Avenir® Webfont in Focus

Foundry’s Description

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Editor’s Notes

Avenir is becoming something of a quietly dominant presence within the design and branding industry, at least when it comes to those companies’ own websites. It’s an unheralded favourite possibly because it remains so inconspicuous, rarely proclaiming itself – but it’s much more than an faceless workhorse.

Avenir has a particular niche attraction for designers who want their typography to be low key and functional, and yet convey a rarified atmosphere tha speaks of informed choice and knowing refinement.

Open counters and a light, even stroke, together with a geometric foundation moderated by humanist elements gives Avenir a light, airy character. Title and paragraph settings have a sense of space that, with other typefaces, usually needs to be gained through increased line or letterspacing.

In its heavier weights, Avenir makes for sturdy but not blocky headlines, while plenty of intermediary weights allow for a full hierarchical range.

Although the Avenir Next update by Linotype’s Akira Kobayashi added true italics to Frutiger’s original family, these aren’t seen very often aside from as emphasis within text. What is perhaps more effective and interesting, at least for title settings, is to pair Avenir with an italic from a didone family – something with a comparable open elegance and upright stress, yet with a dramatic contrast.

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