Poster Details: JFK and Jackie

JFK and Jackie

Museo + Didot

[ Museo 700 & Didot Italic ]
Substantive, stylish, elegant, with a subtle uniqueness that sets them apart. If you think the previous sentence is talking about John and Jackie, you’re half right. It also refers to the typefaces Museo and Didot.

Many have thought of John F. Kennedy and Jaqueline Bouvier as America’s equivalent to a royal couple, referring to their years together in the White House as Camelot. John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 only cemented this idealized legacy. Given their contributions to society, both continue to linger in the public consciousness. As a nod to their involvement in politics, the circle in the design was drawn from campaign buttons.

As for the typefaces, Museo is one of many new slab serifs that have proliferated since Hoefler & Frere-Jones created the typeface Archer for Martha Stewart Living magazine. It revitalized the slab serif, whose use had waned in the previous 10–15 years. Museo was designed by Jos Buivenga and is clean, elegant and simple, qualities it shares with Didot. Didot was designed by Firmin Didot in Paris in 1783. A contemporary of Bodoni, the face shares many characteristics, chiefly the strong contrast between the thick and thin strokes. They make a beautiful couple, don’t they?

More faces from Jos Buivenga:

Museo Sans, Fontin, Tallys, Calluna, Calluna Sans

Different cuts (versions) of Didot:

Linotype Didot, Didot (H&F), Didot Headline

BTW:

François-Ambroise Didot, father of Firmin, invented the 72-point to 1 French inch system to measure type. Firmin himself invented stereotyping, which was a way to duplicate a printing plate and use it to print (this helped lower the cost to print books).

Sources:

Didot
http://web.archive.org/web/20001209191700/webcom.net/~nfhome/didot.htm
http://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=OLS-US&event=displayFontPackage&code=1355
Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 5th Edition, by Philip B. Meggs, Alston W. Purvis,
published by Wiley.

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