ITC Tactile is a puzzle of subtle typographic contradictions. Capitals have traditional epigraphic proportions, but the lowercase has a uniform optical width. Light weights are stately and elegant, but bold designs are almost jolly. This paradoxical alphabet even combines two distinctively different serif designs. Designer Joe Stitzlein says, “I wanted to create a modern and dynamic serif face that draws its forms from antiquity. I also wanted to have as much fun as possible with the drawing and architecture of each letter. Hopefully I've created a very legible typeface that grabs the reader's eye in a nice, 'tactile' way.” The apparent inconsistencies of the design are the result of careful consideration. Of the seemingly odd serif design, Stitzlein explains, “The transitional serif is an entry point for the eye into the letterform, and the long slab is an exit, leading to the next letter.” The result is a typeface that's easy to read at text sizes but offers surprising details when enlarged to display sizes, setting ITC Tactile apart from more traditional designs. While this is his first commercial typeface design, Stitzlein has ample experience creating custom typefaces for corporate branding, including companies such as Silicon Graphics and Sempra Energy. His graphic design business has served a wide range of clients, including Apple Computer and the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. The ITC Tactile family is available in three weights, with complementary italic designs and a suite of small caps for each of the roman designs. Stitzlein drew the small caps to match the height of the lowercase x-height, which enables “bi-form” or “unicase” setting in display copy.

Astrid Grotesk is a normalized version of Schizotype Grotesk. Normalized; not neutralized. Where many neo-grotesks appear cold with their harsh neutrality, Astrid has a warmth, eminating from its (for want of a better word) clunkiness. With the latest update, it becomes a true workhorse, with a range of widths and italics for the normal widths. Astrid Grotesk, while being clearly a neo-grotesk in appearance, has a personality all of its own. Standout characters include the f and t, and the default binocular g, unusual in neo-grotesks. And the right angled terminals on c, e and s. Stylistic sets offer up alternate forms of a, g, y, I, @, dutch IJ, german eszett and l. A full complement of numerals is included: proportional and tabular, lining and oldstyle, plus fractions, subscript and superscript. Note also that the tabular figures are duplexed across weights - very useful when highlighting specific entries in tables. The tabular figures feature also substitutes in fixed width (across all weights) comma and period, so your decimals line up perfectly always. Lastly, case sensitive forms of certain glyphs are included for all-cap settings. This typeface will be useful for corporate identities and branding work. It’s spaced more for text settings in the normal width, and gets more display-optimized as the width decreases, but with careful tracking, all styles can sing at display sizes. Bored of those other Swiss style typefaces? Astrid Grotesk could be the face you need to breathe new life into your designs. Coupled with Schizotype Grotesk, its more eccentric cousin, you've got an unorthodox branding system ready to use straight out of the box.

Originally conceived while sketching outline typefaces for a client, Minotte Pro has blossomed into a font one thousand glyphs strong and is chock full of alternates and contextual swashes! By enabling swashes, style sets, and contextual alternates in your OpenType savvy application, headlines and text set with Minotte Pro will transform into unique combinations of initial, middle and final swash forms! There’s also an alternate Cap set with a partial fill for even greater variety! Perfect for travel ad headlines, Minotte Pro adds a light, carefree touch. If your app doesn't support OpenType, then check out the split out versions, Minotte, Minotte Swash, Minotte Fil and Minotte Swash Fil. Minotte Pro Minotte Solid Pro contain these OpenType features: Contextual Swashes, Stylistic Alternates, Standard & Discretionary Ligatures, 6 Style Sets, Superiors & Inferiors, Fractions and Ornaments. The Minotte Extras Pro Pak includes three chromatic effects fonts, Minotte Center, Minotte Gradient and Minotte Shadow. These Extras fonts are intended to be used with Minotte Pro and Minotte Solid Pro, allowing colorizing and 3-D shadow effects. There are numerous combinations when using all three together! The three Extras fonts support the entire Pro character set and all OpenType features! Intended for users that do not own or use OpenType savvy apps, the four alternative fonts capture the best of the Pro version and will provide you with the glyphs needed to duplicate some of Minotte Pro’s typographic richness. Minotte and Minotte Fil are fully usable, whereas the Minotte Swash and Minotte Swash Fil are intended to work in tandem with the basic Minotte fonts. Set your headlines and text in Minotte, then switch to Minotte Swash and manually select the appropriate swash glyphs. Switch to either of the Fil fonts for full sets of Cap alternates sporting a partial fill. Minotte Pro, Minotte, Minotte Fil, Minotte Swash and Minotte Swash Fil support an extended European character set.

Ambiguity is a type family with five distinct personalities or ‘states’, created as a tool for coaxing designers and brands out of their comfort zone. It embraces both tradition and radicality, as well as generosity and thrift, encouraging us to question our beliefs about the intersection of style and meaning. The family is designed by Charles Nix, who describes Ambiguity as “as much thought experiment as typeface.” Its five states—Tradition, Radical, Thrift, Generous and Normate—each express or subvert different aspects of typographic tradition. Tradition is conservative, relying on historical letter shapes. Radical rejects inherited ideas of proportion, making typically slender letterforms wide, and wide letterforms slender. “It’s contrarian,” says Nix. Thrift cherry picks the condensed shapes from Tradition and Radical, while Generous does the same for wide forms. Normate sits at the center, a synthetic blend of all of the others. “Tradition is very comforting,” says Nix. “It’s the mask of conservatism. It’s calming because it delivers the proportions we expect. With Thrift more fits into a smaller space, so it’s great where words want to get large, like gigantic headlines, or text needs to cram in, like small screen type. You get a sense of carefree and luxury from the Generous cut. One would expect the Radical to be used in a sort of Dadaist way, but in a classic context it provides an enjoyable jolt.” Ambiguity is a litmus test. Designers could spend hours trying on typefaces that offer just one of these voices. Ambiguity provides five different personalities—ideas—beliefs—each of which also work seamlessly together. “It’s a palettea, like idea cards,” he says. “It’s a way of making yourself see differently. My hope is that traditionalists will try on radical clothes and vice versa. It’s a way of exploring outside your comfort zone, breaking out of the doldrums, by stepping through a variety of voices.”