Kompakt is one of the early typefaces of type designer Hermann Zapf, whose Palatino has long been a standard in almost every area of application. Kompakt consists of a single weight and was designed in 1952, two years after Palatino. It was produced by the foundry D. Stempel AG in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, where Zapf was at the time in the artistic department. The figures of this extremely strong and heavy typeface are decidedly those of a broad tipped pen. When enlarged, the sharp outlines of the characters can be clearly seen. The unique dynamic of the alphabet is a result of its strong serifs, which on the lower case letters almost connect the letters in a line. Together with the slight slant to the right, this gives Kompakt the character of handwriting, making it look like it is always striving to go forward. Kompakt is an excellent choice for advertisements, especially for posters which should display a hint of nostalgia, and should be used only in headlines.

Gotta tell ya: think out of the box and this font is addictingly fun to use! Introducing Historic Warehouse, a substantial, yet elegant family, invoking advertising fonts of the early 20th century. Why the name? When asked to design a banner for Tucson’s Historic Warehouse District, I couldn’t find the look I wanted from any known fonts. After drawing what I wanted in Illustrator, there were three (and in the process, four) fonts just waiting to be realized. Happy to oblige. Here’s Historic Warehouse Regular, setting the stage. It’s sturdy, bold, and plays curves against rounded angular shapes. To its left is Historic Warehouse Condensed, trim, elegant and at its best at very large sizes; to the right is Historic Warehouse Wide, with charming style and presence. Finally, there’s Historic Warehouse Extended, extravagant in its proportions, with a beautifully-crafted form like a fine carriage. As the song says, “Everything Old Is New Again,” and this family looks as fresh and clean at the beginning of this century as it might have at the beginning of the last.

When I was a kid, I loved the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. I thought it was pretty stupid of the boy to trick the villagers into believing wolves are attacking his flock of sheep. But I also thought it was a bit sad that the sheep are eaten by a wolf in the end. I didn’t really feel sorry for the boy (he really was stupid), nor the wolf (he just does what he is supposed to do in life), but I did feel sorry for those poor sheep. I guess this is what disinformation leads to in the end. Cry Wolf is a bit of a scary font: it was made with a really old and battered brush, using Chinese ink and some quality French paper. It has a slight tilt to the right and I added some inky splatter for dramatic effect. Use Cry Wolf for your book covers, product packaging and headlines; use if to spice up you invitations and your halloween posters. Comes in a slightly tilted Regular style and an outright Italic style.

The Obla font family is a modern serif typeface accompanied by appropriate italic in seven weights. Sketches of letters were drawn manually, using thick marker for creating shape and pencil for finishing details. Calligraphic origin of shapes is revealed beneath strained curves drawn on computer. All of the weights were carefully adjusted to each other. Obla is equipped with some basic OpenType features and supports Cyrillic and Latin script. Using Obla in small sizes is very convenient, because of its large x-height, and Obla is a very readable typeface. It seduces the reader with its vivacious character. The typeface is also suitable for usage in large sizes. The best choice for headlines is using the heaviest (Black) and the lightest (Thin) weight. There are two smaller family packages in offer: Obla Basic Set contains Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic, while Obla Light Set contains Light, Light Italic, SemiBold and SemiBold Italic. These two sets are the most appropriate for working with small text. Other weights can be bought separately, or within the whole family. Obla is an awarded typeface. It got Special Mention in Cyrillic Typefaces category in Granshan 2016 competition and it was chosen as a Merit Winner in Print’s Typography and Lettering Awards competition. At that time, before publishing, the typeface was named Petra.