Avant Garde Gothic Poster Study

This study centers on the typeface Avant Garde Gothic designed by Herb Lubalin. I wanted to know how to access the slanted “A” and other Avant Garde Gothic alternates I had seen on MyFonts and beyond. Following my typographer’s instinct, I found the slanted characters in the Glyphs palette in Adobe Illustrator, along with a cornucopia of other glyphic delights. I haven’t seen such a bounty of useful alternates since that first endless scroll into the glyphs of the Apple Symbols. (Try it.) With tight kearning and experimentation, I was able to easily create some compelling geometric layouts. But I knew I’d need a contrasting shape that breaks though the rigid lines to create organic movement. That’s where the beautiful swooshy bracket from AWConqueror Std Didot Light comes in. I’ve always loved and relied on Didot, but I was unaware of this variant until recently, and I’ll be doing a bit more research on that. Based on this study, I’ve already used these brackets in an unrelated music poster project where they symbolically evoke the ear and listening. The discovery that happens during these kind of geometry and font surveys becomes the basis for my personal visual vocabulary over the coming year. Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear what you think. Which one is your favorite? Follow me on Instagram @yasgraphical.