Künstler Grotesk ML is one of a number of typeface designs that attempts to reconcile Germany’s blackletter tradition with the international familiarity of roman letterforms in a simple, robust design suitable for meeting the demands of a modern industrial economy, while rejecting the extraneous ornamentation of the departing Victorian era. It is an all-cap design with a number of playful ligatures. It has an appealing boldness that reverses well. Künstler means ‘artist’ in German. I had always assumed it was a person’s name until I came across the translation. Lesson: conjecture is not fact. Grotesk refers to a sans serif letterform tradition. Kunstler Grotesk was originally released by Bauer'sche Giesserei of Frankfurt am Main circa 1900. Künstler Grotesk ML represents a major extension of the original release, with the following changes: 1. Added glyphs for the 1250 Central Europe, the 1252 Turkish and the 1257 Baltic Code Pages. Added glyphs to complete standard 1252 Western Europe Code Page. Special glyphs relocated and assigned Unicode codepoints, some in Private Use area. Total of 350 glyphs, 260 kerning pairs. 2. Added OpenType GSUB layout features: pnum, salt, dlig (19) and hist. 3. Revised vertical metrics for improved cross-platform line spacing. 4. Redesigned mathematical operators. 5. Included tabular (std) & proportional (opt) numbers. 6. Refined various glyph outlines. 7. Made CcNnOoSsZz-kreska available (salt). 8. Incorporated alternate glyphs in lower case.

Elicit Script is a hybrid script family, that can be as casual or formal as the occasion demands. Created by Laura Worthington and Jim Wasco, the design is based on pointed pen Spencerian Script handwriting. “It’s like one of those German italics from the early 20th century, that have beautiful shapes that hold their own,” says Wasco. Elicit Script spans five weights, from Extra Light to Bold, and three styles – Formal, Normal and Casual. This makes it an incredibly versatile script design, easily paired with other typefaces and able to be dressed up or down, depending on what it’s used for. The monoline Casual style offers a more relaxed tone of voice, while Formal sits at the more decorative end of the spectrum. Designers can keep things straightforward, tidy and practical with the typeface’s simple caps, or add in swash caps if they need more exuberance and expression. Generous spacing means Elicit Script works well at smaller sizes as well. Elicit Script Variable Set is a single font file that features two axes: Weight and Contrast. The Weight axis has instances from Extra Light to Bold. The Contrast axis has instances from Casual (low contrast) to Formal (high contrast).