Bodoni

Bodoni is a serif typeface that is considered to be a so called ‘classic’; a typeface that remains true to its origins and in its familiarity and simplicity endures as a classic typographic choice. The name gives away its Italian heritage and like all classic Italian designs, not just those of the typographic world, Bodoni exudes a stylishness defined by its sophistication and grace.

The typeface’s history dates back to the late 18th Century. Named after its creator Giambattista Bodoni, the Duke of Parma, this Italian classic was developed in the 1790’s. The Duke was the director of Stamperia Reale, the official press of Ferdinand and he was in charge of printing and producing official documents. It was through this office that the Duke developed the typeface which would bare his name.

Bodoni abandoned the Old Style roam serifs towards the late 1790’s in search of a new typographic form. Instead of tapering the serif into the horizontal strokes in the conventional manner, he developed a more geometric and mathematical approach which was emphasized by the contrast of thick strokes and thin serifs, which formed upright angles. The result was a balanced and considered typeface that celebrated this clinical mathematic andgeometric approach. However, the design still retained a certain life through its high contrast in the strokes and promotes legibility in partnership with style.

Bodoni is quite similar to, and often confused with its French counterpart from the same era, Didot. This is because they both fall into the Didone modern classification, which is characterized by slab-like serifs without brackets, thick verticals with a strong contrast to the thin horizontals and a genral unornamentated ‘modern’ appearance. Bodoni himself did infact draw inspiration from the work of Didot but did indeed develop his own style which built upon the early advances of his contemporaries and later helped define the Didone classification. This was the beginning of the modern style and was a departure from the hanlettering and calligraphic characterisitics of an earlier era.

Today Bodoni exists in many different incarnations. Two of the most common renditions are Henrich Jost’s Bauer Bodoni for the Bauer foundry as well as Morris Fuller Benton’s for America Type Founders, Inc. It is implemented in a variety of ways in print media. While utilzed mainly in the area of publishing design it is also employed in packaging design as well as advertising. This is often due to Bodoni’s pure elegance and subsequent connotations with qualuty, superiority and taste. Strangely enough, an application that garnered the typeface a great deal of attention perhaps without educated recognition was its appearance as the title-logo for 1990’s grunge band Nirvana.

Whatever the application and regardless of what version, Bodoni will always exude elegance, luxury and sophistication.