Joanna (typeface)
 |
|
| Category | Serif |
|---|---|
| Classification | Various; slab |
| Designer(s) | Eric Gill |
| Foundry | Monotype (general release) |
| Variations | Joanna Nova (shown) Joanna Sans |
 |
|
| Category | Sans-serif |
|---|---|
| Classification | Humanist |
| Designer(s) | Terrance Weinzierl |
| Foundry | Monotype |
Joanna is a serif typeface designed by Eric Gill (1882–1940) in the period 1930–31, and named for one of his daughters. Gill chose Joanna for setting An Essay on Typography, a book by Gill on his thoughts on typography, typesetting, and page design. He described it as "a book face free from all fancy business."
In designing Joanna, Gill took inspiration from the types of Robert Granjon (1513–1589). The underlying armature of both the roman and italics bear similarities with Granjon's type. However, the spare, sharp squared serifs and minimal contrast of strokes give the design a 20th-century modernist feeling, reminiscent of the slab serifs of the nineteenth century but far lighter than most typefaces of this genre. This is very similar to Gill's earlier typeface Solus, in many ways a predecessor to Joanna, in which Gill intended to create a design inspired by the basic structure of slab-serifs of the nineteenth century, with their almost-monoline structure and simple block serifs, but adapted to be suitable for body text. (Solus was never particularly popular, perhaps because it did not have an italic.)
Many of the letter forms of Joanna are characteristic of Gill's preferences, for example the lack of serif on the top left of the 'a', the splayed leg of the 'R' and handwriting-like italic 'g', with many similarities to his stonecarving and also to his other serif typefaces, Cockerel and Perpetua, for example in its handwriting-style italic 'g'. The italics are more vertical than Granjon's with only a slope of about 3°: indeed, in the original cut Gill did not bother to have italic capitals created, simply using the upright ones. The 'f', too, does not descend below the baseline.
The typeface was originally designed for proprietary use by Gill's printing shop Hague & Gill, run with his son-in-law René Hague. The type was first produced in a small quantity by the Caslon Foundry for hand composition.
Later around 1937, Monotype recut Joanna for their hot metal typesetting system for exclusive use by publisher J. M. Dent. It was eventually licensed for public release by Monotype in 1958, after Gill's death, when J.M. Dent's exclusivity expired. It was first shown in the Monotype Recorder in 1958, accompanied by an exhibition on his work.
...
Wikipedia