New Additions: January 2016
4th February 2016
We add hundreds of fonts to the Identifont database every month. Most of these are recent releases, and some are simply new acquisitions from foundries who were not yet represented on our site. Stephen Coles gives his take on the most interesting recent additions.
Joachim Müller-Lancé has a knack for paring established typeface styles down to their essential shapes. Nowhere is this more apparent than the Fleisch suite which capitalizes on the near modularity of Textura forms. Fleisch Wolf emphasizes the angularity of the style, with tapering crossbars and angled, descending terminals; while Fleisch Wurst reduces Blackletter even further. Despite these differences, they are clearly both built on the same grid. You can have fun with their twin nature by loading each Identifont page in a browser tab and switching rythmically between them: Fleisch Waltz!
When we unexpectedly lost influential Swedish designer Peter Bruhn in 2014 he was about to wrap up his latest project, an industrial sans serif inspired by his hometown harbor of Malmö. To tribute their friend and raise money for his family, Peter’s colleagues Rui Abreu and Göran Söderström completed the family. As the specimen site states, Bruhn Sans is more reserved than its author’s previous work, but Peter’s subtle warmth still shows in what is otherwise a machined design. It’s also a more sophisticated take on a kind of rectangular, engineered sans serif that has been done many times before but often without much nuance.
From the 1950s to the ’80s Filmotype produced hundreds of original typefaces for phototypesetting. After the dawn of computer, these fonts sat unused (besides a few mediocre digitizations) until Font Diner’s Stuart Sandler bought the collection and recruited a team of capable designers like Mark Simonson, Rian Hughes, and Patrick Griffin to create proper revivals. Filmotype Jupiter is very typical of the phototype company’s fare: a cheery script that emulates the handlettering of mid-century advertising and packaging. A broad character set, with stylistic alternates and ligatures, sets it apart from the early digital revivals of Filmotype/Alphatype fonts.
The prolific Dieter Hofrichter has already been featured three times on the Identifont Blog, but it’s been a few months because his recent releases trod much of the same ground as the ones that came before. Carnac is no different, as it is essentially his earlier Carnas with sharper corners and flat ends. This variation gives Carnac a cleaner, more versatile edge. It’s wide open forms and large weight range make it a functional family for a variety of contemporary uses.
I hate to mention Comic Sans because it’s such a lightning rod for easy jokes and defensive apologists, but I can’t help but notice that KunKun truly is a professional alternative to that infamous crutch for all things “fun”. The difference is that these letters actually appear to be written by a careful hand holding a speedball pen, rather than the awkward scrawlings of a child. Other traits that set KunKun apart are the stylistic alternates and the looping details created by a continuous stroke.
Like KunKun, this is another Indian Type Foundry release, but Weissenhof Grotesk was actually designed by a couple of Germans. And it is a very Teutonic fare indeed: a spare, rigid structure with modular curves inspired by the early modern architecture of Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart. The result is not unlike fellow Germanic geometrics DIN and Akkurat, but has unique details of its own, such as the flat segments, blunt corners, and vertical ear on the ‘g’.
Many fonts try to simulate a brush, but few capture the unevenness of a rushed but experienced pro. Quotes Script and Quotes Caps do that better than most. Despite the looseness and roughness that gives these faces their authenticity, they are quite legible and usable. Sharing the same stroke weight and contrast they can work comfortably together without competing. I also really appreciate the restraint of designers Yani Arabena, Guille Vizzari, and Alejandro Paul: while there are a variety of ligs ’n’ alts to keep things fresh and natural, these fonts aren’t mired in a swamp of swashes.