New Additions: August 2025
30th August 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:
Paulo Goode – Diabolique (Paulo Goode)
Diabolique is an elegant decorative typeface in six weights and two widths, reminiscent of ITC Tiffany. Is it a revival, or just inspired by it?
Inspiration for my work often relies on a period of reminiscing and going over experiences that shaped me as a person. I was one of many British kids that grew up in the seventies and eighties watching late-night horror movies that were shown on TV every Friday. These were mainly Hammer releases with a few sprinkles from studios such as Amicus and Tigon, plus a few Euro Horror treats along the way too. So, to honour my well-spent youth, the idea evolved of creating a horror-specific typeface, and while researching and re-watching films from that era I came across the 1980 TV series “Hammer House of Horror”. Its title graphic was perfect; classical, elegant, yet sharp, edgy, and with a healthy dose of nastiness. This was a modified version of ITC Tiffany, so this became an integral influence for what would become Diabolique.
The other influences were my own previous works – Eschaton, and to a lesser extent, Harmonique. Feedback from customers regarding Eschaton has been extremely positive. One comment was that they likened the sharpness of its serifs to that of razor blades, and that if you were to pick each glyph up you would have to handle with extreme care for fear of slicing your fingers to shreds. I really liked that image and it became something to aim for with Diabolique.
Compared to ITC Tiffany an obvious difference is that Diabolique is narrower (compare Diabolique and ITC Tiffany). I’ve noticed a similar trend with some other designs inspired by classic fonts; do you think there’s a preference for narrower fonts at present?
It’s not something I have noticed; I never seem to be any good at spotting or following trends. If there is such a trend then perhaps it is to fit more comfortably on phone screens? Smartphones do seem to be the most attention-demanding devices and the dominant message delivery channel these days. Everyone seems to have their head bowed down to one.
If Diabolique appears narrower than ITC Tiffany, then that is down to how my initial sketches were formed on the page. I wasn’t actually attempting to mimic Tiffany’s proportions and metrics; I only had it in mind as an influence. The process of taking my sketches from paper to screen tightens up the looseness and, over time, the balance of proportions became aesthetically pleasing with the final fonts you see now. While being naturally compact, I still felt that a condensed version was required in order to echo the mood of the Hammer House of Horror titling.
Diabolique retains most of ITC Tiffany’s decorations, such as the right-facing spurs on the ‘V’, ‘W’, ‘v’, ‘w’, and ‘y’. However, you’ve chosen more conventional designs for the ‘J’, ‘Q’, and ‘e’. Why did you decide on this?
I think that this is just down to my own natural drawing style taking priority over what Ed Benguiat felt was best for Tiffany. It can be further attributed to my sketching process, which is inspired by Erik Spiekermann’s technique of drawing your own version of established fonts from memory. In Diabolique’s case I recalled the aggressive spurs that make Tiffany so distinctive (and, to my knowledge, not used in other typefaces since) but found myself moving toward more conservative shapes elsewhere that reflect what I did with Eschaton. For me, Benguiat’s lowercase ‘e’ is like a hiccup in the rhythm of the text – granted, it is unsettling – but not in the way I was trying to achieve from a horror perspective. As an aside, I did explore replicating Tiffany’s ‘Q’ and this is available as an alternate.
You haven’t included an italic with Diabolique. Is that something you might add in the future?
Diabolique is most definitely a display typeface, and with its incisive serifs, open proportions, and numerous alternates it is perfect for titles, branding, and headlines. If there is a demand for it, I will adjust the optics and create a version for text, which would include italics. I didn’t consider italics with this display set of fonts as I couldn’t foresee anyone requiring them. I felt that the Roman glyphs sat just right in whatever context. I put the time in to ensure that Diabolique was highly versatile with multiple weights, two widths, and numerous alternate glyphs so users had plenty of scope to be very creative with their typographic explorations.
Alexis Navarro – Marsella (Latinotype)
Marsella is a humanist sans serif in ten weights, from thin to poster; what inspired you to design it?
I have always sought to pay tribute to the works that inspire me. It was my first assignment when I joined the Latinotype team in 2024. I wanted to design a typeface with personality, blending the warmth of craftsmanship with the technical rigour of typography. In my process, I tend to wander a lot in the direction a type family might take, and after many revisions and creative meetings, the spirit of Marsella was consolidated. The project moved beyond the limitations of designing alone, something I had been doing for a couple of years, and became a much more collaborative, solid, and organic endeavor.
The closest font I can find to compare with Marsella is Roger Excoffon’s classic typeface Antique Olive (compare Marsella and Antique Olive); was that an influence on its design?
That was indeed the work that inspired me. It’s a sans serif with a lot of personality, and Roger Excoffon is one of my favorite authors. In my opinion, his work is less academic, more genuine and expressive; and that motivates me a lot. Without going into too much detail, the spirit of Antique Olive runs throughout the whole set of Marsella: you can see it in the contrast, the modulation of the glyphs, the skeleton, and in countless macro and micro decisions. It was both fun and rewarding to follow Roger’s path, study his work, and pay tribute to him without being left out of the final result.
