Farey’s notable revivals include ITC Highlander, designed in 1993 and based on the letterforms of the Chicago letterer Oswald Cooper. The ITC Golden Cockerel typefaces were developed from Eric Gill’s private press original, and ITC Johnston was inspired by Edward Johnston’s sans serif letterforms from the early 20th century.
Two Kinds of Work
At HouseStyle Graphics, based in London, Farey and his design partner Richard Dawson specialize in typeface design, corporate identities, and magazine mastheads, mostly in Britain but also as far as the USA, Japan and Sweden.
Farey’s work falls mainly into two categories: commissions and commercial fonts. “Commissions are all about compromises, and using your experience to come up with a suitable answer for the design problem,“ he says. “But the breadth of work is enormous, from a corporate alphabet that may need to last for 5 to 10 years, to film titles that will be used only once, but could be seen over and over again.”
Commercial fonts are entirely different, Farey explains. “That’s the opportunity to be creative, on your own.” But even here he imposes restraints on his designs. “I’m very conscious of type being fit for a purpose, and I build in legibility factors in all my designs. It’s important to me that my typefaces can be read.”
Getting Started
Farey says that the design process for him starts with “some nicely formed letters set in a word.” He then expands on these foundational designs until most of the capitals and lowercase letters are rendered. Farey then goes back over these letters to insure that they are compatible with each other. “It’s always a surprise to check the first drawings against the finished versions,” he says. “Often the letters that were inspirational to the design have changed and become subservient to the rest of their companions.”
“I like my mastheads and logos to have an alphabetic base,” says Farey, noting that, on more than one occasion, “a project involving just a few letters developed into an alphabet once the client appreciated the benefit of a fully integrated identity.”
Farey remains busy with a number of commissioned projects which provide the variety of work which Farey considers essential for a good understanding of contemporary alphabetic letterforms. Last year, he and Richard Dawson created La Gioconda, a classic Roman, which was used by Hopkins Baumann for the Barnum & Bailey Ringling Bothers circus program.
His current projects include both Latin and Arabic word sets, typefaces for backlit signage and websites, and being type design consultant to the London Times newspaper.
Typefaces Designed by Farey
ITC Beesknees
ITC Golden Cockerel
ITC Highlander
ITC Johnston
ITC Ozwald