TYPOGRAPHY WORKSHOP//TYPEFACE TASK//OUGD504

TYPE FACE CHANGE: COCHIN
Category: serif
Classification: Transitional 
Designer(s): Georges Peignot, Matthew Carter
Foundry: Deberny & Peignot Linotype
Also known as: Sonderdruck 
Cochin is a transitional serif typeface. It was originally produced in 1912 by Georges Peignot for the Paris foundry Deberny & Peignot and was based on the copperplate engravings of French artist Nicolas Cochin, from which the typeface also takes its name. In 1977 Cochin was adapted and expanded by Matthew Carter for Linotype. The font has a small x-height with long ascenders.

The typeface is used in the Harry Potter covers produced by Bloomsbury Publishing.

Cochin was previously a font option in iBooks for the iPad but was replaced in version 1.5 when Athelas, ITC Charter, Iowan Old Style, and Seravek were added.

History:  Cochin was created in 1914 by a French designer named Georges Peignot. Peignot based his design on 18th century copper engravings. The typeface was cut in Peignot’s family’s foundry, Deberny & Peignot. Cochin is named after the French engraver Charles Nicolas Cochin, who was a copper artist. The font, however, has little relevance towards Cochin’s work and instead displays an interesting synthesis of style elements. Cochin coincides well with the typographical Neorenaissance movement and its popularity peaked at the beginning of the 20th century, although is is still widely used and well-known today.

In 1977, Matthew Carter expounded further upon the Cochin font and expanded it into three parts.

Cochin is classified as a serif linotype. The uppercase letters have a squarish quality while the lowercase has long ascenders and sharp serifs. This makes Cochin unique, elegant, and contemporary. One particularly unique letter is the italic lowercase d, due to its curved ascender.

Five descriptive words:

• Elegant
• Formal
• Sharp/precise
• Classical
• Majestic

COCHIN:

TIMES NEW ROMAN:

DIFFERENCES:

I started looking at specific letters within each alphabet and comparing them to see what key differences there were:

As you can see the capital Q's differ quite a lot, I have lowered the opacity on the Times New Roman Q and central aligned and overlaid the Cochin Q to see what is different.  The counter within each Q differs, Times New Romans area is smaller than Cochin's Q.  The tail of each Q has a different shape, Times New Romans Q is attached to the rest of the letter in a downward slanted motion, whereas Cochin's is not attached and curves inwards and then flicks outwards.

The descender on Times new Roman is more of a curved rounded more prominent finish whereas the Cochin J is a swift downward, slightly angled end. The serifs on Times is slanted whereas Cochin's remains straight.

Times New Romans terminal is a lot more rounded than Cochin's that curves at the top but straightens at the bottom.  The heights of the letters are different, with Time's being taller.  And in comparison with the lower case 'j' the serif of Times slants downwards in a more exaggerated way.

The terminal on Times has more of a curved circular shape that is taller than that of Cochin's that has a slightly square terminal.  The flick on the tail of Cochins is extended in comparison to Times.

For the task we had to create an A4 spread about our chosen type face in comparison to times new roman, including the typefaces alphabet, this is my development process and final outcome:

After looking at the letterforms individually I picked out four that I thought had the best contrasts and added the cap height, base line and x height

The name of the typeface 'Cochin' is clear at the top of the page with samples of regular, italic, bold and bold italic, with a small bit of information about its classification and designer etc.  In the top right hand corner I decided to put the alphabets of both type faces.

I then added small lines with information about each specific different in contrast to Times New Roman, and added information about the history of the typeface at the bottom of the page.

FINAL: