Rockwell Font Critique - Rachel Brex

The Rockwell typeface is a slab-serif or “Egyptian” font that was heavily influenced by a font face called Litho Antique in 1910. Due to the popularity of this font and others like it, the American Type Founders reissued the font and in 1931 their chief type designer Morris Fuller Benton modified some of the characters to create Rockwell Antique. In 1934 Montoype works manager Frank Hinman Pierpont commissioned his studio to create and release the Rockwell typeface family. It was unique to its predecessors by including differences in spacing, letter weight and subtle changes in glyph formation.

The Rockwell typeface has a very geometric and linear construction. This is extremely prevalent in the apex of the uppercase ‘A’ and the deep serifs on uppercase ‘T’ and ‘L’. Both cases of the letter ‘o’ are almost perfect circles as opposed to the traditional sense of the letter, which is more of an ellipse. The Rockwell x-height is fairly high compared to other fonts and noticeably short descenders.

The typeface has nearly no contrast between thick and thin as the counters are in perfect proportion and the stroke width of each character is the same thickness of its serifs. This makes Rockwell a very suitable font for headlines rather than lengthy slabs of text because it conveys a sense of authority. It is also useful in other applications that require a strong, bold typeface as its visual impact can be fully exploited.

Being a slab serif font, Rockwell is reminiscent of old poster fonts and Western movie posters paraphernalia. “Slab Serifs are an outlier in the sense that they convey very specific — and yet often quite contradictory — associations: sometimes the thinker, sometimes the tough guy; sometimes the bully, sometimes the nerd; sometimes the urban sophisticate, sometimes the cowboy.” Modern uses of Rockwell include the Guinness Book of Records and the Docklands Light Railway.

One of my favourite uses is Jarratt Moody’s kinetic typography interpretation of a scene from Pulp Fiction. (if this is inappropriate I will remove) 

Rockwell is available in nine different variations, which include italics, different weights and condensed versions. It is a font that is suitable for anything from light print design to very bold type.

References:


http://www.fonts.com/font/adobe/rockwell
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ap1YJePv1Zw/TNnJy98DscI/AAAAAAAAAAU/4DSqAcRoKkg/s1600/REAL%2Brockwell.jpg
http://th00.deviantart.net/fs21/PRE/f/2007/263/b/a/Rockwell_Font_Composition_by_ignari.png
http://www.100besttypefaces.com/16_Rockwell.html
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/12/14/what-font-should-i-use-fiveprinciples-for-choosing-and-using-typefaces/
http://typedia.com/explore/typeface/rockwell/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_(typeface)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slab_serif
http://ilovetypography.com/2008/06/20/a-brief-history-of-type-part-5/
http://desizntech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/04_rockwell.jpg