New York magazine 50th anniversary issue
Various Egyptiennes have long been central to New York magazine’s design aesthetic, dating back to the issues that co-founder Milton Glaser art directed and continuing in contemporary print and web editions with readily-available digital interpretations.
For the magazine’s 50th anniversary issue (October 22, 2017), design director Tom Alberty and deputy art director Chris Cristiano expanded their typographic palette by commissioning a new, extra-narrow typeface in the style.
For the custom “NY Egyptienne Compressed”, XYZ Type’s Ben Kiel looked back to Schelter & Giesecke’s Halbfette Egyptienne (circa 1880) to return to the roots of a typeface which is generally seen through the lens of the PLINC version. An adapted version of custom typeface was publicly released under the new name Ballast, and Kiel shares more about the magazine’s commission in a journal post.
