Event: TYPO BERLIN // Season Font: LFT ETICA //

issue #01  summer 2010

A type face: JOS BUIVENGA // Project: FLAMINIA //
Report: MECHANISMS FOR READING //

Mrs Eaves Just Ligatures

Fonts used: Auto 2 & 3 (Underware, 2004)
Calluna (exljibris, 2009)

Page size: mm 210 x 254

Grid System: 10 columns, 12 pt gutter

52 rows, 12 pt leading
 Editorial
Until we meet again
Issue n°1
Welcome on Ligatures. What you have in your hands is a
journal of typography about typography. As you may have
already noticed, this is a magazine with a double reading:
Contextual and Discretionary.
We want to clarify this crucial point. The magazine’s soul is
the typeface. All the people who turn these pages are some-
how tied to the world of typography. Some for work, some
for dedication and some just out for curiosity. In this part
of the magazine, we wanted to put all our passion in the old
form of art called typography.
We will pursue our goal with the curiosity of a child, won-
dering what lies behind the winding of each glyph.
We’ll talk about some famous type projects, as “lft Etica”
by Leftloft, along with other works unknown to the major
public, like the “Flaminia” project by Andrea Bergamini; we
want to give space to famous and important designers as
Discretionary Ligatures
well as young talented students. Just one thing they must
have in common: the passion for their work as typeface
designers. Not only have we put together famous person-
alities of the field, but we also collected some interesting
news on events that are considered a must for professionals.
Typoberlin 2010 is an example: we were at the Festival of
German typography and we gathered some interesting
comments to open new horizons on the issues of type de-
sign. Always keeping an eye on new trends.
There will also be some case studies. A true highlight of this
issue is the report on the mechanisms of reading. As Bruce
Mau said, the work of a designer is made of 49% practical
skills and 51% curiosity and education.
But let’s not dwell too much upon this page.
Hopefully this is just the beginning of a long journey
through the rediscovery of typography.
Demetrio Stratos
1
INDEX Issue #1  Summer 2010
on cover: Mrs Eaves Just Ligatures, Zuzana Licko

Deep down in typo


event report

04 Typoberlin 14 mechanism
An inside view on the best festival of
typography, ready to satisfy your thirst
of reading
of news. It may seem old fashioned to talk about reading,
especially if we focus on continuous text: most of
the text we deal with every day doesn’t have
such a structure.

16 The eye in the process

of reading
Understand the structure behind the factors
and contexts that affect readability.

20 AsYmmetry
TYPO BERLIN Discover how our asymmetrical viewing field
influences our perception of reality.

2
 Projects

24 Flaminia Year 1, issue n#1 – Reg. trib. of Milano number 1537 of September 28, 2009
Responsible director Demetrio Stratos

The project is based on the thesis by Andrea

Bergamini, which reacts to the chaotic and Director Graphic & Art Direction
poorly executed road signs seen in Italy Demetrio Stratos Alessandro Dallafina
Valeria Farina
executive editor Andrea Gessa
Paul Di Anno
Infographics
Editorial Chief Alessandro Dallafina
Joe Strummer Valeria Farina

Editorial staff PHOTO EDITOR

A type face Dom Howard Gianluca Chilenzi

38 Jos Buivenga Chris Wolstenholme

Matthew Bellamy
Philip Morris
TYPOGRAPHY EDITOR
Stefano Meroni
The way Dutch typographer Jos Buivenga
Valeria Farina
rose to prominence on the type scene is quite Andrea Gessa Contributors
remarkable; his best project? Museo! Andrea Bergamini
Photographic Research Giò Fuga
Giorgio Canali Big Lebowski
Aegir Hallmundur
Office Manager Andrea Braccaloni
Lita Ford Jos Buivenga

A font for every season

49 LFT Etica
LFT Etica, the moralist typefamily
by LeftLoft. A tasty sans serif with
tons of alternates. management Contacts
via Stradivari 8 – 20149 MI via Stradivari 8 – 20149 MI
Phone: +39 02.2233456 Phone: +39 02.2233456
managemet@ligatures.com info@ligatures.com
www.ligatures.com/mgm www.ligatures.com

printer distribution
Magazeen Print s.r.l Hatzeel
62 The Glyph Jackson street 8 – 20149 GB Unliever street 28 – 20344 GB
Phone: +31 0223.2233456 Phone: +31 0223.2233456

Discretionary Ligatures 3
 The Germans say that you have to be on fire yourself
to light one. Bringing passion to the job is the key
to success. Passion gives us the power to act.
It is the foundation of change and success.

4 Event Report
 TYPO BERLIN

↑ Typoberlin Logo
This is the “Passion Logo” that
reveal all the passion for typography

Discretionary Ligatures 5
The Future of Reading
Berlin, May 20, 2010. The 15th annual design conference
TYPO Berlin, with this year’s theme “Passion”, looks at the
future of the written word. It’s a future destined to play out
not on paper, but onscreen. Mobile devices, Internet stan-
dards and dedicated web fonts are turning publishing and
Internet typography upside down.
Web fonts are digital typefaces developed and sold specifi-
cally for reading on the Internet or onscreen. Since last sum-
mer, there have been standards for these fonts supported by
all type manufacturers. The web browsers Mozilla, Google,
Microsoft and Opera can all display web fonts or have agreed
to support them.
This week, TYPO Berlin will be the focal point of new
graphic upheavals. In an echo of how desktop publishing
(dtp) revolutionised pre-print at the end of the 1980s, digital
communications are on the verge of a quantum leap. Who
is behind it? Apple? Google? TYPO programme director
Jürgen Siebert compares the situation today with that of 25
years ago by saying, “one company cannot start a revolution.
But when several players are all pulling in the same direc-
tion to fix a problem, the light turns green”. The “problem”
is the typographic barriers that existed on the Internet until
one year ago.
His own experiences lead FontShop founder and designer
Erik Spiekermann to agree: “When I bought my first Macin-
tosh at the beginning of 1985, my colleagues called me a trai-
tor and it a toy. A few years later, they were calling up to ask
for help because their typesetting shops were going out of
business”. These days, e-books and the iPad are criticised
for threatening printed books, magazines and newspapers.
But as Siebert says, “even today, a lot of people get more in-
formation from a screen than from printed materials. That
development will continue. Anyone who doesn’t get with
the programme is soon going to lose readers”.
Now designers and their clients have to embrace the new
situation with passion and use it to their advantage. At the
moment, that means trying things out, playing around and
learning in leaps and bounds. And where better to do that
than at TYPO Berlin, where this year once again, the best
and most progressive minds in the world of typography will
meet.
let’s celebrate passion!

