Type Gallery – Arsis
Font Designer: Gerry Powell, 1938
The extremely extra-condensed headline font, Arsis® was designed by Gerry Powell in 1938 for the Dutch type foundry, Lettergieterei Amsterdam. With its huge contrast in stroke width, Arsis reminds one of the poster versions of neo-classical Antiqua fonts, such as the Bodoni font. The character of Arsis is formed by both the condensed letters, the enormous x-height and at the same time very short crossbars, as well as the very fine, almost linear serifs. The very strong stems and the inner shapes with the verticals running nearly parallel give the font a slightly constructed, cut and dried character. This formal aura is principally broken up by almost round points over i and j and drops in a and f, for example. In a second font style, the Arsis Italic, clearly slanted letters are available.
The skilled combination of historic roots and a slightly technical, modern character give Arsis a timeless elegance, coloured with restrained retro flair. Use Arsis especially in large font sizes, for example, for captions or magazine titles.
