Read the book, Typographic Firsts

I’ve forever fancied fat faces. And not just for the alliteration. And I’ve found the perfect weight in a comparatively new design with vintage flavor: the revival of Ege Basalt family featuring five fonts (Bold, ExtraBold, Heavy, Medium, and Regular) in a “Cubist Bold” art deco-inspired sans serif. Not only […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

The legendary type designer Adrian Frutiger once described an epiphany he had: “When I put my pen to a blank sheet, black isn’t added, but rather the white sheet is deprived of light. […] Thus, I also grasped that the empty spaces are the most important aspect of a typeface.” […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

Massimo Vignelli was canonically adamant that a contemporary designer only requires a handful of typefaces and should “trash the rest.” He was talking about five to be exact: Helvetica, Bodoni, Futura, Century Expanded, and Times New Roman. He was right for his times, but styles and customs have changed, and […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

I once taught a research/writing class called “No Google” that lasted until it dawned on me that “Google” was indeed the research tool for the 21st century. The realization came when, for an article I was writing about water balloons — yes, you read that right, water balloons — and […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

“Brutal” is such a nasty, albeit seductive, word. A quick visit to my desktop Oxford dictionary confirms that the adjective “brutal” is, etymologically speaking, derived from a corruption of the name Brutus, the Roman immortalized as Julius Caesar’s infamous assassin (tip of the hat to William Shakespeare). “Brutal” in current […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

Welcome to another edition of Fonts in Focus, our under-500-word reviews of great typefaces. Today, we focus on a recent release from Kostas Bartsokas of Foundry5. Evert is a large, thoroughly modern sans serif family that has been designed with a lot of thought to the details. It draws inspiration […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

Welcome to the debut issue of Font Faces: the people behind the type. We ask type designers from around the globe the same five core questions (plus some potential follow-up or topical questions) and thus gain some insights into their working practices, their personalities and what makes them tick. Nick […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

Sometimes I get a hankering to see someone use a good old Blackletter, spikey Fraktur, or rounded Textura that transports me back to medieval Europe when a printer’s digital handiwork was created with ten fingers. That Blackletter was anathema to the later movements of Modern European designers and typographers, so […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

While trawling ILT for this month’s highlighted typeface, I was struck immediately by the elastic quality and irregular kinetic form of Art Grootfontein’s 2025 Gilway Paradox. The paradox is that it is not a beautiful nor an ugly face but a somewhat awkward one that excites something deep inside, reminding me of times of […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

Slip cover, dust cover, or dust jacket — whatever you call it, and whether you’re the type to trash or treasure them — have you ever wondered what purpose they serve and when they were invented? In Europe, the first printed books were typically sold without covers! Printers were not also […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

What typographers and designers want most in a font is a family that, under the right conditions, exudes a familiar yet distinctive voice. As I was scrolling around for this month’s selection, I found just that very face. It is a distinctive yet suggestive legacy with a “feeling” that is […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

I have often heard type designers talk about the many years they spend developing a typeface. I would listen with awe and think, “That must have been a real challenge. It must be exquisitely crafted and probably a little bit groundbreaking too.” So it feels slightly absurd to admit that […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

In global branding and design, typography drives consumer perception and commercial success. This idea sits at the heart of the Type Directors Club (TDC) Type Drives Commerce conference on March 13, at Fordham University, Lincoln Center in New York City. As part of the world’s leading typography organization, the conference is a curated exploration […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

Slab serifs, which are frequently featured in old wood type catalogs as among the most functional types, exude vintage qualities – even the new and revival faces resist being modernist. Infused with history, the slab cannot help but suggest the old West’s frontier clichés, for such ephemera as classic wanted […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

Velocity is an attention-grabbing all-caps sans serif with horizontally tight letterforms that prioritize compactness without feeling cramped. Its high degree of curvature and forward momentum make it ideal for branding and contemporary design, excelling when typeset large. With 12 stylistic sets and three sets of diacritics, Velocity easily adapts to […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

It is a treat to find a typeface that tastes as good as it looks. The Noeler family, designed in 2025 by Michael Rafailyk, a new novelty family that looks as eatable as it is settable – and its five iterations underscore this. Noeler Pasta is much like the comfort […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

When ancient Egyptians embalmed their dead, organs were removed from the body. The brain, considered useless, was disposed of, while the stomach, liver, intestines, and lungs were preserved separately in boxes or canopic jars. However, the heart, considered the seat of intelligence, was thought to be essential in the afterlife […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

How quickly a year passes. Our Must-Have Fonts for 2025 list was our most popular ever, but our must-have fonts for 2026 list aims to set the bar even higher. Finding the best typefaces among thousands can be pretty daunting! So, to make things easier, we’ve curated a list of outstanding must-have […]

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Read the book, Typographic Firsts

In my past Font of the Month columns, I admitted to extreme fixation for ‘stencilism’ and avaricious hoarding of stencil type and lettering specimens. There is a je ne sais quoi about them that, perhaps, reminds me of some primal life event. I don’t judge stencils on aesthetics per se […]

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