More than 50 international experts in design, the graphic

arts, the web and art delivered presentations at Europe’s
largest design conference. The professionals took the con-
ference motto »PASSION« to heart. At TYPO Berlin 2010,
they demonstrated how simple to achieve success can be if
you trust yourself and follow your passions. Berlin’s House of
World Cultures welcomed more than 1200 visitors between
May 20 and 22, 2010.

The opening speaker was Bremen-based Internet philoso-

pher Peter Kruse, who recently received a storm of applause
at the re:publica 2010. American typographer and designer
David Carson was also among the speakers. An expert web
surfer even as a teenager, he made a name for himself de-
spite the lack of formal training. With groundbreaking work
for Levis, Nike and the music magazine Ray Gun, the self-
taught designer has become a graphic design legend. Also in
the mix were Berlin media designer Joachim Sauter, graffiti
legend Niels Shoe Meulman, Erik Kessels of KesselsKramer,
the ad agency famous for its subtle humour, design strate-
gist and musician Candy Chang and YouTube phenomenon
Julian Smith. His self-produced videos quickly made Smith a
darling of the US media, with “25 Things I Hate About Face-
book” alone getting 1.6 million hits on YouTube so far.

7
 The speakers

Jonathan Barnbrook Erwin K. Bauer David Berman Hartmut Bohnacker Veronika Burian

David Carson Candy Chang Jan Chipchase Malte Christensen Christoph Dunst

Andreas Frolhoff Ivo Gabrowitsch Daniel Gjøde Ralf Hermann Fons Hickmann

Richard Kegler Rob Keller King Bansah Eike König Peter Kruse

8 Event Report
Julia Laub Alessio Leonardi Wolf Lindau Martin Majoor Laura Meseguer

Niels “shoe” Meulman Jan Middendorp Sébastien Morlighem Yves Peters Oliver Reichenstein

Dan Reynolds Joachim Sauter Frank Schomburg Piet Schreuders Carlos Segura

Julian Smith Erik Spiekermann Torsten Stapelkamp Andrea Tinnes Bastian Unterberg

Erik Van Blokland Paul Van Der Laan Thilo Von Debschitz Yanone

Discretionary Ligatures 9
 -----------

10 Event Report
 carlos segura

Carlos Segura presented his lecture on the topic: (My) Type

of Life and told about his first youth. He was the drummer in
a band, but to the tour driver and the person who designed
the flyer – all drawn by hand.

He then introduced the Type Foundry T26 and some special

font catalogues, which are each placed under a particular
theme, and will never be reproduced. A catalog was titled
Typerware like the well-known plastic boxes designed.

The most fun he prepare his blog series – especially Cartype.

All typographical issues surrounding the world of automo-
biles examined the site: advertising, logos, advertisements,
letters to Amaturenanzeige, street signs and even homeless
people on the roadside signs can be found on the page.

Segura always put out again by what criteria he works:

“Do not let things happen to you, make things happen to you”
“It’s not how you make it, it’s how you make it better”
“Simple is usually complicated”

www.t26.com Then put forward several Carlos Segura Inc. works his agen-
cy. Cover a series of comic books, which should not look like
typical customers on comics. Furthermore, a redesign for
the bicycle brand Rock Zock. The company kicked my wish
for the agency to position the brand new, especially as their
identity in China has been copied in large quantities. Under
the new claim the earth is not flat, Segura produced a three-
dimensional catalog.

Most recently, he presented the work ahead for the stock

photo company Corbis. Segura developed to present a new
approach to photos – individual images were compared on
specific topics, illustrated large-format, with special print
techniques produced. A good client, he ruled as Corbis it al-
lowed them to exploit the full potential of graphic design. 

Discretionary Ligatures 11
veronika burian

Veronika Burian was just her lecture on Typographic match-

making, in which concerned the combination of different
fonts and use. Before opting for a font, you should first
check the following points:

*1st Function / Application of Scripture

*2nd Technical requirements and limitations
*3rd Aesthetics
*4th Economic factors

Using many examples, she showed what font combinations

work and which tend not to. Often, optical size, spacing, the
printing process or the appearance of the fonts used are re-
sponsible for determining whether an aesthetic plan rising.

But not only the combination of fonts in the same size was
difficult, but especially when text in hierarchy (eg title, sub-
title, etc.) would be used in different sizes. A good alterna-
tive are typefaces from the same family. But here one must
proceed cautiously with very different thicknesses.

Overall, a very interesting lecture, which was also held by

Veronika very persuasive.

Veronika Burian is one of the few women who have made

it this year as a lecturer at the Typobühne. She was born in www.type-together.com
Prague, where she now works and lives again. In between
are an industrial design studies in Munich, working as a de-
signer in Austria and Italy and with distinction in 2003, the
Master Typeface Design in Reading, United Kingdom, for
her essay “Maiola” (2004, the TDC Certificate of Excellence
in Type Design). Until 2007 she worked as Type designer in
at DaltonMaag in London.

Together with José Scaglione, whom she met during her

studies at Reading in 2006, she founded the Type Foundry
TypeTogether . They develop writings guarantee for a clean
read and bring on the other hand a high level personality.
Also, we were able to convince us already and reported late
last year about their Font Catalog. TypeTogether received
the 2007 and 2009, each one Asszeichnung at the ED-
Awards for her writings Karmina and Bree.

12 Event Report
 alternate ampersand

Bree 48 pt regular Bree 48 pt bold & extrabold Bree 48 pt light & thin

Karmina 72 pt bold Karmina 36 pt regular

Karmina small caps 36 pt bold

Discretionary Ligatures 13

Mechanisms
for reading
Deep down in Typo:
Part I: The eye in the process of reading
1. The structure of the eye
2. Eight letters at a time
3. Eye movements
4. Consequences on the process of reading
Part II: Asymmetry
1. The spacing
2. Asymmetry in the perception of typefaces
3. Asymmetry within the word
4. Different characters for different bodies
5. Additional considerations
14
Vista Sans
Calluna
It may seem a bit old fashioned to talk about reading, es-
pecially if we focus on continuous texts: it is clear that the
texts we deal with everyday don’t have, in most cases, such
a structure.
The purpose of this opening is not to make a guide that out-
lines the criteria, parameters on which to evaluate what is
readable and what is not, or a manual for design texts more
readable. The aim is to reflect on the concept of reading try-
ing to field a number of issues and various points of view.
The objective is to open a discussion on design. The graphics
can become the of encounter between different disciplines.
It is thought that this is a way in which possible to devel-
op a cultural context in which charts and graphs-can form
through exchange and contact continuous. You can ques-
tion a number prejudices, can open up new areas search and
you can find a point operational contact between scientific
research and design which serves solely to promotional
graphic design element already developed. Conversely, the
scientific research can enjoy the contribution made by the
Deep down in Typo

