New Fonts: Introducing FontShop’s Exclusive Balduina Collection

Seven fonts by Circulo De Tipografos based on the hand-lettered designs of Boudewijn Ietswaart
If this isn't looking beautiful as email, view it on the web.

Fonts used in title graphic: Balduina Candida and Balduina Libre

		In 2008 during its investigations of Dutch typography the Círculo de Tipógrafos, a group of young designers in Mexico City, stumbled by way of Jan Middendorp on the work of Boudewijn Ietswaart. This young Dutch designer arrived in Mexico City in 1961. Schooled in hand lettering and a master of many graphic techniques Ietswaart was to be an assistant to Alexandre Stols. Stols himself was a famous book designer who had been sent abroad as part of a UNESCO mission. During the two years of his stay in the effervescent capital of Mexico Ietswaart was enormously productive. Boudewijn Ietswaart: Master of Hand Lettering As a designer of book covers for the Fondo de Cultura Económica and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) his work for the UNESCO spans more than 50 titles. Boudewijn Ietswaart, now 72, is modest about his efforts, saying he was “allowed to do the titles” and noting the pretentiousness of being sent on an aid mission to a publishing company of international stature such as the Fondo de Cultura Económica.

		Book covers for the Fondo de Cultura Económica & UNAM Hand-lettered designs of Ietswaart. Digitized by the Círculo de Tipógrafos exclusively for FontShop. Inspired by the designs of Boudewijn Ietswaart — an unknown foreigner in the golden age of their country’s letters — the the Círculo de Tipógrafos undertook a project to convert his hand lettered alphabets into digital fonts. In doing so they commemorate the work of Ietswaart and this particularly important period in Mexican cultural history. The Balduina collection was presented for the first time in the The Wandering Dutchman exhibition, in the Academy of San Carlos, belonging to the National School of Plastic Arts in the Historic Centre of Mexico City. It is published by the Círculo de Tipógrafos, and distributed exclusively by FontShop. Read more about Boudewijn Ietswaart and try out the Balduina font collection on The FontFeed.

		Balduina Capture the beauty and elegance of the hand lettered book covers of the past century with the Balduina font series. Each of the seven type designs rescue a model of calligraphy or lettering obtained from book covers designed by Boudewijn (or Balduino, as he was affectionately known in Mexico). Many alternate glyphs, and uppercase and lowercase ligatures enhance the hand lettered feel of the distinctive fonts. The Círculo de Tipógrafos were able to incorporate the opinion of Ietswaart in the design process. However the level of personal interpretation was very high, since each cover contains only a limited number of characters. Now those beautiful letters, originally drawn by Boudewijn Ietswaart, have been converted into a series of digital fonts to be used in diverse contexts.


		Candy Script Taking its inspiration from Argentina and its culture, Alejandro Paul’s Candy Script comes from the tradition of window sign painting. Yet its thick hand-brushed characters — with alternates for almost every single upper and lowercase letter — have a personality all of their own. This joyous script includes numerous OpenType alternates; over 600 characters in total.

		Tabac Tomáš Brousil’s Tabac is a versatile type system for books, magazines, and newspapers. An Old Style type with vertical stress, open letter forms, distinct wedge-shaped serifs, a slightly reduced cap height, and a large x-height provides the basis for this expansive suite of typefaces. The four grades address every possible application, from the crisp, high contrast of Grade 1 for display setting, to the sturdy shapes of Grade 4 for small text and printing in less than ideal conditions. The fully-featured OpenType fonts include small caps, nine sets of numerals, and numerous symbols specifically aimed at the newspaper and magazine market, like arrows, stars, playing card and chess dingbats, weather icons, and so on.

		Mockingbird This calligraphic script by Belgian type designer Brigitte Foissac was derived from writing with the broad nibbed pen. Energetic and spontaneous, its rough texture and dynamic swashes lend it a natural appearance.

		Houschka Nick Cooke updated the best selling Houschka family and released the mighty Houschka Pro which, like its Rounded sister family, comes complete with CE & Cyrillic language support plus a host of alternates and typographic extras making it an extremely versatile family. Houschka Pro is a complete overhaul of the Houschka family, originally from 1999. Other G-Type families to have been reworked and upgraded to OpenType are Chevin Eco, Chevin Std, Chevin Pro, Houschka Rounded, Organon Sans, and Organon Serif.

		Magneta Magneta is a crisp, contemporary new serif face by Neil Summerour designed for editorial, headlines, or where more visually complex systems are needed. The Normal and Condensed widths are available with six different weights and matching italics, small caps, oldstyle figures, swashes, stylistic and discretionary ligatures. Majuscule ligatures in the roman styles and a set of decorative ornaments — including geometric, floral, curvilinear patterns and much more — add some spice to the family.

		Diplomatic The script Diplomatic is yet another successful collaboration by Angel Koziupa and Alejandro Paul. It relies on calligraphic simplicity to achieve artistic sophistication. Prominent ascenders and descenders work alongside calculated but casual strokes to produce an unmistakably elegant text image.