Typekit Practice

About face: FF Basic Gothic

Jason Santa Maria, writing for Typekit:

While seemingly simple and straightforward, there’s a touch of whimsy sitting just beneath the surface. Look at the little curled tail on the lowercase “a.” It comes up just a smudge too far, as if to say “you’re not the boss of me!” Similarly, the crossbar on the lowercase “t” sits high like an old man’s pants, and the descenders on the lowercase “j” and “y” hang lower than needed, like when you lazily dip your toes in the water from the edge of a pool.

All of that character doesn’t overwhelm when FF Basic Gothic is used at text sizes, but it does add a small quality of delightful informality to the text.