graphic and for some problems on of view, is to meet and
to compare the relationship between communication and
knowledge.
Having a range of scientific topics to be addressed in a mag-
azine for graphic made us think that could have been an op-
portunity to try to treat the text itself in an experimental
form, even if the embryo. For this reason we have involved
some graphs have tried to interpret some chapters focus
more on the denotations of communication to those ex-
pressed in the daily practice of the graphics we have become
accustomed. Is a missed opportunity that there are common
trans laboratories, where mixed groups of students develop
a wide range in thematic areas.
We preferred to focus on the concept of reading rather than
on the question the “readability”: that of “readability” is a
vague concept. What is truly readable? How do you assess
how a text is readable? What is the limit we can evaluate
a precise read performance in a specific context, in an area
with the specific defined, but this does not imply that the
Discretionary Ligatures
Karmina
ITC Officina Serif
Ronnia
text allows a more fluent reading is necessarily the most ef-
fective. If we take the case of programming, for example,
where each character has a specific value and a single er-
ror is the failure of the program, maximum effectiveness is
achieved if the text is designed to force people to read each
single element. If the text is perfectly laid out, if the char-
acter is perfectly “smooth”, you trigger mechanisms for fast
reading, individual characters are skipped words and phras-
es. The focus could fall in some parts of the text, especially
if the player is tired or has to play in the samewhen other
tasks. Perhaps, if the aim is to get the reader dwell on every
word, character less “smooth” may paradoxically be more
“visible”, if legibility is defined as “the ability of a text to be
read”.
Obviously this is a paradox but a practical problem arises
not so obvious how to force the reader to slow down with-
out overfatigue or frustrated?
In these terms we can understand the difficulty in establish-
ing what it means “readability”.
15

The eye in the process of reading
Luigi Farrauto
Deep down in Typo: part I
1. The structure of the eye
Ascertained the existence of factors and con-
texts that affect the readability, we now under-
stand the structures and processes which un-
derpin reading psychologists, to maximize the
potential of the process. For this reason, our
review is now proposed to provide a descrip-
tion – albeit brief – of the visual processes, the
structure of the eye and its behavior during the
actual reading.
The retina is the initial part of the optic nerve
and consists of neurons located on the back of
the eye. These cells are used to convert the light
radiation in neural activity.
It consists of neurons and interneurons, which
permit the passage of visual information, and
photoreceptors, which are real computers of
light radiation. There are two varieties of pho-
toreceptors: rods and cones.
16
Luigi Farrauto, 24, graduated in Visu-
al Communication at the Polytechnic
of Milan with a thesis on the signs to
the old city of Damascus. The proj-
ect, proposed to the Syrian Ministry
of Tourism, has been approved and
is now in progress. He worked at the
Bureau Mijksenaar Amsterdam, and
now is dedicated primarily to infor-
mation design, with a focus on maps,
diagrams and the wayfinding.
Cone cells, or cones, are photoreceptor
cells in the retina (between five and
seven million) of the eye that func-
tion best in relatively bright light. The
cone cells gradually become sparser
towards the periphery of the retina.
Cones are less sensitive to light than
the rod cells in the retina (which sup-
port vision at low light levels), but al-
low the perception of color.
Rod cells, or rods, are photorecep-
tor cells in the retina of the eye that
can function in less intense light than
can the other type of photoreceptor,
cone cells. Named for their cylindrical
shape, rods are concentrated at the
outer edges of the retina and are used
in peripheral vision. On average, there
are approximately 92 million rod cells
in the human retina. More sensitive
than cone cells, rod cells are almost
entirely responsible for night vision.
Deep down in Typo
 The area of the retina at the center (on the op-
posite side of the pupil) is called the macula
and is home to the cones. This area has been
dedicated to vision and central visual angle
subtends an arc equal to twenty-five degrees.
When we fix an object, its image is projected
into the fovea, an area of 2 mm in diameter in
the center of the macula, where the maximum
concentration of cones is and, therefore, where
the definition of the images is maximum. Away

A
from the fovea, the number of cones in relation
to the surface decreases rapidly. The opera-
tion whereby we take an image at the fovea, for
maximum visual acuity is called “foveazione”.

10°
Iris

Pupil
Lens

Retina

Optic Nerve
A

Macula

Fovea

Discretionary Ligatures 17
2. Eight letters at a time

The arc visual angle subtended by the fovea is

about ten degrees, but for complex visual tasks
such as reading, the amount of visual mate-
rial that our perceptual system can process is
less than that available within the fovea. This
quantity, called span, is around 18 characters in
Simoncini Garamond 11 points in the body. It
is as if the fovea in the tasks of reading is “nar-
rowed” (up to two degrees), because in this dif-
ficult task, attention is concentrated on a small span
portion of the visual field. In a foveazione there foveazione
are about eight points (two on the left of the Simoncini Garamond size 11
fixation point and 6:00 to 7:00 right) you can
fixation
hear in some detail. From these considerations
it may be noted that a key feature of the percep- parafoveazione
tual span in reading is asymmetric of the center
of fixation. Significant is also noted as the span
of those who read the Arabic script (which runs
from right to left) has the closest center for set-
ting the right end of the perceptual span.
The visual process that takes place outside of
the fovea or in parafovea, although weak, is of
considerable importance in reading. The head
portion of which falls in parafovea may be sev-
en characters to the right and two left.

3. Eye movements

It’s actually very difficult to accurately measure

the physical variables of eye movements and
the amplitude of fixations, as many factors of
linguistic, environmental, and subjective, dif-
ficult to keep constant, interact. During the During the exploration of a visual
exploration of a visual scene, the eye gener-
ally does not move fluidly, but performs rapid scene, the eye generally does not
movements (called saccades) alternating to fix-
ations (in which it is almost immobile).
move fluidly, but performs rapid
The saccades have a term of between twenty
and forty milliseconds, causing inhibition of
movements (called saccades) al-
vision, called saccadic suppression, due to the ternating to fixations (in which it is
speed with which the eye movement occurs (up
to nine hundred degrees per second). The sec- almost immobile).
ond, however, have a term of between two hun-
dred and three hundred milliseconds, up more
than ninety percent of the time reading and
deputies to extract all the information needed
for fluent reading.
While reading, however, eye movements do

18 Deep down in Typo

not proceed only from left to right: very often
in fact, proceed in the opposite direction and Low Vision
the eyes show the previous word. These move-
ments called regressions allow to explore again condition where there is a marked and permanent
a piece of text when you need information that reduction of the visual acuity and/or of the vision,
in the first step has not been extracted. For the field not correctable through lenses.
high automation of the process of reading the
regressions, such as saccades, occur involun-
tarily, such as if our eyes know where to find
information.
At the end of each line there is a movement Eye diseases
that brings the eye at the beginning of next,
this movement is called return sweep. It may
be noted that if the text is right-aligned or
centered, or if the rows are longer than twenty
characters, the return sweep becomes ineffi-
cient because its eye is forced to search for the
beginning of the next line in a different posi-
tion each time.
Over twenty-five degrees of travel correspond-
ing to approximately one hundred and twenty
characters, body eleven) comes naturally ac-
company the eye movements with head move-
ment.
In this regard it is interesting to note that the glaucoma
printing is considered good practice to not ex-
ceed eighty characters per line.

