Pure and not-so-simple Maybe it’s the air of purity, openness and transparency that they transmit, but geometric typefaces are more popular than ever among leading brands. Based on near-perfect circles, triangles and squares, geometric letterforms look uncomplicated, even though making them readable is anything but – something the designers of the first wave of geometric fonts discovered nearly a century ago. Many of the world’s most recognisable brands in technology, retail, travel, food, manufacturing and other industries continue to be drawn to the straightforward, honest character that geometric fonts convey. Fontsmith set out in 2015 to develop a typeface in the same tradition, but optimised for the demands of modern brands – online and offline usage, readability and accessibility. And, of course, with the all-important Fontsmith x-factor built in. FS Lucas is the bold and deceptively simple result. Handle with care The letterforms of FS Lucas are round and generous, along the lines of Trajan Column lettering stripped of its serifs. But beware their thorns. Their designer, Stuart de Rozario, who also crafted the award-winning FS Millbank, wanted a contrast between spiky and soft, giving sharp apexes to the more angular letterforms, such as A, M, N, v, w and z. Among his inspirations were the colourful, geometric compositions of Frank Stella, the 1920s art deco poster designs of AM Cassandre, and the triangular cosmic element symbol, which led him to tackle the capital A first, instead of the usual H. The proportions and angles of the triangular form would set the template for many of the other characters. It was this form, and the light-scattering effects of triangular prisms, that lit the path to a name for the typeface: Lucas is derived from lux, the Latin word for light. Recommended reading Early geometric typefaces were accused of putting mathematical integrity before readability. FS Lucas achieves the trick of appearing geometric, while taking the edge off elements that make reading difficult. Perfectly circlular shapes don’t read well. The way around that is to slightly thicken the vertical strokes, and pull out the curves at the corners to compensate; the O and o of FS Lucas are optical illusions. Pointed apexes aren’t as sharp as they look; the flattened tips are an essential design feature. And distinctive details such as the open terminals of the c, e, f, g, j, r and s, and the x-height bar on the i and j, aid legibility, especially on-screen. These and many other features, the product of sketching the letterforms in the first instance by hand rather than mapping them out mechanically by computer, give FS Lucas the built-in humanity and character that make it a better, easier read all-round. Marks of distinction Unlike some of its more buttoned-up geometric bedfellows, FS Lucas can’t contain its natural personality and quirks: the flick of the foot of the l, for example, and the flattish tail on the g and j. The unusual bar on the J improves character recognition, and the G is circular, without a straight stem. There’s a touch of Fontsmith about the t, too, with the curve across the left cross section in the lighter weights, and the ampersand is one of a kind. There’s a lot to like about Lucas. With its 9 weights, perfect proportions and soft but spiky take on the classic geometric font, it’s a typeface that could light up any brand.

