Henrietta Font

Henrietta Font is a revival of a font by the same name that was (probably) designed in the 1980s. It’s a Souvenir rip-off. But a rip-off with its own underlying logic. One with defined departures from that ubiquitous soft serif queen. It has a flatness that keeps it from being an oldstyle, a warble that feels more Art Nouveau than it does Arts and Crafts, a tall x-height, thick terminals, low contrast, with a lot of the diagonality of Windsor. In every in use I found, the letters are spaced tightly. Its a typeface that tried to hit the zeitgeist.

What stood out to me about it, made it worth reviving, is that it’s an opinionated rip-off. The whole idea, with a rip-off, is to siphon off some sales from the real version, right? At what point did the creator of Henrietta decide to take some major artistic liberties?

After I became aware of Henrietta, I started noticing it in the big dumb books I own. It’s in the Solotype catalog, and in 1990’s Homage to the Alphabet: A Typeface Sourcebook. Actually, during the 80’s and 90’s it’s in a lot of sources. But it isn’t really in the world.

Maybe it sucks! Maybe it died for a reason, and lacks some important detail that keeps Souvenir in the upper echelon of font sales. It certainly has some..failings? The numerals feel stiff and collaged from other faces. There’s inconsistent contrast, and the diacritics and furniture ($, ø, ç), and several characters look entirely mis-weighted. Or maybe, just maybe, it was poorly marketed.

But ultimately, I think it’s really beautiful. I’m hoping by reviving it, I can learn who drew it in the first place.