Vision

While reading, eye move- Some factors enhance readability,

the choice of character
ments do not proceed only its size
from left to right: very often text/background contrast
OR AN ALL CAPS TEXT
in fact, proceed in the oppo- not to mention spacing.

site direction and the eyes

show the previous word.
Low vision

Some factors enhance readability,

At the end of each line there the choice of character

is a movement that brings its size

text/background contrast
the eye at the beginning of OR AN ALL CAPS TEXT
not to mention spacing.
next line, called sweep.

Discretionary Ligatures 19
 Asymmetry
Daniele Balcon
Deep down in Typo: part II
1. The spacing
First, it must be emphasized that the phenom-
ena of benefits on foveal and parafoveal affect
studies for proper spacing between words.
If the spaces are too small, the words are no lon-
ger distinct from one another because they are
lost in the beginning and the end, beginning
and end that have a role in speech recognition
as a unit and that, being strong poles of attrac-
tion, guiding eye movements. If, however, the
lines have a too small number of characters (two
or three words per line) the process of reading
is penalized because the text portions from
statistical analysis are less often at the edge of
the fovea. Their failure to perceive, therefore,
greatly reduces the benefits from data collected
in parafovea portions of text, with obvious con-
sequences for the benefits. Will suffer, and that
even leading the saccade motor pattern to fall
in a portion of text less significant, because the
place could be occupied by other letters is re-
placed by white space.
Daniele Balcon, who was born in Bel-
Francesco Pia luno in 1981, trained at the Faculty of
Arts and Design at the university Iuav.
From 2003 he worked alone or with
Francesco Pia in graphic design in
which typography plays a major role.
From 2004 to collaborate on multi-
media projects for Studio Altermedia
Mestre and publishing projects with
Polystudio Francesco Messina. After
working at H-Farm is about to build
a studio.
FrancescoPia.it, integrated visual de-
sign: two-dimensional and applied in
motion. Following the Master Degree
in Visual Communication and Multi-
media getting in touch with some of
the masters of Italian and Interna-
tional Graphics. Work in the States of
Kyle Cooper at Prologue he works with
in his business also to return to Italy.
In 2006 is “iDesign” together with D.
Balcon.

In a text with spaces between words In a text

excessively reduced speech recognition is with a
very difficult because they are missing the number of
attraction points, start and end, for the eye words per
while reading. line really
reduced
the
reading
process
is heavily
penalized.

20 Deep down in Typo

2. Asymmetry in the perception of typefaces

Do not forget that human vision is asym-

metrical (we have an oval and horizontal field) If we put the same rectangle horizon-
and this affects in particular graphics applica- tally it will look shorter and thicker
tions and necessitates some design features of
a character, to facilitate the process of read-
ing and learning. When we look a figure on a
sheet, in fact, the vertical components appear to
us larger than their actual geometric size and
especially compared to their horizontal dimen-
sion. For the same reasons curvilinear shapes
are distorted: if you draw a geometrically per- Should take into account this phe-
fect circle, the horizontal part of the lines seem nomenon to make perceptually con-
too thick. stant thickness of the lines.
If we look at a curved and a straight stroke of
the same thickness, for example, the curved
section is too thin compared to the rectum to
make the two sections visually homogeneous,
it should instead expand the curved section.
For this reason, when designing a font, we
should take account of our visual feature to
prevent disorders like optical hyphens, which wrong right
appear disproportionate or unequal among
themselves, although identical. We should also
be able to assess the critical points that are in-
tersections in the white interior (loops) and the
sharp points of some letters of Latin alphabet.
Although some characters seem to consist of
uniform thickness lines, in fact, they conceal a
very complex design, where a series of irregu-
larly shaped and asymmetric solutions, give the
illusion of a perfect regularity.

3. Asymmetry within the word

It also appears that in the recognition of a word

there is an asymmetry, a preponderance of the this text isn’t legible
top on the bottom. Experiments on Brian Coe
as part of a character could be eliminated with-
out affecting readability, seem to confirm that
the top characters have greater significance in this is much better
word recognition.
This feature has been known since the nine-
teenth century, but to date this phenomenon
remains unexplained, although it is easily There is a text without the top and one with no bottom. It can be
found in various everyday situations. seen in the first case the writing is more difficult to read, while in
If you put a small square in the geometric cen- the latter case the situation improves significantly. Yet the most
ter of a bigger picture, the first square seems articulate letters at the top are not many more than either sym-
too low, but if you try to place it in the center metrical or more articulate than the bottom

Discretionary Ligatures 21
 “eye”, the small square will appear in the cen-
ter, while it is slightly shifted higher than the
true geometric center: if then you turn the pa-
per ninety degrees, you can check, visually, that
xxx xxx
one has moved away from the exact center. The
same asymmetry applies to the font, if you take
a letter that appears symmetrical at first glance,
like an “s” or an “x”, it can be seen, turning the
sss sss
page, that the upper part is considerably smaller
than the lower. If the two sides were exactly the Auto
same, the character would seem “macrocefalo.” Avenir
The role of this asymmetry is also relevant in Calluna
the design of white spaces open up or down.

