Original sanserif designed in 1962 for Fonderie Olive by the late Roger Excoffon. Excoffon achieves brilliant personal effects by calculated breaking of accepted design canons. Antique Olive™ font field guide including best practices, font pairings and alternatives.

Patron is a sans serif influenced by two dissimilar type designers, Günther Gerhard Lange and Roger Excoffon. Patron is a sans serif influenced by two dissimilar type designers, Günther Gerhard Lange and Roger Excoffon. Patron unites their contradictory approaches to create an expressive, yet versatile grotesk. As a result, Patron is characterised by a generous x-height, flared stroke endings and an unconventional shift in balance, inspired by Excoffon and a rigorously precise, modern interpretation for which Lange was most famous.

A straightforward sanserif in 20 fonts, 4 widths Ardoise met the needs of publications. By extension, it met the needs of a newpapers typeface featuring a low contrast, straightforward forms, as Franklin Gothic. The verticals metrics and proportions of Ardoise are calibrated to match perfectly others Typofonderie families. Four widths to answer all situations Ardoise, inspired by the needs of today’s fine newspapers offers simple and tense shapes designed to renew and revitalize. Ardoise could be considered as an homage to Antique Olive, but quite indirectly and as an organic result of the designer’s longstanding admiration of the work of Roger Excoffon. Ardoise shares a purity and dynamics with Excoffon’s designs giving it a unique elegance and excellent readability. Its sturdiness means it is virtually immune it to distortion. In addition, a few alternates glyphs (a, c, g) can be used to alter the overall tone of a text setting.

The first Antique Olive fonts were produced by the French type foundry Olive, in 1962-1966 and designed by poster designer Roger Excoffon (1910-1983). All Excoffons fonts are flamboyant, elegant and highly stylistic. They include the Banco, Mistral, and Calypso fonts. Antique Olive was launched to rival Helvetica and Univers, but the shapes it took were totally refreshing. Antique Olive is probably the most striking Sans Serif since Futura and Gill, and more refined than either. It is perfect for posters and display material as it works well in larger sizes.

Banco was the first typeface work of French designer Roger Excoffon and was released in 1952. The strong forms look as though they were rolled out of sheet metal and feature upright, tapering strokes. The slight slant, the varying heights of stroke ends, and the relationships between line and curve give Banco font its sense of liveliness and dynamism. Excoffon did not design a matching lower case alphabet for his capitals, but this was accomplished later by Phill Grimshaw, who also designed the light weight. He deliberately 'underdesigned' the lower case forms, producing a more reserved alphabet based on the design ideas of the original.

Mistral is a loose running script based directly on the handwriting of its designer, Roger Excoffon. His goal was to create a typeface with a true handwritten style, but in this case, the writing looks as though it were done with a brush or heavy felt tip.

Choc is the work of French designer Roger Excoffon, based on the traditions of Japanese brush calligraphy, thick yet graceful. Choc light was designed by Phil Grimshaw, who had to redraw many times in different weights before finding one that worked as a text face and remained true to the original.

Choc font is the work of French designer Roger Excoffon, based on the traditions of Japanese brush calligraphy, thick yet graceful. Choc light font was designed by Phil Grimshaw, who had to redraw many times in different weights before finding one that worked as a text face and remained true to the original.

Nouvelle Vague is a display script typeface of a distinguished look defined by a steady rhythm, only broken by its offbeat, dynamic uppercase initials. It's directly inspired by french advertising scripts from the fifties, particularly by Roger Excoffon's Mistral. In order to accentuate this influences and to reproduce their graphic impact, simply structured connections between letters are preferred over OpenType fanciness.

Designed for Linotype Library GMBH and the International Typeface Corporation in 1997 by Phil Grimshaw. Based on bold script Banco designed by French graphic and poster designer Roger Excoffon and released in 1952 by the Fonderie Olive. Originally Banco was an all-caps bold typeface, and the lower case and the corresponding light weight were created for ITC. The tapering slightly slanted strokes of Banco made by sharp-edged flat brush. The face has the effect of being quickly sketched by a powerful hand. For use in advertising and display typography. Cyrillic version developed for ParaType in 2000 by Tagir Safayev.

