TYPE-DENTIFIED : New Serif (not really) in town

I have to say that I can count in one hand, serif fonts I would use in my design work. My faves move up and down in my head, very much like songs on a pop chart. Only this chart doesn't have many new entries every week. People I've worked with all know I keep a trim and lean box of fonts. I might even be criticized for being conservative in my typography choices but my philosophy is keep it simple, clean and if it kerns well and has a strong identity that doesn't take over from the design solution but adapts well - it goes in the box! Bodoni use to be top choice until the popular Didot showed up all over Harper's Bazaar redesign. Garamond and Times New Roman are classic but are difficult to work with on-air. Ziggurat Black is great for air if only you want big bold type. It's illegible, too small. And the winner is... Clifford! It's the ligatures and the italics babeh. Looks great big or small. Don't know why but it reminds of Vaughan Oliver .

Designed by Akira Kobayashi, the typeface was published in 1999 by the FontShop Inter­na­tional under the name of FF Clif­ford. The total number of the family is 25, includ­ing fonts with lining fig­ures, expert sets, and bor­ders. In 2000, Clif­ford received the TDC2 Cer­tifi­cate of Excel­lence in Type Design from the Type Direc­tors Club in New York.

For more insight into Mr. Kobayashi's inspiration and design process, click here for the fontfeed.com site. Mr. Kobayashi, I'm a FAN!