4. Different characters for different bodies

The desktop publishing programs allow you to

change the body of a character at will and with-
Arno Pro Display
out difficulties. When you change the body of
a character, it is reduced proportionally at all
sizes: in this way the character is always identi-
Arno Pro Subhead
cal to itself.
At the variation of the size our perception
changes and the characters can look very dif-
Arno Pro Regular
ferent (though mathematically identical).
In addition, some characteristics (such as those
inspired by the characters Bodoni or Didot)
Arno Pro Small Text
have very fine features that are problematic if
reduced to very small bodies (eg the tip of serifs
tends to disappear, for which the serifs them-
Arno Pro Caption
selves seem smaller). To overcome these prob- Arno Pro, 30/36
lems and to ensure that characters are resem-
blant with different bodies, it is customary to
make some tiny but significant design changes.
To reduce the font size, for example, the size

Arno Pro
of the height of “x” is increased compared to Arno Pro Display, 70/84
the ascending and descending. Not only are
strengthened and contrasts the features of re-
duced thickness.
The interior space of the letters is increased in
inverse proportion to the decrease of the body
(and thus widen the letters as a whole), to com-

Arno Pro
pensate for the increased thickness of the lines, Arno Pro Caption, 70/84
therefore the space between letters is increased.
Not everyone agrees on the idea that letters
should be widened to decrease the body: some
designers prefer to only increase the spacing
between letters.
In the nineties it has also been attempted to de-
velop typefaces that allowed multiple matrix to

22 Deep down in Typo

 interpolate the variant display variant for small Legibility Benchmark
Legibility Benchmark
bodies in order to obtain a potentially infinite
range of variations, for every body. This process What are the most legible typefaces in the world?
has proved to be too complex to use, since it All the following text is written in size 8pt.
would have defined a new character for each
project based on numerical parameters, and
quickly fell into disuse. Frutiger Roman Helvetica Roman

Frutiger Ultra Black Helvetica Ultra Black

5. Additional considerations
Each character, therefore, gives his best in a
particular dimension, and sometimes, paradox-
Officina Regular Futura Medium
ically, regardless of how it was conceived by the
designer. This is especially true for characters Officina Bold Futura Heavy
with serifs.
The design of a character involves a series of
choices that will never be optimal for all pur-
poses: each typeface is the result of a series of
compromises between perceptual issues, func- Museo 500 Avenir Roman
tion and formal features.
Museo 900 Avenir Heavy
It should also be noted that apparently the de-
sign of a typeface would seem more important
than the detailed overview. Conversely, in fact,
whether the order of priorities between the two
is not reversed and if the word does not become
predominant compared to the single glyph, the Titillium 400 Fedra Sans Book
character will not be an isolated set of letters, Titillium 999 Fedra Sans Bold
perhaps good, but not satisfactory when used
in text. In a typeface every detail substantially
influence the appearance of the character as
a whole and not because it is repeated many
times. Most of the interventions are not rec-
Arno Pro Regular Jenson Pro Regular
ognizable characters from the reader; they are
even designed to disappear, to offset the effects Arno Pro Bold Jenson Pro Bold
of perceptual quality to be “negative”.
The eye is, therefore, the national character,
one who evaluates the consistency and the
overall result, so that the progress “eye” seems
better than the scale a character according to Bodoni MT Regular New Baskerville Regular
the proportions “linear” and calculated arith-
Bodoni MT Bold New Baskerville Regular
metic from your computer. 

Garamond Premier Pro Regular Simoncini Garamond Roman

Garamond Premier Pro Bold Simoncini Garamond Bold

Discretionary Ligatures 23
 Flaminia
a type system for road signs

The Flaminia project is based on the MA thesis of Andrea Bergamini,

which reacts to the chaotic and poorly executed road signage system
seen throughout Italy. The core idea of the project is that lettering for
traffic signs should always be tested in real-life environment, and the
final solution must always be based on such testing. This led to the de-
sign of the Flaminia type system, which allows users and designers to
test and interpolate a variety of letterforms using four Multiple Master
axes. Flaminia is a tool for designing high-quality, well-legible type for
road signs, and it will be available for free.
24 Project Story

Related and inspiring projects
Jock Kinneir and his col-
league Margaret Cal-
vert were typographers
and graphic designers
who designed many
of the road signs used
throughout Great Brit-
ain, as well as the Rail
Alphabet used on the
British railway system
and an early version of
the signs used in air-
ports.
Their system has be-
come a model for mod-
ern road signage.
Discretionary Ligatures
Follow the directions, you can’t miss it...
If you hear this when trying to find your way
in Italy, you can just as well give up and put up
with the fact that unless someone else helps,
you will get lost for sure. Although Italy was ↓ In colore blu il tracciato originale della via
one of the first European countries to intro- Flaminia, via consolare romana che collega
duce traffic signs (the first traffic signs were Roma a Rimini, fatta iniziare nel 220 a.C dal
placed along approximately forty kilometers console Caio Flaminio.
long stretch of the Via Flaminia road back in
1895), the recent poll by 3M revealed the ineffi-
ciency and poor state of most Italian road signs.
One of the reasons for this is that an official
authority in charge of traffic signs and their re-
placement is missing. Far too often, this task is
undertaken by the manufacturers, traffic police
members, or private customers. They are often
in charge of the whole process beginning with
design and ending with the installation of road
signs. In a field where so many areas of exper-
tise meet, this is unacceptable; a single body
should exist to take charge of the process.
Before the Flaminia project was launched, the
author researched a variety of related road sig-
nage systems. Obviously, the 1957 project for
British roads and motorways by Jock Kinneir
and Margaret Calvert couldn’t be ignored. It
was a milestone in information design which
defined the method to be used from then on.
Kinneir and Calvert understood the need to
test the typefaces in real-life conditions, and
the resulting Transport typeface thus has ideal
proportions of width and height.
One of the revolutionary aspects of Kinneir’s
and Calvert’s work was that it was systematic.
They designed a number of characters and so-
lutions for a variety of applications. Their pro-
totypes employ a clear system of spacing, easy
to reproduce by anyone. At the time, the results
of the project were extraordinary and unique,
and their work remains breakthrough up to
this day.
25
 The M.O.L. typeface was designed by Gerard
Unger for the Amsterdam underground system
(until today, it was preserved at about ten sta-
tions). On his website, he says:
“As a fair proportion of the signs are illuminated
from within, using fluorescent tubes, the prin-
ciples of optics were taken as the basis for the de-
sign. Whatever form an opening has – triangular,
square or polygonal – the light shining through it
onto a surface always tends to form a circle. mol
is rounded throughout as a device to make illumi-
↓ M.O.L alphabet ↑ An Amsterdam metro station
nated lettering more even and legible”.
signal using M.O.L typeface.

