Kendrick Lamar DAMN.

07/30/2018

Album cover for up-and-coming rapper Kendrick Lamar's 2017 release. The simple layout uses four letters plus a period and a simple title, just like a magazine cover. The font is Times, which is also used for the system font, and although the font choice and kerning of the D and A are typographically poor, the design conveys a rough, hip-hop, DIY spirit. Rather than being commercialistic and well-made, it has a noble street feel that matches the content and fits in well with the content, as if it was made by a group of friends.

Typeface

In 1931, The Times of London commissioned the Monotype Corporation, under the direction of Stanley Morison, to design a newspaper typeface.According to Morison: “The Times, as a newspaper in a class by itself, needed not a general trade type, however good, but a face whose strength of line, firmness of contour, and economy of space fulfilled the specific editorial needs of The Times.”Times New Roman, drawn by Victor Lardent and initially released in 1932, was the result.When the London Times, for whom Monotype designed Times New Roman, switched to machine-set type, they used Linotype equipment. Monotype licensed Times New Roman to Linotype, who optimized it for the new technology. A There are a variety of differences between the Linotype and Monotype cuts of Times, though most are very subtle.Both the Linotype and Monotype versions of Times continue to be very popular, particularly for newspapers, magazines, and corporate communications such as proposals and annual reports.