First magazine (2006)

Now at age sixteen, Joshua Darden’s Jubilat is an established choice among contemporary slab serifs for editorial design and beyond. It has been put to use by Politico, CNET, NatWest, and An Event Apart, with the Bernie Sanders for President campaign from 2015/2016 arguably being its most iconic application to date.

Shown here is its first use from back in 2006, for a magazine aptly named First. Michael Picón, at that time Art Director at Emap Publishing Ltd. in London, commissioned a typeface to be used in a new lifestyle/celebrity magazine “aimed at thirtysomething women, promising to bring them the real-life stories behind the headlines.” [The Guardian] First was launched in May 2006, initially as a weekly publication. In the first few months, its editors were apparently obsessed with Madonna and her alleged desire to have another baby by Christmas, as documented here.

What’s also visible in the images is that Picón used Jubilat for most larger text, from the cover typography to story titles, drop caps, and pull quotes. The fledgling font family already spanned several weights as well as the italics with cursive elements – something that was still quite rare for a slab at that time. The development of Jubilat was further underwritten by Tatler Asia and La Semaine. In 2008, it was officially released by Darden Studio. Today Jubilat offers eleven weights from Hairline to Black, in roman and italic styles, and comes with various alternates and arrows.