One menorah that I have long found particularly appealing was named The Tree of Life Menorah, a replica of which I gave as a gift one holiday to a kindly old couple who were neighbors and became friends. It had a simple, organic elegance that I see in the best of Art Nouveau sculpture. To me personally, Judeism is a celebration of life, like the triumph of the flower that blossoms in the crack of the city sidewalk. Just as Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the temple and the miracle of the oil, it celebrates the victorious quest for freedom of the Hebrew people led by Judah Maccabee. Hanukkah represents determination and courage and faith — and it represents the presence of God in the lives of His people. It is interesting to note that the founding of the Albanian nation in the early twentieth century grew out of the resistance of the Albanian people to the imposition of Greek language and culture in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The typeface, HADASSAH, designed by Henri Friedlander (1904-1996), is my favorite Hebrew typeface. Thirty years in the crafting, I believe it is unsurpassed for its shear beauty, combining a subtle modulation of stroke with a simplicity and clarity of form. No doubt, that is why it has become so popular. For me, the Sîyn/Shîyn characters are especially satisfying. For a Hanukkah message in Hebrew, I would choose HADASSAH LIGHT for a headline and print it as large as I could. If, however, you are looking for a friendly, warm face for a seasonal message in a roman-letter based language, may I suggest BETHLEHEM EPHRATH. It will be as comfortable as a bulky, hand-knit sweater on a frosty afternoon and reflects the solid, encompassing, family orientation of this holiday. It was on the way to Ephrath that Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel gave birth to Benjamin and then died from her labor. It was to Ephrath that Naomi and Ruth returned and in Ephrath that we have the wonderful, heart-warming story of the marriage between Ruth and her Redeemer-Kinsman, Boaz. And it was to Ephrath that prophet, Samuel, went to find a new king and there in Ephrath that the prophet annointed a small shepherd boy named David. The Proverbs tell us to seek wisdom. Never underestimate the impact you have on others. Words of kindness can change people’s lives. The Talmud says that the highest form of wisdom is kindness. Be wise this holiday season. The font BETHLEHEM EPHRATH is based on the typeface Accent with the permission of URW++ of Hamburg, Germany. Like most display fonts, it is most effective at 18 points and larger. Like most script fonts, it is most effective when set with both upper and lower case. Although this font is readable in all caps (many scripts are not), that does not make it a good idea. Do so only with caution.

Paverify is an all-caps geometric slab serif display face inspired by a particular pavement tile component which is evoking a blocky “I” letter. All other characters were interpreted based on its look and drawn accordingly. There are three uppercase Roman fonts in different weights and widths substantially. With the additional versions, type family consisting of 7 fonts in total. Over 220 Latin, Cyrillic and Greek script languages supported. Each font contains an extensive multilingual support with more than 1600 glyphs and OpenType features, including number forms, fractions, and stylistic alternate sets those provide different looks by the typographic preferences. For the lowercase letters there are small caps variants, i.e., shorter caps. These also have identical glyphs and matching marks to enable “Small Capitals From Capitals” feature. Narrower Medium and Bold styles was produced to accompany the Black first design. Paverify comes with an ornaments font named as “Extras”, which contains geometric graphical elements, i.e., paver stone patterns, banner/sticker background sets, star comps and a collection of catchwords to simplify creating feature rich layouts. As is known as interlocking paver in certain regions — a rectangular shape with the distinctive diagonal tabs — transcribing the simplest letter to draw into the whole alphabet was a challenging task. Not only it was the single thing that can be used as a source, considering its thick form in roughly 1.2:1 proportions compared to the sophistication of letterforms was the challenge. Starting point was keeping design consistent while both avoiding and preserving a particular appearance to achieve a similar texture, basically a repeating pattern on the streets. In contrary of a traditional approach, Paverify tend to have more contrast than the other slab serifs which helps to reduce massive stem weight of the source form. This look contributes to its hand painted sign effect achieved in a certain degree, which may otherwise impractical to transform because the source material is an inorganic, static form by definition. Tight and even spacing of the pavement tiles was inspirational for the kerning balance of the letters. Although the lighter weights have more space between the letter pairs, black weight adjusted as to be close to each other as the original grid. Tight spacing can be ignored by using Capital Spacing OpenType feature for the Outline versions as layer fonts. In one stroke, this gives an extra space between the letters to avoid diagonal armed letter terminals overlap. Black typographic colour and texture gives a sturdy appearance to the lines, it is useful for the projects where a robust display faces preferred for the titling, strong headlines, letter stacks, dropcaps, initials, short names on materials such as advertisements, book covers, posters, logotypes, wordmarks, package designs, and more in print or digital. Paverify can be paired as a complimentary face in a combination with broader type systems, where vintage look compositions and woodcut style fusions requiring an extra stunning texture.

Fashion style meets typography in 9 styles The Ysans designed by Jean François Porchez is a sanserif influenced by Cassandre lettering pieces and the geometric sanserif style from the inter-war period. Since Chanel logo, the geometric sanserif style is the favorite typographic thing in fashion. Ysans asserts this reference. Not only Haute-Couture houses use these categories of typefaces for their visual identity, but fashion magazines usually strength their layout with these geometric sanserif when a Didot isn’t used. Details of Ysans drawings Nevertheless, Ysans takes its sources in certain details imagined by the graphic designer Adolphe Mouron Cassandre for the monogram then logotype Yves Saint Laurent (1961 …). One thing keeps coming in again and again in Cassandre’s post-war graphic work: the pointed finish and endings, the references to the Roman capitals engraved and unique features such as the open R or other details influenced by Antiqua and calligraphic forms or ductus (you should have in mind that an earlier typeface by Cassandre is the Peignot, a modern uncial based on researches of the palaeographer Jean Mallon.) Certain letters from the Ysans are directly an homage to the Yves Saint Laurent logo, the R, the narrow U, the apex of the N, and all the details of such pointed endings on the f and t lowercases. The Ysans, a typeface between diversity and synthesis There are several ways to approach the design of a new geometric sanserif. The first approach is to follow the Bauhaus philosophy by designing in the most rational way, typographic forms based on simple geometric elements: square, round, triangle. Another approach is to start a revival based on an historical geometric typeface and optimize the original ideas, in order to adapt certain details to the contemporary needs. For Ysans, the approach is somewhat different because this project started in 2011 at ZeCraft as a typeface designed specifically for Yves Saint Laurent Beauty, still in use by the brand under its original name Singulier. The Singulier-Ysans has been conceptualized by ZeCraft, both drawing its sources from Cassandre and various historical geometric typefaces. Some will spot specific traits as in Futura, others in Metro or Kabel. By closely observing the Ysans, the result can also recall the way Eric Gill draw the curves and endings of his typefaces, of which Jean François Porchez is a fervent admirer. In the end, Ysans is like fashion as envisioned by Yves Saint Laurent who constantly revealed multiple references in his new collections, without being recognisable any other than with his unique style. “Fashions pass, style is eternal. Fashion is futile, not style.” Cherry on the cake: Ysans Mondrian Ysans Mondrian, named in reference to the Mondrian dress created by Yves Saint Laurent, is the multi-layer version of the family. Ysans, fashion style meets typography Club des directeurs artistiques, 49e palmarès