Drawn by George Ryan and named after Robert Givens, the co-founder and first president of Monotype Imaging, the Givens Antiqua™ typeface speaks with elegance and subtle authority. The design's open proportions, generous x-height and soft serifs lend Givens Antiqua a gracious quality that invites reading. I didn't work from any single design model," Ryan recalls. "The face grew out of my experimenting with several characters from a hand-lettered headline in a magazine. I worked on the shapes and forms for some time before I put the drawings in a drawer." At that point Ryan had finished the basic alphabet in two weights, but had not yet tackled the italics. A new project came along that demanded his full attention, and it was two years before he revisited the drawings. He liked what he saw and decided to finish the job. "The italics were the most problematic designs in the family," says Ryan, "but once I had their basic shapes and proportions, the rest was basically a production project." Another year of sketching, testing, editing and reworking characters ensued before Givens Antiqua was ready for release. The result is a four-weight family of roman designs and small caps, with complementary italics for the lightest three weights and a suite of swash caps for the italic designs. Givens Antiqua and Givens Antiqua Light show a modest stroke weight stress and a light, even text color. Givens Antiqua Bold is an effective emphasizer for text copy and an authoritative communicator at display sizes. The Black weight performs best at large sizes and makes a powerful statement without shouting, while the italic swash capitals possess enough vitality to serve as standalone initial letters."

This typeface finds a perfect balance between technical excellence, careful design of letter forms for extended reading, and a measured dose of charm and personality. Its informal feel allows for successfully typesetting a wide range of applications, from magazines and fiction books to advertising and websites. Calligraphy, be it done with the broad-edge pen, brush, or other tools, has been fundamental in the development of Pollen. Its influence is clearly visible in the construction of the top serifs contrasting the curved bottom serifs and the fluid aspect of terminals and tails, such as on “g” and “r”. The shapes of the diagonal letters are based on a less formal calligraphic model, but still uses the broad edge pen. ­The letters were then subject to a further process of pencil drawing and digital re-interpretation, which gave them the final shape. The designs of “e” and “c” are derived from drawings made with only one continuous line, with the pencil always touching the paper. The letters “g” and “y” express the intention to bring informal elements to a typeface intended for long text reading, usually characteristic of casual writing. Pollen consists of 3 basic styles with an extended OpenType Pro character set and large language support, perfectly serving the most common typographic needs.

-Fabulous, beautiful, friendly, talkative, sweet, caring, a little on the odd side, very desirable by many, good at almost everything- That's the definition of Fabiola according to the slang dictionary of americans. If you were you looking for something delicious, a font that covers a really wide range of uses and always looks amazing, Fabiola should be your choice. Although it may look as another of my scripts with juicy swashes, this time I explored in depth the pairing and interaction with capital letters for more unique results. Why? We are going through some crazy days where the number of people interested in letters is only growing. We see lettering everywhere: I can say that finally our field is shouting out loud; letters are THE protagonist more than ever. Hence the need of combining and pairing different styles is booming. Fabiola Script and Fabiola Caps were done in a way that they seem to need each other. There's nothing better than the above images to prove this. But, how does it work? The big swashes of the Script style were designed so they can surround, wrap and mingle with the Caps styles. The smaller swashes are meant to be used when the Script is alone. Simple, right? I hope you find Fabiola useful on your projects and enjoy using it like I did when making the posters! Have a super fabulous day!