Empire State Building

Christian Schwartz and Paul Barnes, the designers of the Empire State Building font family, balanced a reverence for history with an understanding of the demands imposed on a face intended for signage. They harmonized the Deco-style sans-serif capitals of the plaque, concocted a complementary lowercase, and then, to accommodate long texts on signs, created a condensed variant. Not only does Empire State Building meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, but it has also been approved by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. A star is born. PAUL SHAW