Public Books
Public Books homepage. Logo in Helvetica Ultra Compressed. MT Grotesque Extra Condensed for headlines and main nav. Grotesque Display Bold Condensed for bylines. OCR-B for nav and slugs. Plantin for text.
Founded in 2012 by Editors in Chief Sharon Marcus and Caitlin Zaloom, Public Books supports an international community of emerging and established intellectuals and artists committed to vigorous debate about works and ideas that deserve timely, intensive discussion.
The site, designed by Common Name and developed by Dan Brewster, makes liberal use of Monotype Grotesque (a family the studio uses for their own site). In this case, the main player is specifically the Extra Condensed style, which was originally issued in metal as an individual typeface (Series 383). This and other disparate Grotesques from Monotype were bundled into a single “family” when the fonts were digitized in 1992 and released as MT Grotesque.
The text face is Plantin, which suits the high-minded writing. It works well on article pages but is too small on the home page. If this site were to be designed today (2016) the makers would probably have chosen larger type and an airier, responsive front page, but I appreciate its newspaper-like density. The color and frames (each representing a category) keep things from getting too stuffy. Overall, I think the site has aged quite well over four years. Larger type and a minor update that adapts to modern screen sizes would be enough to keep it relevant for many more.
Homepage list view.
Filtered by category.
Tag index.
Blog.
Article page.
About page.
Visual essay.
Content management system.
1 Comment on “Public Books”
I really like this – reminds me of Google Keep with the solid colours, which I’m a sucker for. It makes information density feel like a positive without taking it too far.