Named after the strong cold winds on Southern France, the Mistral font family is another original creation displaying the panache of the French graphic artist Roger Excoffon. Mistral is an informal script in which all letters link up in vigorous strokes. First issued in 1953, its brush-like stems look spontaneous and fresh. The descenders are fairly long and the whole alphabet has a distinctive and unforgettable effect on the page. Mistral is a good complement to sans serif typefaces. Mistral is a trademark of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, which may be registered in certain jurisdictions, exclusively licensed through Linotype Library GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.

A happy, and delicate family, available in 5 weights. Being very legible in small sizes, it pays tribute to French designer Roger Excoffon, particularly to his Antique Olive type. Antique Olive combines two features which inspired the design of Quimera: a large x-height with open counters which ensures legibility at tiny body sizes; and letterforms with a horizontal stress which contradicts the logics of calligraphic tradition (thick verticals, thin horizontals). Quimera has a typical sanserif stroke modulation, but letters have a very thin, capricious serif, which helps to keep the texline's continuity. This 'genetic' contradiction is the reason for its name: Khimera, as it would be a 'sanserif avec'!

Ember is an informal script with a judicious sprinkling of ligatures that give it a flowing freehand liveliness. Neither overly formal and stuffy nor cheap and cheerful, Ember is elegant yet friendly, sophisticated yet approachable, fun and frivolous but stylish and well bred. Ligatures are set to be on automatically, and the stylistic alternates and optional final forms for some of the characters can be toggled on and off using the OpenType panel in design applications with advanced OpenType support. Designer Rian Hughes says that he felt he was "possibly channeling the spirit of Roger Excoffon". Neither pastiche nor revival, Ember does seem to evoke the famous French designer's trademark elegance.

In 2012 the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd will celebrated its 850th anniversary, and in 2014 it was host town to the State Garden Show of Baden-Württemberg. These both celebrations were the background to create a special font for my home town and give it the town’s ancient name. Inspired by Excoffon’s Diane, I drew and digitized a new, multilingual script font which covers the main European languages written in Latin or Cyrillic letters. For users typing in the Serbian language, I recommend to activate the OT feature Stylistic Alternatives.

Claudium started as an attempt to create a sans serif version of Garamond. As time went on it gradually became a meditation on the nature of French typography from Garamond to Excoffon. It was especially influenced by Cassandre's type for the Orly airport which seems to epitomize certain aspects of the French character�at least in typography. Attempts to create an italic met with disaster. Gradually, after lots of Cotes du Rhone, a cursive, based on Garamond�s Greek forms, emerged. It came at a time when I was looking at lot at Victor Hammer�s uncial and Andromaque cursive. So Claudium Cursive was developed as a lower case only and mated to the Claudium Regular caps ala Griffo�s original italic type. In keeping with the cursive lowercase there are cursive oldstyle numbers.

In 1995, FontHaus came upon a rare opportunity to create a revival of Aries, a little known and previously unavailable typeface by the legendary Eric Gill. Discovering a lost typeface by one of the major designers of the 20th Century, was the discovery of a buried treasure, and being the first type company to release it was an honor. Thirteen years later, FontHaus came across another little known typeface treasure: Diane. Designed by the legendary French designer Roger Excoffon in 1956, this remarkable script has never been faithfully recreated until now. In close collaboration with Mark Simonson, FontHaus and Mr. Simonson painstakingly researched rare type books, publications, European metal type services, and period showings from the United States, England, Germany and from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Finding full specimens of the font turned out to be quite a challenge. In most cases, only the caps and lowercase were shown. Furthermore, the more we researched Diane, many curious facts came to light. The caps in earlier specimens of Diane are completely different from specimens published later, suggesting that the face was redesigned at some point, perhaps in the mid-1960s. So we are left with two different sets of caps. The original had very elaborate, swirly strokes, very characteristic of Excoffon¹s gestural designs for posters and logos. Later on, these appear to have been replaced by a set of simpler, more traditional script caps. The original caps are criticized in one source Mark found (Practical Handbook on Display Typefaces, 1959) as being "exquisite" but "not highly legible". Perhaps this is what led to the simpler caps being introduced. Nevertheless, FontHaus's release includes not only both sets of caps, but a range of alternates and a number of new characters not originally available such as the Euro, and a magnificent alternate Ampersand to name a few.

