VF Didot and nameplate for Vanity Fair
Ten-year custom Didot still active
Commercial Type designed VF Didot for Vanity Fair as a gradual visual refresh rather than a full redesign, debuting on the August 2013 cover. The family spans five weights and up to seven optical sizes, with the smallest sizes retaining display personality rather than neutralising it. Christian Schwartz also redrew the magazine nameplate twice, with a Didot-proportioned serif version ultimately chosen as the logo.
Set in VF Didot
Insights
- An initial draft was rejected; the reworked version enlarged the x-height, increased contrast, removed organic serif cupping, and replaced teardrop ball terminals with sharper, rounder forms inspired by 1960s New York advertising type.
- Type historian Sébastien Morlighem sourced historical French Modern specimens before design began; Molé Le Jeune's expressive italics with dramatic slope and pointed v and w most influenced the direction.
- The family includes a stencil variant in two sizes and covers US, Italian, Spanish, and French print editions.
- VF Didot was later commercialised as Le Jeune in 2016 with more weights and a smaller, simpler optical-size set.
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