Typefaces that evoke Myth & Legend

timfm's picture

I'm thinking Harry Potter, Tolkien, but not necessarily limited to Celtic style. Possibly more indigenous, tribal, indo feel as well. Still need more info from client, but looking to get a short list together to clarify what's in their mind's eye.

Cheers,

-t

Bobby Henderson's picture

While the term "legend" seems heroic, it is also pretty murky as well.

Two questions. What specific geographic region and cultural influence does the type need to reference? What time period does the type need to invoke?

Answers to both of those questions will narrow down the field of obvious choices to a mere few.

If the client wants something more non-specific which can work for a variety of time periods and cultural themes, you might consider a good all-caps titling font. Adobe Garamond, Perpetua, Utopia and Goudy Old Style are a few that come to mind.

I would suggest Trajan or Trajan Pro. It is a very attractive typeface. But it has been terribly overused for the past decade, especially on movie poster titles.

oldnick's picture

Tribal, saga-esque, Homeric or storybook...take your pick.

typofoto's picture

American Uncial has a 'Robin, the Hooded Man' feel ...

http://www.myfonts.com/search?search%5Btext%5D=american+uncial

James Grieshaber's picture

I designed Yule to be purposely vague. It is a mélange of ancient inscriptional writing, with visual references to Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, medieval and even a bit of ancient Greek and roman letterforms. It is an all caps font, so there are alternates for every letter in the lowercase position, plus there are a number of alternate letter forms and ligatures hidden in the font. The heavy weight has an admittadly Neuland feel, which might also work well for you.

Or maybe Numismatic. Same deal—all UC with alt lc and hidden ligas & alts. But this one may be a bit too Harry Potter.

Tim Ahrens's picture

Amigo
Marigold
Pelican
Visigoth
by
Arthur Baker are interesting calligraphic alternatives.

timfm's picture

Wow, great stuff as always from the typophiles. I'll post again inre geography/time period when I know more. Thanks everyone!

-t

Palatine's picture

Presence Typo Alinea, or DSType Nerva. Sometimes simple is best. Check them out.

Jacob's picture

We have a searchword in our database: "Eventyr"
(= "Adventure" in norwegian - hey, it's a norwegian site, OK? ;-)

http://www.luth.no/default.asp?Searchstring=Eventyr&side=fontprisliste

The hits covers fonts with an "otherworldy feel" as well as "faux" foreign languages...
I particularly like "Elf" from Elsner+Flake.

Jacob

Thomas Phinney's picture

Present Script, Trajan, Galahad, Neuland, Lithos, Papyrus, Mason....

Cheers,

T

jupiterboy's picture

Tenebra from Storm has a certain feel.

timfm's picture

Some really great suggestion here. Thanks everyone.

I suppose Emigre's Mason (http://www.emigre.com/EF.php?fid=104) could be added to this list. Nice redesign @ Emigre.com BTW.

-t

Syndicate content Syndicate content