Bell Centennial

This booklet and poster are a deep dive into the backstory of the Matthew Carter’s 1978 typeface Bell Centennial. They explore some of the reasons why this typeface was created, as well as what purpose the peculiar features on the characters serve. Using Bell Centennial as the typeface for headers throughout the booklet helps the reader to see what the face looks like in use, particularly without the ink traps being bled into by the printer. Large scale images of the characters help to show the details of the type’s counters, x height, ratio, and ink trap design. The usage of yellow throughout invokes the color of phonebook pages, where this type was designed to be used. This theme was expanded upon in the large-scale poster, in which the design is based on the layout of a typical phonebook page.