Font Reviews 2024: Bizzarri

Designed by Diana Ovezea
Distributed by Blast Foundry 
Typeface family: 6 weights, 2 styles (upright + italic), and 2 optical sizes. 24 fonts

This text was originally written in German, a language with more than 90 million speakers worldwide. The English version (Thank you Dan Reynolds!) of the review is below.

Ich hasse einkaufen. Ausgenommen Schriften.

2021 bin ich via Future Fonts über die Schrift »Bizzarri« von Diana Ovezea/Blast Foundry gestolpert und war sofort schockverliebt. Wenn ihr eine ausgefallene Schrift sucht, die eigenständig, eckig, laut, egozentrisch und detailverliebt um die Ecke kommt, dann liegt ihr mit der »Bizzarri« auf dem richtigen Kurs.

Continue reading

Font Reviews 2024: Tegner

Designed by Linda Hintz
Distributed by Future Fonts

This review was originally written in Catalan. Catalan-speaking territories are sometimes called the Països Catalans (Catalan Countries), a denomination based on cultural affinity and common heritage. The English version of the review is below.

Per a mi, Tegner* és la definició de simpàtica en forma de tipografia: té una personalitat encantadora i accessible que sembla somriure’t des de la pàgina. Dissenyada per Linda Hintz, Tegner aconsegueix equilibrar la juganeria amb una sofisticació moderna i càlida, fent que sigui alhora amigable i elegant. Això es deu a les seves corbes inesperades, subtils asimetries i detalls que es perceben gairebé naturals. A més, combina minúscules d’estil unicase amb majúscules més petites, fletxes, animals i molt més. És una tipografia que et convida a explorar, com si et digués: “Creem alguna cosa divertida junts.”

* Tegner va néixer inspirada per una visita al Rudolph Tegner Museum. Un pòster d’una exposició a l’Independent Artspace Den Frie de Copenhaguen, datat de l’any 1911, mostrava una lletra única que ressonava amb la cruesa arquitectònica de formigó del museu.

Continue reading

Font Reviews 2024: Diatype Devanagari

Designed by Kimya Gandhi (Mota Italic)
Multiscript Art Direction: Ethan Cohen (Dinamo)
Production: Hugo Jourdan (Dinamo)
Distributed by Dinamo
Font family: 8 weights

This font review was originally written in French, a language spoken by approximately 80 million native speakers worldwide. English version of the review below.

Diatype Devanagari fait partie de la famille de caractères Diatype, qui couvre également l’arabe, l’arménien, le cyrillique, le géorgien, le grec, l’hébreu, le latin et le thaï. Conçu par Kimya Gandhi (Mota Italic), ce devanagari au style grotesque se distingue par une simplicité des formes sans pareille.

Continue reading

Font Reviews 2024: Tiny Grotesk

Designed by Robin Mientjes
Distributed by Tiny Type Co. & Fontstand
Typeface family: 4 weights, 3 widths, and 3 optical sizes. 12 fonts

This font review was originally written in Spanish. English translation below.

Tiny Grotesk es la superfamilia neogrotesca sans serif de Tiny Type Co, la fundidora de Robin Mientjes. Tiene dos estilos o parámetros extremos que la definen y aggiornan este estilo, con raíz en principios del siglo XX, a la contemporaneidad. Tiny Grotesk toma su inspiración del linaje neo-grotesco marcado por referentes históricos como Helvética, Univers y Folio.

Continue reading

Font Reviews 2024: Fabulosa

Designed by Laura Messeguer 
Distributed by Type-Ø-Tones

This font review was written in English and translated into Portuguese (BR—below). The Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) is expected to have an additional 110 million inhabitants in 2050, rising to around 357 million people, according to United Nations (UN) estimates.

I am thrilled to feature Laura in the Women in Type series finally. She has been on the list since day one. While I originally planned to group 5 pioneer designers of her generation—like Veronika Burian, Zuzana Licko, and Laura Worthington—I can’t leave Fabulosa off my best of the year. A node to the Fat Face style and Ed Benguiat’s Caslon Swash (two of my all-time favorite historical references) that would immediately teleport us to the glamourous 1970s graphic scene if it wasn’t for the surprising stencil twist (which in my mind carries a more edgy look)—a bold, striking, yet retro serif typeface. It’s like colliding Philip Roth paperbacks with the Bauhaus.

Continue reading

Font Reviews 2024: Butik

Designed by Anna Štepanovská
Distributed by Rosetta Type
Typeface family: 3 widths + 9 weights. 27 static fonts + 1 variable font

This text was originally written in Catalan. The Catalan ce trencada (Ç ç), which literally means ‘broken ce’, can be used before the vowels a, o, u (+ accented derivatives), at the end of a word, or before ‘s’ in plural words (e.g. falçs).
The English version of the review is below.

