2020 Presidential Candidate Font Comparison
Planted 02020-01-11
In a race over donations from a nation how do the players compare?
Part One: 2020 Presidential Candidate Website Comparison
Part Two: 2020 Presidential Candidate Donate Form Comparison
Font specimens are sourced from Typewolf.
Candidates
- Donald Trump: Geometric sans-serif
- Bernie Sanders: Slab serif
- Elizabeth Warren: Sans-serif
- Pete Buttigieg: Geometric sans-serif
- Tom Steyer: Geometric sans-serif
- Joe Biden: Geometric sans-serif
- Kamala Harris: Grotesque sans-serif
- Cory Booker: Sans-serif
- Amy Klobuchar: Geometric sans-serif
- Andrew Yang: Geometric sans-serif
Donald Trump
Headline & Body: Montserrat (Regular/Bold)
Montserrat is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Argentinian designer Julieta Ulanovsky in 2011, inspired by posters and signs in the Montserrat neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Montserrat is often mentioned as the closest free alternative to Gotham and Proxima Nova. Available for free in Google Fonts.
Bernie Sanders
Headline: Jubilat (Bold)
Jubilat is a slab serif typeface designed by Joshua Darden and released through Darden Studio in 2008. Bernie Sanders has featured Jubilat since his 2016 presidential campaign. The family comes in an impressive 11 weights with matching italics, making it one of the most versatile slab serifs available. Adobe Fonts includes this family for both desktop and web
Body: Gibson (Regular/Medium/Semi-bold)
Gibson is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed in 2011 by Canadian type designer Rod McDonald. Intended to be an affordable alternative to design students. All revenue is donated to the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada to help support design education in Canada. Adobe Fonts includes this family for both desktop and web.
Elizabeth Warren
Headline: Ringside (Compressed A, A Regular/Bold)
Ringside is a sans-serif type family released by Hoefler & Co. in 2017. The design is a continuation of the ideas behind Knockout, a wood type-influenced grotesque released by H&Co over 20 years earlier. Whereas Knockout was designed as a display face for setting headlines, Ringside was designed to handle setting text. With 172 styles, Ringside is the largest family to date in H&Co’s catalog.
Body: Freight Text Pro (Book)
Freight Text is a serif typeface designed by Joshua Darden and published through GarageFonts in 2005. Freight is an extremely versatile superfamily with many different versions available, making it suitable for a wide range of typographic challenges. Other members of the superfamily include Freight Sans, Freight Neo, Freight Display and Freight Big. Freight Text is available in five weights—light, book, medium, bold and black—each with matching italics and small caps styles.
Pete Buttigieg
Headline & Body: Futura
Released in 1927, Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by German type designer Paul Renner. It was a revolutionary design for its time, as most books in Germany were still being printed in heavy blackletter scripts. Futura has remained consistently popular since its release over 85 years ago. It’s the favorite typeface of directors Wes Anderson and Stanley Kubrick and has been the main advertising typeface of Volkswagen since the 1960s. Futura continues to be one of the most popular fonts used on the web.
Tom Steyer
Headline: Centra No2
Centra No2 is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Josh Finklea and published through Sharp Type in 2018. The design was inspired by the modernist typefaces of the twentieth century but with a focus on texture and readability rather than pure geometry. The family is available in eight weights with matching italics. There is also a sister family available, Centra No1, that draws on the work of Eric Gill and Edward Johnston.
For some reason the homepage also houses Galaxie Copernicus for a quote block and Trade Gothic Next Compressed for all capitalized text…
Joe Biden
Headline: Brother 1816
Released in 2016, Borther 1816 is a Geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Fernando Díaz and Ignacio Corbo at Tipotype. Tipotype is the first foundry to call Uruguay home. Founded in 2009 by Fernando Díaz, Vicente Lamónaca and Martin Sommaruga with the mission of creating contemporary typefaces and also a platform for type designers to easily commercialize their work. Adobe Fonts includes this family for both desktop and web.
Update July 2020: Biden campaign rolls out new fonts from typeface powerhouse Hoefler & Co.
The new Biden campaign fonts are Decimal and Mercury Text, both from Hoefler & Co.
As of July, 2020 the primary campaign website has yet to change from Brother 1816.
Update January 21, 2020: Whitehouse.gov moves from Donald Trump’s Montserrat to Decimal and Mercury. Joebiden.com now also uses Decimal and Mercury.
Kamala Harris
Headline: Bureau Grotesque
Bureau Grotesque is a grotesque sans-serif typeface first developed by David Berlow in 1989. The design was modeled after grotesques from the nineteenth-century. The Bureau Grotesque family was later expanded upon by other designers and the name shortened to Bureau Grot. Adobe Fonts includes this family for both desktop and web.
Body: Ivy Journal
Ivy Journal is a serif typeface designed by Jan Maack from Ivy Foundry in 2016. The design is loosely based on both the seminal Roman inscriptional capitals and classic movable type in the vein of Bembo, Baskerville, and Times New Roman. Adobe Fonts includes this family for both desktop and web.
Links: Roc Grotesk
Roc Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface designed by Nikola Kostić and released in 2012 through father-and-son Serbian foundry Kostić Type Foundry. The design was inspired by late nineteenth-century American wood types. The family is available in nine weights, each in five widths (regular, condensed, compressed, wide and extra-wide), for a total of 45 styles. Adobe Fonts includes this family for both desktop and web.
Cory Booker
Headline: Conductor Condensed
Released in 2018, Conductor is a sans-serif typeface designed by Tobias Frere-Jones and Nina Stössinger at Frere-Jones Type Foundry. Conductor is a commanding display family, inspired by a diverse range of historical references and structural game-playing. Originally based on the delicate, blocky numerals from vintage Bulgarian lottery tickets, it also incorporates elements of vernacular shopfront lettering and mid-century type design.
Body: Dapifer
Dapifer is a slab serif typeface designed by Joshua Darden and released through Darden Studio in 2012. Commissioned by Mucca Design for One Atlantic. Design and production assistance by Thomas Jockin, Scott Kellum, Noam Berg, and Lucas Sharp. Adobe Fonts includes this family for both desktop and web.
Amy Klobuchar
Headline & Body: Avenir Next
Released in 1988, Avenir is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by legendary type designer Adrian Frutiger, best known for his Univers and Frutiger designs. Although modeled after Futura (Avenir is the French word for future) and classified as a geometric sans, Avenir has some slightly humanist features that add warmth to the face, such as the tail on the t and the o that isn’t a perfect circle. Frutiger considered Avenir his finest work and is available in six weights—light, book, roman, medium, heavy and black—each with corresponding oblique styles.
Andrew Yang
Headline & Body: Montserrat
Montserrat is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Argentinian designer Julieta Ulanovsky in 2011, inspired by posters and signs in the Montserrat neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Montserrat is often mentioned as the closest free alternative to Gotham and Proxima Nova. Available for free in Google Fonts.