Cooper Black — Oswald Bruce Cooper (1921)
Fashionable since its creation in 1921, Oswald Cooper’s truly twentieth-century eponymous typeface, Cooper Black, is just as ubiquitous now as it was back then. Not many typefaces can represent an era just by being set on a page. Considered to be the most demonstrative of the fat face type style, Cooper Black is the epitome of the 1960’s and 70's. Its bubbly charm has allowed it to endure for decades in a range of both “high-end” and “low-brow” design applications.
Oswald’s serif typeface has a distinctively loud aesthetic, its bold, inflated letterforms give the typeface a sense of character and personality. Whilst charismatic in appearance, the typeface retains legibility. Ranging from album covers to branding, magazine spreads to sweet wrappers, many of us encounter this warm and friendly typeface in some form or another everyday. Its hippy appearance and wobbly, loose design made it an icon of pop culture.
Oswald’s loud talker inspired many imitations, although many type designers and manufacturers have tried to market similar designs, none have outdone Cooper Black. The emblematic typeface can hold up in a variety of production techniques and physical manifestations. The types success lies in its craftsmanship, its beautifully rounded forms are friendly and approachable, and its alluring visual charm calls out to consumers.
Oswald, originally an illustrator, stumbled into his life long vocation by accident. Whilst studying at the Frank Holme School of Illustration in Chicago, Oswald met Frederic W. Goudy, a prolific American type designer and director of the Holme’s typographic department. Goudy befriended Oswald and helped him to earn his tuition fees by assigning him jobs setting type for correspondence course booklets.
Oswald realised that his true talent resided in the art of lettering. Soon he was appointed as a lettering teacher and whilst teaching at Holme, Oswald met Fred Bertsch, who ran an art service agency. Bertsch loved Oswald’s work, and in 1904 they formed a partnership and opened a type shop offering typesetting, copy-writing and design.
Oswald was a brilliant craftsman, his designs were exciting without being shocking, eye-catching without being eye-soring. He had an instinctual wariness of things modish and conceptually strained, his letterforms were not simply novelties, they were described as ‘lessons in structural form, in free and friendly balance.’
In 1918, soon after releasing his first official font (Cooper, later renamed Cooper Old style) Oswald was approached by Barnhart Brothers & Spindler Type Foundry (BB&S), Americas second largest foundry. They requested for Oswald to design a complete type family. BB&S popularised Oswald’s first normal-weight roman, Cooper and urged it to be the basis for the continuing family. The second in the series, Cooper Black billed as “ the selling type supreme, the multi-billionaire sales type which made big advertisements out of little ones,’ was the most innovative of early-twentieth-century super-bold. The black weight and exaggerated rounded serifs caused excitement, ‘It was everything the rigid modernism of the mid-century wasn’t.’ Soon it caught on and orders rolled up in volume. The remainder of Oswald’s font family followed in quick succession — Cooper Italic (1924), Cooper Hilite (1925), Cooper Black Italic (1926) and Cooper Black Condensed (1926) — in what became known as ‘the black blitz.’
Oswald’s lighter weights are attractive in their own right, but lack the consuming presence the Cooper Black weight provides. Though not based on a single historic model, Cooper Black exhibits influences of Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and the Machine Age.
The expressive and innovative style of the typeface set a trend in extra bold advertising types which prompted designers — including Oswald’s teacher, Fred Goudy — to follow suit with their own black faces.
Cooper Black’s success originates from its distinct aesthetic. The extremely bold serifed font has a rather low thick to thin contrast, which creates a casual and informal feel when compared to similar ultra bold designs. Looking at the image above, Cooper Blacks knock off, Goudy Heavy, has more visual contrast and stands more straight whereas Cooper Black’s wider stance and inflated serifs make the type look slouched. The characters rounded bottoms are an essential element to the types popularity, the type doesn't have to rely on an even baseline, its rounded base can tolerate being set in irregular and careless ways.
Many of the details incorporated into the uppercase character set draw the readers eye to the lowercase letters that follow. The upper and lowercase characters form a strong relationship, each character has been skillfully proportioned — the cap-height, x-height and the width are all in unity with one another.
Despite preconceptions and stigma, Cooper Blacks use was not exclusive to the retro aesthetic that it is most commonly associated with. Adept designers disregarded Cooper Blacks reputation and simply chose to use the type as it was well-made and distinct.
Oswald Cooper’s flexible heavy weight champion will remain a strong contender amongst adventurous designers and its presence will continue to resonate with pop culture.
