About halfway through conducting the interviews for this, I realized how much trouble I had gotten myself into.
“I feel like… I feel like you just asked me ‘What’s the meaning of life?’ or who my favorite child is.” said Mary Aaron, our Senior Art Director.
And really, when it comes down to it, I was. I was asking people to tell me their favorite child out of thousands of typefaces, and even hundreds of thousands of more fonts. But in the end, it got done. Somehow, our creative department sifted through their years of knowledge and favoritism and picked their favorites (except for Tiffany.) So here we are! The many types of AMG.
Dirk Ronk: Associate Creative Director
“Well… It’s not Helvetica, that’s for sure. That’s everyone’s favorite. I’m a serif guy. I love serifs. If I really had to pick one, it would be Times Roman Bold. It’s thick and thin. It’s both at the same time, but still bold. It’s very tight but it really holds its weight nicely.”
“That’s what I learned to comp best when I was in college. Those freehand comps ended up making up the bulk of our portfolios when we went out to look for jobs.”
Nick Rivas: Art Director
“Mine’s going to be a really hipster answer… Well, hipster reason, at least. It’s Futura. I really like the simplicity of it even though it has really staggered points. The way the ‘S’s flow is great. Sometimes they’re too close and look crowded.”
“But the main reason is because that’s the font that Wes Anderson uses in all his movies. It really gives his films that ‘homestead’ feel to them.”
Mary Aaron: Senior Art Director
“I feel like… I feel like you just asked me ‘What’s the meaning of life?’ or who my favorite child is…” She looks up and stares blankly at the wall of her desk. “Can I think about it and get back to you? There’s so many…”
As I started to get up and move on to Jen, she looks at me and says, “Helvetica. It’s classic. It’s got a new/old, old/new look and feel to it… Of course, that’s coming from an ‘old’ perspective, but Helvetica’s definitely my favorite.”
“I’m going to change my answer a couple more times, so just be ready. I know I’m going to change it.”
(She still hasn’t changed her mind.)
Jen Fuentes: Art Director
“I think my favorite font has to be Sentinel. I love a slab serif and it has a good range of weights. Its also super versatile. Also Sentinel Light Italic is just so pretty. I like pretty things.”
Rick Morrison: Production Artist
As I was working on these answers, I was told several times that I should ask Rick about his.
Reed: “Rick, I’m doing a blog on everyone in the creative department’s favorite font, and I’ve gathered that you have some pretty strong opinions on this. What’s your favorite font and why?”
Before he starts to answer, he laughs.
Rick: “Yeah I do. It’s Courier. I’ve been doing art for 20 years, and it’s always been Courier. When something used to mess up and I’d see it go into production, it would always default to Courier. I like it because it’s nostalgic, because it’s funny, but mostly because it’s just plain and simple. It’s just plain old Courier.”
Chris Pawlik: Creative Director
“Prozak—it makes me happy.”
Tiffany Gabaldon: Senior Art Director
“I’m a type junkie… I love them all. I really do. I can’t say I have a favorite. I am truly a type junkie. I really don’t have a go-to font. I mean… I have top five lists: top five serifs, top five sans-serifs, top five slab-serifs… But really I can’t stand using just one font. Things start to feel stagnate. I like to mix it up.”
“I do have a favorite symbol, though. It’s definitely the ampersand. Look at this ampersand. Check it out.”
Tiffany proceeded to pull up an ampersand from one of our type folders.
“Look at this. This is my favorite ampersand right now. Isn’t this a beautiful ampersand?”
Reed: “What font is that in?”
Tiffany: “Bella.”
Reed: “Alright. I’ll put you down for Bella.”
Reed Hartman: Copywriter
“Mine would have to be Garamond. I was in yearbook in high school and we used Adobe Garamond Pro for our layout my junior year. That’s when I fell in love with it. It’s just such a classic font. It has such a classic feel and look to it. It may be boring or too simple, but that’s really the beauty of it. It’s just got that ‘I know I’m simple but I’m awesome’ air to it.”
What did I learn from this lesson in fonts? Everyone has their favorite child; sometimes it’s just hard to say it out loud.