brought this face back to life after fifty years (www.itcfonts.com/Ulc/4112/_IL_FranklinGothic.htm). It's a face that was made to grab attention in newspapers and headings and after it was revived it was used for multiple mediums of design; but this font is still used to grab attention. It's lighter book version is well made for certain types of books and magazines.

 here is a billboard using Franklin Gothic to catch attention by being bold yet extremely legible

 This is a book cover where the font is also used to grab attention

This is a magazine ad where the face is used more in a aesthetic sort of way. To me it looks like the vibrations you hear after a tennis ball has been hit really hard. I like the effect.

Besides Franklin Gothic, Benton designed about 200 other typefaces. These included  "Century roman (with Theodor Low de Vinne, 1885), Mariage (1901), Alternate Gothic (1903), Franklin Gothic (1903–12), Cheltenham® (1904), Clearface® (1907), News Gothic™ (1908), Bodoni (1909), Cloister Oldstyle (1913), Souvenir® (1914), Garamond® (with T. M. Cleveland, 1914), Goudy™ bold, 1916, Century Schoolbook™ (1919), Civilité (1922), Broadway™ (1928), Bulmer™ (1928), Bank Gothic (1930), Stymie (with S. Hess and G. Powell, 1931), American Text (1932)" (www.linotype.com/682/morrisfullerbenton.html)

Obviously Benton was an amazing type designer and influenced much of the history of typography.

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