Just released, Fine Specimens, from Elliot Jay Stocks, celebrates the versatility and impact of contemporary typography. With a curated selection of type specimens and bold layouts, it highlights how flexible and influential contemporary typography can be. Along with thoughtful essays from well-known designers and writers, Fine Specimens shows how important typography is in today’s design world.
Author, Elliot Jay Stocks is a UK-based designer and musician with nearly two decades of experience working across typography, publishing, and digital design. He founded the typography magazine 8 Faces in 2010 and later served as Creative Director at Typekit (now Adobe Fonts), where he helped guide its expansion into desktop fonts and the Creative Cloud. He has held multiple creative leadership roles, co-ran the magazine Lagom, and collaborated with Google to launch the educational resource Google Fonts Knowledge. Elliot is the author of Universal Principles of Typography (2024), speaks regularly at international design conferences, and now focuses on typographic projects, his newsletter Typographic & Sporadic, the podcast Hello, Type Friends!, and electronic music released under the name Other Form.
On the release of this new book, I had a chance to quiz the author on his process, what he sees as important trends in typography, and some of the side-effects of a life with type.
The Process
In the press materials, the book is described as more than a specimen collection—it’s also an intellectual exploration of typography’s role in modern communication. What do you think typography today is being asked to do that it wasn’t 10 or 20 years ago?
Elliot: From a technological perspective, there have been some pretty huge changes to typography in the last decade or two: OpenType, web fonts, variable fonts, hi-res displays, reading via mobile apps, and now some very text-heavy agentic experiences. But the fundamental rules and guidelines of what makes for good typesetting haven’t radically changed in that time. Good typography, like good design, is timeless — despite the ever-changing tools we use to make and consume text.
The book brings together work from type foundries around the world. What patterns or shifts did you notice in contemporary type design across different regions or cultures while assembling this collection?
Elliot: There is, thankfully, an increased desire by western or Latin-first type foundries to make typefaces that support more global scripts and writing systems. Even if only viewed through a cynical commercial lens, limited language support in fonts continues to hamper designers worldwide when creating work for global brands. From very early on in the process, I felt that Fine Specimens should do a decent job of representing multiple writing systems. While the book certainly leans heavily toward Latin type, you’ll also find families that cover Arabic, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Greek, Hangeul, Hebrew, Japanese, Thai, and many other writing systems. And these are presented alongside Latin fonts — not separated out into a non-Latin section of the book, as so often can be the case.
In putting together Fine Specimens, what trends kept appearing again and again—either in letterform design, how type is used, or the kinds of projects designers are working on today?
Elliot: The most interesting I noticed was that the graphics produced by the household-name foundries aren’t necessarily better than those made by the one-person, bedroom-based type newbies. Similarly, a beautifully designed, well-made typeface isn’t necessarily represented by a beautifully designed, well-made specimen graphic and, of course, the inverse is true. In this sense, I feel like Fine Specimens serves as a very level playing field for today’s type industry.
You’ve spent nearly two decades working with type in print, digital, and branding contexts. What’s one misconception about typography that you still see even among designers?
Elliot: The number one misconception has to be that typography, in general, is easy. And, if anything, that’s only getting more prevalent. Setting type digitally in 2026 is so commonplace, with no need for specialist knowledge or equipment, that we can be lulled into a false sense of security. But as with any aspect of design, just getting something on a page with ease doesn’t mean it’s going to look good, or communicate its message in the most effective way. Setting good type is never as easy as it looks.
Your career includes running magazines, speaking at conferences, and making music alongside design work. Do you see a connection between typography and music in the way rhythm, structure, or tone operate?
Elliot: Yes, I think there are plenty of parallels. Also, that sense of being restricted by an accepted structure and then attempting to add contrast — but not too much contrast
— to keep things interesting. That’s always the challenge, whether it’s design or music or any creative pursuit.
After writing Universal Principles of Typography and now Fine Specimens, what questions about type are you still personally trying to answer?
Elliot: I guess I’m still be trying to work out what excites us about new type designs. When you consider how restrictive an alphabet is, with only subtle opportunities to push what’s acceptable in the construction of any particular character, it’s amazing anyone designs any new type at all. But in the same way that we’ll never have enough music, or enough books, I’m not sure we’ll ever have enough type. That’s my hope, anyway! But that does also come with the problem of how to navigate all of that type, and that’s a huge part of what’s driven my type-centric projects and what I tackle in my day-to-day work.
Trends
Variable fonts, AI tools, and new digital platforms are changing how type is made and used. Which recent technological shift do you think will have the biggest long-term impact on typography?
Elliot: In my opinion, it’s possible that AI-generated fonts — once they inevitably evolve beyond their current, rather crude state — have the potential to radically change the nature of what it means to license a font in the not-too-distant future, to the point where the type industry could be forced to entirely rethink itself. If you look at how other industries have been disrupted — often to a degree that would’ve been unthinkable even three to five years ago — I suspect we’re about to enter a very challenging period.
Many designers talk about cycles in typography—serifs coming back, minimalism fading, maximalism returning. Did working on this book make you feel like we’re at the start of a new era, or just another turn of the wheel?
Elliot: I’m encouraged by how many new foundries seem to be popping up every week. The sheer amount of people doing type design now feels like a really positive trend. I find that more noticeable than any particular styles emerging or reemerging.
When you look at the work of younger type designers today, what excites you the most—and what worries you a little?
Elliot: [I think I answered this in the AI one!]
A Little Fun
You’ve spent years looking very closely at letterforms. Has typography ruined anything for you—like movie titles, restaurant menus, or street signs you can’t stop critiquing?
Elliot: Oh, yes, it’s ruined everything! It’s exactly the same as not being able to listen to music without also identifying the time signature, or the effects, or the production techniques. (Of course, there’s also a lot of pleasure to be had in analysing these things, too.)
Every designer seems to have one font they secretly love but would never admit to using. Do you have a typography guilty pleasure?
Elliot: I don’t think I do! And that’s not because I’m a snob or anything like that — I’m just very vocal about what I like using, even if it’s something mainstream or freely available. I suppose I try not to use open source fonts very often purely because they’re inevitably so ubiquitous, but some of my favourites are free, including those designed by my friend Ty Finck (as Etc Type Co).
If typefaces were people, which one would you most want to have dinner with, and which one would you avoid at all costs?
Elliot: I’m very fortunate in that many of my friends are type designers, and I have a good relationship with lots of foundries, so using type is very often tied to knowingly using the work of a certain person. In that sense, typefaces are people to me!
Be honest: how often do you judge a book by its typography?
Elliot: Always! There’s no way I’d buy a book with bad typography. 😉
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