Diplomat

Diplomat is a hardworking sans serif designed by Shiva Nallaperumal, celebrating by his love of Bell Gothic and other anonymous, highly functional grotesques that manage to be invisible in spite of being made of strange shapes. The family features the same range of weights in proportional and monospaced variants.

Successor

Successor, drawn by Tim Ripper, is a faithful take on the 19th century Egyptian.

County

A lovely set of caps from the Figgins foundry, circa 1820, revived by Paul Barnes with help from Tim Ripper. Updated Nov 2022 with an expanded glyphset.

Ergon

Ergon, designed by Hrvoje Živčić, was started in 2017 as a part of a design pitch for branding of Dubrovnik and Neretva county in Croatia. Working in a team with Lana Cavar and Narcisa Vukojević, Hrvoje drew a bold, all-caps typeface honoring the rich cultural and typographic history of the region. The idea was revisited and revised through the years and expanded with a lowercase and additional weights in 2021–22. Stylistically, it is a combination of influences: stone chiseled letters meet sharp digital drawing to produce bold and sculptural graphic forms.

Moulin

Moulin, a work in progress by Sandrine Nugue, is an asymmetrical flared design influenced by classical lettering and Adrian Frutiger’s underappreciated Icône from 1980. The balance of black and white and tension between inner and outer forms give a sculptural rather than calligraphic character, resulting in a comfortable texture for text and an assertive personality at display sizes. The family was updated with a full range of upright weights in August 2022.

Lovesong

An homage to Brush Script by Miguel Reyes, started as a custom project that was cancelled amid a corporate reshuffle, and later finished for Richard Turley’s guest editorship of Its Nice That in August 2022. Miguel’s update draws on his experience with signpainting, toning down the bouncy baseline and facilitating use in all caps. Brush Script was designed by Robert E. Smith in 1942; a different Robert Smith provided the name.

Eugenia

Commissioned for the La Repubblica weekly women’s magazine D, Eugenia by Miguel Reyes draws on all sorts of bizarre italic and script letterforms that Giambattista Bodoni cut in the 18th century. It was drawn to accompany Eugenio Serif, which Miguel drew for La Repubblica in 2018. Eugenio and Eugenia were both commissioned by Francesco Franchi.

Produkt Condensed

Narrower width of Produkt, drawn by Kara Gordon.

Canela Blackletter

Miguel Reyes drew this blackletter companion to Canela inspired by the long tradition of blacketter in Mexico, particularly on signage for small, casual restaurants called fondas. The first sketches became the logotype for his own family’s restaurant, Raíz, and the character set has since been filled out, including two kinds of capitals: a simplified set, and a more complex set that are evocative of newspaper nameplates.

Candy Darling

Candy Darling is a script typeface drawn by Miguel Reyes, commissioned by Richard Turley for Interview magazine in 2021. Named for one of Interview founder Andy Warhol’s superstars, this typeface sits at the intersection of chaos and careful engineering, good and bad taste, peep show neon and the formal script lettering of Doyald Young, with some bizarre forms and a wild set of swash capitals. Kurt Woerpel and Jack Vhay made it look incredible during its year in the magazine.

Lyon Hebrew

Daniel Grumer and Yanek Iontef drew Lyon Hebrew based loosely on broad nib models from the 15th and 16th centuries. As in the Latin, details have been simplified, streamlined, and stripped away, leaving crisp and decisive forms with unabashedly digital detailing. The italics are particularly interesting, as they manage to keep the same balance of free cailligraphic gestures and structured repetition of forms seen in Kai Bernau’s original.

Orlando

Designed in 2021 by Paul Barnes for the In’Ei art gallery in Florence, Orlando adapts the lightest weight of Orleans and its italic with flared strokes, for a more overtly calligraphic appearance.

