Aristotelica Pro is the 2020 redesign of the rounded geometric sans designed by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini and Andrea Tartarelli developing the original philosophy of one of the classic and best-selling Zetafonts typefaces, Arista by Francesco Canovaro. Originally conceived as an exercise in restraint and simplicity, Aristotelica is typographic eulogy to the simple beauty of circular shapes, aptly named after the greek philosopher who pioneered formal logic. It shows its strengths mostly in display uses and logo design, with a palette of moods ranging from the stark elegance of the uppercase hairline weights to the playful softness of the lowercase bold weights. True to its universalist calling, it has however been developed in a variant text version that applies slight corrections to design and metrics to allow for better legibility in long body copy. In Aristotelica Pro both the display and the text subfamilies have been complemented with a condensed version, though especially for mobile screens and other situations where space-saving is a concern. Also the original language coverage (extended latin, greek and cyrillic) has been expanded with the inclusion of arabic language glyphs, bringing the typeface to a total of over 1100 glyphs and 200 languages covered. The family is further enriched by the inclusion of Aristotelica Icons, a set of matching variable-width monoline icons that can be used to faultlessly match the typeface line width. OpenType features includes stylistic alternates, old style and lining figures and small caps.

FS Rosa is a free-spirited and optimistic serif typeface – reminiscent of those used on fanzines, film sequences and book covers of the 1970s, such as Cooper and Windsor, it has a laid-back nature with a touch of rebellion. It also reminds of type used in colourful protest graphics by nun-turned-designer Corita Kent, and its personality is akin with brands like Whole Foods - positive rather than preachy. While unconventional, it’s sensible enough to work perfectly for socially conscious brands, magazines, websites and campaigns that want a fairer and more responsible world. Hand-drawn digitally, FS Rosa is warm and open-minded – its irregular letterforms are rounded, with soft terminals, a large x-height and wide apertures. But it is also quirky and eclectic, with irregular shapes – its short ascenders and descenders have slanted serifs, its uppercase forms have unusually low crossbars and the letters are filled with oddities and surprises. The typeface looks to stand out against a sea of homogenous, geometric sans serifs, and celebrates beauty through imperfection. It comes in five weights of Thin, Light, Regular, Bold and Black. The heavier weights make an impact and are great for loud, headline statements. The Regular weight is functional, balanced and robust for text, and the lighter weights have an elegance and contemporary beauty. FS Rosa is eclectic yet with its soft roundness, also positive and progressive. Its name, inspired by the phrase “rose-tinted glasses”, reflects its optimism.

A modern sans serif with open round forms. The ”round“ letters emphasize the condensed open oval; the light counter forms provide the rhythm of the typeface, causing the typeface to appear gentle and pleasing. The ”modern“ design of a and g being especially contributive here. All of the letters are recognizably narrow, almost ”condensed,“ the forms being very functionally shaped. The construction of the ”triangular“ upper case letters A M N V W as well as v and w, especially catches the eye with the shafts joined together as beams are stacked upon each other. With this construction Hedwig displays a down-to-earth touch. Contrary to the classical sans serifs, a few letters were given light echoes of serifs which promote fluency: a d l are displayed below the line in a reading direction and end in a compressed but also very short serif style; on m n p r the upstroke is gently displayed and on u the downstroke. For all the typo-maniacs among you designers there are alternative forms for a number of letters in Hedwig: A B D G I M R W and a d f g j l ß u. Even an antiquated ”long“ s and an upper case ß is available. Plus, Hedwig includes numerous ligatures which can save that little bit of space where required and which allow the typeface to appear more variable: ch, ck, ct, fi, fj, fl, ff, ffi, ffl, ft, mm, ti, tt, tz.

Stabia is a multi-purpose typeface with large wedge-angular serifs. It is delicate and highly readable at very small sizes but reveals all its strength and personality when used at big sizes. The contrast of the sharped serifs provides a fresh and very contemporary look. The family has 5 weights, ranging from Light to Black (including italics) and is ideally suited for advertising and packaging, book text, editorial and publishing, logo and branding, small text as well as web and epub. Stabia provides advanced typographical support with features such as ligatures, small capitals, alternate characters, case-sensitive forms, fractions, and super- and subscript characters. It comes with a complete range of figure set options – oldstyle and lining figures, each in tabular and proportional widths. As well as Latin-based, the typeface family also supports Central European languages. Stabiae was an ancient Roman town, located close to the modern town of Castellammare di Stabia approximately 4.5 km southwest of Pompeii. According to the account written by his nephew, Pliny the Elder was at the other side of the bay in Misenum when the Mount Vesuvius eruption started. He travelled by galley ship across the bay, partly to observe the eruption more closely, and partly to rescue people from the coast near the volcano. Pliny died at Stabiae the following day, probably during the arrival of the sixth and largest pyroclastic surge of the eruption caused by the collapse of the eruption plume.

I will spare you the long-winded description this time and all of the motivations and witty innuendoes. Quite frankly, I forgot about creating this typeface and it sat on my hard drive for almost a year. Luckily, my daughter Isobel saw the initial drawings one day and ask me about those pretty letters and I remembered… yep, that happened. That said, time made this a better typeface… with fresh eyes and time, much was redrawn, retooled and expanded to something I truly enjoy playing with. Shameless makes extensive use of Contextual alternates to create a proper ebb and flow from letter to letter. Interestingly, there are only a handful of ligatures… instead many special combinations are accounted for solely by relying on Contextual Alts. Mix in Stylistic Alts, Swashes, responsive Titling Alts, numerous Style Sets, etc and you can have a lot of fun. I created 2 versions. A ‘Standard’ version that has 2200+ characters and a ‘Deluxe’ version that has 2400+ characters and an interesting caveat… I plan on expanding the Deluxe version any time I have an idea to add to the typeface… and as such, buyers will receive all of those updates at no charge (with updates going directly to the distributors). You get what you pay for… no insane discounts. Oh, and if you are wondering… Shameless is based on my handwriting using Kuretake Zig CocoIro pens. I love these pens.