Optica was designed by a group of Chilean stu- www.typophile.com/node/3328

dents led by Miguel Hernandez. They made
use of the fact that some irregularities in let-
ter shapes do not harm legibility. On the con-
trary – they might make it easier to read, be-
cause they even out the errors of vision when
reading from a long distance. This theory was
confirmed in a series of simulations involv-
ing purposefully dissolved contours of letters.
The resulting typeface does have more distinct
character than Clearview Hwy, which makes it
easier to distinguish letters from one another.
Although Optica is an interesting experiment,
it is not yet scientifically verified whether its
principles really do work. The functionality of ↓ Clearview Hwy (1) compared to Optica (2);
a typeface designated for use in road signs can- at increasing amount of blurriness Optica gives
not be tried unless we take into account real a bigger differentiantion between glyphs.
conditions of installation and the used mate-
rials. James Montalbano also points to another
significant obstacle designers of such typefaces
must take into account:
“Another thing to keep in mind when dealing with
these sorts of fonts is their acceptability to the gen-
eral highway engineering community. One of the
reasons Clearview looks the way it does was that
it was designed to solve problems of legibility and
readability without scaring the very conservative
highway engineers with a radical design solution.”

26 Project Story
 bold
Clearview Hwy typefamily was designed by
James Montalbano to replace the Highway
Gothic font, still seen at some American high-
ways today. The Clearview Hwy font family has
six weights in two different versions, one for
standard and one for inverted use. The letters
try to solve the problem of halation caused by
car headlights, which makes it difficult to dis-
tinguish round letters from one another un- white gaps
less they are open enough. Halation is further
emphasized by thick strokes of letters needed
to accommodate for the needs of the reflect-
ing elements of the button copy system. The
resulting typeface was tested for over ten years
on trial traffic signs. Several characteristics
were taken into account: the weight in both
standard and inverted styles, the width of let-

wide x-height
ters, the letter spacing, the size of the sign bor-
der, and the x-height of the letters, which was
significantly increased when compared to the
font’s predecessors.

www.clearviewhwy.com

rounded angles

↑ Proportions of the Clearview Hwy

Road Signage


If you are interested in ↓ Clearview Hwy alphabet
the on road signs and you
analyze the look and feel, you
should also read the article
in the section of Contextual
Legatures. You will find
further information on the
wide road signs and issues
related to it.
at page 24 of Contextual

Discretionary Ligatures 27

Flaminia, a system of characters
Based on the analysis of the above-mentioned
typefaces, the author was able to set a system
of variables which may modify the appearance
of glyphs. The manufacturing conditions were
also taken into account.
Letter width is one of the key variables
influencing the utility of letters for
use in road signs. Too narrow letters
might be difficult to read, because free
space between and inside the letters is
extremely limited. Too wide styles, on
the other hand, require more space
and thus lead to increased costs of
manufacture.

* roundness of letter
* width
* x-height
* weight
* alternating characters
* roundness of stroke
* serif / sans-serif
* irregularities in construction ↓ Increasing variables

The first four variables were defined primary

and they were used in a Multiple Master file.
Varieties on the opposite ends of a scale were x-height
then designed (high vs. low x-height, extra-
extended vs. extra-condensed styles, light vs.
black styles, angular vs. round strokes). These
pre-defined samples may then be interpolated,
thus producing a number of various fonts. width

Letter width is one of the key variables influ-

encing the utility of letters for use in road signs.
Too narrow letters might be difficult to read,
because free space between and inside the let-
ters is extremely limited. Too wide styles, on
the other hand, require more space and thus
lead to increased costs of manufacture.
Further varieties were created by increasing the
x-height of letters. This process helps define x-height
the ideal x-height for good legibility, as larger
x-height is known to improve it. The last vari-
able used in Multiple Master was the weight of
each stroke. This parameter is crucial for defin-
ing the perfect difference between weights des-
ignated for regular and inverted use.
The author also took into account that on road
signs, the letters will seldom appear in extra
black weights, the most common weight being
medium or semi-bold. weight

28 Project Story

In each tweenable master were de-
signed different versions of those
glyphs that were considered ambigu-
ous, and some other stylistic alterna-
tive glyphs.
alternative serifs
alternative serifs
Discretionary Ligatures
The Flaminia is not as a character for
signage, but rather as a system that
can scientifically analyze the factors
affecting the readability of this type
of character, so it was to take into
account any possible variations of
reading derived from the shape of the
glyph.
thin strokes
29
In each tweenable master were de-
signed different versions of those
glyphs that were considered ambigu-
ous, and some other stylistic alterna-
tive glyphs. This is because the Fla-
minia is not as a character for signage,
but rather as a system that can scien-
tifically analyze the factors affecting
the readability of this type of charac-
ter, so it was to take into account any
possible variations of reading derived
from the shape of the glyph.
30
Flaminia – arrow system
After this, the author focused on creating a
system of arrow symbols, relevant in weight to
each style, yet variable as well. Thanks to this,
custom-fitted arrows can be designed for each
road sign, which is important as arrows in road
signs carry the same information as the text it-
self.
The set of variables for arrows differs a little
from the text Multiple Master – there are only
three variables in total:
* the degree of openness of diagonals
* weight
* x-height
The first variable is entirely independent of the
text face, while the other two are strictly bound
to the corresponding values in the text Multi-
ple Master.
Degree of openness of diagonals may be com-
pared to the degree of opening of terminals in
letters: the more open the diagonal strokes of
an arrow are, the larger is the inner white space,
which could, in turn, influence the clarity of
more open vs. more closed arrows.
This variable is independent of the text face
variables; one version of text face may thus be
paired with different versions of arrows.
Weight is an important characteristics which
helps to pair arrows with corresponding font
styles.
The last variable simply takes into account the
varying x-height of letters and matches the
height of arrows to it so that they would lie in
the optical center of the letter. This interpola-
tion does not serve as much for exploring leg-
ibility as it should help maintain coherent rela-
tionship between the text and the arrow sign.
Project Story
 ↓ Starting alphabet: the four primary variables
squared strokes are set to minimum

thin strokes

small x-height
condensed

Discretionary Ligatures 31
Alternative versions of characters

In each variation of the Multiple Master grid,

more versions of certain ambiguous charac-
ters were designed, as well as additional sty-
listic versions of some other letters. Flaminia
is not to serve exclusively for road sign usage;
it should serve as a system for exploration of
various agents which influence legibility of this
type of lettering. This is why it was important
to take into account the variations in reading.

The first, Rounded version was designed in the

second stage of the project. It was inspired by
the M. O. L. typeface by Gerard Unger and it
springs from the idea that letters illuminated
from the inside could react in the same way as
letters illuminated from the outside.

The second version points to the commonly ac-

cepted idea that sans-serif fonts are more suit-
ed for use in road signs than serif ones are; this
reflects also the practical aspects of road sign
making, as it is much easier when linear, simple
forms of letters are used. The Flaminia project
tries to address the issue without bias and so it
also contains one slab-serif style.

The third version of the second stage of the

project is based on Miguel Hernandez’s experi-
ment. To verify his hypothesis, Flaminia con-
tains one style with marked irregularities in let-
ters, which matches the other styles of the face
perfectly.

