Italian type design master Aldo Novarese was not famous for making calligraphic designs, nor had he any interest in them. He is much better known for his text faces, and quite innovative sans serif and decorative designs which became the definition of what we now know as techno and modern. But in 1968, Novarese surprised everyone with a fantastic flowing deco script entitled Elite. Novarese's formula of simple soft curves and toned-down swashes makes for one of the most unique alphabets ever seen, not to mention one of the best flowing and most legible scripts. This is now its digital incarnation, named Fontella. Fontella's applications are virtually limitless. This is the sort of script that can feel at home pretty much anywhere; a sign, a fridge magnet, a bumper sticker, a greeting card, a movie poster, a book cover, music artwork, magazine ads, newsletter headlines, etc. Digitized from original specimen and expanded with a few built-in alternates and ligatures by Rebecca Alaccari, the font was named after the famed jazz singer Fontella Bass. These letters are just so sweet they had to be called Fontella.

Lush was a formal script until it had a few too many drinks and, as a result, loosened up a little bit. Harkening back to the handlettering of the 40s and 50s, Lush has evolved into a casual, but well-dressed script that maintains a rather aggressive rhythm. Transitions often whip back quickly, forcing the letters to reel from the movement and resolve efficiently. It is not as warm as some scripts, intentionally so, so as to distinguish it from its predecessors. Type and lettering fans will revel in the options afforded to each character—in some cases there are up to 15 different variations with multiple glyph recipes available to produce the most unique and fluid lettering combinations possible. An often overlooked segment of contemporary script fonts, the uppercase letters have at least 3 options to work with that mesh well with the 36 ornamental flourishes to add even further embellishment. In total, there are over 1,650 glyphs in the typeface that includes these OpenType options: Stylistic Alternates, Contextual Alternates, Swashes, Titling, Historical Forms, Initial Forms, Oldstyle Numerals and 3 additional Stylistic Sets. With this release, I have tried to provide as much flexibility and 'forgiveness' within the typeface so the lettering enthusiast can have fun and explore thousands of iterations… and it's pretty easy math to figure this out: with over 970 alternates and 270 ligatures, I intended this typeface to be one that keeps on giving. One important fact to note… this marks the first release of a smooth, non-brushed, non-textured script from me—but it won't be the last. That said, I will have to admit that the brush has influenced many of the characters and their construction. Enjoy :)