FF Ernestine

The premise for FF Ernestine came from the search for a versatile monolinear text face whose design could transmit seemingly opposite feelings. Its designer, Nina Stössinger, hoped to develop a solution that would feel inviting, but also serious; somewhat feminine, but not too swirly-girly – at once both charming and sturdy. The design’s rather large x-height and wide, open shapes allow it to work well at small sizes. Stylistic and contextual alternates, ligatures, a selection of arrows, and two sizes of small caps add range to the face’s typographic palette. Stössinger first drew the Roman during her postgraduate studies in type design at Zurich University of the Arts. In an unexpected turn, an Armenian extension was developed for FF Ernestine together with Hrant Papazian. This is the first design in the FontFont library to support Armenian. Any of the “Pro” versions include this glyph coverage. Because the scripts are quite different, FF Ernestine’s Latin and Armenian base cuts are relatively independent designs, unified by color and apparent size, as well as by their similar typographic feel. The Latin Italic serves as a pivot in the family. It shares the vertical proportions of the Latin Roman, and the inclination and serif structure of its Armenian sibling. This design choice also has the effect that the Italics are only very modestly slanted, and not very cursive in structure; they also differ from the Roman in their narrower proportions and slightly lighter weight. If pairing Armenian with the Latin, the Italic is a interesting bridge between the two.