Our Father, Who Art In Typeface Classification
The Vox System is the closest we’ll ever get to Classification Nirvana.
His classification isn’t the first, but French Critic, Maximilien Vox’s Vox System, introduced in 1954, is certainly one of the most lauded. Google ‘typeface classification system’ and Vox is going to be in your first five hits. Vox was an art theorist and historian of French typography. And according to our research; he is king, he is the master. He is, for our intents and purposes, not perfect, but the father of modern type classification.
His systems consists of ten main categories, our second single-level classification. He uses a lot of the established terminology, as well as inventing some of his own vocabulary.
As is in vogue, Vox classifies the serif typefaces based upon their historical period, from the Venetian humanist letter to the modern Didone. The remainder of typefaces, by comparison, are named by the visual appearance of the letter.
Maximilien Vox, ever the perfectionist, revised his system several times, resulting in certain inconsistencies. Some scholars report that the Vox System sub-classifies the Lineals (Sans-Serifs) into Grotesque, Neo-Grotesque, Geometric and Humanist, but we maintain that this addition was made in one of the later revisions, likely the 1961 Vox-ATypI System.
To classify the Serif typefaces, Maximilien Vox gets a little creative with his frankenwords (or portmanteau for the upper class among us). He invented the term Geralde, a nod to Claude Garamond and Aldus Manutius (the elder), two prolific printers who practiced in the fifteenth centuries, who made type in the French style (more contrast between the thicks and thins, and more delicate proportions than Venetian type).
This term is far more specific than the much-used and general Old Style, but in it’s newness, it was criticized for being unrecognizable (this was before Obama, back when we were still afraid of Change). Those critics had a point, but ultimately they were wrong (just like the Tea Partiers), as Geralde has outlasted the Vox System, and been used in many typeface classification systems since.
Vox did a similar thing with his term Didone (for the Modern serifs), combining the surnames for Firmin Didot and Giambattista Bodoni, still the most popular and oft-copied Modern types to this day.
Lineal, Vox’s term for Sans-Serifs, hardly carried the criticism that his portmanteau did, which is perplexing to say the least. Lineal carries the false assumption that sans serif typefaces are inherently (and all) monoline. The term remained popular for several decades before it was replaced by sans serif around the 1980s.
The Vox System undergoes a massive revision in the early 60s, with the help of ATypI (tune in next week), which goes on to be the most trusted name in typeface classification systems. But we first wanted to offer you a peak behind the curtain, to the humble beginnings of our father, Maximilien Vox.
