Soho is the latest addition to the growing range of typefaces from Sebastian Lester. This grand opus of a project resulted in a typeface that comprises nine weights and five widths of precision engineered OpenType. 40 fonts, 32,668 characters and 24 OpenType features. Hot on the heels of the popular Neo Sans and Neo Tech range, and his first typeface release Scene, Soho represents three years of work by Lester. As a type designer I'm preoccupied with finding ways in which I can address modern problems like good legibility in modern media, and create fonts that work precisely and efficiently in the most technically demanding of corporate and publishing environments." Slab serif typefaces are enjoying something of a renaissance, offering versatility whether for corporate identity, product branding, text or display use. With 40 weights to choose from Soho gives designers endless possibilities from the ultra chic lines conveyed by the lighter weights to the rock solid statement made by the heavier weights. Soho is cross-platform compatible. The Pro version provides extended language support for Central European languages. Used in conjunction with software applications that support OpenType many useful features like "stylistic sets" can be leveraged -- in which a wide variety of alternative characters can be introduced at the click of a mouse button giving one font several "tones of voice" from conservative to cutting edge. The wide range of glyphs includes ligatures and small caps."

The island of Fuerteventura is more known for its white sand beaches and windsurf-friendly constant winds than for its typographic marvels. Still, it's on the walls of a ballroom next to its white-sand beaches that Debora Manetti found the hand-painted letterforms that she took as inspiration for her typeface Sala de Fiestas. The resulting font was a condensed sans serif full of curious details and a jumpy latino vibe that many years after still keeps its freshness and vernacular charme. Francesco Canovaro took the original typeface as a starting point for a grand tour into sign-painter aesthetics, developing a reboot of the original into a new type family: Salad. While being faithful to the original proportions and feeling, Salad provides extreme versatility through its five-weights range, its extended charset and its set of Open Type features including stylistic sets, alternates, positional numerals, small capitals and case sensitive forms. While the roman family with its italic counterpart provide a good workhorse tool for informal branding, packaging and editorial projects, the interlocking and the inline weights add additional possibilities for display purposes. This is enriched by the inclusion in the typeface of a set hand-drawn decorative dingbats that further complement the sign painting vibe of the family. All Zetafonts expertise in handmade lettering, typographic design and water sports has been put to test to assure Salad is the best typographical alternative to a a trip to Canary Islands!

The Jazayeri Kufic Shoushtar font is a beautiful typographic implementation of the decorative Kufic calligraphy inscribed on the walls of the historic Grand Mosque of Shoushtar in southwestern Iran. This mosque contains many other inscriptions added over time for documentary purposes but its four monumental Kufic inscriptions which are revived in this font are the most essential ones to understand its design and meaning. Built in the ninth century CE, this mosque is one of the earliest hypostyle mosques in Iran. It was built in “the city of scholars” when its residents included two great Sufis, Sahl Ibn Abdullah Tostari and Mansur Hallaj. The designer and producer of the font is Seyed Mohammad Vahid Mousavi Jazayeri, a well-known Iranian master calligrapher, designer, scholar, and author. Mousavi Jazayeri has taken a personal interest in the Kufic script and devoted years to independent research, visiting archaeological locations, historic buildings and cemeteries, mosques, libraries and museums to study the script through direct contact. He has developed a systematic research methodology and published his findings in several books. His professional interest in script and calligraphy stimulated his discovery of the historic method for cutting the Kufic pen, which has had a direct impact on his own work, as seen in several well-received exhibitions and workshops. The historical research and achievements of Mousavi Jazayeri brought together the first international group dedicated to the study and revival of the historic Kufic script operation through kuficpedia.com.

