New Additions: May 2025
31st May 2025
From the hundreds of fonts we add to the Identifont database every month we chose a selection of the most interesting recent additions, and interviewed the designers about their approach to each design:
Hannes Famira – Apostil (Famira Fonts)
Apostil is a hand lettering typeface in three weights. Did you design it for a particular project?
I needed a typeface that would stylistically serve as captions for the sketches in my upcoming book "Mastering the Art of Drawing Type". I started adding handwritten notes to the illustrations but soon realized that it looked just a little too casual, a little too loose. So I wanted Apostil to harmonize with my hand-drawn sketches but still have the cadence and rigour of a typeface.
The style of lettering in Apostil is quite unusual. What inspired it, or is it based on your own handwriting?
I started from letterforms with italic construction that were hand written, but deliberately rather than following my natural handwriting. Once I had uncovered how the details needed to be treated in the digitization, to effectively evoke the texture of strokes that come out of a felt tip pen, I did not really need my sketches any more. The letterforms just grew one out of the other.
How to you proceed to design an entire character set with a consistent style?
I usually begin with the control characters ‘o’ and ‘n’ for the lowercase, and ‘H’ and ‘O’ for the uppercase. These letters address a number of issues that can be adopted for the rest of the character set. Once I’ve established the control characters I know what serifs, round-sided, and straight-sided characters should look like; the right side of the ‘n’ combines those two qualities.
The italic lowercase ‘n’ can be turned upside down, get outfitted with a little roof that covers its aperture, and in that way serve as an ‘a’. Once we have that ‘a’ the ‘d’ is easy; we just need to lengthen the stem into ascender space. One we have a ‘d’ the ‘p’, ‘q’, and ‘b’ are basically done. From the ‘n’ the ‘u’, ‘m’, ‘h’, ‘i’, and ‘l’ are implied in the same way.
The more you recycle, the more you reinforce the uniformity of the letterforms in a font. And that is what I was looking for: shapes that look like writing but uniformity that looks like type.
Mads Wildgaard – Tradition (Bold Decisions)
You’ve written that you digitised Tradition from designs by British artist Percy Delf Smith. When was the original typeface designed, and were you able to find original materials to work from?
The original plates seem to have been designed by Smith in the mid 1930’s but only compiled in 1946 in a book (Civic and Memorial Lettering, Smith, Percy J. Delf. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1946) two years prior to his death.
I designed this as a continuation of my 2015-released font, gc16. When I first started out as a self-taught designer, I didn’t feel like my skills were good enough to continue the legacy of Smith. Only last year did I look at the source material and deem that I was at a stage where I could translate it well. In the same vein, there was a sensitivity from his previous illustration work I wanted to be respectful about, in particular the series “The Dance of Death”.
The capitals are reminiscent of classic Roman capitals, such as in the 1998 Monotype font Classic Roman; was Percy Delf Smith influenced by this style?
Most likely yes! He was of the early British school of calligraphy and inscription lettering, but Smith differed from many of his colleagues by writing several books on the matter poetically and factually.
The Italic is unusual in that the descenders of characters such as ‘g’, ‘p’, and ‘q’ are far longer than in the Regular. What was the thinking behind this?
This is a very classic ‘flourish’ trait in calligraphy where the extremas are, let's put it simply, more extreme, for the sake of beauty. So far, it hasn’t created big issues on customers' computers, but let’s see down the line.
Do you have any plans to extend Tradition with additional weights or widths?
Not at the moment. With source matter as sensitive as this, I prefer to let it stay as it is and not touch it out of respect. There’s a chance, of course, that I one day would decide to create a font, carefully inspired by his legacy.
Kasper Pyndt Rasmussen – AT Stick (Approximate Type)
No need to ask you what AT Stick is inspired by because the name says it all! What gave you the idea of designing it?
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure where the idea originated. It probably started as a sketch that I found visually compelling. I just really like how the shapes, once vectorised, feel simultaneously digital and analogue. Geometric, yet organic.
In some other typefaces constructed from sticks, like David Sagorski’s Tag, there are no curves which gives a very different appearance. Did you decide against this from the outset?
From the beginning I’ve felt that incorporating curves adds a layer of nuance and complexity that I enjoy. The rounded elements evoke the flexibility of twigs used in things like wickerwork. They also soften the overall look, allowing the typeface to circumvent a purely primitive or mediaeval vibe. It becomes more versatile and open to interpretation.
In AT Stick the strokes are thinned where they cross, like ink traps. What’s the aim of this?
Those thinned intersections are a nod to joinery – a visual reference to how wooden elements might be bound together – reminiscent of dream catchers and certain styles of furniture. On a small scale, these junctions give the font texture and, for me, they’re what make it feel fresh and distinctive.
AT Stick seems like a fun font for children’s books and products; did you have any other applications in mind?
Interestingly, it’s already been used in contexts as different as architectural projects and a graphic novel about a dog – not quite a children’s book, but not far off either! These examples pretty much sum up how I imagine the typeface being used. That said, I rarely design with a specific application in mind. I prefer to create typefaces that invite interpretation.
My office-mate Peter once described it as “a font for boy/girl scouts”. I don’t disagree. If I ever had to build a bonfire out of a typeface, it’d be AT Stick.
Victoria Strukovskaya – Folk Heritage (Struvictory Art)
Folk Heritage and its accompanying symbol font follow in the style of other typefaces you have published with elaborately decorated characters, such as Tabu Decorative and Nordic Tale Decorative. What gave you the idea for this design?
Thank you for the opportunity to share a bit about this typeface. With Folk Heritage I wanted to revisit the hygge aesthetic from a more grown-up perspective. Compared to Nordic Tale, this design feels more simplified and geometric, but still carries a sense of warmth and craft.
I was inspired by winter, folk ornamentation, and the atmosphere of Northern heritage. It was also a chance to explore how this kind of authentic, decorative style resonates in a contemporary context. I believe that this style isn’t as prominent or trendy as it was a few years ago, as it’s gradually been replaced by freer, more fluid forms.
For Folk Heritage did you work from your imagination, or did you use any particular sources of folk art for inspiration?
I always try to stylize and simplify forms rather than directly quote specific folk art traditions. For me, it’s more important to convey a certain mood or atmosphere than to replicate exact motifs. This approach allows the typeface to feel inspired by folk culture without being tied too closely to one region or style, which in turn makes it more versatile for various creative projects.
One feature of Folk Heritage I find particularly effective is the interplay between positive and negative in characters such as the ‘M’, ‘N’, ‘U’, ‘W’, ‘X’, and ‘Y’. What inspired this aspect of the design?
I appreciate your attention to that detail! In Folk Heritage I approached negative space a bit differently. The letters you mentioned are recognizable by their outer silhouette. I kept the outlines intact and focused the decorative work inside. The typeface feels cut-out and handcrafted – evoking wood carving and stencilling, with intricate, tactile patterns created by carefully carving or cutting shapes.