Circe Rounded is an extension for a popular Circe typeface, with rounded terminals. Bold and ExtraBold faces have two variants with different radius of the roundings. Circe Rounded is even more friendly than the original Circe. The typeface is designed by Alexandra Korolkova and Alexander Lubovenko and released by ParaType in 2015. It is known that the Circe typeface is distinguished by mild and humanist nature being formally a geometric sans-serif. However, as an experiment we decided to make it even softer: Circe now has a version with rounded terminals — Circe Rounded. Rounding is generally regarded as a mechanical operation, but in this case a lot of manual adjustment was needed because of the humanist nature and peculiarities of type design. Moreover, the two bold styles now have two options: a basic one is slightly rounded and an alternate one is fully rounded. In Circe Rounded we decided to dismiss characters with swashes that are rather inappropriate in such a rounded font, but the stylistic sets and alternate characters are remaining. Rounded terminals make an open and friendly typeface even more childish. For example, in quite large point sizes (because the x-height is still not big) it can be used as a body type in infant books. Circe Rounded, similar to Circe, has alternative forms of lowercase characters, which are called “infant” and are used in publications for children’s reading. However, a humanist basis is preserved alongside with its softness and it does not allow it to be as “plasticine” as many other rounded fonts. Two of the most obvious areas of possible application of Circe Rounded are everything for children and everything edible, especially all that is sweet and puff. However, we believe that there are other options.

To Rafaella, a menina dos cachos. We, designers, have grown accustomed to seeing that lowercase letters—not only in calligraphy but also in typography (1)—may be very playful and decorative. Almost every part of them can become a potential swash, ligature or decorative accolade (2) if the designer has some expertise regarding this matter. However, since we are living in an era that elevates the status of handcrafts, lettering has gained a lot of ground in different kinds of mediums, and with it there’s a sort of overuse of capitals. This may be due to the reason that lettering pieces need a high impact to convey their messages and many times why big capitals are the only solution. With this in mind, I started Rafaella: A font consisting entirely of capitals which go from unadorned to very decorative. Rafaella has ductus and forms vaguely based on the 1970s Bookman-like styled fonts. The presence and behaviour of serifs and ball terminals in this style were the perfect excuse to make really attractive aternates which the user can choose from the glyphs panel. The result is a font full of life. Able to be both very playful and formal due to its roman style which can be combined with (and between) a wide range of other styles of expressive scripts or geometric fonts with nice results (3). Also try Rafaella Shade Solo combined with Rafaella or Rafaella Bold for a layer effect to emphasize any given word or phrase. NOTES (1) See my fonts Erotica from 2013 or Dream from 2014. (2) Accolades is a wonderful word that refers to the ornaments made around the words in the spencerian style of calligraphy (3) Combinations often seen in different pieces of lettering were usually a contrast of style is wanted.

Monarda™ is Terrance Weinzierl’s take on the loud and splashy brush scripts of the 1950s. It’s energetic, playful, and equally at home in hardcopy headlines as it is in interactive banners. In addition to the basic alphabet, OpenType® fonts of Monarda are also awash in super-sized swash caps, contextual alternate characters and ligatures. Pair Monarda with a mid-century structural sans like Trade Gothic® or a sturdy slab serif like Egyptian Slate™ to create typographic counterpoint that’s confident, compelling and memorable! Named for a riotous bright red flower that attracts butterflies and humming birds, Monarda is a rare combination of flamboyance and effortless beauty. Weinzierl describes it as “casual yet precise: a stiff denim jacket or perfectly white sneakers at a formal event.” Monarda clearly stands out – and always fits in. Well, almost always. Drawn for print, the design’s robust x-height, open counters and wide apertures also make Monarda screen-friendly. Monarda can be perfect for a wide variety of food and lifestyle applications as well as travel, stationery and packaging projects. Advertising campaigns and product branding are also well within its reach. Monarda works best when used large – but economically. Two or three words are its sweet spot. Think: product name, print headline or the lettering on the side of a truck. It could easily become your go-to design for projects that call for a script with a bright personality and fearless demeanor. The excellence of Weinzierl’s work has been recognized by the Type Directors Club and Print Magazine. When not working on creating new typefaces, he augments his professional practice through calligraphy, lettering, and letterpress printing. Monarda is another winner from Weinzierl’s creative mind and talented hand.