Advocat

Christian Schwartz spent most of 2020 on an extended parental leave that made it hard to find time or energy to concentrate on type design. Scattered hours while the kids were in bed went to this typewriter face, a sufficiently low-stakes project, based on a low-res scan of an old IBM Selectric ‘golf ball’ alphabet called Advocate, designed by Howard “Bud” Kettler (best known as the designer of Courier). Rough source material led to a very loose interpretation. Richard Turley has used it for a few small publications with Civilization. Updated 23 Sep 2021: Apologies to Matthew Butterick, who already published a typeface called Advocate.

Analog X Condensed

Miguel Reyes drew this extra condensed sans with 90s vibes for his restaurant in Cholula.

Royal Gothic

Originally from Stevens, Shanks & Sons, revived in 2020 by Paul Barnes, assisted by Luke Charsley. Used by Fraser Muggeridge.

Updated 15 Sept 2021: refined kerning, added Heavy Italic style.

Eugenio Sans

To compliment Eugenio Serif in Francesco Franchi’s redesign of La Repubblica, designer Greg Gazdowicz created a sans can be both stylish and pragmatic as needed. He and Franchi settled on a geometric sans serif, partially inspired by the classic combination of Bodoni and Futura which was popularized in the 20th century by famed Modernist Massimo Vignelli. Eugenio Sans serves the newspaper at many sizes: from big drop caps to small captions, sidebars, and info graphics. It is also the primary headline typeface for the Sport and other feature sections, reserving Eugenio Serif for news. Though the geometric sans genre is remarkably crowded, Gazdowicz found that by focusing on the technical constraints of newsprint and complementing Eugenio Serif, he wound up with a fresh design in the process. The terminals end at flat verticals, making for open apertures and clean spaces between letters, giving a straightforward and newsy tone.

Eugenio Serif

Eugenio Serif was drawn by Miguel Reyes, assisted by Hrvoje Živčić, for Francesco Franchi’s redesign of La Repubblica, and remains the main headline face after a reworking of the newspaper. It’s a fairly faithful rendition of Bodoni, but the softness of the serifs and subtly rounded corners give it warmth, making it feel more like phototype than crisp, perfect digital letterforms. The primary historical source that Miguel referenced was 16pt and 24pt specimens in a facsimile of Giambattista Bodoni’s definitive 1818 Manuale Typographico.

Seance

Seance comprises two blackletter styles based on the outlandish designs of French lettering artist Jean Midolle (1794–?). Midolle’s Fracture Midolline and Gothique Brisée, published in his 1835 Spécimen des écritures modernes, are thoroughly gothic in multiple senses of the word. In Seance, Tim Ripper has reworked these standalone alphabets as typefaces while attempting to preserve as much as possible of their creepy—and campy—peculiarities.

Great Western

A shaded Modern, drawn by Kara Gordon based on Brunel, in a form offered by many British foundries in the 19th century. Named for the Great Western Railway, a British railway company that linked London with the southwest and west of England, the West Midlands, and most of Wales, engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Lyon Hed

Compact headline version of Lyon with a large x-height and very short extenders, originally commissioned by Mark Porter, designed by Kai Bernau with Robin Mientjes.

Produkt Typewriter

Monospaced version of Produkt, drawn by Christian Schwartz for the 2018–2019 Carnegie International identity designed by Project Projects, and later finished for the interface of this site.

Terza

A Venetian by Greg Gazdowicz, designed for different modes of interacting with text: reading, composing, and editing and annotating.

Proxy

Condensed reverse contrast typeface initially inspired by Swiss roadway lettering in an old issue of Lettera, but ended up wandering off into its own territory. Drawn by Christian Schwartz for Richard Turley and used for Barneys, Good Buys, Interview…

Review Wide

First draft for an expanded addition to the Review family, with the proportions of the O and o based on old CRT televisions.

Produkt XX Condensed

Narrower widths of Produkt, to accompany Graphik. Heavier weights of XX Condensed were initially drawn by Greg Gazdowicz for the Village Voice, but the publication closed their print edition before the redesign by Luke Hayman's team at Pentagram could be implemented. Promphan Suksumek drew light weights and Kara Gordon completed and refined the family.

