Some typefaces need time to ripen; Burian and Scaglione made the first sketches for Ebony back in 2008, but it took a few years of maturing in a drawer to be developed into a multi-functional type family. While keeping in tune with TypeTogether’s focus on complex typographic structures needed for magazine, newspapers and books —whether printed or digital—, Ebony goes far beyond editorial use and promises great performance in branding and advertising. The range of dark weights with taut and powerful curves can boost any headline, while the lighter styles create an approachable and clean feel in blocks of continuous text. Ebony does not fall short on aiding legibility either; letterforms have a distinct direction of ductus and features like the top serif on ‘l’ help making them clearly distinguishable from each other. It is a type family that cleverly seeks a balance between the openness and legibility of humanist sans serifs and the striking and more regularised character of grotesques. The letter-shapes feature generous counters and open terminals with crisp angles, and daringly grow both in colour and width as the fonts get bolder. Infused with this strength, Ebony also shows a quirky side in some of her shapes; the vertical fractions, the at-symbol, the old-style numbers, … The predominantly slanted style of the italics is broken up in some letterforms, such as ‘a e f l’, that are more in line with a classic cursive appearance. This, together with a forceful italic angle, ensure a change in texture within a block of text, despite sharing the same letter weight and width with the uprights. With 18 styles, tending towards the heavier part of the weight-spectrum, this face has a powerful quality!

Although geometric Sans Serifs have been in vogue for nearly a century, they have never been as ubiquitous. It is not improbable that the old adage would be phrased: “When in doubt, set it in geometric sans”, had it been composed today. Have we not had enough? We think, not. Postmodern times demand a variety of expressions. The vision behind Geometria was to revisit the perennial favorite to lend subtle individuality to its tried and true forms. Geometria stands out in the crowd of similar fonts thanks to its complicated nature. It combines dynamic elements with a certain degree of stability. A slightly higher waistline of the capitals contributes to their distinctive appearance. If the upper case refers to the American grotesques of the 19th century, the lower case tends toward the forms of the Renaissance in its proportions. Geometria is a typeface of clean shapes that is well-suited for continuous reading, and it sets remarkably well. At the same time, it can be friendly, even flirtatious. Its distinct personality combines seeming opposites. At times it may appear serious, at times playful. On occasion, it may be deliberate, other times dynamic. It could seem rigid, then elegant. It is a typeface that could be perceived either as cutting-edge, or as nostalgic. A careful and discerning typographer will bring out and emphasize those aspects of its multifaceted personality that are needed to solve the problem at hand. Geometria consists of 24 fonts — eight weights with matching italics and narrow styles. The font includes multiple sets of figures and currency signs, alternate glyphs, a variety of experimental ligatures, and punctuation marks for the two cases. The 835 glyphs support 72 languages. Granshan 2013 award.