A mix of Renaissance & tropical atmosphere Basco is an exploration of the Renaissance style, a period in which letterforms were informed primarily by hand writing. It is clearly a contemporary interpretation of calligraphic shapes forms. The serifs are subtly asymmetrical. Slightly curved arches on the n, m and u are noticeable, creating an interesting tension in the text. Bruno Mello’s distinctive style is most obvious in his mastery of super fluid curves. It is a result of his extensive exploration of calligraphic forms, their tensions and dynamics, mixing angularities with curves. The roman weights include alternate swashes, as well as initial and terminal glyphs. The italics, based on chancellery script, feature simple stroke endings, most visible on the s and c. ➼ Basco minisite

Oksana Std has only the Western Latin characters from multilingual Oksana. It has six weights with real italics, and Alt faces with Old Style figures, alternative characters -a-g-k-y- and ampersand. German großes Eszett is also included.

Rufina was as tall and thin as a reed. Elegant but with that distance that well-defined forms seem to impose. Her voice, however, was sweeter, closer, and when she spoke her name, like a slow whisper, one felt like what she had come to say could be read in her image. Rufina's story can only be told through a detour because her origin does not coincide with her birth. Rufina was born on a Sunday afternoon while her father was drawing black letters on a white background, and her mother was trying to join those same letters to form words that could tell a story. But her origin goes much further back, and that is why she is pierced by a story that precedes her, even though it is not her own. Maybe her origin can be traced back to that autumn night in which that tall man with that distant demeanor ran into that woman with that sweet smile and elegant aspect. He looked at her in such a way that he was trapped by that gaze, even though they found no words to say to each other, and they stayed in silence. Somehow, some words leaked into that gaze because since that moment they were never apart again. Later, after they started talking, projects started coming up and then coexistence and arguments, routines and mismatches. But in that chaos of crossed words in their life together, something was stable through the silence of the gazes. In those gazes, the silent words sustained that indescribable love that they didn't even try to understand. And in one of those silences, Rufina appeared, when that man told that woman that he needed a text to try out his new font, and she saw him look at her with that same fascination of the first time, and she started to write something with those forms that he was giving her as a gift. Rufina was as tall and thin as a reed, wrote her mother when Rufina was born.

Fashion style meets typography in 9 styles The Ysans designed by Jean François Porchez is a sanserif influenced by Cassandre lettering pieces and the geometric sanserif style from the inter-war period. Since Chanel logo, the geometric sanserif style is the favorite typographic thing in fashion. Ysans asserts this reference. Not only Haute-Couture houses use these categories of typefaces for their visual identity, but fashion magazines usually strength their layout with these geometric sanserif when a Didot isn’t used. Details of Ysans drawings Nevertheless, Ysans takes its sources in certain details imagined by the graphic designer Adolphe Mouron Cassandre for the monogram then logotype Yves Saint Laurent (1961 …). One thing keeps coming in again and again in Cassandre’s post-war graphic work: the pointed finish and endings, the references to the Roman capitals engraved and unique features such as the open R or other details influenced by Antiqua and calligraphic forms or ductus (you should have in mind that an earlier typeface by Cassandre is the Peignot, a modern uncial based on researches of the palaeographer Jean Mallon.) Certain letters from the Ysans are directly an homage to the Yves Saint Laurent logo, the R, the narrow U, the apex of the N, and all the details of such pointed endings on the f and t lowercases. The Ysans, a typeface between diversity and synthesis There are several ways to approach the design of a new geometric sanserif. The first approach is to follow the Bauhaus philosophy by designing in the most rational way, typographic forms based on simple geometric elements: square, round, triangle. Another approach is to start a revival based on an historical geometric typeface and optimize the original ideas, in order to adapt certain details to the contemporary needs. For Ysans, the approach is somewhat different because this project started in 2011 at ZeCraft as a typeface designed specifically for Yves Saint Laurent Beauty, still in use by the brand under its original name Singulier. The Singulier-Ysans has been conceptualized by ZeCraft, both drawing its sources from Cassandre and various historical geometric typefaces. Some will spot specific traits as in Futura, others in Metro or Kabel. By closely observing the Ysans, the result can also recall the way Eric Gill draw the curves and endings of his typefaces, of which Jean François Porchez is a fervent admirer. In the end, Ysans is like fashion as envisioned by Yves Saint Laurent who constantly revealed multiple references in his new collections, without being recognisable any other than with his unique style. “Fashions pass, style is eternal. Fashion is futile, not style.” Cherry on the cake: Ysans Mondrian Ysans Mondrian, named in reference to the Mondrian dress created by Yves Saint Laurent, is the multi-layer version of the family. Ysans, fashion style meets typography Club des directeurs artistiques, 49e palmarès