Pure and not-so-simple Maybe it’s the air of purity, openness and transparency that they transmit, but geometric typefaces are more popular than ever among leading brands. Based on near-perfect circles, triangles and squares, geometric letterforms look uncomplicated, even though making them readable is anything but – something the designers of the first wave of geometric fonts discovered nearly a century ago. Many of the world’s most recognisable brands in technology, retail, travel, food, manufacturing and other industries continue to be drawn to the straightforward, honest character that geometric fonts convey. Fontsmith set out in 2015 to develop a typeface in the same tradition, but optimised for the demands of modern brands – online and offline usage, readability and accessibility. And, of course, with the all-important Fontsmith x-factor built in. FS Lucas is the bold and deceptively simple result. Handle with care The letterforms of FS Lucas are round and generous, along the lines of Trajan Column lettering stripped of its serifs. But beware their thorns. Their designer, Stuart de Rozario, who also crafted the award-winning FS Millbank, wanted a contrast between spiky and soft, giving sharp apexes to the more angular letterforms, such as A, M, N, v, w and z. Among his inspirations were the colourful, geometric compositions of Frank Stella, the 1920s art deco poster designs of AM Cassandre, and the triangular cosmic element symbol, which led him to tackle the capital A first, instead of the usual H. The proportions and angles of the triangular form would set the template for many of the other characters. It was this form, and the light-scattering effects of triangular prisms, that lit the path to a name for the typeface: Lucas is derived from lux, the Latin word for light. Recommended reading Early geometric typefaces were accused of putting mathematical integrity before readability. FS Lucas achieves the trick of appearing geometric, while taking the edge off elements that make reading difficult. Perfectly circlular shapes don’t read well. The way around that is to slightly thicken the vertical strokes, and pull out the curves at the corners to compensate; the O and o of FS Lucas are optical illusions. Pointed apexes aren’t as sharp as they look; the flattened tips are an essential design feature. And distinctive details such as the open terminals of the c, e, f, g, j, r and s, and the x-height bar on the i and j, aid legibility, especially on-screen. These and many other features, the product of sketching the letterforms in the first instance by hand rather than mapping them out mechanically by computer, give FS Lucas the built-in humanity and character that make it a better, easier read all-round. Marks of distinction Unlike some of its more buttoned-up geometric bedfellows, FS Lucas can’t contain its natural personality and quirks: the flick of the foot of the l, for example, and the flattish tail on the g and j. The unusual bar on the J improves character recognition, and the G is circular, without a straight stem. There’s a touch of Fontsmith about the t, too, with the curve across the left cross section in the lighter weights, and the ampersand is one of a kind. There’s a lot to like about Lucas. With its 9 weights, perfect proportions and soft but spiky take on the classic geometric font, it’s a typeface that could light up any brand.

Laca Pro now supports Greek and Cyrillic scripts. The letter shapes capture the playful spirit of Laca. The added language support brings even more usefulness for the use of Laca for branding, editorial and other projects. Communication is one of our passions, by supporting other scripts we want to create better communication.

Extra Old is a vintage serif typeface. With heavy strokes and miniscule serifs, this classic font family is the perfect lettering for a headline to emit genuine quality. Why not use Extra Old for a traditional logo or balanced product label. Created with pride and care, this type has the optimal appearance of a classic vintage logo but for a modern setting. The font family consists of Regular and Italic, as well as Bold and Bold Italic. Also included are the font styles Coaster and Floria Corner, two typefaces for beautiful decorative elements, combining with the lettering. The font is built with advanced OpenType functionality and has a guaranteed top-notch quality, containing stylistic and contextual alternates, ligatures and more features; all to give you full control and customizability. It has extensive lingual support, covering all Latin-based languages, from Northern Europe to South Africa, from America to South-East Asia. It contains all characters and symbols you'll ever need, including all punctuation and numbers.

Anahita ExtraBold is designed by Naghi Naghashian. This Headline Font is developed on the basis of specific research and analysis on Arabic characters and definition of their structure. This innovation is a contribution to modernisation of Arabic typography, gives the font design of Arabic letters real typographic arrangement and provides more typographic flexibility. This step was necessary after more than two hundred years of relative stagnation in Arabic font design. Anahita supports Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. It also includes proportional and tabular numerals for the supported languages. Anahita Font is available in ExtraBold. This font is designed to be used as advertising and newspaper headlines. Anahita design fulfills the following needs: A Explicitly crafted for use in electronic media fulfills the demands of electronic communication. Anahita is not based on any pre-digital typefaces. It is not a revival. Rather, its forms were created with today's technology in mind. B Suitability for multiple applications. Gives the widest potential acceptability. C Extreme legibility not only in small sizes, but also when the type is filtered or skewed, e.g., in Photoshop or Illustrator. Anahita's simplified forms may be artificial obliqued in InDesign or Illustrator, without any loss in quality for the effected text. D An attractive typographic image. Anahita was developed for multiple languages and writing conventions. E The highest degree of geometric clarity and the necessary amount of calligraphic references. This typeface offers a fine balance between calligraphic tradition and the contemporary sans serif aesthetic now common in Latin typography.