Aksen is a humanist sans-serif typeface that draws influence from Roger Excoffon’s Antique Olive. Its design is formed by the rounded, curving letters found in ancient Greek and Roman inscriptions but is implemented with a contemporary and pragmatic approach. This typeface comes in 56 styles consisting of four widths and seven weights, each with matching italics. Also available in variable font format, Aksen Variable boasts three variable axes: width, weight and italic. These axes open up a plethora of stylistic choices making this typeface highly adaptable. Aksen is a versatile typeface that seamlessly blends contemporary humanistic aesthetics with a touch of historical sophistication, making it a perfect fit for a wide range of design applications.

Chercán is a spirited typeface created with a delicate sense of how readability doesn't need to be dull. Chercán wears a uniquely friendly voice, and its mature design makes it highly legible in small bodies as well as in the distance. Its balanced rhythm is the result of a slow pairing of qualities found in old classics admired by Gálvez, such as Copperplate by Frederic Goudy (1905) and Antique Olive by Roger Excoffon (1962). Chercán occupies a unique place in the contemporary type design shelf, by exquisitely combining versatility and elegance. Due to the delicate grey colors it gains within long texts, Chercán is good for immersive reading, where one wants to avoid readers’ eyes fatigue. It can be a great choice for setting texts that require a slightly informal atmosphere without losing authority. Chercán is the Chilean name for the melodious little bird Troglodytes aedon usually found all across the Americas. Available in Std and Pro versions with all the usual OT features, Chercán addresses all modern needs of the demanding typographer.

Kamui is a font designed by Carlos Fabian Camargo G. and used to write headlines. Its strategy makes it ideal for covers and advertisements with Japanese-style manga comics requiring latin style. Precisely its purpose was inspired by typographical classics such as Mistral by R. Excoffon and Zapfino by H. Zapf that then were diluted by separate strokes as blackletter calligraphy. However, high doses of miscegenation and lettering untimely torn between 50% esthetic and 50% legibility. That way his radical expression is highly profitable for composing and designing words and phrases with Eastern look. And more importantly, the writing seems drawn quickly with thin-tipped brush staining over a rough surface, from that process comes the idea of corroded outlines and changes in contrast. In conclusion, some diagonal strokes, horizontal, curved and vertical stand or hide from their simulation of scarcity or abundance of ink clots. That way each stroke seems inconsistent, footprint of the 423 brush drawing glyphs in Regular Kamuy. In that sense, the OpenType features included are: Standard Ligatures, Contextual Alternates, discretionary ligatures, swash, stylistic alternates, alternatives for titles, ordinals, fractions. And to end the Variable “Kamuy Dingbats” has is 52 fictitious drawings and zamurais.

Marjac is an angular and upright script typeface that is directly inspired by handwriting. It is created after "Jacno", a typeface designed in 1948 by French type and graphic designer Marcel Jacno. This unique bold design later inspired other typeface designers to create brush script typefaces like Roger Excoffon’s "Choc". You will also notice it has a "unicase" feel, sharing some lowercase letters in the capital letters. It is recommended to use it for any packaging designs related to quality hand-made products, advertising, web, film title sequence design, posters, magazines and book jackets. Marjac is loaded with an extended character set, supporting Central, Western and Eastern European languages. It has plenty of cool OpenType features like a fun automatic brush underline feature or newly-designed secret alternate letters (like capital A). Kerning and spacing (+ than 25,000 kerning pairs) have been meticulously made-to-measure to this specific brush typeface. Beautiful hand-made arrows and other symbols were created to accompany letters.

Bengala is a font based on Calligraphy & Geometry designed by Carlos Fabián Camargo. Its purpose is to be an innovative typographic system combining Script letters with geometric and hard Caps letters. The contradictory styles are ideal for designing covers, posters, branding and packaging. Its smooth calligraphic look meticulously incorporates characters to design logos and phrases that communicate dynamism and strategy. Bengala Script was inspired by Mistral by R. Excoffon. Bengala Script provides violent and unstable lines with generous spacing between the letters and tight horizontal proportions, producing showy upper and lower case italics inspired by French Gothic calligraphy late fifteenth century. For this reason, Bengala Script retains some uninterrupted calligraphic logic, up and down sometimes higher or shorter than the height of the lowercase, creating dynamism through a variable amount of contrast between thick and thin strokes. Bengala Dingbats has 62 drawings designed to accompany the designs. Script and Caps Bengala have different gender and the similar X height produces more visual appeal. This way Bengala Caps - inspired by the Porshe logo, due to its geometric uppercase Roman construction, extended horizontal proportions, light caliber, rounded strokes terminations and generous spacing between letters. Special thanks to John Moore and Manuel Corradine for their help with Open Type.

