Font Information: Desdemona

Desdemona is considered to be in the “Art Nouveau” family of fonts, or it is at least a

digital Art Nouveau revival font. From what I can find, it was created in 1992 and
the copyright is held by the foundry “Font Bureau.” Art Nouveau was most popular
in Europe and could be found in cities like London. Unfortunately I cannot find a
name for the original author.

I chose this font because it closely resembles a typeface famously used by Led
Zeppelin, whose albums appear twice on my table, and whose classic Led Zeppelin I
cover is used for the example square. Since my project is not really designed in the
spirit of being educational, or for children, but rather for style and an adult
audience, I was okay with the fact that it is not extremely legible (though it is legible
on my printout, and certainly would be if I could print at actual size.) The one thing
I don’t like is how the E is difficult to distinguish from the F for the smallest size text.
I thought it was important that the font I chose have a sort of classic rock feel to it
since my project is dominated by classic rock albums. As it is a sort of “best of” list,
using a font that was extremely evocative of one of the most celebrated classic rock
bands felt right. I also considered using a more Fraktur-like typeface such as the
one used by AC/DC, but I did this project on University computers which would not
allow me to download typefaces.

I think this was a risky choice but I am actually very happy with how it turned out.
When viewing the .pdf of the document in actual size, it looks great.