Extra Bold Serif

Extra Bold serif, ideal for large display.

Avesta ExtraBoldCondensed is designed by Naghi Naghashian. This Headline Font is developed on the basis of specific research and analysis on Arabic characters and definition of their structure. This innovation is a contribution to modernisation of Arabic typography, gives the font design of Arabic letters real typographic arrangement and provides more typographic flexibility. This step was necessary after more than two hundred years of relative stagnation in Arabic font design. Avesta supports Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. It also includes proportional and tabular numerals for the supported languages. Avesta Font is available in ExtraBoldCondensed. This font is designed to be used as advertising and newspaper headlines. Avesta design fulfills the following needs: A Explicitly crafted for use in electronic media fulfills the demands of electronic communication. Avesta is not based on any pre-digital typefaces. It is not a revival. Rather, its forms were created with today’s technology in mind. B Suitability for multiple applications. Gives the widest potential acceptability. C Extreme legibility not only in small sizes, but also when the type is filtered or skewed, e.g., in Photoshop or Illustrator. Avesta's simplified forms may be artificial obliqued in InDesign or Illustrator, without any loss in quality for the effected text. D An attractive typographic image. Avesta was developed for multiple languages and writing conventions. E The highest degree of geometric clarity and the necessary amount of calligraphic references. This typeface offers a fine balance between calligraphic tradition and the contemporary sans serif aesthetic now common in Latin typography.

EXCLUSIVE! Read all about it! The latest scoop from Comicraft is sure to be in all the newspapers today! The Times are a changin' -- comic book letterers everywhere can say a font farewell to typesetting the front pages of Planets and Bugles in Helvetica, Verdana or Gill Sans! Superhero's Pal, Johnny "Roshell" Olsen, was up all night writing copy for the late-night edition, making sure that your newspaper headlines and copy have a warm, pen lettered look... some might say a Rosen-glow! Put a little Extra Extra in your bylines and maybe there's a Pulitzer and an Eisner in your future! Not ready to purchase? Get ExtraExtra Engraved free with any purchase, or by subscribing to our newsletter at the bottom of this page. Features Seven fonts (Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Heavy, Heavy Italic & Engraved) with upper and lower case alphabets.

The Sans Serif is crafted for complex display typography with friendly extravagance and high readability. Each font has an extended character set and provides latin based languages. The typefaces include ligatures, alternate- & swash letters, various ampersands, smallcaps, fractions, lining-, tabular numbers, superior/inferior figures and other extras. Go with the flow!

In the early days of printing everything had to be worked out from scratch. This set of lettering is based on section headings used by the Printer Lucas Brandis (no known relation), the first printer to operate in the city of Lübeck around 1473. They remind me of a medieval version of the spray paint graffiti so often seen on the sides of trains. A bit on the crude side, but also and importantly extremely noticeable. So whether you use it for creating old styled printing or some wild modern eye grabbing text item, its robust and sturdy shapes will be certain to grab the eye.

Introducing Luxca, a font that epitomizes modern luxury within the serif category. This typeface seamlessly blends contemporary sophistication with timeless elegance, making it the perfect choice for designers seeking to infuse their projects with an air of opulence and refinement. With Luxca as your font of choice, you have at your fingertips a versatile tool that can elevate a wide range of design applications. Whether it's high-end branding, editorial layouts, invitations, or packaging.

A light roundhand with mildly clubbed terminals on the capitals. It was expertly transferred from an engravers’ pattern plate to the Fotosetter Intertype about 1955.

A handwritten font for simple elegance, with a touch of individuality. Great for fun and cute flyers, blogs, etc.

