Identifont

New Additions: July 2018

24th August 2018

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.

BF Bonn Light

BF Bonn Bold

BF Bonn Black

Neville Brody is best known as an art director, but he has designed several typefaces since the 1980s – FF Blur, Industria, and Insignia being the most widely known and used. In the last 20 years he has focussed his fontmaking on client work, creating type for major brands like Channel 4 and Coca-Cola. Brody returned to the retail font market in June when Type Network announced that the designer has signed on, making them the exclusive dealer of type from the new Brody Fonts label. Two families were released. BF Bonn is a return to Brody’s early-’90s custom type for the Bundeskunsthalle museum in Germany. Font Bureau’s David Jonathon Ross helped shape Brody’s rigid geometry into a very workable and attractive set of eight weights. BF Bonn’s circular shapes and pointed apexes (even in the Black) will surely win it some fans.

BF Buffalo Thin

BF Buffalo

BF Buffalo Black

Brody Fonts also debuted with BF Buffalo, a much more adventurous design. It has a sort of retro sci-fi or techno-punk aesthetic, but has some sophisticated and novel features that push it away from simple nostalgia. The inside curves, for instance, convert to angular corners in the heavy weights of the family, giving each style a distinctive flavor. A wide range of alternate glyphs lets the user switch between modular and typographic shapes.

Wildberry

North American hikers and campers will likely recognize Wildberry’s lettershapes at first glance. The typeface is derived from the “WILDERNESS” lettering found on wooden U.S. National Wilderness signs. I’m one of those outdoor enthusiasts who has always wanted to see this jolly style in a font. Thanks to Scribble Tone, now we can have it. And because Wildberry is on the new Future Fonts platform it is available it its “pre-release” form at a low entry price. Early adopters can join this trail type near the beginning of its journey and follow along as the font improves and expands. In fact, Version 0.2, with expanded language support, was just released earlier this week.

FS Berwick

FS Century

FS Charity

FS St James

Lost and Foundry is another project based on sign lettering. In this case, the site is the Soho neighborhood of London, and the source materials range from wood to stone to tile. The set of seven fonts is part of a campaign to benefit the homeless charity House of St Barnabas. All of the typefaces are full of historical character, but the most interesting story and shapes are found in FS Charity. The uppercase letters are based on misplaced ceramic tiles from The House itself, resulting in very peculiar forms. The resolved design can be found in the lowercase slots.

Crisol Xx Condensed

Crisol Condensed

Crisol

For nearly a century, Paul Renner’s Futura Black has been one of the most popular stencil typefaces. Mário Feliciano’s new Crisol offers five widths to a genre that is typically only available in a single style. So, while the widest variant is quite similar to Futura Black (and Braggadocio, another modular stencil of the same period), the Condensed styles are in a league of their own. Crisol also differs in that its terminals are nearly all triangular, rather than the mix of triangles and circles found in its forebears. This allows for the very packed confines of the Xxx Condensed.

By Stephen Coles