It's the time of year when end-of-year lists pile up online like great snowdrifts, and I see no reason for me to refrain from adding another flake to the heap. So here is my list of The Top 9 Double-Storey Lowercase Roman As of 2009.

9. Yoga, by Xavier Dupré. This little a is classic Dupré: teetering between formal rigor and idiosyncratic whimsy. The tail makes you want to pat it on its head, the chiseled terminal makes you realize that would be an embarrassing miscalculation.

8. Museo Slab 100, by Jos Buivenga. I love the huge, welcoming, teardrop-shaped counter. The quick bend to the tail reminds me of a paper clip in all the right ways.

7.Breuer Condensed, by Silas Dilworth. This is a ringer in a way. While I do love this a, the a I really love is the one in the regular, non-condensed Breuer — which came out in 2007.

6. Adelle, by José Scaglione and Veronika Burian. There's something inexplicably wonderful about the flatness of the curve at top, and the way it hooks back in. It just feels right.

5. Milo Serif, by Michael Abbink. As fluid and approachable as Cronos but with more edge. A great a to keep in mind for that tattoo you mentioned wanting to get — you know, the one of a lowercase a.

4. Dobra Slab, by Dino dos Santos. Dino dos Santos has been on a serious streak, with Prelo, Glosa, Esta, and Leitura getting slobbered on left and right — and then there's Nyte of course. Dobra Slab keeps the streak alive. The way the upper stroke is perfectly flat on the inside and slopes down gently on the outside just kills me for some reason. The slab spur is just this side of too long.

3. Sentinal, by Hoefler & Frere-Jones. The turned-up spur and ball terminal are pure
A is for Apple, but there's an understated sophistication here that nobody other than H&FJ could pull off.

2.Vekta Serif, by Neil Summerour. I love this a's low stance — it reminds me so much of a VW GTI: sporty without being aggressive. Street-racing on weekends but test-acing on school days.

1. Hopeless Diamond, by Jonathon Barnbrook. There's only one word for this a: Ugh. Not the ugh elicited by disgust, but the ugh of seeing something so incredibly awesome that it beggars intellectual reponse and enters the realm of the erotic.
Oh, and it's called HOPELESS DIAMOND. Uggggghhhh.

Posted in Typography, Writing