Mencap When most of us go about everyday tasks, we take for granted the reading that’s involved, on instructions, labels and so on. For people with learning disabilities, reading is made much harder by certain fonts. FS Me is designed specifically to improve legibility for people with learning disabilities. The font was researched and developed with – and endorsed by – Mencap, the UK’s leading charity and voice for those with learning disabilities. Mencap receive a donation for each font license purchased. Every letter of FS Me was tested for its appeal and readability with a range of learning disability groups across the UK. Inclusive Fontsmith were determined to design a font that was accessible to those with learning disabilities without standing out as such – one that was inclusive of all readers. It should comply with accessibility guidelines and work best at 12pt, but still have a character of its own that was warm and approachable. “So much accessible design is done separately to the main body of brand work,” says Jason Smith. “We wanted to make a typeface that covered both brand tone and neutrality, and that could be used legitimately as a brand font as well as in accessible design.” Me, you, everyone FS Me is about design that doesn’t patronise. People with learning disabilities are often treated as inferior by childlike design. FS Me is designed for adults, not children – a beautifully-designed font for everyone. Its features include very subtle distinguishing elements of each letter to aid the reading and comprehension of texts, and tails, ascenders and descenders that have been extended for extra clarity. What the people said... Here is a sample of comments from the extensive research groups that helped to shape the letterforms of FS Me: “I want something round, clear and friendly.” “We like movement in the letters but don’t want anything childish.” “The ‘b’ and ‘d’ need to be different as they can be confused.” “I prefer the handwriting-style ‘a’.” “It’s important to have an accessible ‘a’ and ‘g’. Teachers sometimes complain that learners cannot read or understand the inaccessible ‘a’ and ‘g’.”

Mencap When most of us go about everyday tasks, we take for granted the reading that’s involved, on instructions, labels and so on. For people with learning disabilities, reading is made much harder by certain fonts. FS Me is designed specifically to improve legibility for people with learning disabilities. The font was researched and developed with – and endorsed by – Mencap, the UK’s leading charity and voice for those with learning disabilities. Mencap receive a donation for each font license purchased. Every letter of FS Me was tested for its appeal and readability with a range of learning disability groups across the UK. Inclusive Fontsmith were determined to design a font that was accessible to those with learning disabilities without standing out as such – one that was inclusive of all readers. It should comply with accessibility guidelines and work best at 12pt, but still have a character of its own that was warm and approachable. “So much accessible design is done separately to the main body of brand work,” says Jason Smith. “We wanted to make a typeface that covered both brand tone and neutrality, and that could be used legitimately as a brand font as well as in accessible design.” Me, you, everyone FS Me is about design that doesn’t patronise. People with learning disabilities are often treated as inferior by childlike design. FS Me is designed for adults, not children – a beautifully-designed font for everyone. Its features include very subtle distinguishing elements of each letter to aid the reading and comprehension of texts, and tails, ascenders and descenders that have been extended for extra clarity. What the people said... Here is a sample of comments from the extensive research groups that helped to shape the letterforms of FS Me: “I want something round, clear and friendly.” “We like movement in the letters but don’t want anything childish.” “The ‘b’ and ‘d’ need to be different as they can be confused.” “I prefer the handwriting-style ‘a’.” “It’s important to have an accessible ‘a’ and ‘g’. Teachers sometimes complain that learners cannot read or understand the inaccessible ‘a’ and ‘g’.”

TT Barrels useful links: Specimen PDF | Graphic presentation | Customization options TT Barrels is an elegant scotch style modern serif with strong industrial accents in its design. The TT Barrels project was born from a fictional technical assignment in which we tried to combine the technological effectiveness of industrial production used in engineering and the restrictions imposed by it with a beautiful scotch style serif. We decided to create a typeface that could be used to press letters on the metal body of a car, all while the typeface being elegant, and possessing sophisticated details that are typical of the classic text fonts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the process of designing and sketching, we reconsidered certain aspects and abandoned some of the requirements imposed by the technology of metal letter pressing, for example, from the extensive application of visual compensators, the decreased strokes contrast, and the hyperdeformation of individual letter elements to preserve a more pronounced rhythm of these elements. First of all, we wanted both to maintain the ease of reading for the entire text array and follow the rules of aesthetics of each letter in the typeface, while still leaving some influence of industrialism. In the end, this influence is best manifested in serifs, which are quite massive and have a technologically exaggerated wedge shape. TT Barrels consists of 12 fonts: Light, Regular, DemiBold, Bold, Extrabold, Black and the corresponding Italics. Each outline consists of more than 750 glyphs and includes small capitals, ligatures (for Latin and Cyrillic alphabets), stylistic alternates, old-style figures, and many other useful features. FOLLOW US: Instagram | Facebook | Website TT Barrels OpenType features: ordn, c2sc, smcp, case, frac, sinf, sups, numr, dnom, tnum, onum, lnum, pnum, dlig, liga, calt, salt (ss01). TT Barrels language support: Acehnese, Afar, Albanian, Alsatian, Aragonese, Arumanian, Asu, Aymara, Banjar, Basque, Belarusian (cyr), Bemba, Bena, Betawi, Bislama, Boholano, Bosnian (cyr), Bosnian (lat), Breton, Bulgarian (cyr), Cebuano, Chamorro, Chiga, Colognian, Cornish, Corsican, Cree, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Embu, English, Erzya, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Gaelic, Gagauz (lat), Galician, German, Gusii, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiri Motu, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Innu-aimun, Interlingua, Irish, Italian, Javanese, Judaeo-Spanish, Judaeo-Spanish, Kalenjin, Karachay-Balkar (lat), Karaim (lat), Karakalpak (lat), Kashubian, Khasi, Khvarshi, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kongo, Kumyk, Kurdish (lat), Ladin, Latvian, Laz, Leonese, Lithuanian, Luganda, Luo, Luxembourgish, Luyia, Macedonian, Machame, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Malay, Manx, Maori, Mauritian Creole, Minangkabau, Moldavian (lat), Montenegrin (lat), Mordvin-moksha, Morisyen, Nahuatl, Nauruan, Ndebele, Nias, Nogai, Norwegian, Nyankole, Occitan, Oromo, Palauan, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rheto-Romance, Rohingya, Romanian, Romansh, Rombo, Rundi, Russian, Rusyn, Rwa, Salar, Samburu, Samoan, Sango, Sangu, Scots, Sena, Serbian (cyr), Serbian (lat), Seychellois Creole, Shambala, Shona, Slovak, Slovenian, Soga, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Sundanese, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Swiss German, Swiss German, Tagalog, Tahitian, Taita, Tatar, Tetum, Tok Pisin, Tongan, Tsonga, Tswana, Turkish, Turkmen (lat), Ukrainian, Uyghur, Vepsian, Volapük, Võro, Vunjo, Xhosa, Zaza, Zulu.

