Job Clarendon Compressed Hairlines by David Jonathan Ross: an elegant super-condensed serif.
I have failed you.
Not you. No, not you either. I mean the one loyal reader among you, the one that reads all of my font reviews and sneaks into my house to steal my stinky socks and used underwear for his sick little shrine. I could be making up part of that last sentence, but I really do think that he reads all of my font reviews.
Anyway. I promised a font review yesterday, but I couldn’t deliver, since my daughter decided that 2am was a really neat time for her to start spinning around in her bed, which — I’ll be honest here — allowed me to watch one more episode of Stranger Things.
So here’s the font review / repentance.
Font review as repentance
Job Clarendon Compressed Hairlines is an interesting one, both in its history and the way you can go about purchasing it.
Job Clarendon, as its designer says
is an homage to the Condensed Clarendon, the versatile bracketed slab serif style that was a mainstay of 19th century British and American job printing.
The particular version we’re looking at today is a super-condensed variant of Job Clarendon that was made to perhaps cross the line between practicality and displayness, something that you’re less likely to think of as legible, more of a statement and a shot at memorability than anything meant to be a comfortable read.
The way to get this font is also pretty novel: you can download it if you have a (monthly, $6 per month) subscription to David Jonathan Ross’s Font of the Month Club. Alternatively, you can buy the entire family starting at $150 (depending on the license you choose) or get individual styles at $50/style.
I’ll be the first to admit that paying a monthly subscription for fonts can sound a bit weird, but there are some amazing fonts to be downloaded, and they always come with interesting insights regarding the thought process that went into their creation. If you’re a type fan, it’ll be money well-spent.
For more info into the David Jonathan Ross’s work, go HERE.
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