Luba is a multi-script text family designed by Hendrik Moeller. The family includes four weights: Light, Regular, Medium, and Bold. Each of these fonts may be purchased with both Latin and Cyrillic script coverage, or with support for just the Latin script. Moeller initially developed Luba to assist speakers of languages using the Latin script who are just embarking upon learning a language that uses the Cyrillic script, i.e., French, Germans, or Italians who are learning Russian or Ukrainian. Luba's letters place significant emphasis on their identifying elements; clear forms and a relaxed style help familiarize the reader with the foreign glyphs. The typeface makes clear distinctions between Latin and Cyrillic letters, without covering up their shared heritage.

Since my first contact with blackletters in 1999, I became more and more fascinated by these artistic looking typefaces. It all started in the USA at the age of 16, when I took an art class. I decided to trace some blackletter typefaces because they looked very interesting. From this point on I was intrigued by blackletter fonts from all over the world. I studied their different body structures and their cultural background as well as the type designers behind it. Full of information and inspiration I started to draw my own blackletter typeface in 2006. While studying in Hamburg I got in touch with the studio of URW++, where I got skilled in type software and development. Creating a type takes an eye for detail and patience but also lots of time and so it took almost 4 years until the project was finished. And so Ruca was born. Ruca is a refined and expanded typeface. When you look at the spines, the tails or the flags you can see the detailed drawing, which makes the font also extremely good looking in very tall letters. The full character set contains over 400 characters, many ligatures, two number sets and all important currency symbols. Over 300 kerning pairs and many OTF-features make the font easy in use for professional type applications. The typeface is very well applicable for strong headlines and mastheads. Because of its unique appearance, Ruca is perfectly suitable professional graphic applications such as fashion design or branding.

LÜKA HandWritten Multilingual Font, is an elegant display font. Needless to say that the font supports a full set of Greek characters, Cyrillics, and an extended Latin character set with diacritics. In fact, it’s a unique font that has a great variety of applications with multilingual support. A thin, elegant yet crafty looking typeface. Of course, the wide range of language support of the font makes it ideal for international food packaging. In addition, you can use it on organic packaging design, for crafts and wedding invitations and social media content. Also, the font has four weights: thin, normal, bold and heavy.

Inspired by Italian Renaissance fonts like Poliphilus, Blado, Centaur and Arrighi, Lucca presents a simple charm and a powerful classic feel. It is cute, friendly, clear and superbly readable. Its low contrast provides Lucca a firm yet flexible substance, making it sensual and enticing. There’s a certain degree of abstraction in the precise endings, and the whole design was made to survive even in the harshest conditions, conserving its readability and beauty.

Laca is a semi-sans serif inspired by retro Portuguese packaging of soaps. Laca is the Portuguese word for hairspray. The starting point was to design a typeface that would bring a familiar feeling of closeness and warmth but giving it a modern look ensuring it works well on modern platforms. It’s a lively typeface that brings texture and personality to the text. Perfect for branding and for all communications. There is an upright italic version available through the stylistic set that brings even more friendliness to the font. The result is a versatile typeface that has many OpenType features that brings stylistic alternates to the designer.

A supplement to Major Production NF, which includes an assortment of symbols and logos for video, web and mobile applications, including the Blu-ray logo with its region designators. Please remember that logotypes are the property of their respective copyright holders, and should be used solely in accordance with the copyright holder’s guidelines.

Bolded is a new complete type family, designed and developed by creative professionals. Contains geometric and rounded features, optimized for both long texts and small screens and texts. The complete family offers seven weights divided between the basic, italic, condensed and condensed italic family. Created in 2022, Bolded has a modern and functional look, designed for the most diverse uses and projects. Bolded is a geometric rounded family that can meet the needs of the most varied professionals looking for a clean and elegant font family with a wide set of Latin characters.

Bolde is a powerful sans serif font family with modern touches. A balance of hard lines and smooth curves makes them able to stand on their own dynamically Features: five all caps font, Numbers & Punctuation / Extensive Language Support Bolde works great in any branding, logos, magazines, film. The different styles give you the full range to explore a whole host of applications. Thanks for having a peek at Bolde. As always, if you have any questions just send me a message!