Blackletter typefaces follow certain fixed rules, both in respect to their forms and to the orthography. Possibly, they were a reaction to the half-developed Carolingian minuscule which was soon to end in the Latin script. Narrow, ordered script was to replace the round, hesitant and shattered shapes of letters in order to simplify writing, to unify the meaning of individual letters, and to save some parchment, too. Opposed to the practice common in monasterial scriptoriums where Uncial, Irish and Carolingian inspiration flew freely and as a result, the styles of writing differed in each monastery, the blackletter type was to define one, common standard. It was to express spiritual verticality, in perfect tune with the architecture of the Gothic era. Typography became an integral part of the overall style of the period. The pointed arch and the blackletter type were the vanguard of the spectacular transformation from the Middle Ages towards the modern era, they were a celebration of a time when works of art were not signed by their makers yet. Some unfortunate souls keep linking blackletter solely with Germany and the Third Reich, while the truth is that its direct predecessor, the Gothic minuscule, evolved mostly in France. Even Hitler himself indicated blackletter type obsolete in the age of steel, iron and concrete – thus making a significant contribution to the spreading of the Latin script in Germany. Once we leave our prejudice aside, we find that the shapes of blackletter type have exceptional potential, unheard of in sans-serif letterforms. The lower case letters fit into an imaginary rectangle which is easily extended both upwards and sideways. In its scope and in the name itself, the Moyenage type family project is to celebrate the diversity of the Middle Ages. I begun realizing the urge to design my own blackletter when visiting the beer gardens of Munich and while walking through the villages of rural Austria. The letters from the notice boards of inns are scented with spring air, with the flowers of cudweed, with white sausage and weissbier. The crooked calligraphic hooks and beaks seem to imitate the hearty yodeling of local drinkers and the rustle of the giant skirts of girls who distribute the giant wreaths of beer jugs. Moyenage is, however, a modern replica of blackletter, so it contains some otherwise unacceptable Latin script elements in upper case. I chose these keeping the modern reader in mind, striving for better legibility. The font is drawn as if written with a flat pen or brush, and with the ambition to, perhaps, serve as a calligraphic model. In medium width, the face is surprisingly well legible; it is perfect for menus as well as posters and CD covers for some of the heavier kinds of music. It has five types of numerals and also a set of Cyrillic script, symbolising the lovelorn union of Germans and Russians in the 20th century. Thus, it is well suited for the setting of bilingual texts of the German classic literature, which, according to the ancient rules, must not be set in Latin script.

