What is a conceptual font? For me it's a font that exists because of a strong idea. Some examples:
Westminster: Machine-readable numbers (MICR) adapted to the Latin alphabet.
Helvetica Now: Helvetica recreated for today's technology.
Comic Neue: The font that saved Comic Sans.
What I love about them is they market themselves. They're something people talk about. They're viral.
What other examples are there?
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https://typographica.org/on-typography/our-favorite-typefaces-of-2004/#FFLegatoReview
BTW I don't think the most "conceptual" ones market themselves; most people buy into trends, and conceptual speculation is inherently not trendy.
In 1973, Vic Carless' Shatter used a simulated optical effect on the already famous Helvetica. Shatter won the Letraset international typeface competition and was added to their catalog. While there were antiqued and textured typefaces before that, this was the first typeface with a distortion effect.
Not conceptual in the aesthetic sense, but definitely the first time I'd ever become aware of a premise of using fonts to spread a concept.
It's not my place to give a definitive answer, but to me a conceptual font is one that goes beyond aesthetics and is based on an idea.
It could be a small idea, like a sci-fi font that's serifed; or a big idea, like a font that redefines how we perceive the Latin alphabet.
A 'great' one is... almost certainly subjective
Gerstner
Crouwel's New Alphabet
I would say that conceptual type design involves thinking about type forms in new ways, and then applying those concepts. In that respect, I think Miles is right that the Romain du Roi is a great example of conceptual typeface design (even if the design as represented in the famous engraved plates is not what was eventually cut in the punches, the latter inheriting more from the existing canon).
I was impressed enough that the design took such a big idea and executed it in a way that made it seem so natural was dazzling at once, but I was REALLY impressed that it works for both Latin and Cyrillic.
Applying the same distinction to fonts may not work quite so well, but at least, if the basic idea of the font, its sine qua non, can be described in words, then that makes it a conceptual design. So, sorry, Comic Sans!
Reliq—the “variable agitation” concept.
Caslon’s first sans, and their “Italian” reversed-stress didone.
I'd argue that the ubiquity of Comic Sans is only due to the fact that it was bundled with the most common desktop OS 25 years ago, not because it was revolutionary.
If you could get it for free bundled with Windows, maybe Though in a way, Segoe Print is a better handwriting font that is already in Windows, and it hasn't surpassed Comic Sans in use yet.
Now that’s a concept!