Pilar and Ferran based Arlette on the fast stroke of one letter from a Roger Excoffon family, but along the way they abandoned that starting point in favour of experimentation. Many sans serifs are like a svelte black dress: functional, beautiful, and the unfussy outfit for a nice evening get together. The Arlette family isn’t like this. It’s a stunner — an incandescent reimagining of what defines a sans and how it can look. Arlette explores the boundaries of the sans serif landscape and returns with forms developed from gestural vigour. Thinking of it as “painterly” may at first seem to fit, but it underestimates Arlette’s ability to master an unseen world of countless emotions and physical applications: magazines, branding, editorial, teen and young adult works, book covers, and a host of products and packaging whose content will be amplified with Arlette’s voice. Not only does Arlette use its eight weights plus italics to speak in Latin-based scripts, it is also fluent in Thai and has six weights (hairline through bold) with which it meets that challenge, whether in text or display. Arlette Thai’s modern nature is seen in two features for the script. One is the decorative Thai characters that are based on original palm leaf manuscripts. Another is a version of the Latin numerals adapted to the height of the script due to their wide use in Thailand. Arlette Thai has been meticulously developed, including contextual kerning to avoid mark clashes. Arlette’s OpenType capabilities include mathematic and scientific figures, positional forms, pointers, arrows, and oldstyle, lining, and tabular lining numerals. In addition to all this, it’s packed with swashes and swash ligatures in both scripts for enthusiastic typesetting. Because it pushes experimentation without compromising readability, both Arlette Thai and Latin are surprisingly legible in small sizes and arrestingly beautiful when their details can be seen.

Since their first appearance as Italians on the pages of the 1821 William Caslon type specimens, reverse contrast typefaces have been typography's best loved quirky outcasts. Subverting the traditional relationship between thick verticals and thin horizontals made them perfect for eye-catching advertisements. The unexpected contrasts and the thick slabs produced by reverse-contrast serifs became ubiquitous in period posters, and synonymous with wild west and circus iconography. In designing Stinger, the Zetafonts design team composed by Maria Chiara Fantini, Andrea Tartarelli and Francesco Canovaro and orchestrated by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini decided to marry this subversive tradition with the workhorse approach of modernist sans serif typefaces like Univers, developing a super-family with four widths, each in five different weights, from thin to heavy. This gives the designer a full range of options for type setting, with the Normal and Fit widths providing two different text-sized alternatives, the wide width adding display and titling options and the Slim ready to deal with the space-saving necessities of extremely long texts. True italics have been added developed for all weights and variants, bringing the Stinger family to a total of 40 fonts, with a latin extended + Russian Cyrillic character set covering over 200 languages, and open type features including positional numbers, stylistic sets and alternate forms. In the crowded panorama of contemporary grotesque typefaces, all aiming to stark geometric perfection, Stinger stands out with its bold choices and strong personality. From the calligraphy-inspired terminals in the thin weights to the logo-ready sculptural approach in the heavy weights, each variant manages to look striking without forgetting the readability and flexibility lessons of modern reverse-contrast classics like those designed by Excoffon or Novarese. A variable version is included with the full family, allowing maximum flexibility and control for the designer over the wide range of expression capabilities of the Stinger super family.