Youthful Fontsmith received a brief to develop a font that would form part of the broadcast identity for the UK’s first digital Freeview channel – E4. It needed to work seamlessly in text and display, both in print and on-screen, and please the eye of the target audience, 18-34-year-olds. So, young, fresh and informal. No problem. Except for one thing: the timing. Daughter As he worked on FS Maja, Jason Smith was occupied by another imminent deadline: the birth of his third child. The pressure was mounting, but rather than let it get to him, Jason embraced the challenge and made light of the tension, fashioning a bright, bubbly, entertaining type with a personality made for memorable headlines. Beautifully random FS Maja’s soft, rounded shapes and assured, fluent lines encompass lots of notable features that contribute to its warm, fun-loving personality, including: a very large x-height; a short, rounded serif to allow for close spacing and give texture to body text; a slight convexity, or bulge, in the stroke terminals; a calligraphic fluidity in the entry to the down-stroke of most lowercase letters; open, generous curves, especially in the “B”, “P” and “R”; and a “w” made of two “u”s.

Art into type In 2008, Fontsmith were approached by their friend, Jon Scott, to investigate whether a typeface could assume the aesthetic of one artist’s body of work. Jon’s not-for-profit charity, Measure, was organising an event for the artist, Conrad Shawcross, whose giant mechanical installation, entitled Chord, was going on public display in the long-disused Kingsway tram tunnel in Holborn. Chord explores the way we perceive time, as either a line or a cycle. Two enormous machines with dozens of rotating arms and moving in opposite directions, weave rope with almost infinite slowness. An unusual brief Phil Garnham visited Conrad in his Hackney studio to get a feel for his work and ideas. “Conrad is a very clever and philosophical guy. He struggled to see how typeface design had any relevance to him and his art. This was going to be a challenge.” The artist presented the type designer with a pile of rope and a huge diagram of sketches and mathematical workings. “This was, in essence, my brief.” Phil developed three concepts, the simplest of which ticked all the boxes. “The idea of the strokes in the letterforms appearing and ending at peaks or points of origin fitted perfectly with Conrad’s idea of time occurring and ending at two ends of the sculpture.” Two versions Phil planned modules for two versions of the typeface: one with five lines in the letterforms and one with seven. He then drew the modules on-screen and twisted and turned them to build the machine that is FS Conrad. “This is not a simple headline typeface,” says Phil. “It’s not a rigid structure. It has varying character widths, and it’s informed by real typographic insight and proportions so that it actually works as piece of functioning, harmonious type.”

Cosmopolitan Elegance Named after a southerly wind that blows over the Mediterranean Sea, FS Ostro breathes warmth into letterforms with their roots in colder, stark Modern typefaces. FS Ostro is a typeface imbued with balanced and sophisticated elegance. It’s discerning and sensitive, self-assured but understated. One for the well-travelled reader. Thoughtful contrast FS Ostro draws inspiration from a wide range of sources, such as 19th century British Scotch Roman designs, Italian modern style typefaces and highly contrasted display Spanish examples. Its text version offers a consistent rhythm and robust texture that is easy on the eye. This elegant, cosmopolitan typeface is characterised by its thoughtfully modulated contrasts between thick and thin, sharp angles, and sophisticated curves. Exaggerated touches in display “What is more restrained and sober in text, becomes purposefully prominent and more detailed in display,” says Fontsmith designer Alessia Mazzarella. These exaggerated details for the display version can be seen in the letter terminals, such as those in the ‘a’ and ‘g’ and the tail of the ‘Q’, as well as in the set of numerals, fractions, arrows, borders and ornaments, which can be used to build decorative framing elements. Fluid italics The less rigid and curvaceous italics of modern style typefaces were the inspiration for FS Ostro’s own subtle, flowing italic styles. The letterforms are confident and fluid, creating an overall sense of refinement and modernity.

