Jeff Ng - Best of 2008

Urb Magazine asked one of our generations most influential designers, Jeff Ng better known as Jeff Staple, to compile a top ten list of 2008. Jeff compiled a list of the Top Ten Fonts of 2008. Take a gander.

10. Futura - Seems to be the street fashion font of choice recently: The Hundreds, Alife, Nike, MOB, Supreme all use Futura. Paul Renner doesn't know what hit him.

09. Crackhouse - The font of choice for the grimy hip-hoppers of the '90s is trying to stage a comeback. It made an appearance in the indie hit Slumdog Millionaire and on Maino's (Hi Hater!) street anthem

08. Helvetica Rounded Bold - In the coffee wars, the old veteran staged an amazing comeback: Dunkin Donuts is beating Starbucks at its own game and in the process, making the lovable Purple and Orange puffy font a mainstay on city streets

07. EarlySwirlySerifs -Aerosyn Lex is the originator of this style. See URB's redesign as reference. But now, so many different brands are adopting it, I can't tell the difference between Lex's work and the copycats. (i.e., Bloomingdale's recent ad campaign)

06. Trade Gothic Condensed Bold - ...continues to be a strong font showing no signs of tiring. The (RED) Campaign rolls on despite some bad press.
05. Helvetica Bold - Comme on (as in Garcons), you can't really exclude the basic Helvetica form on a top 10 font list.

04. Adobe Myriad - Thanks to Apple iPods, iPhones and iMacs, iNowseethisfonteveryday.

03. Optima - The font of John McCain. Much debate was raised over the typeface choices for our election rivals. Optima: Conserative..trusting...militant..it came right out of Top Gun. And...

02. Gotham - The font of Barack Obama. Clean, subtle, yet radical and determined to roll over its competition with ease. On November 4th, the better font won. Hands down.

01. Your Own Font - In 2008, our culture showed that your own handwriting was the best way to stand out from the crowd. Louis Vuitton resurrected the Stephen Sprouse collection. And the streets were still alive with tag font galore: KR, Stash, Parra, Eric Haze to name a few. The people's choice! Make your own fonts!