Letternews: Hitting the books

September 02, 2015 by

It's around this time each year we see the young designers we once were and ask ourselves, "Shouldn't I be in school right now; nailing down with the rest of my classmates the precise definition of Art?" No, stay put. We've got something for you to read.

Brace

Göran Söderström for Letters from Sweden

Brace started with the popular sans Trim and found through the process of "adding serifs" not merely a sibling, but something altogether different. The name Brace draws a parallel between timber framing and the support roles of horizontal and vertical strokes in type design.

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Caravel

Jonny Pinhorn for Indian Type Foundry

In tone, Jonny Pinhorn's Caravel lands somewhere in between Monotype's Grotesque™ and Fred Smeijers’ Ludwig; not so wild and crazy in its lighter weights, but as it progresses toward bold it seems capable of being talked into it. Five weights. Careful with those sharp terminals—could put an eye out.

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Cradley

Jason Castle for CastleType

Cradley is Jason Castle's own titling Caslon. A gracefully mannered uppercase, the face is suited to editorial, poster, and packaging work. Find inside a brilliant cameo cut, and a set of interlocking fleurons. Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic language support throughout.

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Formular

Gayaneh Bagdasaryan and Vyacheslav Kirilenko for Brownfox

Formular offers a different perspective on the realist sans, as does the Brownfox foundry on Latin alphabet design generally. In the Latin, the typeface ranges from novel to unsettling by means of its overall sense of balance down to the placement of its individual strokes. Five full weights plus a monospaced variant.

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Chromatic Fonts

We've got a soft spot for chromatics, layered fonts that allow you to set each character in multiple colors. Here's a fontlist of David Sudweeks' favorites within the category.

_{Trademark attribution notice

FontShop is a trademark of Monotype GmbH and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. DIN and FF are trademarks of Monotype GmbH registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain other jurisdictions. Akko is a trademark of Monotype Imaging Inc. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain other jurisdictions. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.}