The ITC Pino™ typeface family is Slobodan Jelesijevic’s second suite of commercial fonts. Although a small family of three weights, it is remarkably versatile. Like many typefaces, Pino grew out of a desire for a particular kind of design. Jelesijevic was creating a series of illustrations for a children’s magazine and needed a typeface that was lighthearted, legible and would complement his illustrative style. Unable to find exactly what he needed, he decided to make his own font. “I spent the better part of a day looking for just the right typeface,” he recalls. “Of course, the hard part was finding something that would harmonize perfectly with my drawings. A custom font was not part of the project brief or budget, but I thought that perhaps I could use it again.” The regular weight of Pino became the solution to Jelesijevic’s problem. Jelesijevic did use the font again, but quickly realized that the single weight needed companion designs. Pino Bold and Black followed in quick succession. Before licensing the designs to ITC, the three-weight family provided headlines, book cover titles and even short blocks of text copy in several of Jelesijevic’s design projects. Born in Gornji Milanovac, Serbia, in 1951, Jelesijevic graduated with a degree in graphic communication and lettering from the Faculty of Applied Arts in the University of Arts in Belgrade. Currently, in addition to typeface design, he is sought out as a graphic designer and illustrator. When not working on design projects, he teaches graphic communications at the Faculty of Art in the University of Niš, Serbia. Pino is a stressed sans of slightly condensed proportions. Pino’s generous x-height, clearly defined counters and distinctive character shapes enable it to fulfill a wide variety of typographic applications. Friendly without being sanguine, the Pino type family will communicate with charm and vitality.

Rolling Brush is a script font that gives handwriting appearance with original and personal brush details. This font is made beautifully so that the letters are connected to each other, creating a continuous and flowing look. Each letter is attached to the previous letter and continues to the next letter, creating beauty in writing unity. This font shows brush details on each letter. Brush strokes displays a rough, organic texture to the edges of the letters, adding dimension and visual life. These details give a unique impression to this script font. On the other hand, even though it has a rough border, this script still maintains a natural and elegant aesthetic touch. Some letters may have dramatic twists, while others are simpler. This flexible shape creates an expressive and creative look to the lettering. Because it is designed with a rough border, it would be better if you use this font at a large text size so it is more easy to read. Enjoy the various features available in this font as well. Features: Alternates Ligatures Multilingual Supports PUA Encoded Numerals and Punctuations Rolling Brush is suitable for any designs that want to convey a warm, personal and alluring impression. You can use this font in the design of greeting cards, invitations, logos, labels, and many other design projects that want to create uniqueness through a natural, handwritten touch. Find out more ways to use this font by taking a look at the font preview. Thanks for purchasing our fonts. Hopefully, you have a great time using our font. Feel free to contact us anytime for further information or when you have trouble with the font. Thanks a lot and happy designing.

Unconventional beauty FS Kim is bold and intriguing – exuberant and unmissable, but playing a supporting role when needed. This typeface shines brightest as a display font, and is perfect for applications across fashion, theatre, cultural projects and pretty much any brand that wants to make a statement. While FS Kim is dramatic, it’s incredibly versatile, too, and works to showcase content in a stylish, striking way. This font makes you look, and makes you curious – perfect for brands and publishers that relish unconventional beauty. A playful text version While FS Kim’s text version is more constrained than the display, the strength and playfulness remain. Modifications for the text version include larger x-heights, longer ascenders and descenders, wider proportions and spacing, longer and more defined serifs and a lower contrast. “The overall idea is that it’s not an optical size,” Radoeva explains. Text and display maintain a strong connection that mean they can be used together. A display with a twist The calligraphic starting point helped to create familiar forms, while a contemporary display feel is achieved through short wedge serifs, with bold touches added through the font’s exaggerated forms and details. FS Kim’s narrow proportions, short ascenders and descenders, and tighter spacing make the font suitably compact for display use. The overall aesthetic feels bold and sharp, but closer inspection reveals that all the corners are softened. Decorative inlines In an unusual twist, FS Kim’s display version was first drawn using a broad-nib pen to create familiar forms and elegance while still breaking from serif traditions and making it all about standout character. There are also two additional styles, based on the Regular and Black with inlines – in uppercase, figures and symbols. The inline brings an extra option for an even stronger, more decorative display use.

