Fonts in Focus, December 2005

Beluga™ is a part of the TakeType Library, winners of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contest. The font was designed by Hans-Jürgen Ellenberger to suggest the writing of the Middle Ages but without any specific models from that time. A distinguishing characteristic of the font is its pointed, effusive serifs, which give Beluga its feel of the Middle Ages or of mysticism. In spite of its dynamic character, Beluga is legible even in smaller point sizes, which makes it equally good for headlines as for shorter texts. Beluga combines well with sans serif, slab serif and constructed fonts.

The Bousni family’s six faces display links unexpected by most readers of western alphabets. Inspired by both by Arabic calligraphy, and contemporary bitmap design, Bachir Soussi Chiadmi created this playful series of faces. Letters in each of the six typefaces link together, but not in the ways normally expected from script fonts. Suited for a wide array of fun functions, Bousni Carre and Bousni Ronde (each available in Light, Medium, and Bold weights) bring new a style and flavor to your collection. All six fonts in the Bousni family are included in Linotype’s Take Type 5 collection.

John Handy™ is the work of British designer Timothy Donaldson and based on his own handwriting. Part of the ongoing trend for casual letterforms in display typography, John Handy is an excellent choice for letters, greeting cards, menus, wherever an elegant yet personal look is desired.

Linotype Kaliber™ is a slightly condensed, geometrically constructed sans serif face that was designed by Lutz Baar in 1999. The font’s design offers a high-tech, futuristic feeling, which is the perfect mood for parties and science fiction events alike.

Merlin™ is part of the Take Type Library, which features the winners of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contest from 1994 to 1997. This font was designed by Anne Boskamp and its alphabet consists exclusively of capital letters. At the same time aggressive and sensitive, Merlin looks as though it were scratched onto paper with a pen tip saturated with ink. Like characters from another time, the letters fall into place and make an impression which is both vulnerable and strong, lively and reserved. Merlin’s historical roots lie in the archaic pictograms in the caves of Stone Age civilizations.

Ned™ is part of a series of typographic experiments from the young Swiss designer Michael Parson. Using a wide, horizontal hexagonal grid, Parson created the system of letters that make up this font. Text set in Ned Regular takes on a modular, honeycomb-like appearance. For an interesting effect, try overlapping individual letters, or use a few letters together as elements in a logo.

Richard Yeend’s Neuseidler™ is a superb addition to the Linotype Library, combining historical forms with practical, digital use.
Neusiedler Antiqua’s letters are each drawn with a single, mono-weight line, which is rounded at its ends. The overall forms of the letters are geometric and relatively rectilinear. The family’s three weights, Neuseidler Antiqua Regular, Neuseidler Antiqua Bold, and Neuseidler Antiqua Heavy each have supplementary Alternate fonts available for purchase. Each of these three fonts contain extra ligatures, swash capitals, and special decorative letters for use in conjunction with their respective fonts. Using the Neuseidler Antiqua together with its Alternates offers additional typographic choices that are not available in many other fonts modeled after the art nouveau style. Neuseidler Antiqua’s weights ship in OpenType format, and incorporate old style figures.

Adrian Frutiger created Ondine™ in 1954, a script face reminiscent of gothic cursive writing from the middle ages. Frutiger understood historic letterforms well; as a student he’d made a series of prize-winning woodcuts showing the development of the western alphabet. As part of the design process for Ondine, Frutiger actually used scissors to cut the forms out of a piece of black paper, a technique that requires the vision and skill of an artist to exploit its apparent simplicity. Ondine was a sea nymph from Nordic mythology. Like her namesake, Ondine the typeface has gently swelling main strokes, sharp terminals, un-closed bowls in round letters, and the illusion of a very slight backslant. This font is sometimes used to give an air of Arabian exoticism, but Ondine works well for any display typography usage. Try it in point sizes of 12 and larger for book titles, advertising, or signage.

Linotype Projekt™ was created by German type designer Andreas Koch with both a well-defined inspiration and goal. "It occurred to me that typefaces like Helvetica and Univers seemed to have a higher quality in hot-metal composition as with modern digital typesetting. They are stronger and livelier. This is in part due to the printing process, which presses the characters onto paper, and in part to the forms of the letters, which differ from the PostScript version of the same typeface. An important aspect of printing is the slight increase in character width resulting from the pressure which also serves as an optical correction to the forms. (True exact squares appear slightly barrel-formed to the eye.) I wanted to revive this peculiarity, not because of a nostalgic feeling, rather just because it is more attractive." The result is Linotype Projekt, a text font which is harmonious, clear and extremely legible. Koch lives in Bielefeld, Germany, and is a freelance book and type designer.

Quadrus is the work of New York graphic designer Peter Fahrni, a condensed open slab serif typeface. Fahrni was inspired by the lettering styles typical of baseball, basketball and American football sportswear. Quadrus is an all caps alphabet ideal for a variety of applications, particularly for those related to sports.

Rockner™ is a family of fraktur typefaces designed by the calligrapher/designer Julius de Goede. Like all Blackletter styles, fraktur evolved out of Northern Europe’s medieval manuscript tradition. Unlike many similar fraktur font families, Rockner is available in three weights: Regular, Medium, and Bold. This flexibility allows for richer design possibilities.
Each of Rockner’s weights also has an accompanying DFR font available. These fonts contain the many alternate characters, such as the long s and historical ligatures, which are often necessary for the setting of historical documents.

Scruff™ was designed by Timothy Donaldsonin 1995. This cheerful, laid-back font is made out of a variety of different fragments - stripes, dots, zigzags and more, giving each character its own identity. When brought together into words and sentences, the figures create a playful chaos like that of a patchwork quilt. To bring out its individual details, Scruff is best used in headlines in larger point sizes or as initials.

Designer Alessio Leonardi created F2F Simbolico™ in 1994. This collection of ruggedly drawn symbol fonts is meant to bring a smile to the readers face. Hearts, candles, bombs, and peace signs are just some of the great symbols you’ll find in F2F Simbolico.

The Chrysler Building’s decorative motif acted as the formal language that inspired Oliver Brentzel´s Linotype Spitz™ typeface. Linotype Spitz is a combination of pointed and semicircular elements that develop their own aesthetic value in their interplay. Neither the Chrysler Building nor the Linotype Spitz is designed on the basis of geometric rules; they both take account of optical phenomena in their design. Linotype Spitz is characterized by its elegant appearance, due to its exceptionally fine and pointed design. The font is ideal for posters and advertising.

Designer Vladimir Andrevich created the font Vladimir Script in 1995. Vladimir Script is a brush-style font, similar to the kind of lettering found on old hand-painted department store signs during the 1950s. The letters have a steep slant, and the uppercase letters and the numbers are rather informal. Many of the letters’ strokes end in looped terminals, some with dynamic amounts of contrast. Vladimir Script is best used in larger point sizes, where its subtle details can dance across the page. The typeface looks fabulous on signs and cards.