bit confused...

...I am, about just what the designers at Smithsonian have been thinking lately. A beautiful, informative, and important American monthly has become muddled in typographic experimentation. Formerly eschewing all faces but PMN Caecilia and FB Village (an unintuitive, albeit harmonious, marriage), the magazine floated Helvetica (mon Dieux!) over a downright cute cover shot last October, making me wonder momentarily if I hadn’t received my neighbor’s issue of Parenting.

Since then, however intact the marriage has remained, FB Village has been stretched and compressed nearly beyond recognition (for example, see cover, March 2002, and article “Kung Fu U.,” May 2002), and yet another face has been introduced – FB Relay, by Cyrus Highsmith – which is sprinkled on the cover for May and used in titling as well for July.

One of two “American” typefaces released in recent days (the other being Tobias Frere-Jones’s Gotham), Relay is offered in Regular and Italic in five weights and four widths. It will make you think of Gill Sans, Metro, Nobel, and perhaps even Tempo and Arta. Yet it is distinct, and the flexibility of the series, along with its pedigree, should ensure wide use.

Just don’t tease me with it, Smithsonian. Don’t make me ask, every few months, “Who are you now?” Divorce Caecilia from Village, and introduce Relay. Use it generously and decisively, and for keeps.

28-June 2002