In seeing both Icone and Avance, both of them have a rather similar look, with a similar sculptural and notan-centred paradigm.
How would they be classified? I know that Didone don't fit them. They most certainly don't fit the Oldstyle paradigm. Slabs and Transitional feel awkward for them too. But for some reason, Avance fits in its application as a body text despite its fairly quirky forms.
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(Image by Identifont)
Icone (1980) by Adrian Frutiger
(Image by Identifont)
Avance (2000) by Evert Bloemsma
If we are talking the Vox-ATypI classification, I can certainly see Icone as glyphic. Avance, not so much.
Avance by Bloemsma is a semi-serif hybrid, but its modulation have that "glyphic" quality, so it can be seen as a Slab/Egyptian Semi-Serif with Glyphic qualities.
Icone appears to me constructed from a formal shape principle, rather than the typical skeleton+contrast+detailing scheme you get when mimicking a writing tool (give or take some abstraction). The term “Glyphic” fits this quite nicely – carved rather than written. The capital proportions are classical-ish, but exaggerated. The apertures are large, with terminals directed outwards. The arches start from the bottom of the stem and curve all the way around, but the curve is not the typical symmetrical one you’d find in a “Modern” serif or a “Grotesque”. Verdict:
a lot of abstraction, with just a hint of translation (sculpted)
dynamic structure
low contrast
semi-serif-ish
Avance has assymetrical arches shooting out from a high point on the stem, large apertures with terminals directed outwards. The capitals are leaning only slightly towards the classical wide/narrow scheme. These are traits you would find in a “Transitional” or late “Old Style” serifs. Looking at the lowercase ‘g’, you would not be able to stick a loop with that tension (no matter how monolinear) into a static “Grotesque” face. Verdict:
translation with some minor abstraction
dynamic structure
low to medium contrast
semi-serif
"Glyphic" is a pretty established typographic term, as it qualifies the tapered nature of the terminals (and generally absence of serifs).
Depending on how you look at it, Avance does have the quality of glyphic typefaces, but of course one can see these as heavily modulated serifs as opposed as a tapering of the stems.
Don't classify, describe, using locations on spectra.
I hardly need to point out, again, that the easiest and least art-specific way to speak about historical type design and typography is to use the same art history terminology that is applied to other things that people have made — furniture, buildings, clothes, music, as well as fine art — in the same cultural milieu.