Cute FS Kitty is the type equivalent of Bagpuss: plump, cute, cuddly and not fond of exercise. So don’t go giving it a run-out on body copy; FS Kitty is an all-caps font made for showing off in posters and headlines, and on products, point-of sale and especially sweets. Blubber Kitty had been quietly curled up in Phil Garnham’s sketchbook for a year before he brought it out to be brushed up. “It was in the mix as a basic form when I started thinking about FS Lola. It was a twisted, bubbly beauty – quite squishable and huggable. The working file was called Blubber. “At that time it was a basic construction of strokes. I created the ‘A’ first, purely as a shape to play with, not as type. I flipped it for ‘V’, and copied that for a ‘W’. I flipped the ‘W’ for an ‘M’... I thought, ‘This looks a bit wacky, but I like it,’ and just carried on. The most tricky characters were the ‘B’ ‘P’ and ‘R’. I must have drawn about 20 kinds of B for this, just to get it to fit.” Variety “When the regular weight of Kitty had been designed,” says Jason Smith, “it just felt like a natural progression to go on and explore how far we could go with it: Light, Solid, Headline, Shadow.” Phil Garnham thinks there’s still more to come. “There are some really individual characters in this font that I think have yet to be exploited: the Greek Omega symbol, the strange face in the ampersand. Like Bagpuss, Kitty has kept a low profile so far. “We know people are using Kitty. In fact, it was the first of any of our fonts that we sold on the day it was released. But I still haven’t seen it out there in the wild. It’s going to be a exciting moment.”

a, g, k and y It was a forensic examination by Jason Smith of his existing designs that laid the groundwork for FS Jack. Jason made a list of unique characteristics that would give the sans serif font its typographic thumbprint, which included an unusually large x-height and slightly off-the-wall letters like the lower-case “a”, “g”, “k” and “y”. “I wanted to make something that was slightly uncomfortable,” says Jason, “and in doing so simplify the quirkiness down to a few letters.” Fernando Mello did “the rest of the cooking”, filling the design out and making the additional weights. Tipos Latinos Upon its release in 2010, FS Jack was submitted by Fernando, who is Brazilian, for the esteemed type design biennial, Tipos Latinos, where it was selected as a winner in the Families category. It went on to be selected for type exhibitions throughout Latin America and around the world. “FS Jack is a workhorse,” says Fernando, “but also very ownable and distinctive, and available in a good range of weights, crafted by Jason and I.” Corporate “FS Jack took a couple of years to get noticed and is still fairly underused,” says Jason, “which is good in a way, for our Brandfont clients that have adopted it.” FS Jack was chosen as the signature font for The Shard in London, from its signage down to business cards. Fontsmith also worked with Lloyds Bank to customise FS Jack into a bespoke font for the bank’s updated brand identity – part of Fontsmith’s Brandfont service, which you can read about here. Fat Jack Included in the FS Jack family – just – is FS Jack Poster, the super-heavy weight of the range. “That was a last minute addition,” says Fernando, “after Jason and I started talking about how much we liked Gill KO, a typeface that is almost comically fat.”

Bauhaus Geometric, economical, functional... The good, wholesome, modernist values that once fired up the tutors and students of the Bauhaus became the inspiration for FS Dillon after an exploration of the work of the pre-war art and design powerhouse in the Fontsmith studio. The font combines simplicity and directness with a characteristic Fontsmith warmth. Letterforms are compact, with a generous x-height, and built for maximum clarity and impact. The Bauhaus sought beauty through function. FS Dillon achieves it. Made for TV The weights of fonts for TV sometimes have to be adjusted so as not to “blow” on-screen. FS Dillon was originally drawn for the on-screen presentation branding of Film Four, whose primary colour was red. Black type on a red background looks heavier than white, so Dillon needed two weights that would allow white and black type to be used together, looking balanced and equal. Type design is an organic process. Years after developing FS Dillon, we revisited it, redrawing elements and adding italics to maintain consistency. Olympic You don’t get a much higher confirmation of the functional fitness of a typeface than to have it selected to guide visitors around an Olympic complex. FS Dillon was selected as the font for signage at some of the key venues at the London 2012 Olympic Park, helping to get spectators, athletes and officials from all over the world to their seats and starting blocks on time.

