Rhythm

By Neil Summerour

Although Neil Summerour publicly proclaimed he does not do revivals because they make him uncomfortable, Rhythm is as close as he has come to crossing his own line. It is based on the ATF typeface Ratio, which he discovered on a printed specimen back when he was in school. Neil loved how well the inline was integrated with the flourish and serif of the glyphs. It was old but not; reminiscent but fresh.

Neil wanted to avoid the visual trappings associated with ‘retro’, so he digitally reinterpreted the glyphs in the specimen, refining their construction and extending the typographic equity along the way. The elaborate ‘One’ and ‘Two’ styles (and their matching ‘Solids’) mesh well with rigid, bracketed serifs and compact tails. The glyphs in the original specimen were expanded into a complete character set, including a full diacritic set, old-style numerals, fractions, stylistic alternates, swashes, titling alternates and controlled flourishes that adhere to the efficient framework of the script. This is not a slavish revival but more the championing of a really unique typeface.

Rhythm PDF

Lush Script

By Neil Summerour

Initially Lush was a formal script, but designer Neil Summerour reports that it loosened up a bit after he had a few too many drinks. It evolved into a casual, well-dressed script that maintains an assertive rhythm and harkens back to 40s and 50s hand lettering. Transitions often whip back quickly, forcing the letters to reel from the movement and resolve efficiently. Its intentional coolness distinguishes it from its warm-toned predecessors.

Type and lettering fans will be delighted to learn that characters have up to 15 different variations. Multiple glyph recipes produce unique, fluid lettering combinations. The capitals, often overlooked in contemporary script fonts, each have at least three options that combine well with the 36 ornamental flourishes. Counting over 1,650 glyphs, the typeface includes Stylistic Alternates, Contextual Alternates, Swashes, Titling, Historical Forms, Initial Forms, Oldstyle Numerals and three additional Stylistic Sets. Lush is flexible and forgiving, providing lettering enthusiast with hours of fun exploring thousands of iterations. With over 970 alternates and 270 ligatures, this typeface is one that keeps on giving.

Lush Script PDF

Rocklidge

By Steve Jackaman, Ashley Muir

The design of Rocklidge was inspired by Jana, a typeface by Richard D. Juenger, issued by Visual Graphics Corporation (VGC) in 1965. Small flared serifs and strokes with a subtle contrast add a touch of refinement to the tall, compact sans. Triangular cuts at the intersections of strokes lend this design its characteristic appearance. It’s ideally suited for commanding yet elegant titles. It also works for short bursts of copy. The full-featured OpenType family is available in five weights, ranging from Light to Extra Bold.

Packard New Style
Packard Old Style

By Steve Jackaman, Ashley Muir

Packard Old Style is based on lettering drawn by Oswald Cooper for the Packard Motor Company (ATF 1913). The bold weight is credited to Morris Fuller Benton (ATF 1916), but Benton probably did the adaptation for both weights. A classic vintage family redrawn for today, Packard Old Style represents integrity and prestige. Despite its sturdy serifs, it’s a gracious design thanks to its curvaceous character shapes and small x-height.

Packard New Style elegantly presents a redefined look at the timeless classic. The typical wobbly character outlines have been smoothened, yet the design retains its original charm. Containing all the high-end features expected in a quality OpenType Pro type family, the character sets of both variants include a complement of lovely discretionary ligatures and alternate letter forms.

Alda

By Emigre

Alda — conceived and developed by Berton Hasebe during his post-graduate course in Type & Media at KABK — is an exquisite marriage of concept and form. The exploration of how a typeface’s weight may be represented beyond the width of a stroke results in a delightful suite of three weights, from a lithe light to a chunky, angular bold. By changing details specific to each weight, Berton intended to fully emphasize each weight’s inherent characteristics. The bold is robust and sturdy; the light is delicate and soft. As letterforms reduce, so do these differences in detail, allowing Alda to function as a family at smaller sizes. This typeface family’s variations in weight and character make it visually cohesive when it’s smaller, yet expressive at large sizes.

Alda received a Certificate of Excellence in Type Design at TDC2 2009.

Lily

By Alias

Lily is a contemporary, graphic script typeface with an oddly top-heavy stress. For this unique, left-leaning design Gareth Hague used a drawn approach (rather than a handwritten one) to designing a script typeface. The way the letters connect is based more on the abstract concept of the thick and thin stress than on the mechanics of writing. The two weights come with additional ligatures to improve the setting of specific character combinations.

Oban

By Alias

Oban is a typeface in the spirit of the woodcut, 19th-century Thorowgood typeface. Removing the curves that joined the thick and thin strokes made this extra-bold design extra graphic and contemporary. Oban Round features ball terminals, while the strokes in Oban Triangle end in triangular shapes. Both variants come in upright and surprising left-leaning Italics, and each style is also available in an outline version.

Elevon

By Dalton Maag

Initially created for the launch of the Virgin Galactic spaceflight program, the design concept of Elevon is a collaborative effort with London design agency GBH. The characters’ square construction adheres to a sci-fi-inspired grid. When the original fonts’ limited character set was expanded to the full Corporate Edition, over 700 glyphs were created for each of the five weights. They cover around 150 languages; the Cyrillic and Greek scripts in particular have an alien beauty in their unfamiliar letterforms.

El Paso

By Red Rooster

In the 1970s, Face Photosetting in London was the preeminent typesetting house in London. Steve Jackaman worked in the studio in Newman Street and Hanway Place. El Paso is a family of typefaces based on a single font design from the Face Collection. This casual sans sports a typical Latin style. Besides the Light and Bold weights, it also comes in three striking decorative versions — the self-explanatory Open and Half, and an adjective-less shaded version, which transitions from solid to outline.

Tactical

By TypeTrust

The rigid, mechanical, unforgiving Tactical is unapologetically filled to the brim with testosterone. Originally conceived in 2007 while Neil Summerour worked through the early sketches of Ginza, Tactical does away with curves, relying on hard, 45-degree angles instead. Marathon sessions of tactical-shooter video games with lots of explosions inspired its name. Tactical’s upright and matching Oblique both come in Stencil variants.

Tactical PDF

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