A robust oldstyle, an elegant slab, 8 styles Geneo, created by Stéphane Elbaz, is a synthesis of historic and present-day visions of typography, a slab serif constructed on an oblique axis. Its subtle contrast evokes both Renaissance elegance and the robustness of the Egyptian typefaces that were in vogue during the 19th century. Geneo falls halfway between the classic styles of Garamond and Transitionnals, with aspects of contemporary slab serifs like Rockwell, Boton, as well a bit informal. From this blend of styles and genres, it emerges with a singular identity perfectly suited for modern illustrations of quality, savoir-faire, and culture. Geneo’s limited contrast has been carefully crafted to make the font adaptable for use as both text and headlines, as well as for small-print elements like footnotes, appendices, and captions. The variety and precision of certain weights, like Regular, allow minute adjustments of the font color in text compositions. This flexibility is especially useful for displaying on devices with high pixel densities such as the latest iPhone or iPad, on which text may appear too thin. Flexibility and sturdiness The sturdiness of Geneo makes it a perfect choice for posters, logos, print and any project that requires finesse and sophistication. It provides alternate versions of some letters such as g and a to give you the flexibility you need for your typographic projects. Geneo pairs perfectly with contemporary typeface genre. Geneo, a new typeface designed by Stéphane Elbaz Tokyo TDC 2014 Type Directors Club 2009

A mediterranean style sanserif in 4 styles The original idea of Costa was to create a contemporary mediterranean typeface style. Costa is a synthesis of the purity, as found on Greek capitals, and softness, found in Renaissance scripts. First thing was the design concept that take its roots on the Chancery script. Such writing style appeared during Italian Renaissance. Later few typefaces have been developed from such cursive models. Today most serifed typeface italic take their roots on such triangular structure we can find on gylphs like the n, p, or d. The Costa capitals remains close to pure sanserif models when the lowercases features an ending serif on many letters like the a, n, d, etc. This ending serif being more like a minimal brush effect, creating a visual contrast and referencing the exoticness of the typeface. Knowing that the Costa typeface family began life in the 90s as a bespoke typeface for Costa Crociere, an Italian cruise company — it suddenly makes sense and explains well why Jean François Porchez focused so much on Italian Chancery mixed to a certain exotism. The curvy-pointed terminals of the Costa n can obviously get find on other glyphs, such as the ending of the e, c and some capitals. So, the sanserif looks more soft and appealing, without to be to pudgy or spineless. The general effect, when set for text, remains a sanserif, even not like Rotis Semiserif. Costa is definitly not a classical typeface, or serif typeface which convey past, tradition, historicism as Garamond does beautifully. Because of the Costa crocieres original needs, Costa typeface was designed to be appropriate for any uses. Anytime you’re looking for good mood, qualitative effects, informal tone, cool atmosphere without to be unconvential or blowzy, Costa will convey to your design the required chic and nice atmosphere, from large headlines sizes, brands, to small text sizes. It’s a legible typeface, never boring. A style without neutrality which doesn’t fit comfortably into any typeface classification! Does it proves the novelty of its design and guarantees as well as its originality? Its up to you to be convinced. Barcelona trip Originally not planned, this need appeared because of a trip to Barcelona at the time of the project, where Jean François was giving a lecture. He wanted to pay an homage to that invitation to create something special. So, he designed during his flight some variations of the Spanish Ch, following ideas developed by the Argentinian type designer Rubén Fontana for his typeface called Fontana ND (published by the Barcelona foundry Bauer). Then, he presented during his lecture variations and asked to the audience which design fit the best to their language. They selected the design you can find in the fonts today. Read more about pairing Costa Type Directors Club 2000 Typographica: Our Favourite Typefaces 2004