Alias Vertical is a sans serif typeface with a vertical cut-off point for letter endings. The vertical cut-offs bend round characters (b, c, o, etc) into a squarish, high-shouldered shape, suggesting Roger Excoffon’s Antique Olive. In mid-weights, the typeface mixes Antique Olive with typefaces such as Gill or Johnston, for example the shape of the t, the l borrowing Johnston’s flick. Vertical has the same minimal difference in weight between verticals and horizontals as Gill and Johnston, and the same sharp connection point where curves meet straight lines. Like Antique Olive, Vertical has a narrow connection point here, adding contrast and definition. The overall effect feels austere at lighter weights and strident and graphic at bolder weights, and sharp and incised throughout. In the Bold and Black weights, the squarish and top heavy shape of Antique Olive is most noticeable. For example the wide uppercase, with the B having almost-even width between top and bottom curves, and the almost-overhang of the top curve of the G. But Vertical does not have as extreme an aesthetic or square shape as Antique Olive. As well as its wide design, the upper case is given extra authority by being a slightly heavier weight than the lower case. This is a device borrowed from Gill, and other ‘old’ typefaces, where the upper case is presented as a titling design. Modern sensibilities are more focussed on an even colour between upper and lower case. Vertical was originally intended as a sister typeface to Ano, like AnoAngular or AnoStencil. Vertical developed into a similar but separate design. Ano was designed for use in Another Man — in its modular, circle-base design, and the way there aren’t the amendments usually made in bolder weights to ensure letter clarity. This is for layouts where different weights are used together in different sizes so that the overall letter weight is the same, a feature of the magazine. Where Ano is simple and graphic, Vertical has nuance and texture. It is a pragmatic, utility design. In the balance between graphic and typographic, its focus is the latter.

Probably as a reaction to the pragmatism of modernist design, the seventies saw an explosion of buoyant, vivacious typography. Psychedelia fueled a return to the melting, lush shapes of Art Nouveau while Pop culture embraced the usage of funky, joyful lettering for advertising, product design and tv titling. New low-cost technologies like photo-lettering and rub-on transfer required new fonts to be expressive rather than legible, pushing designers to produce, bubbly, high-spirited masterpieces, where geometric excess and calligraphic inventions melted joyfully. Freitag is Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini's homage to this era and its typography. His starting point was the design of a heavy sans serif with humanist condensed proportions, flared stems and reverse contrast, that generated both the main family, and a variant display subfamily. The main typeface family slowly builds the tension and design exuberance along the weight axis - a bit like our desire for the weekend increases during the week. In Light and Medium weights the font shows a more controlled, medium-contrast design, tightly spaced for maximum display effect. The Book weight follows the same design but uses a more relaxed letter spacing to allow usage in smaller sizes and short body copy. As weight increases in the Bold weight the style becomes more expressive, with a visible reverse contrast building up and culminating in the Heavy weight with his clearly visible "bell bottoms" feel. In the display sub-family the design is pushed further by introducing variant letterforms that have a stronger connection to calligraphy and lettering. Also, the weight range becomes a optical one, with weights marked as Medium, Large, XLarge, as bringing the contrast and the boldness to the extreme creates smaller counterspaces that require bigger usage sizes. Another important addition of the display sub-family is the connected italics that sport swash capitals and cursive letterforms, developed with logo design and ultra-expressive editorial design in mind. To balance the extreme contrast in the XL weight, contrast of punctuation is reduced, creating a rich, highly-dynamic texture wherever diacritics and marks are used in the text. The full family includes 16 styles + 4 variable fonts, allowing full control of the design over its tree-hugging design space. All 20 fonts share an extended latin charset with open type features including case sensitive forms, single and double story variants and alternate glyphs. According to its creator, "Freitag is the typeface that sounds like an imaginary Woodstock where on the stage with Jimi Hendrix with Novarese, Motter, Excoffon and Benguiat playing onstage with Jimi Hendrix". Jeepers creepers!