I fell in love at the age of twelve in Wales, recalls Bernard Philpot. "My father brought me to a small graveyard in the Welsh hills to show me two headstones carved by the great Eric Gill. I instantly fell in love with the beauty of the carving and the perfection of the letterforms. I still go back to marvel at these works of art." However, the ITC Bolthole™ design, Philpot's first commercial typographic endeavor, is quite unlike the works of Eric Gill that first captured his heart. Bolthole is a craggy sans serif with a definite grumpy attitude. It's not terribly legible, and, if more than a few words are set in the design, it's not very readable. To round out its cranky personality, Bolthole does not like to be set in small sizes. Like Cheez Whiz® and bullfights, you either love or hate this typeface. But whichever emotion dominates, there is no denying that Bolthole has a personality to be reckoned with - one with ample magnetism to ensure reader attraction. If used to set brief blocks of display copy, the typeface makes a powerful statement. Bolthole was originally designed to complement a whimsical ad for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. As Philpot recalls, "although the ad didn't win any awards, the type attracted some very positive comments for its original look and feel." Philpot studied graphic design and typography at the London School of Printing, and soon after graduation found himself working in a large advertising agency in London. According to Philpot, "After designing type for everything from packaging to ads, I thought it time to convert one of my designs into a complete font - and Bolthole was born." ITC Bolthole could very well be the Shrek™ of typeface design - which might not be such a bad thing."

Unconventional beauty FS Kim is bold and intriguing – exuberant and unmissable, but playing a supporting role when needed. This typeface shines brightest as a display font, and is perfect for applications across fashion, theatre, cultural projects and pretty much any brand that wants to make a statement. While FS Kim is dramatic, it’s incredibly versatile, too, and works to showcase content in a stylish, striking way. This font makes you look, and makes you curious – perfect for brands and publishers that relish unconventional beauty. A playful text version While FS Kim’s text version is more constrained than the display, the strength and playfulness remain. Modifications for the text version include larger x-heights, longer ascenders and descenders, wider proportions and spacing, longer and more defined serifs and a lower contrast. “The overall idea is that it’s not an optical size,” Radoeva explains. Text and display maintain a strong connection that mean they can be used together. A display with a twist The calligraphic starting point helped to create familiar forms, while a contemporary display feel is achieved through short wedge serifs, with bold touches added through the font’s exaggerated forms and details. FS Kim’s narrow proportions, short ascenders and descenders, and tighter spacing make the font suitably compact for display use. The overall aesthetic feels bold and sharp, but closer inspection reveals that all the corners are softened. Decorative inlines In an unusual twist, FS Kim’s display version was first drawn using a broad-nib pen to create familiar forms and elegance while still breaking from serif traditions and making it all about standout character. There are also two additional styles, based on the Regular and Black with inlines – in uppercase, figures and symbols. The inline brings an extra option for an even stronger, more decorative display use.

Tall, stately, and refined, with a showy contrast between thick and thin, a certain kind of titling Didone has become synonymous with fashion. Ermin Međedović’s latest type system amplifies the most theatrical aspects of this genre while bringing an uncommon flexibility of style and variation to any type palette — particularly those required for editorial design. Fino is a Rational (or Modern) display serif with sharp details. Its fairly Title proportions produce a regular beat of bold stems at frequent intervals. One can add an unexpected twist to this plot line by introducing the alternate ‘C, D, G, O, and Q’ (found in the uppercase); these replace the standard, Title oval shapes with big, full, show-stopping round ones. Other alternate forms, along with a grand ensemble cast of ligatures, lets the director continually flip the script. This stage is set in three acts: Fino, Fino, and Fino Stencil. Each of these offer six weights and italics, and each actor is comfortable speaking any Latin-based language, from standard Hollywood English to the many accents of Eastern Europe. Finally, every style comes in two optical sizes, with Title having the finest hairlines for the biggest parts. This lets you put Fino to work in a variety of productions, from short texts (24pt–48pt settings) to epic titles. The complete Fino family, along with our entire catalogue, has been optimised for today’s varied screen uses. All these talents let Fino perform a range of roles far broader than your typical Bodoni or Didot.

Big News! Tenez has been selected for the Tipos Latinos Biennial 2016 and Typographica’s Favorite Typefaces of 2015! Tenez is a Grand Slam display didone typeface from Plau. We designed it for a branding project, further developing the resulting logotype into a typeface we felt could solve many designers’ needs. Its origins are rooted in pointed nib calligraphy which can be seen in contemporary Didot and Bodoni inspired typefaces. But Tenez’s shapes are organic (these modern typefaces were originally cut by hand after all) – in fact that was the challenge we set from the start: to make a typeface as organic in construction as possible. This echoes some of late 19th century typefaces and advertising, yet we thought of it for contemporary uses. One of the several unique features of Tenez is its unusual Thin weight, in which the contrast between thin strokes and the black area left by the serifs makes for a typewriter-like personality. The italics provide a perfect counterpoint to the roman weights. Tenez was unapologetically conceived as a display typeface meant to be used large as in magazine openings, drop caps or everywhere there’s a need for elegant impact. The family includes support for almost all Latin languages available, figure sets for almost every conceivable occasion (tables, text, you name it), alternates for the quirky beautiful R (sometimes simpler is better, but not always!) and Q (with a nice big tail for that article opener). Tenez pairs really well with our no-frills sans-serif Motiva Sans and our cute vertical connected script Primot.

