The latest addition to our type library is a typeface conceived and developed in Mexico that delves into a style little explored in contemporary type design. With both a historical and innovative approach, Gorgias seeks to revitalize the blackletter tradition through a sophisticated and functional interpretation that, made with great passion for detail, results in a renewed and versatile version of the Fraktur style, and in turn in one of the most complete proposals of the genre in today’s type scene. This text traces the foundations and motivations in the design process of Gorgias, explores its formal and functional aspects and highlights its potential to enrich projects with an evocative and dynamic visual aesthetic.  Read

Second and final installment of Tere Schultz’s text on Tuscan letters. Those decorative objects, delicate or extravagant, that inhabit the streets and typographic catalogues of all times, without losing an iota of expressive force. The product of ornamental ingenuity, Tuscan vernaculars dress the street signs of Mexico as much as the stained glass windows of Paris, the ‘fileteados porteños’ of Buenos Aires or the hulls of fishing boats in the Amazon waters. Against this notorious and implausible decorative ubiquity, which alarms many, in the first part of this article Schultz unfolded, like a healing balm, his hypothesis of how the Tuscan style would have been born of a mischievous interpretation of the inscriptions on stone. In this second chapter, it only remains to delight us with some examples of Tuscan vernaculars from some corners of the world.  Read

Tere Schultz delivers a new literary and typographic divertimento for passionate readers. This time she follows one of her personal fixations: the Tuscan letters. Those ornamental objects, delicate or extravagant, that inhabit streets and typographic catalogs of all times, without losing an iota of expressive force. The product of decorative ingenuity, Tuscan vernaculars dress the street signs of Mexico as much as the stained glass windows of Paris, the ‘fileteado porteño’ of Buenos Aires signs or the hulls of fishing boats in the Amazon waters. However, this decorative ubiquity, notorious and implausible, alarms many. Fortunately, like a healing balm, Schultz will deploy here her original hypothesis, suspiciously unexplored, of how the Tuscan style would have been born from a mischievous interpretation of the stone inscriptions (wrongly) called lapidary. Although perhaps here the term ‘lapidary’ is appropriate, since the idea caught the author strolling through a cemetery. (Warning: sensitive material. Agnostic typographers and designers of little faith, please refrain).  Read

Francis Ramel, member of Nouvelle étiquette, French graphic design bureau based in Metz and in Strasbourg, portrays the challenges and unfolds the design process of this singular project: the design of a bespoke typeface family to be used for the identity and signage system of the cathedral Saint-Étienne de Metz (FR), which turns 800 years old in 2020. This challenging type design task was undertaken jointly by Nouvelle étiquette and the PampaType foundry, which has been a privileged partner of the studio for years.  Read