Fretboard Journal, No. 40–44
Production Type’s Proto Collection in use for Fretboard Journal, a quarterly print magazine for instrument lovers. Design director André Mora recently refreshed the typographic palette. Starting with issue No. 40, he added a number of Proto fonts to the mix.
While the magazine logo, the subheads, and all body copy are still set in various optical sizes from John Downer’s Paperback, the opening spreads now feature members of Jean-Baptiste Levée’s exploration into early grots and egyptians. In addition to Proto Grotesk and Proto Slab, Mora makes skilled and varied use of the Mono and Slab Condensed styles, too. These appeared in Fretboard Journal already prior to their official release in 2019. The palette is completed by Evert Bloemsma’s FF Balance which is used for captions and other small print.
“Interesting Things”: Proto Slab Condensed Bold for the headline, Paperback for the deck, and caps from Balance for the credits.
“A Southern Line”: Proto Grotesk in all caps from the Bold (yellow) and Regular (white) weights.
Proto Slab Bold for “Diamonds in the Rough”.
Proto Slab Condensed Bold is used with one of its alternate forms for r: The glyph with the vertically cut ending can be accessed via Stylistic Set 7.
Proto Grotesk Bold (black) together with the monospaced Proto Grotesk Mono Light (red and underlined), for a feature about Robert “Big Sandy” Williams.
“Research and Development”: Proto Slab Bold.
Proto Grotesk Bold paired with Proto Slab ExtraLight. With their comparable weights and proportions, the four families are made to be used together.
“A Pirate’s Life For Me” comes in caps from Proto Grotesk Mono Bold.
Proto Slab Condensed Black in all caps for “Bluegrass Like Breathing”.
