Hobo (typeface)

Hobo
Category Sans Serif
Classification Display
Designer(s) Morris Fuller Benton
Foundry American Type Founders
Date created 1910
Date released 1910 + 1915
Re-issuing foundries Intertype
Trademark 1915

Hobo is a sans serif typeface. It is unique in having virtually no straight lines and no descenders. It was created by Morris Fuller Benton and issued by American Type Founders in 1910. A light version, Light Hobo, was released in 1915. Matrices were offered for mechanical composition by Intertype. Hobo possesses uniquely organic and art nouveau-style features. The lower case letters provided the basis for Robert Wiebking's Advertisers Gothic of 1917.[1]

Its name came from a story stating that it was sketched in the early 1900s, sent to the foundry nameless, and progressed so little for so long, that it was called "that old hobo". Hobo, originally called Adface, was finally patented in 1915 along with Light Hobo.[2]

Digital versions of this face are often found in Mac OS and Microsoft Windows systems.

Usage in popular culture

Hobo was used as the main typeface in the title sequence and promotional materials of the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.[3]

References

  1. "Advertisers Gothic lower case sample". http://luc.devroye.org/showcase-hih/''.
  2. McGrew, Mac (1993). American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century. Oak Knoll Books. p. 181. ISBN 0-938768-39-5.
  3. Landekic, Lola (February 18, 2014). "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) — Art of the Title". Art of the TItle. Retrieved May 15, 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hobo.