Tall, stately, and refined, with a showy contrast between thick and thin, a certain kind of titling Didone has become synonymous with fashion. Ermin Međedović’s latest type system amplifies the most theatrical aspects of this genre while bringing an uncommon flexibility of style and variation to any type palette — particularly those required for editorial design. Fino Sans is a Rational (or Modern) display serif with sharp details. Its fairly Title proportions produce a regular beat of bold stems at frequent intervals. One can add an unexpected twist to this plot line by introducing the alternate ‘C, D, G, O, and Q’ (found in the uppercase); these replace the standard, Title oval shapes with big, full, show-stopping round ones. Other alternate forms, along with a grand ensemble cast of ligatures, lets the director continually flip the script. This stage is set in three acts: Fino Sans, Fino Sans, and Fino Sans Stencil. Each of these offer six weights and italics, and each actor is comfortable speaking any Latin-based language, from standard Hollywood English to the many accents of Eastern Europe. Finally, every style comes in two optical sizes, with Title having the finest hairlines for the biggest parts. This lets you put Fino Sans to work in a variety of productions, from short texts (24pt–48pt settings) to epic titles. The complete Fino Sans family, along with our entire catalogue, has been optimised for today’s varied screen uses. All these talents let Fino Sans perform a range of roles far broader than your typical Bodoni or Didot.

Tall, stately, and refined, with a showy contrast between thick and thin, a certain kind of titling Didone has become synonymous with fashion. Ermin Međedović’s latest type system amplifies the most theatrical aspects of this genre while bringing an uncommon flexibility of style and variation to any type palette — particularly those required for editorial design. Fino Stencil is a Rational (or Modern) display serif with sharp details. Its fairly Title proportions produce a regular beat of bold stems at frequent intervals. One can add an unexpected twist to this plot line by introducing the alternate ‘C, D, G, O, and Q’ (found in the uppercase); these replace the standard, Title oval shapes with big, full, show-stopping round ones. Other alternate forms, along with a grand ensemble cast of ligatures, lets the director continually flip the script. This stage is set in three acts: Fino Stencil, Fino Stencil, and Fino Stencil Stencil. Each of these offer six weights and italics, and each actor is comfortable speaking any Latin-based language, from standard Hollywood English to the many accents of Eastern Europe. Finally, every style comes in two optical sizes, with Title having the finest hairlines for the biggest parts. This lets you put Fino Stencil to work in a variety of productions, from short texts (24pt–48pt settings) to epic titles. The complete Fino Stencil family, along with our entire catalogue, has been optimized for today’s varied screen uses. All these talents let Fino Stencil perform a range of roles far broader than your typical Bodoni or Didot.

LaFarge is a typeface primarily inspired by the historic mosaic titling capitals found in the New York City Subway, designed by architect Squire J. Vickers and his staff between 1915-1927. These elegant but industrial signs are characteristic of early-20th century American architectural lettering, and show an evolution of the classical Roman capitals to lower contrast, bolder serifs, and more regular character widths. The majority of this lettering still remains in subway stations today, and though elements of the style vary from sign to sign, many carry the unique features that are reflected in LaFarge: high-waisted crossbars with angled serifs, elegantly curved “R” leg, and distinctive trapezoidal serifs. LaFarge expands this style into a lower case, taking cues from contemporary typefaces like Bookman, Cheltenham, and Della Robbia. A number of typographic features are included, such as small caps, ordinal indicators / superscript letters, arrows, and a set of borders inspired by early subway tile. The result is a fashionable, architecturally-minded typeface that is just as at home on the façade of a grand public building as it is on packaging, magazines, or the web. LaFarge works well in both text and display settings, remaining readable at small sizes but showing off its elegant details in larger uses. LaFarge has received the Communication Arts Typography Award, the ADC Annual Merit Award, is included in the 2020 STA 100, and was part of designer Greg Shutters’ winning portfolio in the 2019 Type Directors Club Ascender Awards. You can download a PDF specimen of LaFarge, and also view a video of LaFarge in action.