Courrier International
Opposites attract in Porter & Leeds’ design for a French news magazine.
Courrier International. Click to enlarge.
“Long Courrier” arts and entertainment section. Click to enlarge.
Mark Porter’s first gig since leaving The Guardian — where he led a groundbreaking redesign — is Courrier International, a newsprint magazine published in Paris. The collaboration with Mark Leeds is a striking design both in its color (caution yellow for this first issue) and its typography, featuring Joshua Darden’s Omnes and Freight.
Omnes and Freight typefaces by Joshua Darden
Omnes is the kind of doughy, cheerful face that you would never choose for news, but Porter took a chance and makes it work. Perhaps because Freight is such a good pairing. Folks are always asking how to pick typefaces that work together. One method is to look for contrast. Courrier takes that to the max, pairing a heavy, soft sans with the angular, thick-thin serif. The two typefaces have nothing to do with each other — other than being well made — but it’s a happy marriage.
Like many other Freight users, the designers found that Micro, an unsual subfamily designed for very small text, makes for interesting headline type too.
Omnes and Freight Micro in Courrier International, September 2010
Courrier International, September 2010. Click to enlarge.
Courrier International, September 2010
3 Comments on “Courrier International”
Forgive me, still a bit awestruck by Fonts In Use. Like I've walked into a new store, and am slowly realizing that its shelves are full of my next favorite things. Thanks so much for making this!
Omnes and Freight make a wonderful pairing. Another piece of advice I've found useful for choosing and combining type is to stick with one designer, and that applies here. Maybe it's for that reason that I see complementary details in the two faces. Slant angles feel the same, cap to x-height feels the same...
But this is a really phenomenal match, and the typesetting of the magazine is brilliant. So many great decisions.
I agree that the pairing is working well, though it's hard to say much about how the details were handled from these images. Do you have any higher-res samples of the interior typesetting Stephen?
These images come from Mark Porter’s website. I'll ask him for larger samples.