New York vibes FS Irwin was born in New York while Senior Designer, Fernando Mello, was studying an intensive 5 week typeface design course at the Cooper Union. His brief was to design a perfectly clear typeface that could communicate well, without loud or overtly mannered design features. Fernando was influenced by the subway font in New York: ‘It is very in your face and clear, always in bold. It doesn’t shout much but at the same time is very present and unique. The design is completely different but it was this spirit I wanted to capture for FS Irwin.’ And the vibe of the city: ‘In a similar way to London, New York is so mixed and so cosmopolitan. I was amazed by the different styles and identities I saw there, and tried to encapsulate this essence to create something new, relevant and very now.’ Incisive quality Rather than focusing on quirks or distinctive characteristics, the key to FS Irwin is the quality of its design and spirit of simplicity. The design, proportions and details are usable and authentic and it is suitable for countless situations, without running the risk of being instantaneously noticeable. Families like this can be used on nearly anything, from more playful designs to serious corporate IDs. ‘Extensively tested and precisely drawn text-oriented typefaces are what I enjoy designing the most. There is a beauty and a different approach, a different way of making them interesting, sellable and usable rather than adding flicks or unexpected details.’ Inscriptions and calligraphy FS Irwin’s origin lies in Fernando’s studies in inscriptional lettering and writing-calligraphic exercises at the Cooper Union. Mello started the process by digitising his explorations and adapting them into a more workable sans serif structure. The traditional forms of writing which gave the basis to Latin type as we know it today were the perfect place to start. This influence can be seen in the proportion of the capitals and in slight writing-calligraphic details in the lowercase, such as the slightly angled, chiselled spurs and their open terminals.

FS Renaissance is a display stencil typeface by the Monotype Studio. A collaboration between lettering artist and designer Craig Back and Creative Type Director Pedro Arilla, the single style font explores the intersection between art and design. With artist and designer working hand in hand, each letter was crafted as a standalone piece of art, while working harmoniously together as a functioning typeface. The typeface is inspired by the Renaissance period symbolised by flourishing progress in the arts, sciences, learning, and philosophy. The typeface is not a traditional stencil design: the cuts are not rigid but interactions that are hand crafted between each element, emphasising the idea of a typeface as a piece of art or sculpture. Pedro Arilla’s aim was to take the core DNA of Craig's lettering and apply it to a typographic base with a solid internal consistency, balanced with an external elegance. Pedro and Craig worked closely together to make sure the original concept was not compromised and this is reflected in the finished design which strikes the perfect balance between functionality and art.

FS Koopman is a hard-working typeface. A crossbred workhorse that draws on inspiration from Swiss grotesks, American gothics and early British grotesques. It refuses to fit neatly into any of these categories, it’s neither one nor the other, but all of the above. It’s kinda Swiss meets American… (but with a slight Yorkshire twang).

