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It will come as no surprise that type and color associated with industrial
processes or environments will seem mechanical—either in the geometric
quality of the typefaces’ structure or decorative details or in the colors’
associations with raw materials. Similar to some “artificial” typefaces,overtly
industrial typefaces exhibit extremely geometric construction and near–
mathematically uniform proportions. Typefaces whose structure is based
on a square, in which curves are replaced by horizontal and vertical strokes,
are an exceptionally austere example of this kind of structure. Some bitmap
typefaces, whose compositional elements fall on a grid and are more square
themselves, feel industrial. Although bold and heavy sans serifs most often
communicate the heavy, machine-weight quality of industry, some serifs—
especially slab serifs and hybrid serif gothics such as Copperplate or Bank
Gothic—have industrial qualities because their serifs are small and their
curved forms are squared out. Condensed, heavyweight faces in which the
shoulders and branches are forced to turn abruptly are also strongly indus-
trial in quality. Typefaces that include the evidence of industrial processes,
such as etching, bleaching, scoring, routing, or patterning, or abstract
graphic references to gears, nuts and bolts, and so on, impart a decidedly
industrial message.
The grinding gears of machinery, clouds of smoke and steam, concrete,
steel, iron, and oil—the colors of industry, as well as appropriate type-
faces that feel industrial, bring to mind the grand strength and grime of
the factory.
Catalog Cover
top, and detail, bottom
Untitled
Zoe Scutts
Kent United Kingdom
Industrial
Concepts
126
(Provision) Type Style Finder
L805.130 / 4228
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