Caslon Doric Condensed Round

Rounded version of Caslon Doric Condensed, in all weights, drawn by Thomas Bouillet. Planned for release in 2021. Kerning may change a little before release.

Druk Text Light

Light weight drawn for a theater company.

Gingrich

Gingrich is a condensed display serif faily in 4 optical sizes, originally drawn for David Curcurito for the 1000th issue of Esquire in 2015. Italics were added later for Barron’s by Kara Gordon.

Austin Hairline Condensed

Condensed width of Austin Hairline Roman, drawn by Maria Doreuli for Kuchar Swara for the Daily Telegraph's magazines.

Viktor

Incised, barely-seriffed display face drawn by Christian Schwartz. Used on a Wired cover, and in a couple of issues of Document Journal.

Caponi Condensed

Christian Schwartz and Paul Barnes drew this around when finishing Caponi for Entertainment Weekly. Our memory is hazy but this seems to have been sketched for their covers. They ended up sticking with a condensed sans instead, maybe because the Marlboro Man vibe was too strong.

Druk Wide Light

3 lighter weights of Druk Wide, originally drawn for Robert Vargas at Bloomberg Businessweek.

Local Gothic

Local Gothic is inspired by the moveable lettering of outdoor signs in America. Its individual characters look ordinary, but in combination they appear random and irregular, giving a distressed and unusual appearance. Designed by Christian Schwartz while he was studying graphic design in the late 1990s, Local Gothic gives a surprising and uneven texture that can breathe life into both print and web projects. The characters are loosely based on the four most ubiquitous sans serifs in America: Helvetica, Futura, Franklin Gothic, and Alternate Gothic No. 2. Tal Leming developed innovative OpenType code, using theories based on quantum mechanics, to mix the mismatched letters in a way that feels truly random.

Duplicate Sans Condensed

Condensed width of Duplicate Sans. I don’t remember why we haven’t released this. (CS)

Sept Stencil

Originally drawn for Evan Campisi at ELLE, debuting in the September 2016 issue and used periodically for features. Greg Gazdowicz was inspired by Futura Black, Josef Albers, Paul Rand…

Neue Haas Grotesk Text Mono

This was originally created for Bloomberg Businessweek, for a special issue on the 2012 US presidential election, and was later extended for general use in info graphics. The idea was to make text set in the Mono look and feel like unfiltered data.

Poseidon Sans

Loosely inspired by 20th century typewriter typefaces. Proportional but awkward. Designed for Darhil Crooks when he was at The Atlantic.

Sanomat Banner

High contrast version of Sanomat, drawn by Greg Gazdowicz for Sami Valtere at Helsingin Sanomat.

Sanomat Slab

Slab version of Sanomat, drawn for Sami Valtere at Helsingin Sanomat.

Graphik Decorated

Graphik Round and Graphik Dot were drawn for two one-off issues of Bon Appétit for creative director Alex Grossman. Graphik Round Black proved surprisingly useful for Commercial Studio. The other two dot styles were developed for Meirion Pritchard at Wallpaper*.

Anker

Originally drawn for the New York magazine Fall Fashion issue in 2015, inspired by storybook lettering from the early 20th century.

McClatchy

The McClatchy Company publishes 29 daily newspapers across the US. Working with Garcia Media, they spent a year developing a unified design language to bring together the print papers, mobile apps, and web editions with a more consistent overall look. Greg Gazdowicz, Miguel Reyes, and Christian Schwartz designed a set of typefaces that helped to bridge the gap between design consistency and individual character.

Royal Ascot

Drawn by Miguel Reyes for a package of stories on parties in a 2014 issue of Bon Appétit. Based on lettered titles from a Royal Ascot horse racing event broadcast in the 1970s.

Azzurri

Designed by Paul Barnes, along with Gabriello, for Puma. Azzurri is a low-contrast italic with faceted edges and no curves, designed to look both legible and stylish on the backs of football shirts. The swashes were a later addition.