The x factor How do you make a font like FS Albert unique, distinctive? “When designing a font I try to question every letter,” says Jason Smith, “but all you need is a few that have an x factor. With FS Albert, they’re the lowercase ‘a’ and ‘g’ and the uppercase ‘I’ and ‘J’. “I remember a friend saying, ‘Why on earth have you designed the ‘a’ like that? Isn’t it too friendly for this kind of font?’ And, in a way, that’s what I wanted – honesty and warmth, because a lot of big brands at the time really needed to show a more human side.” Range of weights and styles FS Albert is a charismatic type: a warm, friendly sans serif face with a big personality. Open, strong and amenable, and available in a wide range of weights and styles, FS Albert suits almost every task you put it to. Fontsmith has crafted five finely-tuned upright Roman weights and four italic weights, as well as a special Narrow version to provide the best coverage and give headlines and text an easy-going character. The chunky kid “FS Albert was inspired by – and named after – my son, who was a bit of a chunky kid,” says Jason Smith. “I designed an extra bold weight because I always felt that the really big font heavy weights had the most personality. “I recently told Albert this story. He laughed, and forgave me for thinking he was a fat baby. He liked the big personality bit, though.” 1000s of glyphs Not content with a character set that covered Europe and the whole of the Western world, the studio decided to go further afield. There are now FS Albert character sets that cover western and eastern European languages, including those of Russia, as well as Cyrillic, Arabic and Greek scripts. In fact, the font now covers more than 100 languages, making it ideal for bringing a consistent typographic style to the communications of global brands.

Ligatures FS Rufus is an outgoing, likable sort of font with an eccentric streak. Wide letterforms and curious ink-traps make for an engaging personality, and a set of discretionary ligatures make FS Rufus irresistible to designers wanting to play. Not a small set, either: there are some 80 different options available. Wide The decision was made early on to make the letterforms of FS Rufus luxuriously wide. This generates a distinctive visual texture when the font is used for text. With other weights available for headlines, FS Rufus brings a curiously engaging look to editorial, magazine covers and advertising. Just look at my ink traps Ink traps are normally the preserve of fonts intended for printing at small sizes, in newspapers or directories – extra notches necessary to prevent ink from pooling. FS Rufus turns the ink trap into a beautiful eccentricity, flaunting it in both its lowercase and capitals. Take a look at the “h”, “a” and “k”, and the “B” and “N”. Attention-seeking? Moi?

Antwerp On a visit to Belgium and the Netherlands while still an MA student at Reading University, Eleni Beveratou made some important discoveries. First, there was the letter ‘g’ from the Didot family seen at Plantin Moretus Museum in Antwerp, which seemed “almost like a mistake”. Then there were strange details such as the serifs on the “l”, “h”, “k”, “b” 
and “d” in Egmont Cursive and other typefaces by Sjoerk Hendrik de Roos, found in volumes of poetry she picked up from a chaotic bookshop in Amsterdam. These were characters that stood out from the text but seemed to blend harmoniously with the rest 
of the letters. “And there it was, the spark. 
I decided to design a typeface that would capture the details of the process of writing.” A guiding hand Eleni shared her initial thoughts with Phil Garnham and Jason Smith. They liked what they saw in her tentative first sketches, and gave her the chance to develop her ideas further. Phil, in particular, provided valuable input as FS Olivia took shape. Eleni’s main influence – the handwritten – would give the font its character. “When creating a typeface,” says Eleni, “it’s fair to say that it reflects some of the designer’s personality. And that’s certainly the case with 
FS Olivia. “Although technology is part of my everyday life. I am a great admirer of traditional graphic design where you can touch and feel paper and ink.” Irregular “What I particularly like,” says Eleni, “is that a printed item can develop its own personality sometimes as a result of imperfections in the print. “FS Olivia has some of 
these characteristics as it’s inspired by handwriting, 
and yet it also includes some 
very modern features.” Feminine and fascinating, FS Olivia captures the expressive twists and turns of (the poet’s?) pen on paper, with low junctions, 
deep top serifs and semi-rounded edges. Round outstrokes contrast with 
the rough corners of the instroke, while strong diagonals and inclined serifs create a richly textured pattern. Polytonic It’s only fitting that there should be a version of this poetic font for one of the birthplaces of poetry and song. Eleni, who hails from Athens, developed an extensive range of glyphs that could be used for the Greek language, in both modern and ancient texts. For the latter, there is a version of Olivia for displaying polytonic Greek (a system that utilises a range of accents and “breathings”), which brings the 21st century technology of OpenType to the presentation of poetic texts from Ancient Greece. Just think what Homer could have done with that.