Gérard Mariscalchi is a self-made designer. Born in Southern France of a Spanish mother and an Italian father, he has worked as a mechanic, salesman, pilot, college teacher – even a poet (with poetry being the worst-paying of these professions, he reports.) “Throughout all this, the backbone of my career has always been design,” Mariscalchi says. “I’ve been drawing since I was five, but it wasn’t until I was twenty-four that I learned that my hobby could also help me earn a living.” It was about this same time that Mariscalchi fell in love with type. He studied the designs of masters like Excoffon, Usherwood and Frutiger, as well as the work of calligraphers and type designers such as Plantin, Cochin and Dürer. With such an eclectic background, it’s no surprise that Mariscalchi’s typeface designs are inspired by many sources. Baylac and Evita reflect the style of the art nouveau and art deco periods, while Marnie was created as an homage to the great Lithuanian calligrapher Villu Toots. However, the touch of French elegance and distinction Mariscalchi brings to his work is all his own. Baylac Who says thirteen is an unlucky number? Three capitals and ten lowercase letters from a poster by L. Baylac, a relatively obscure Art Nouveau designer, served as the foundation for this typeface. The finished design has lush curves that give the face drama without diminishing its versatility. On the practical side, Baylac’s condensed proportions make it perfect for those situations where there’s a lot to say and not much room in which to say it Evita Mariscalchi based the design of Evita on hand lettering he found in a restaurant menu, and considers this typeface one of his most difficult design challenges. “The main problem was to render the big weight difference between the thin and the thick strokes without creating printing problems at small point sizes,” he says. Unlike most scripts, Evita is upright, with the design characteristics of a serif typeface. Mariscalchi named the face for a close friend. The end result is a charming design that is light, airy, and slightly sassy. Marnie Based on Art Nouveau calligraphic lettering, Marnie is elegant, inviting, and absolutely charming. Mariscalchi paid special attention to letter shapes and proportions to guarantee high levels of character legibility. He also kept weight transition in character strokes to modest levels, enabling the face to be used at relatively small sizes – an unusual asset for a formal script. Marnie’s capital letters are expansive designs with flowing swash strokes that wrap affectionately around adjoining lowercase letters. The design easily captures the spontaneous qualities of hand-rendered brush lettering.

Gérard Mariscalchi is a self-made designer. Born in Southern France of a Spanish mother and an Italian father, he has worked as a mechanic, salesman, pilot, college teacher – even a poet (with poetry being the worst-paying of these professions, he reports.) “Throughout all this, the backbone of my career has always been design,” Mariscalchi says. “I’ve been drawing since I was five, but it wasn’t until I was twenty-four that I learned that my hobby could also help me earn a living.” It was about this same time that Mariscalchi fell in love with type. He studied the designs of masters like Excoffon, Usherwood and Frutiger, as well as the work of calligraphers and type designers such as Plantin, Cochin and Dürer. With such an eclectic background, it’s no surprise that Mariscalchi’s typeface designs are inspired by many sources. Baylac and Evita reflect the style of the art nouveau and art deco periods, while Marnie was created as an homage to the great Lithuanian calligrapher Villu Toots. However, the touch of French elegance and distinction Mariscalchi brings to his work is all his own. Baylac Who says thirteen is an unlucky number? Three capitals and ten lowercase letters from a poster by L. Baylac, a relatively obscure Art Nouveau designer, served as the foundation for this typeface. The finished design has lush curves that give the face drama without diminishing its versatility. On the practical side, Baylac’s condensed proportions make it perfect for those situations where there’s a lot to say and not much room in which to say it Evita Mariscalchi based the design of Evita on hand lettering he found in a restaurant menu, and considers this typeface one of his most difficult design challenges. “The main problem was to render the big weight difference between the thin and the thick strokes without creating printing problems at small point sizes,” he says. Unlike most scripts, Evita is upright, with the design characteristics of a serif typeface. Mariscalchi named the face for a close friend. The end result is a charming design that is light, airy, and slightly sassy. Marnie Based on Art Nouveau calligraphic lettering, Marnie is elegant, inviting, and absolutely charming. Mariscalchi paid special attention to letter shapes and proportions to guarantee high levels of character legibility. He also kept weight transition in character strokes to modest levels, enabling the face to be used at relatively small sizes – an unusual asset for a formal script. Marnie’s capital letters are expansive designs with flowing swash strokes that wrap affectionately around adjoining lowercase letters. The design easily captures the spontaneous qualities of hand-rendered brush lettering.

