The Font That Ate 2014

November 4, 2014 by
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I don’t usually make a big deal about typefaces in cookbooks, except to complain when they are too small.  But every once in a while the jackets all suddenly start to look eerily similar, and once you figure out why you can’t help but say something.  Have a look:

   

See something funny?  Other than that they’re mostly baking books?  That’s right – they’re all using the same font.  (Or very similar knock-offs thereof.)

The name of the font – or at least the name of the most popular version – is “Thirsty Script”.  It was released by Yellow Design Studio, a Wisconsin-based design firm, in just 2012.  The very similar “Delicious Pro” was released by Lee Schulz in 2013.  What these fonts have in common (besides roots in Wisdom Script and Lobster font, for you font geeks out there) is a nostalgia for an era of vintage design – let’s call it the late 50’s or very early 60’s – evocative of chrome, delicatessens, drugstore sodas, and finned cars.  

It’s a jovial, tasty, juicy sort of typeface, which probably accounts for its success on the cookbook covers this year.  The distressed versions look like they’re dusted in confectioner’s sugar or flour – they’d be right at home on a pastry box tied up with butcher’s twine.

It’s not like they’re all coming from the same publishers either.  It’s like the design hive mind just suddenly got a taste for this look, across the board.  In my mind at least, Thirsty Script will always be associated with the dozens of pie books released in 2014.

Anyways, enjoy it while you can – I dare say the fact that someone actually noticed will probably mean that this font has jumped the shark, in the lightning-fast world of design trends.  We’ll probably be moving on to some psychedelic 70’s font in six months, and then, won’t we miss Thirsty Script?

Category: Shelf Life With Susie

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3 Comments

  • darcie_b  on  November 4, 2014

    As long as it isn't Comic Sans…but seriously, it's an attractive font for a book cover. I just hope they aren't using it inside the book because I'll bet it's hard to read in small sizes.

  • ellabee  on  November 4, 2014

    This font geek thanks you heartily for the font names & source info. They're appealing for cover titles, where the space is available to make them huge, and thus legible. I wonder a bit about the spines, though. Speaking of spines: PLENTY visually jumps out of just about any shelf on which it's put, by war of its powerful combination of black-on-white text and a very large font size. The only other book that comes close (also dark on white, not quite as big) is Love Soup by Anna Thomas.

  • tsusan  on  November 7, 2014

    That's true. Just for fun I went upstairs to the library to see what jumped out, wearing my outdated-prescription contacts (I broke my glasses by leaning on them with my elbow on my bed this morning…sigh). The ones that jumped out were: Robuchon, Tartine Bread, Goat, and Bones. Contrast and font size, as you say.

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