It has to be said that the variables used in the

Flaminia system may be altered arbitrarily; for
example, variables which were considered sec-
ondary in this project may be emphasized, fur-
ther variables may be added, etc.

32 Project Story
 Traffic signs or road signs are signs
erected at the side of roads to provide
information to road users.

“
Flaminia is not to serve exclusively for road sign usage; it
should serve as a system for exploration of various agents

”
which influence legibility of this kind of lettering.

Legibility is the degree at which glyphs

and vocabulary are understandable or
readable based on appearance.

Discretionary Ligatures 33
 alternative rounded
termination
Flaminia Rounded

width

34 Project Story
 ← Flaminia Slab 1 is bracketed

← Flaminia Slab 2 is a Neo-grotesque model

Discretionary Ligatures 35
 ↑ Flaminia Irregular

36 Project Story
 Open Source

The last stage of the project focused on the

possibilities of growth, further modification, or
alteration for other uses than in road signage
systems. The project is not yet finished, but it is
fully open to designers worldwide; more likely,
it attempts to be a starting point for further re-
search into legibility and reading.
The .vfb file as well as the Open Type ver-
sions of Flaminia may be downloaded from
the www.mintea.org website as well as at
www.progetto-exp.org. The website is run by
Michele Patané, Marco Kisic, Luciano Perondi
and Stefano Minelli since 2003. Flaminia is an
open source project which can be further mod-
ified, adjusted and used (with a Creative Com-
mons license) for further research of legibility
Open source describes practices in and reading. 
production and development that
promote access to the end product’s
source materials. Some consider open
source a philosophy, others consider
it a pragmatic methodology. Before
the term open source became widely
adopted, developers and producers
used a variety of phrases to describe
the concept; open source gained hold
with the rise of the Internet, and the
attendant need for massive retooling
of the projects source code.

Graphic designer Andrea Bergamini

graduated from the Faculty of Design
of Politecnico di Milano. He designed
the Flaminia system where typo-
graphic elements meet with informa-
tion design for road signage.

www.mintea.org

Discretionary Ligatures 37
 A Type Face
interview with Jos Buivenga

38 A Type Face
 The way Dutchman Jos Buivenga rose to prominence on
the type scene is quite remarkable. For years, his online friends
and fans could follow the development of his typefaces via his
website, and download the results at no cost. When his one‑man
foundry exljbris began selling his first commercial typeface
Museo through MyFonts last year, several weights were offered
for free. The generosity paid off: Museo became a meteoric best-
seller. Eighteen months, five typefaces and one bankrupt em-
ployer later, he finds himself a full time type designer – and doing
very well, thank you. Meet Jos Buivenga, going with the flow on
the river of life.
Jos, you joined MyFonts in early 2008. By then, you had already created quite a
following on your website and blog, where people could comment on your type
design process and download beta versions of your fonts. When did it all start? Was
there any kind of master plan behind it?

It all started back in 1994 with the wish to make a typeface of my own. I just wanted to
see what it would feel like to use a font of my own on my first Mac. Of course this isn’t
the best brief to start a font. So I considered making my first typeface, Delicious, to be
just a learning process. I was completely new to type design, which is the main reason
why it took me two years to create a font family that I was happy with. It sounds like
a long time but it was a great experience, being in a creative process, doing highly
concentrated work, exploring caveats and finding solutions. It never really crossed
my mind to sell it because I didn’t know if it was good enough.

My second typeface, Fontin, which I began a decade later, still felt like a typographic
exploration that I preferred to share rather than sell. Another reason for preferring to
give it away was probably that I still didn’t consider myself a real type designer. After
I had finished Fontin, my fonts got listed on several blogs. That’s when things really
took off. I realized that people really liked my work, fortunately not only because I
offered it for free. Site traffic started to build up and grew steadily year after year. At
that stage I still worked full-time but the thought of selling some fonts to be able to
work a day less each week began to occur more and more often.

Discretionary Ligatures 39
So as a type designer you’re completely self-taught. Have you missed education,
once you became serious about type, or do you think that designers who are tal-
ented and interested will always be able to figure things out on their own?

You won’t hear me say that ignorance is bliss. But as a non-intellectual person, when
creating things I need to find a sound balance between knowing and not knowing. I
found out long ago that this is the best way for me to explore my creative capabilities,
and make the design process worthwhile.
With wonderful online resources like Typophile, I never really felt I missed educa-
tion. My experience is that if you’re interested, the effort it takes to figure things out is
reduced drastically. And that’s really a blessing for someone like me who is otherwise
lazy by nature.

Also – and this is not out of laziness, but to have more time for type design – I am
always exploring the possibilities of outsourcing technical stuff and repetitive tasks.
For my latest fonts I’ve been using iKern, the kerning and spacing service of Igino
Marini. That proved to be a big time saver, which is great because time really is prob-
ably my most valuable asset. I have so many ideas that I want to fulfill, that if I were
able to split myself into three entities I would still have enough type design work for
years to come.

«It was kind of a remarkable coincidence that Igino

contacted me with a reworked version of (my first)
Anivers just at the moment that I was working on
extending it to a complete family. The example he
send me looked stunning. It made music to my eyes
and I was instantly convinced of the fact that iKern
could save me a lot of time. Igino and iKern did a
wonderfull job on Anivers and also on the recently
released Fertigo Pro. I hope our collaboration will
last a life time, because I wouldn’t want to design
type any other way». And then followed Museo
Sans, Calluna, Museo Slab …

40 A Type Face
“ If I were able to split myself into three entities I would

”
still have enough type design work for years to come

Type design is performed by a

type designer. Regardless of the
method used to specify type
design, characters of different
sizes have slightly different shapes
for improved clarity and, above
all, artistic consistency. There are
many subtleties of shape so that no
character looks too small or large.

Discretionary Ligatures 41
You’re in your mid-forties, and as a type designer you were a late starter. Do you
think things would have been much different if you had begun getting serious
about type earlier on?

I’ve always regarded life as a river on which I don’t try to canoe upstream too much.
Things have always happened to me at their own pace. The one thing I always try to
do is to keep an open mind towards everything. I started my first font at 29 – which
might already be regarded as late. Then for a decade I did not feel the urge to make
a new one because I wasn’t inspired. It all changed with a little sketch which finally
resulted in Fontin. From then on I was hooked.

Before diving head-first into type, you worked in advertising for fifteen years.
Looking back – what were the things you liked most about the advertising world,
and what did you hate about it?