Gabriello

Football numbers are an exercise in balancing style with functionality. Inspired by brush lettering, Puma commissioned the Bold weight of Gabriello for the shirts of their sponsored teams in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, and also used it for their African teams in that year’s World Cup: Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire. Far more organic than the typical straight-sided octic athletic letters, Gabriello is slanted on two axes, both horizontally and vertically, giving the energy of a script without causing production problems for the shirts. The Bold weight was designed by Paul Barnes, and the family was later filled out to five weights by Miguel Reyes.

Neue Haas Grotesk Agate

The 2013 year end issue of Bloomberg Businessweek featured a long section of very dense spreads of hard data from various industries, showing a snapshot of the current state of many companies. Creative director Richard Turley commissioned an Agate version of Neue Haas Grotesk in a number of duplexed weights, to cram tons of information into this section. Compared to the existing Text version, which is drawn for use around 8pt to 12pt, the Agate, drawn for use at 4pt to 6pt, has a larger x-height, smaller cap height, looser spacing overall, and ink traps to counteract the effects of ink on paper, which has a dramatic effect on text set at such small sizes.

Duplex

Danish newspaper design specialists Ribergård + Munk commissioned a pair of headline typefaces from us as part of a sweeping overhaul of well over a dozen daily newspapers published throughout Sweden by MittMedia. Berton Hasebe designed Duplex Serif and Sans to solve a very specific problem for this newspaper group. A new format was being developed for all of their titles, to decrease ineffeciencies in production and to allow the different titles to more easily share a portion of their stories. However, as publishers of both upmarket and downmarket papers, the owners wanted to keep the general character of each paper intact: louder volume and more of a feeling of immediacy in the downmarket tabloids, and a quieter, more respectable tone of voice in the upmarket tabloids. The solution to this problem was a set of serif and sans serif typefaces with precisely the same spacing, so they could be swapped out to change the character of a page without affecting the copyfit. Duplex Sans is adapted from Guardian Sans Headline, and the Serif is influenced by the variations on Caslon that were popular for news headlines in the early 20th century.

Telesans

Compact humanist sans designed for the Daily Telegraph. The Agate is particularly useful. This family makes a very good companion to Austin News.

Schnyder Titling

Mixing different widths in a single headline was a signature of how Patrick Li and his team used Schnyder in T, the New York Times Style magazine between 2013 and 2019. Schnyder Titling was built to make it easier to implement this effect, with three widths of capitals combined into a single font and all kerned together. Uppercase is the widest proportion, lowercase the middle, and small caps the narrowest.

Pialat

Drawn by Berton Hasebe in 2012, this was the display face for a couple of years in T, the New York Times Style Magazine, commissioned by Chris Martinez, then later used by Triboro for Prince’s posthumous memoir The Beautiful Ones.

Oboi

Based loosely on stencil lettering on house number plates in St Petersburg, Russia, with lots of alternate forms. Drawn for Meirion Pritchard for a special issue of Wallpaper*.

Neue Haas Grotesk Stencil

This is a stencil version of the Regular weight of Neue Haas Grotesk, drawn for a sports issue of Bloomberg Businessweek in 2011, loosely inspired by the work of Lawrence Weiner (who despised Helvetica, as we found out the week after the issue came out).

Guardian Compact

Guardian Compact has shorter, simpler serifs and narrower, stiffer proportions than Guardian Egyptian Headine. People always seemed to like this compact, flat-sided variant of Guardian Egyptian, but we never got around to drawing italics and finishing it.

Caslon Dot

Very light dotted caps, loosely related to Caslon Doric.

Houston

A Venetian Oldstyle for news, drawn for Roger Black’s redesign of the Houston Chronicle in 2003. The basic structures are based on British Monotype's Italian Old Style, which was based on William Morris's Golden Type. The italic (particularly the alternate italic used in feature sections) also borrows from Nebiolo Jenson Oldstyle, and there is a influence from ATF Jenson Oldstyle in places as well. The Bold has much shorter serifs than the Roman, so it can be spaced tightly