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

Font Reviews 2024: LiebeHeide Fineliner

Designed by Ulrike Rausch
Available at I Love Typography, Fontstand, Fontspring, Creative Market
Font family: 5 weights. 5 static fonts + 1 variable font. The superfamily includes the color font LiebeHeide.

This font review was originally written in Spanish, the official language of 20 countries. English translation below.

Ulrike Rausch es una diseñadora especializada en fuentes de escritura manual que destacan por su autenticidad, logrando que realmente parezcan escritas a mano. Reside y trabaja en Berlín, Alemania, y ha coescrito los libros Making Fonts y Designing Fonts junto a Chris Campe. Su trayectoria en el mundo de la tipografía la ha llevado a colaborar con gigantes como Monotype, Jung von Matt, Adobe, Erik Spiekermann, Google y Apple, consolidándose como una referencia en la industria.

Continue reading

Font Reviews 2024: Yumex

Designed by DualType
Distributed by OhNo Type Co.
Font family: 2 subfamilies (Yumex + Yumex Script), 2 styles (roman + oblique), and 7 weights. 21 static fonts + 2 variable fonts

This font review was originally written in Spanish, the second most spoken native language in the world. English version of the review below.

La tipografía Yumex de DualType (Zrinka Buljubašić + Gen Ramirez) publicada por OhNo Type Co es uno de los proyectos más llamativos de 2024, a mi criterio. Destaca por su versatilidad y personalidad; que se nutre del legado Yu-Mex dando como resultado un proyecto meticuloso y sumamente bien ejecutado.

Continue reading

Font Reviews 2024: Sharf

Designed by Barbara Bigosińska
Distributed by Blast
Font family: 8 weights, 2 styles, and 2 sub-families. 32 static fonts + 2 variable fonts

This font review was originally written in Galician, the official language of Galicia, which has been spoken for over 2000 years and is now used by more than 2 million people. English translation below.

Sharf ve a luz en 2021 dende a incubadora de Future Fonts. Aquela versión 0.1 contaba xa con unha fonte variable, que permitía navegar o espazo de deseño entre os distintos pesos da tipografía. Nace con dous tamaños ópticos, cunha clara intencionalidade de uso en deseño editorial.

Continue reading

Multiscriptual Typesetting

image of globe showing north and south america


Last month I had the honor of creating the graphics for Designing without Borders, a three-part lecture series hosted by AIGA NY and the TDC. The design process was a collaboration between myself and the event organizers; Caspar Lam, Juan Villanueva, and Lynne Yun, which led to an ambitious undertaking of designing with a dozen languages. This experience was equally rewarding as it was challenging. It inspired me to continue pushing my understanding of typography by going beyond what is linguistically familiar. 

Continue reading

Branding and the Psychology of Handwriting: The new NIVEA Care Type

At Juliasys Studio we’ve been working for some time now on a digital handwriting style for the “NIVEA” brand of Beiersdorf AG. “NIVEA Care Type”, as we are calling the new OpenType font, is understood to be the imaginary handwriting of the NIVEA brand persona, the “NIVEA Woman”. Care Type on product packaging and in marketing material has the function to subtly present the NIVEA Woman personality in the look and feel of the brand. Care Type is to be used prominently but at the same time sparingly, “with caution”.

Figure 1: A century of typographical metamorphosis on the legendary NIVEA tin

Continue reading

Knile, a Contemporary Slab

It seems slab serif typefaces are taking over the market. In 1990, PMN Caecilia proved that it was possible create a slab with a more humanistic approach, a style that could work, not only as a display typeface, but for running text as well. In the last decade the diversity in slab designs has grown. The constructed shapes of the serifs adapt to the pixel grid, and they usually work well on screen. We have many different options for slab text typefaces. Some, like Ernestine, include several scripts, while others, like the recently released Equitan, are a part of large families. The rather squarish appearance of classic Egyptians, coexist today with more rounded lettershapes in new slab designs.

Knile is a newborn within the genre. It is a collaborative project with the Spanish design studio Atipo. The original idea was to create a slab counterpart for the existing typeface family Geomanist. Slab serifs are not just sans with added terminals; they have intrinsic design peculiarities. As far as we wanted the typeface to be functional as a text typeface, many changes were necessary and the design evolved into a typeface family with its own personality.

Printing tests made during the design process

Printing tests made during the design process

Continue reading