The research the studio students put together produced clear results and demands for the appearance and nature of a trendy typeface. The absolute winner in all categories is sans serif. The main foundations for why grotesques are so successful are their multi-purpose application, nice price and free bonus styles, with an average number of 16 styles. Following right behind grotesques are brush scripts. The main requirement for scripts is a number of bonus ornaments, swashes and ligatures, all in one or in no more than three styles. The price range is a bit higher due to the large set of accented ligatures and special symbols. The third most popular typeface is handmade, trash or vintage fonts, created with trembling handwriting, scratching, layered effects and soft, girly handwriting. This type is particularly popular due to its low price, plethora of pictograms and ease of use. What all the bestsellers have in common is their original skeleton and sympatic nature. Twelve students divided up three winning trends, drew the most faithful bestsellers, tried to verify this analytical research in practice and answer the question of whether it is indeed possible to program a typeface so it will be a success.
The Bestsellers project presents 12 typefaces made by 12 students together along with their research, interviews and questionnaires. All typefaces are available at Myfonts.com, catalogue on request at typosemestr@gmail.com.
The project has been realized as the product of a semester-long assignment under the educational guidance of Tomáš Brousil, Karel Haloun and Radek Sidun at the Studio of Type Design and Typography at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague during the autumn 2013/2014 semester.
Thanks to Jan Middendorp, Florian Hardwig, Dan Reynolds, Patricia Lightizer, MyFonts Review Team, Elizabeth Spacilova, Josef Pospíšil, Kateřina Šlaufová, Filip Blažek, Bas Jacobs, and all the designers and contributors featuring featured in this book and project.