Marsella is particularly distinctive in the Marsella Black and Marsella Poster weights, and the regular weight inherits some design features from these, such as the shapes of the ‘Q’, ‘Z’, ‘e’, and ‘&’. Did you design the heavier weights first and then derive the regular from them?
No, in fact I never thought of a poster weight. First, I designed the Master Regular and the Master Black. That (and many other things) came from teamwork; many minds thinking about a single project benefit and expand it. The poster weight was Daniel Hernández’s idea.
You’ve changed the shape of the ‘J’ and ‘Y’ in the Marsella Poster style. Why did you decide on that?
The idea of the poster weight was that it should have the minimum amount of white in its counterforms; that’s why some glyphs change structure, adopting one that benefits the texture and the main characteristic of Marsella’s poster weight.
Clément Le Tulle-Neyret – EB Reklame (Électro-bibliothèque)
EB Reklame is a revival of the 1905 Stephenson Blake typeface Windsor. What inspired you to embark on this project?
EB Reklame is what we can call an “homage revival” according to John Downer when he wrote Call It What It Is: “Loosely based on historical styles and/or specific models, usually with admiration and respect for the obvious merits of the antecedents—but with more artistic freedom to deviate from the originals and to add personal touches; taking liberties normally not taken with straight revivals.”
Windsor is a typeface that I have admired for long time but always found difficult to use because it looks like a contradiction. On the one hand its letters are blobby, fat, and soft. On the other hand some letters like ‘T’, ‘E’, and ‘S’ have this kind of spiky serifs that seems at the opposite. I wanted to embrace this more agressive particularity for EB Reklame without losing Windsor’s personality.
Comparing EB Reklame and Windsor side by side, EB Reklame looks more refined (compare EB Reklame Semi Bold and Windsor Bold). Was that your aim in redrawing it?
A few key ideas underpinned EB Reklame's thinking. The first was to take a fresh, contemporary look at Windsor and, in a sense, dust off the Windsor letters. The second idea was to expand the Windsor character set to make it easier to use (superscripts, subscripts, etc.). Finally, the idea was to make EB Reklame usable for others kinds of texts besides headlines, which Windsor was mainly made for.
You’ve quoted Matthew Carter as saying that “discipline in type design consists in part of modifying letters that we don’t like”. Were there particular letters in Windsor that you didn’t like?
No, there is no letter in Windsor that I dislike. On the contrary, I find this typeface extremely attractive, but I think it needs to be reworked so that its shapes can be adapted to current uses.
I find letter design extremely delicate, as it involves satisfying the need for legibility, while at the same time drawing new shapes that have not been done before. The legibility is in fact an extremely conventional task that the eye and brain perform without us even realising it. I therefore find it difficult to create letters per se.
Quoting Matthew Carter, I would emphasise that type design can simply come from the desire to modify an existing typeface to make it more effective for certain uses, or simply from the desire to deliver a different version that is more suited to one's own tastes. This is why I am interested in the practice of revival, as seen in my first typeface, Immortel.
When I think about the practice of type design, I often think of type designer Frederic Goudy, who wrote “The old guys stole our best ideas”.
You’ve included more conventional versions of some letters in an OpenType Stylistic Set; for example, straighter versions of the ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘h’, ‘o’, ‘m’, and ’n’. What was your thinking behind this?
The exuberant and decorative shapes of Windsor make it difficult to use it for long texts, even though it is not its primary purpose. Nevertheless, these same shapes give personality to the text. I therefore wondered how to make EB Reklame usable in both large and small sizes. Fortunately, the German foundry Bauer released the Marocco typeface around 1907, a copy of Windsor with the straightened letters you mentioned. By redesigning them and adding them to the EB Reklame character set, it is possible to compose long texts without sacrificing legibility and giving them a bit of personality.
With this in mind, I decided to add small capitals and oldstyle figures in order to enable the proper composition of long texts.
Tom Chalky – Elderwick (Tom Chalky)
Elderwick is a serif typeface with a hand-drawn corroded or chiselled appearance. What inspired you to design it?
I was curating a Halloween & Dark Academia collection for my company, Century Library, and the idea for a typeface that fitted that vibe came pretty naturally. Halloween fonts often lean into clichés: dripping blood, scratchy lines, splatters, that sort of thing. I wanted something more refined, subtle, and versatile. A typeface that designers could actually use in real projects without it feeling cheap or gimmicky.
The ‘Q’ in Elderwick is unusual in that the tail appears to lie behind the ‘O’. I haven’t seen that in a typeface before; what gave you the idea?
I'd be lying if I said that detail was originally mine; it was inspired by a type specimen I came across in an early 1900s design catalogue. When I first saw it, I thought the same as you. I loved it instantly.
The accompanying Elderwick Symbol font features symbols associated with black magic, witchcraft, and the occult. Did you have mystical products, books, and websites in mind as an application when you designed Elderwick?
Fantasy novels were the biggest influence. Think ACOTAR (A Court of Thorns and Roses), Throne of Glass, Fourth Wing, etc. That genre was my guiding light when creating the symbols, and I’d love to see them used within books of that calibre!
The symbols were drawn to pair specifically with Elderwick’s bold and regular weights. Their hand-drawn style fits seamlessly alongside the typeface, and I’m really pleased with how naturally they work together.