The amount of icon packs currently available for commercial use is vast, to say the least. Every now and then when you’re working on a design and want to find that perfect icon, you spend hours searching the web. Even if you stay focused and manage to find that icon, you’ve probably been sidetracked to such an extent that you don’t know where the icon goes or what you wanted it for in the first place (exaggeration…or not?). This happened to me a fair few times until I started collecting some icon sets I liked and used regularly. Those sets can be seen below, I hope you like them and if you do, don’t forget to pay your respects to the authors.

Background

Slab serif printing type was first introduced around 1815 and was used primarily with advertisements, posters and flyers. Vincent Figgins designed a typeface called Antique that soon encouraged others to follow similar patterns in serif design.

An excellent discussion regarding slab serif typography.

Clarendon model

Clarendon

Have some bracketing and contrast in size in the actual serif. Examples include Clarendon and Egyptienne.

Neo-grotesque model

Tutsplus

The Neo-grotesque model is currently the most popular type of slab serif type. Neo-grotesque have no bracketing and evenly weighted stems and serifs. The letterforms are similar to neo-grotesque or realist sans-serif fonts. Examples include Rockwell and Lubal Graph(as seen on the Tutsplus network).

Italienne model

Playbill

The Italienne model has a distinct difference, with the serifs being even heavier than the stems. This creates a sense of dominance as well as an attention-drawing effect. Some Italienne slab serifs, such as Playbill, have a characteristic Western appearance.

Typewriter typefaces

Typewriter typefaces, this one isn't slab serif but it's a fantastic photo!

Typewriter slab serif typefaces are named for their use in strike-on typewriting. These faces originated in monospaced format with fixed-width, meaning that every character takes up the same amount of horizontal space. Examples include Courier and Courier New (both Neo-grotesque model) and Prestige Elite (Clarendon model).

A collection of the best

Below I have collected a few of my favorite slab serif fonts both free and paid. If you have the money, I would thoroughly recommend the paid fonts. Some authors kindly supply a couple of free typefaces from their paid fonts.

Free Slab Serif Fonts

There a number of great sites where you can download free fonts, these include: Dafont, Fontsquirrel, Urban Fonts, Fontspace.

Nilland

Street Corner Slab

Alexandria

Chunk

Museo

Tertre

College

TypoSlabSerif

Paid Slab Serif Fonts

Many authors like to release their work on their personal sites, however many also like to use websites such as MyFonts and LinoType to sell their fonts

Archer

Trilby

Sentinel

Stymie

FF Tisa

Giza

FF Nexus Mix

Morgan

FF Unit Slab

I <3 New York

Showcase

Slab serif type is becoming more and more popular everyday. Since I started collecting examples of effective use of slab serif type, there has been a number of new websites that have launched using this type. A couple of them have been added to the end of the web design showcase.

Slab Serif Type in web design

Pallian Creative

Breezy Baby

Philadelphia

The Sew Weekly

Brian Hoff

Osmond Interactive

Envira Media

CreativeHunt

Festival Boreal

Edgepoint Church

Mutant Labs

Blue Sky Resumes

DesignWise

Mark Boulton Design

Day to day life

Not only are slab serif typefaces and fonts used in websites but they are also used in logos, brochures, magazines, packaging and much more. If I had a decent camera this showcase would have probably been twice as long.

Kim Florist

Nábytek

London County Council

HuntsVille

House of hoops

Golden Nugget

Bonanza

Launderette

Delicious

Love Ballads

ABCDE

Motel

One Sunday in December

Slab serif in Video

What you will be winning

The Smashing Book

The Smashing Book is a printed book about best practices in modern Web design. The book shares technical tips and best practices on coding, usability and optimization and explores how to create successful user interfaces and apply marketing principles to increase conversion rates. It also shows how to get the most out of typography, color and branding so that you end up with intuitive and effective Web designs. And lastly, you will also get a peek behind the curtains of Smashing Magazine.

How to enter

To enter yourself into this competition, simply tweet out a message including @creativityden somewhere within your 140 characters. Then comment below with your twitter username and a link to your tweet

Will be taking entries until Friday 18th December. Winner will be announced later that day.

Good luck to everyone who enters!

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If you are a person with great creativity and have the talent to produce amazing design but cannot find any work, then hopefully with this book, you will find your first client sooner rather than later.

How to Enter

For your chance to win a free copy of BASAS worth $29.95 simply follow the below twitter accounts.

@CreativityDen

@JeremyTuber

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Good Luck!