Vere Dignum is a courageous collection of six alphabets, compiled into a family of three typefaces. The family seems to have been influenced by many wide ranging sources, including modernist geometric sans serifs (i.e.,
Erbar, Avenir, and
ITC Avant Garde Gothic, classical monumental lettering, art nouveau, and art deco. The first of the three fonts,
Vere Dignum Regular, contains two different interpretations of the alphabet. Both of them display uppercase letters only. When one types with "lowercase" letters on the keyboard, letters appear in various different sizes relative to each other. Typing with the "uppercase" keys on the keyboard brings a different alphabet style, but in this one, all of the letters have the same height - it is their widths that vary. C, D, G, O, and Q are much wider than the other letters. Vere Dignum Regular contains a complete character set.
Similarly,
Vere Dignum Alternates contains another two alphabets. Many of these letters are very different from those in Vere Dignum Regular. These letters may all be used in combination with one another to create crazy lines of display text!
Vere Dignum Decorative contains the last two alphabets of this series. As their name implies, these alphabets are significantly more "decorative" than their two counterparts. They are rounder and more curvilinear.
All three fonts in the Vere Dignum family consist of letters that are drawn with almost mono-weight lines. Text set in Vere Dignum appears very light, as these lines are thin. Vere Dignum is best in for larger point sizes, but its display purposes need not be "dignified." A funky or fresh setting would be just as appropriate. The Vere Dignum family was designed in 2002 by the British graphic designer Phil Baines, and all three of its fonts are part of the
Take Type 5 collection, from Linotype GmbH.
