History is always in sight; it is constantly being reconsidered and reformulated in the context of now. We see approaches to art, fashion, textiles, homewares, furnishings … not to mention music, graphics and everything else that culturally enriches our daily lives, revisited and made anew for today.    Address Sans indulges in the spirit and aesthetics of mid-century Modern – Italian industrial design, sleek coffee makers, stylish cars, seductive jazz pressed on vinyl – with a charm and charisma that defies time. It evokes history but is decisively created for today.    Its design, in reality, is rooted in the condensed structure and block modulation of early 1950s German lettering intended for use in street signage, but when we started to work on the various weights and widths, the result was a set of fonts in a style similar to the typographic work developed by Butti and Novarese in the 60s. The multitude of potential applications for Address Sans then became clear.    In a range of 3 widths and 8 weights each, Address Sans includes little verses, true italics, small caps and numerous alternative signs for a total of 48 fonts. The result is a functional typeface that is effortlessly seductive, with geometric features and design details that ooze cool, and take it away from mere reinterpretation towards typographic forms that adapt perfectly for contemporary use.

Simplo: the ‘Italian Futura’. Simplo is a geometric sans serif typeface, built in sixteen styles. It is a tribute to the 1930s typeface Semplicità, designed by Nebiolo’s Alessandro Butti. Although many details of Simplo differ from Semplicità, it preserves the spirit of the original. Simplo is ideal for use in display sizes. It is also quite legible in text, and is well suited for graphic design and corporate identity design. Simplo has sixteen styles, extensive language support, eight different kinds of figures, sophisticated OpenType features — so it’s ready for advanced typographic projects. The most notable characteristics of this typeface are the ‘t’ and the ‘f’. The ‘t’ is the culmination of simplicity: a vertical line with just a simple right-side crossbar. The ‘f’ also has just a right-side crossbar, and is really tall: it reaches both the highest and lowest vertical position of the typeface. The top of the distinctive ‘s’, is much narrower than its bottom. The ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘g’, ‘p’, ‘q’, and ‘u’ are spurless, and show a family resemblance with Hans Reichel’s 1990s typeface Dax. However, these letters are rounder and more geometric than Dax’s counterparts, because of Dax’s higher x-height and narrower design. In Paul Shaw’s Imprint article about typefaces that have been overlooked and/or underappreciated, “Overlooked Typefaces”, he concluded his discussion of Semplicità as follows: “These idiosyncrasies suggest that Semplicità might find a warm reception today, given the current love affair with Gotham, Neutraface and Proxima—and the resurgence of ITC Avant-Garde Gothic.” Free demo font available. For more information about Simplo, download the PDF Specimen Manual.