Jackson Burke was born in 1908 in San Francisco. Burke was a book designer who worked for Mergenthaler Linotype. He succeeded C.H. Griffith as Director of Typographic Development and held the position from 1948 until 1963. It was in ’48 that Burke designed the Trade Gothic typeface, and continued working on it throught ’60. Besides Trade Gothic, Burke also designed the Aurora typeface (1) or News 706 typeface - depending on the source, the typeface's name changes. Besides the introduction of Trade Gothic into the typeface world, Burke was also responsible for other notable achievements: the development of fonts for Native American languages, the development of the TeleTypesetting System for magazine use, and the planning and carrying out of the first phase of Linotype Group’s photocomposition library. Burke passed away in ’75 at the age of 67.
Trade Gothic was first designed in 1948. Burke continued working on different weight and width combinations of the typeface through 1960. The final count included 3 weights and 3 widths. The Grotesque-classified sans serif typeface was first published by Mergenthaler, and is now published by Linotype. After its initial release, Trade Gothic became a stable in American design — at one point it was seen as a competitor to the beloved Helvetica typeface. Today, it is most often seen in the advertising industry; the condensed weights are popular in newspaper headline design. Trade Gothic is known for not having as many unifying elements within the typeface compared to other sans serif typefaces. It is said that this gives Trade Gothic a earthy naturalism appeal to it — this is often seen in hand drawn typefaces. In 2008, Akira Kobayashi, Linotype’s current Type Director, oversaw the redesign of the typeface, resulting Trade Gothic Next. The main focus of the redesign was to remove the inconsistencies found within Trade Gothic – the inconsistencies from not having unified elements. It also addressed other elements such as terminal and stroke endings, symbols, and the spacing and kerning of the letters within the typeface. As a result, a more self-harmonious typeface was created for use.
When I first looked at Trade Gothic, I didn’t notice anything super interesting. A standard sans serif typeface, if I were quickly looking for a typeface to use in a project, Univers or Helvetica would likely come first as my choice. The more I looked, the more I began to notice some details about Trade Gothic that gave it a more interesting quality than I initally thought. The sturdy structure of the ‘K’ and ‘R,’ the quirkiness of the capital Q’s tail compared to other typeface’s, the tall x-height all started to stand out to me. The condensed version stood out as a great choice to set something in all caps, like one of its main uses: setting headlines in a newspaper. Looking through the various weights within the Trade Gothic family, I noticed many of the inconsistencies I had read about — I still thought of it as a unified typeface, despite its lack of unifying elements. In a way, this lack of unified elements actually unifies it, making it distinctly the Trade Gothic family.
"Many of these typefaces had only capitals or exist only in centuries-old specimen books, but a number of them are still quite commonly used. These typefaces tend to be very idiosyncratic, with awkward weight distribution around bowls of characters and irregular curves."
or
"They tend to display some variation in the thickness of strokes, but the contrast does not show calligraphic influence or a logical pattern. The style became more sophisticated over the course of the 19th century."
Trade Gothic was first designed in 1948. Burke continued working on different weight and width combinations of the typeface through 1960. The final count included 3 weights and 3 widths. The Grotesque-classified sans serif typeface was first published by Mergenthaler, and is now published by Linotype. After its initial release, Trade Gothic became a stable in American design — at one point it was seen as a competitor to the beloved Helvetica typeface. Today, it is most often seen in the advertising industry; the condensed weights are popular in newspaper headline design. Trade Gothic is known for not having as many unifying elements within the typeface compared to other sans serif typefaces. It is said that this gives Trade Gothic a earthy naturalism appeal to it — this is often seen in hand drawn typefaces. In 2008, Akira Kobayashi, Linotype’s current Type Director, oversaw the redesign of the typeface, resulting Trade Gothic Next. The main focus of the redesign was to remove the inconsistencies found within Trade Gothic – the inconsistencies from not having unified elements. It also addressed other elements such as terminal and stroke endings, symbols, and the spacing and kerning of the letters within the typeface. As a result, a more self-harmonious typeface was created for use.
When I first looked at Trade Gothic, I didn’t notice anything super interesting. A standard sans serif typeface, if I were quickly looking for a typeface to use in a project, Univers or Helvetica would likely come first as my choice. The more I looked, the more I began to notice some details about Trade Gothic that gave it a more interesting quality than I initally thought. The sturdy structure of the ‘K’ and ‘R,’ the quirkiness of the capital Q’s tail compared to other typeface’s, the tall x-height all started to stand out to me. The condensed version stood out as a great choice to set something in all caps, like one of its main uses: setting headlines in a newspaper. Looking through the various weights within the Trade Gothic family, I noticed many of the inconsistencies I had read about — I still thought of it as a unified typeface, despite its lack of unifying elements. In a way, this lack of unified elements actually unifies it, making it distinctly the Trade Gothic family.
Trade Gothic quote (about grotesque typefaces) -
or
"They tend to display some variation in the thickness of strokes, but the contrast does not show calligraphic influence or a logical pattern. The style became more sophisticated over the course of the 19th century."
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