Creative Cut: The Power of Type

With sans serif or reversed type, the bottom-line question is not whether you can read it, but whether you and your eyes honestly want to.

Pat Fromberger, senior art director for Vermont Country Store’s Voice of the Mountains catalog, has worked both with company founder Vrest Orton and his son, Lyman. Orton Senior had very strong convictions about the sans serif/serif difference, and even wrote an article on the subject for National Review. “Vrest thought Times Roman was the most readable type, and insisted we use it; we’ve used it ever since,” as body copy at 9.5 points, Fromberger says. “Besides readability, we also feel it conveys the old-fashioned feel of the catalog.” VCS hasn’t even used sans serif in its headlines—these also are Times, in semi-bold italic.