Gérard Mariscalchi is a self-made designer. Born in Southern France of a Spanish mother and an Italian father, he has worked as a mechanic, salesman, pilot, college teacher – even a poet (with poetry being the worst-paying of these professions, he reports.) “Throughout all this, the backbone of my career has always been design,” Mariscalchi says. “I’ve been drawing since I was five, but it wasn’t until I was twenty-four that I learned that my hobby could also help me earn a living.” It was about this same time that Mariscalchi fell in love with type. He studied the designs of masters like Excoffon, Usherwood and Frutiger, as well as the work of calligraphers and type designers such as Plantin, Cochin and Dürer. With such an eclectic background, it’s no surprise that Mariscalchi’s typeface designs are inspired by many sources. Baylac and Evita reflect the style of the art nouveau and art deco periods, while Marnie was created as an homage to the great Lithuanian calligrapher Villu Toots. However, the touch of French elegance and distinction Mariscalchi brings to his work is all his own. Baylac Who says thirteen is an unlucky number? Three capitals and ten lowercase letters from a poster by L. Baylac, a relatively obscure Art Nouveau designer, served as the foundation for this typeface. The finished design has lush curves that give the face drama without diminishing its versatility. On the practical side, Baylac’s condensed proportions make it perfect for those situations where there’s a lot to say and not much room in which to say it Evita Mariscalchi based the design of Evita on hand lettering he found in a restaurant menu, and considers this typeface one of his most difficult design challenges. “The main problem was to render the big weight difference between the thin and the thick strokes without creating printing problems at small point sizes,” he says. Unlike most scripts, Evita is upright, with the design characteristics of a serif typeface. Mariscalchi named the face for a close friend. The end result is a charming design that is light, airy, and slightly sassy. Marnie Based on Art Nouveau calligraphic lettering, Marnie is elegant, inviting, and absolutely charming. Mariscalchi paid special attention to letter shapes and proportions to guarantee high levels of character legibility. He also kept weight transition in character strokes to modest levels, enabling the face to be used at relatively small sizes – an unusual asset for a formal script. Marnie’s capital letters are expansive designs with flowing swash strokes that wrap affectionately around adjoining lowercase letters. The design easily captures the spontaneous qualities of hand-rendered brush lettering.

A Postmodern vernacular sanserif in 8 fonts Prosaic designed by Aurélien Vret is a Postmodern typographic tribute to the french vernacular signs created by local producers in order to directly market their products visible along the roads. These signs drawn with a brush on artisanal billboards do not respect any typographic rules. The construction of these letterforms is hybrid and does not respect any ductus. Nevertheless the use of certain tools provokes a certain mechanism in the development of letter shapes. It’s after many experiments with a flat brush, that’s these letterforms have been reconstructed and perfected by Aurélien Vret. This is the starting point for the development of an easily reproducible sanserif with different contemporary writing tools. From non-typographical references of Prosaic towards readability innovation The influence of the tool is revealed in the letterforms: angular counterforms contrasting to the smoothed external shapes. This formal contrast gives to Prosaic a good legibility in small sizes. These internal angles indirectly influenced by the tool, open the counterforms. In the past, to deal with phototype limitations in typeface production, some foundries modified the final design by adding ink traps. In our high resolution digital world, these ink traps — now fashionable among some designers — have little or no effect when literally added to any design. Should one see in it a tribute to the previous limitations? Difficult to say. Meanwhile, there are typeface designers such as Ladislas Mandel, Roger Excoffon, and Gerard Unger who have long tried to push the limits of readability by opening the counters of their typefaces. Whatever the technology, such design research for a large counters have a positive impact on visual perception of typefaces in a small body text. The innovative design of counter-forms of the Prosaic appears in this second approach. Itself reinforced by an exaggerated x-height as if attempting to go beyond the formal limits of the Latin typography. It is interesting to note how the analysis of a non-typographical letters process has led to the development of a new typographic concept by improving legibility in small sizes. Disconnected to typical typographic roots in its elaboration, Prosaic is somewhat unclassifiable. The formal result could easily be described as a sturdy Postmodern humanistic sanserif! Humanistic sanserif because of its open endings. Sturdy because of its monumental x-height, featuring a “finish” mixing structured endings details. The visual interplay of angles and roundness produces a design without concessions. Finally, Prosaic is Postmodern in the sense it is a skeptical interpretation of vernacular sign paintings. Starting from a reconstruction of them in order to re-structure new forms with the objective of designing a new typeface. Referring to typographic analogy, the Prosaic Black is comparable to the Antique Olive Nord, while the thinner versions can refer to Frutiger or some versions of the Ladislas Mandel typefaces intended for telephone directories. Prosaic, a Postmodern vernacular sanserif Prosaic is radical, because it comes from a long artistic reflection of its designer, Aurélien Vret, as well a multidisciplinary artist. The Prosaic is also a dual tone typeface because it helps to serve the readability in very small sizes and brings a sturdy typographic power to large sizes. Prosaic, a Postmodern vernacular sanserif