TypeTalk: Top Fonts of 2008

Ilene Strizver

Q. What typefaces have been hot recently?
A. The past year was a great one for type, with the release of many exciting new typefaces, and the expansion of some tried and true favorites.

Here are links to some of the biggest and best lists of what was hot in 2008, fontifically speaking. They represent a wide range of styles and come from an even broader array of type designers, foundries, and font resellers.

MyFonts

The MyFonts listing of their Top 10 Fonts of 2008 is a great place to start. It showcases the entries in large, illustrative, appealing settings, and includes descriptive copy beneath it. Lots of cool stuff here, including scripts, dingbats, and even monograms.

Veer

Veer’s Faces of the Year: Top 10 Type Stories may not be their best sellers, but they’re certainly designs worth your notice. The big, juicy type samples with economical descriptive copy below them are inviting and exciting.

Ilovetypography.com

While ilovetypograpy.com doesn’t sell fonts, its list of Favourite Typefaces of 2008 is definitely worth a visit if you want to broaden your typographic horizons. The list includes designs from a broad range of foundries, including obscure international designers who are doing exciting work.

FontShop

FontShop’s 20 Typefaces of 2008 is a clever listing of a number of self-awarded categories, included Best No-nonsense Headliner, Sublime schizophrenia, and Most Unconventionally Curvacious. Very original, informative, and entertaining.

FontHaus

This Top 30 Best Selling Fonts of 2008 listing from FontHaus has oldies but goodies and predictable favorites, but there are also more unexpected designs. Check it out!

Fonts.com

You can see Fonts.com’s 25 Best Sellers by clicking a tab on the home page, which brings up clickable spot images for each font that take you to more tabs, which in turn access Sample, About This Font, Try Font, Waterfall, Character Map, and Technical Details. It’s a nice sampling of mostly text families.