This month we welcome the Bodoni cohort, the 28th group of students to have started UX Academy since the program launched!
We’re currently naming cohorts after fabled, famous, and forgotten typefaces (until we get back round to “A”).
Bodoni is a serif typeface that dates from the late 1700s. In fact, it refers to a number of similar serif typefaces originally designed by the Italian designer and printer Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813).
Bodoni is characterized by high stroke contrast—meaning that the horizontal strokes are very thin compared to the vertical strokes. It is also relatively geometric and rational in construction, compared to the more organic shapes in serifs that were in use at the time, like Baskerville and Garamond.
Fonts in the style of Bodoni are often called a “Didones”, after another type designer, Firmin Didot, who created similar typefaces around the same period. Identifont has a useful comparison of the differences between Bodoni and Didot!
Today, this style of type is most often seen in the fashion industry, where it tends to be associated with sleek sophistication and high couture. It’s used in the branding of companies like Elizabeth Arden, Calvin Klein, and Giorgio Armani.
The great twentieth century designer Massimo Vignelli (1931-2014), who was famously fussy with his fonts, counted Bodoni as one of only six typefaces worth using—and even used it to set his Vignelli Canon.
Further reading
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