Quina delícia!
Butik està plena de detalls que em fan que m’agradi tant. A Butik el que veiem és que no es tracta només de donar forma a les lletres, sinó de crear formes plenes de significat i personalitat. Anna Štepanovská combina influències de l’ornamentació manierista, Herb Lubalin i Josef Týfa per dissenyar una família tipogràfica completament nova i moderna. Les formes semi-serifades, com la n i la v i la U, i les prominents trampes de tinta defineixen la seva personalitat. Notareu terminals de bola delicades i traços sortints generosos en els pesos més lleugers, mentre que els pesos més gruixuts veiem contraformes petites i terminals de bola grans. És una tipografia que sap com fer una entrada triomfal. I els extres: Les lligadures decoratives, els traços ornamentals i les alternances ofereixen un potencial creatiu immens.

Com diuen a la presentació de Rosetta, Butik no és només una tipografia; és un autèntic terreny de joc per als dissenyadors.

Continue reading

Font Reviews 2024: Stringer

Designed by Emily Klaebe
Mastered by Tiny Type Co.
Distributed by Order
Font family: 5 weights. 5 static fonts. Trials available

This font review was written in English and translated into Portuguese (BR—below), with over 230 million native speakers, making it the 8th most spoken language in the world.

If you need a bracketed slab serif with a nostalgic feel, less contrast, and more quirks than the jaw-dropping Ionic Modern from Commercial Type, Stringer may be the perfect fit. Emily’s first commercial release, designed during the Type West program in 2022, and published by Order, is a revival from Ionics of the early 20th century—more precisely Miller & Richard’s Ionic No. 3 at 12-point—in five up-right weights, from Thin to Bold (fingers crossed italics are upcoming).

Continue reading

Font Reviews 2024: Adapter Georgian

Designed by Ana Sanikidze
Distributed by Rosetta Type
Font family: 2 styles (roman + oblique) and 8 weights. 16 static fonts + 1 variable font

This font review was originally written in French, a language spoken by approximatively 80 million native speakers worldwide. English version of the review below.

Adapter fait partie de la collection Type World, une famille de polices polyvalente intégrant l’arabe, le cyrillique, le grec, l’hébreu, le latin et le tamoul. Ana Sanikidze a été invitée à élargir la famille en créant Adapter Georgian Text, comportant 8 graisses allant de Extra Light à Black, ainsi que leurs italiques correspondantes. Fidèle à la philosophie d’Adapter, l’extension géorgienne offre un équilibre entre authenticité et fonctionnalité: des caractères proportionnels mais rationnels entre romain et italique.

Continue reading

Font Reviews 2024: Honesta

Designed by Sabrina López
Distributed by Typesenses
Font family: 6 weights, 2 styles (regular and italic) + variable font

This font review was originally written in Spanish, the colonial language of Argentina. Before colonization, the native people used various languages such as toba, pilagá, mocoví, wichí, nivaclé, chorote, tapiete, quichua, tehuelche, mapudungun, guaraní, vilela, chaná, among others.
English translation of the review below.

Sabrina López es una diseñadora especializada en fuentes display, vive y trabaja en Argentina. Inició Typesenses en 2009.

Honesta es una grotesca que se deja seducir por la caligrafía e irrumpe en el catálogo de Typesenses, repleto de tipografías decorativas, display y ligadas. Muestra el rastro de la metodología de trabajo artesanal de Sabrina López, caracterizada por la búsqueda de referentes históricos, el dibujo a mano, mucho papel calco y una gran cantidad de bocetos y borradores a lápiz.

Continue reading

Font Reviews 2024: NaN Druid

Designed by Anna Khorash & Reymund Schröder
Engineering: NaN Team
Additional Engineering: Igino Marini
Distributed by NaN
Typeface family: NaN Druid Serif (9 weights) + NaN Druid Sans (9 weights). 18 static fonts + 2 variable fonts (weight axis).

This review was originally written in Catalan, a language spoken by 9.2 million worldwide.
The English version of the review is below.

NaN Druid és una crida al teu ull, en la versió serif combina la delicadesa amb l’estètica del brutalisme, cosa que m’agrada molt. El pes més atrevit d’aquesta subfamília és una mica experimental, amb talls asimètrics i detalls angulars, i familiar alhora, perfecte per a projectes que necessiten una certa personalitat, pero sense ser molt cridanera.

Continue reading