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

Beorcana can be classified as a serifless roman, a stressed sans, a glyphic sans, or calligraphic sans. However it is classified, Beorcana derives not only from other stressed sans designs like Lydian, Amerigo and Optima, but also utilizes classic Renaissance proportions in both Roman and Italic, which facilitate extended reading. Beorcana is available in Display, regular Text and Micro styles. Beorcana’s Text styles offer comfort and liveliness in books, dictionaries, magazines and other reading-intensive settings. Display styles offer a stately and organic flavor for any application. Micro styles perform in tight and dense settings like dictionaries, bibles, maps and fine print. The name Beorcana is a variant of the Icelandic word for the Birch tree, and the related words for the Icelandic rune. Many variant spellings are used for the tree and the rune: Beorc, Berkanan, Birkana, Bercano, Bjork, Bjarka. The Birch was revered as a symbol of renewal, due to its role as a pioneer species in burned, boggy or otherwise unforested areas.

HU Blackout is a typeface for titles that feels like letters are trapped in a square and has a constant and very narrow inner space. It is composed of three types of family typeface to increase usability.

Blackway is a raw and natural handdrawn display font that radiates authenticity. Fall in love with its modern charm! Blackway is a handbrush font with a great personality for outdoor or events. It will elevate a wide range of design projects to the highest level, be it branding, headings, wedding designs, invitations, signatures, logos, labels, and much more!

Blackout SCF is a loose and informal grungy font with a modern, electric zappy quality. The font is particularly useable for the promotion of products aimed at young and trendy consumers. It can be used for the design of: CD and DVD covers; clothing advertising and swing tags; magazines and advertising; and cosmetic packaging. It has been carefully letterspaced and kerned. It contains a full character set: all upper and lower case characters, punctuation, numerals and accented characters are present.

Media Blackout is a handmade font with rugged good looks. The Media Blackout Family consists of three fonts: Normal, Italic & Marker. Media Blackout Marker takes the handcrafted look one step further by adding heavy hand etched lines for a truly unique look. For an even more handmade look, switch between uppercase and lowercase for a change of etching.

Western display typeface.

Sadness is based on some experiments during Felix Braden’s stay at the Trier College of Design: "I played around with Fontographer’s blendfonts-feature (a type design tool to interpolate fonts and to minimize effort and expenditure of large families) with some files from a close designer. Since the basic elements derived from extremely varied fonts without any similarities, the concluding shapes first turned out to be rather fragmentary. From those fragments I chose the most characteristic elements and drew a whole new font." For a detailed type specimen have a look at: http://on.be.net/1CdAZlC

Listen up, partner! If you want to give your message some real grit, you need to saddle up with Stud. This ain’t no wimpy, delicate typeface that’ll have you tip-toeing around your message like a city slicker. No way, pal. Stud is a cowboy typeface with brawny serifs that’ll have you shouting your message from the rooftops. With wide characters and robust letterforms, Stud is the epitome of solid confidence. It’s the kind of typeface that’ll have your audience sitting up straight, paying attention, and hanging on your every word. And let me tell you, there ain’t no other typeface out there that can do that. But that’s not all, folks. Stud comes equipped with some serious firepower. Some character combinations are automatically swapped for custom pairs in OpenType-aware apps. That means your message is going to be more powerful than a bull at a rodeo. So if you want to make a real impact, make sure to turn off your application’s “standard ligatures” function to disable the effect. It’s time to get tough with Stud. Saddle up and let your message ride into the sunset with confidence, power, and a powerful style that’ll leave your competition eatin’ dust. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

Stu is based on the penmanship of the late Raoul "Stu" Stuart. Raoul's penmanship was always admired by those who saw it; it was a first glimpse into the artistic and creative side of an otherwise easy-going, funny guy. The print variants exude a soft yet masculine feel, while the scripts evoke a sense of sentimentality and romance. Stu features dingbats which say something about Raoul: affectionate and romantic (heart), a big coffee drinker (coffee cup), a great cook (spoon and fork), a music lover (musical note), and a prankster (winking smiley). (The winking smiley is available in all the font styles, while each of the other four dingbats is unique to one font style.) Stu is a tribute to the coolest dad in the world.