Clarendon
Clarendon
Year: 1845
Designer: Robert Besley
Foundry: Fann Street Foundry
Prior to his tenure as the Lord Mayor of London, Robert Besley worked as a printer and typographer. Among his accomplishments as a type designer was the creation of Clarendon in 1845. Clarendon, in addition to being one of the most popular slab-serif faces ever created, is also distinguished by the fact that it was the first typeface to have been registered, what we might refer to today as “trademarked.” Unfortunately, the face was so popular that many knock-offs were produced and flooded into the market in spite of its registered status.
Slab-serifs generally fall into two categories: Antique or Ionic. Antique slabs have bold serifs that meet their respective strokes at a perpendicular angle. Ionic slabs, like Clarendon, have a curved blending element called a bracket that smoothly joins the stroke and serif together. My illustration plays on the dual meanings of “Ionic” by referencing both the typographical and ancient Greek architectural structures associated with the term.