An entry in the Second Linotype Design Contest, Linotype Brewery, designed by Gustavs Andrejs Grinbergs, became part of the TakeType Collection in 1997. Brewery No 2 represents a significantly improved version of its precursor, and the typeface has been both extended and enhanced. When asked about prototypes, Grinbergs cites German typefaces of the early 20th century. It is thus not surprising that the characters of Brewery™ No 2 are based on geometrical forms. However, this is no mere synthetic Grotesque-derived typeface. It has significant contrasts in line thickness and triangular line terminals that are not unlike serifs, placing it in the middle ground somewhere between a Grotesque and serif font. The contrast between the features of a synthetic Grotesque and an Antiqua gives the characters of Brewery No 2 their distinctive charm and is the distinguishing attribute of this contemporary typeface. Additional vibrancy is provided by bevelled line endings (as in the case of the 'E' and the 'F'), the circular punctuation marks and the slight curve of the descending bar of the 'k'. Thanks to a generous x-height and its open counters, Brewery No 2 is also highly legible in small point sizes. Only in its bolder versions is another aspect of Brewery No 2 apparent; Grinbergs has here made the linking elements more rectangular and has emphasized the counters, so that the Bold variants of Brewery No 2 exhibit elements typical of a broken typeface. Brewery No 2 is available in seven finely graduated weights, ranging from Light to Black. Every variant has a corresponding, slightly narrower Italic version. In addition, the lowercase 'a' is given a closed form, the 'e' is more rounded and the 'f' has a descender. The character sets of Brewery No 2 leave nothing to be desired. In addition to small caps and ligatures, there are various numeral sets with old style and lining figures for setting proportional text and table columns. In its most extensive form (the Pan-European variant), Brewery No 2 can be used to set texts in many languages that employ the Latin alphabet and also texts in international languages that use Cyrillic or monotonic Greek orthography. Although some of the features of Brewery No 2, such as the tiny serifs, are only evident in the larger point sizes, this typeface is not just at home when used to set headlines. Brewery No 2 also cuts a good figure in short or medium length texts. This contemporary typeface with its formally elegant quality looks good, for example, on posters, in newspapers and promotional material. It can also be used for websites as it is also available as a web font.

An entry in the Second Linotype Design Contest, Linotype Brewery, designed by Gustavs Andrejs Grinbergs, became part of the TakeType Collection in 1997. Brewery No 2 represents a significantly improved version of its precursor, and the typeface has been both extended and enhanced. When asked about prototypes, Grinbergs cites German typefaces of the early 20th century. It is thus not surprising that the characters of Brewery™ No 2 are based on geometrical forms. However, this is no mere synthetic Grotesque-derived typeface. It has significant contrasts in line thickness and triangular line terminals that are not unlike serifs, placing it in the middle ground somewhere between a Grotesque and serif font. The contrast between the features of a synthetic Grotesque and an Antiqua gives the characters of Brewery No 2 their distinctive charm and is the distinguishing attribute of this contemporary typeface. Additional vibrancy is provided by bevelled line endings (as in the case of the 'E' and the 'F'), the circular punctuation marks and the slight curve of the descending bar of the 'k'. Thanks to a generous x-height and its open counters, Brewery No 2 is also highly legible in small point sizes. Only in its bolder versions is another aspect of Brewery No 2 apparent; Grinbergs has here made the linking elements more rectangular and has emphasized the counters, so that the Bold variants of Brewery No 2 exhibit elements typical of a broken typeface. Brewery No 2 is available in seven finely graduated weights, ranging from Light to Black. Every variant has a corresponding, slightly narrower Italic version. In addition, the lowercase 'a' is given a closed form, the 'e' is more rounded and the 'f' has a descender. The character sets of Brewery No 2 leave nothing to be desired. In addition to small caps and ligatures, there are various numeral sets with old style and lining figures for setting proportional text and table columns. In its most extensive form (the Pan-European variant), Brewery No 2 can be used to set texts in many languages that employ the Latin alphabet and also texts in international languages that use Cyrillic or monotonic Greek orthography. Although some of the features of Brewery No 2, such as the tiny serifs, are only evident in the larger point sizes, this typeface is not just at home when used to set headlines. Brewery No 2 also cuts a good figure in short or medium length texts. This contemporary typeface with its formally elegant quality looks good, for example, on posters, in newspapers and promotional material. It can also be used for websites as it is also available as a web font.