Ever since I was a teenager I wanted to be an artist. After I graduated from high
school, the right place to go seemed to be art school, but my father wanted me to
learn a “proper” job. So we compromised and I got to go where I wanted, but to study
graphic design, not painting. After four years – I didn’t graduate – I decided that it
was time for me to become an artist. I did that for about 6 years until it became more
than clear that I wasn’t able to make a living out of it. So I bought a Mac, taught myself
the basics of desktop publishing and arranged an internship at an advertising agency.
After a few years I got a job as an art director.

Working in the advertising business never really was my cup of tea, mainly because
of the commercial attitude and the fact that all the work was based on very specific
assignments. The best thing about it was the puzzle-solving aspect of commercial
projects. But creating something and being in a creative process is what makes me feel
alive, so I always made sure that I had something to do “on the side” that interested
me. That could be painting, writing or type design.

42 A Type Face
Museo is a spirited semi-serif
typeface with lucid, open forms
and highly original details,
especially the pipe-like, bent
half-serifs.
It supports a wide range of
languages and comes with
several extra ligatures and
alternates.

When you joined MyFonts with Museo, you were the first designer to offer most
weights of an extended family for free. On the strength of the paid fonts alone,
Museo became one of the best selling fonts of 2008, and Museo Sans did even bet-
ter. What made you choose this strategy? Did you expect that kind of success?

Before Museo was ready for release I often thought about what would be the best
pricing strategy. I had to take into account that most people who knew me, knew me
for my free fonts, so my guess was that it would be best to offer more free than paid
weights. Next thing to consider was which weights should be free. I myself always
hate it when free things are not complete or not as useful as they could be, so I decid-
ed to offer the three middle, most common, weights for free. And that was received
better than I could have imagined. I had a bit of a hunch of Museo’s potential success
because of all the positive feedback I got on my blog, but I didn’t expect it to be this
big. The two fonts I released later that year – Anivers and Museo Sans – were also
received very well. When the advertising agency I was working for went bankrupt in
April this year it was clear that the time was right to become a full-time type designer.

In the close-knit landscape of Dutch type design, you were completely unknown
until a couple of years ago. Now you’re probably one of the country’s best-selling
designers. Do you still feel like an outsider?

Yes, sometimes it feels like everything I’ve done has led up to the point where I’m at
now, creating type in a world where it is not so necessary any more to relate to other
type designers in order to function well. Besides, I am a person who really likes to do
things his own way. On the other hand, I do feel connected to everyone who loves
type and type design. Also, I immensely enjoy working together with Martin Majoor
on a project at the moment.

Discretionary Ligatures 43
 Questa lovely ligature

That project is Questa, a new “modern face”. Could you tell us a bit more about the
typeface and about the way you collaborate?

Early April this year I was asked to give a lecture at the 33pt symposium in Dortmund,
as was Martin Majoor. We knew each other way back from art school in Arnhem,
with the difference that I wasn’t into type design then. It was great meeting each
other again and we both felt that the time in Dortmund was too short for all the
things we wanted to share. Back in Arnhem after a few meetings we decided to do a
type design project together. Going through the options we stumbled on Questa, a
squarish Didot-like font that I originally had planned in one display style only. Martin
saw enough possibilities to use that as a basis to create a text version too, as well as a
sans-serif, all with true italics. We both have busy schedules and Martin spends a lot
of time in Poland, but when he’s in Arnhem we try to team up twice a week to work
on Questa in harmonious collaboration – although fortunately there is also some
healthy discussion going on. Because I’m self-taught it’s great to witness closely how
another type designer handles the whole process of making a large font family.

During the past few years, you’ve made exemplary use of online communication
and networking tools to get your fonts out there: a blog, a free fonts website, a
Flickr pool, Twitter, contributions to ilovetypography.com… What’s more, it
doesn’t feel like a calculated strategy. You seem to thoroughly enjoy this kind of
communication.

In the early days people had to e-mail me to get my free fonts. Soon I started to receive
more than 20 requests per day, so I decided to offer the fonts as a direct download.
The e-mails still kept coming in, but now from people who just wanted to comment
on my work. A blog is of course the better place for that, plus it also offers me the op-
portunity to have a direct response to type designs in progress. That’s also the reason
why I embrace Flickr, Twitter and the like. To be able to interact like this is a thing
I value tremendously. Later – with the release of Museo – I discovered that it also
works very well to help market my fonts.

4444 A Type Face

 Questa
√√
Historic
�arfun.
qa’fligéz
stacguw
�e Close Ranks
Struck Forward.
Discretionary Ligatures 45
aspect
Calluna, Buivenga’s first
full-fledged roman for text
and display, grew out of the
Museo design process. Calluna
makes for comfortable reading
even at very small text sizes;
its striking details ensure that
it can also be used as a display
font with personality.

As for Calluna’s name: it’s

simply the name of the street
in Arnhem, the Netherlands,
where Jos happens to live and
work.

A detail for type geeks: your latest typeface, Calluna, has a sloped crossbar on the “e”
– one of the primary characteristics of early Venetian or “Humanist” typefaces, as
the history books never tire of teaching us. Did you actually look at Jenson’s type as
a model for Calluna? Do historical models play a role in your work at all?

One day when I was playing around with Museo to see if I could make a slab serif
out of it, the bent serifs with the newly attached slabs resulted in a serifed roman let-
terform that had a nice forward direction. I used that little accident as a base for Cal-
luna. Not only did this determine the shape of the regular serifs, it also shaped lots of
other details like for example the bottom serif of “p” and the crossbar of “e”. I wanted
the proportions of the capitals to be classical, therefore I had a glimpse at Garamond
capitals. I don’t really look at other typefaces as a model; I only look at what other
type designers’ solutions are for specific things I’m struggling with at that moment.

You’ve been working with MyFonts for a year and a half now. What are the main
things this collaboration has brought you?

When I was ready to release Museo I was still working four days a week so I needed a
partner that would relieve me from the hassle of setting up and maintaining a shop.
MyFonts looked ideal to me because of the fact that I was able to do my own market-
ing and because MyFonts gives a fair commission on sales. MyFonts offers good pos-
sibilities for people to try out type before buying – which has gotten even better with
the new site – and also the opportunity to set up one’s own foundry page. Because of
that I could keep my own site fairly simple and that saved me time… precious time to
design more type.

Dankjewel, Jos! As you are obviously one of the hardest working type designers in
the Low Countries, we are looking forward to seeing something new from exljbris
soon! 

www.exljbris.com

46 A Type Face
 Fertigo Pro regular 31 pt and 100 pt

raffinate ligature

Anivers regular 21 pt and 108 pt

exaggerate inktraps become a decorative element

Diavlo medium 124 pt, Diavlo book 60 pt and Diavlo light 51 pt

arabesque junctions

Discretionary Ligatures 47
 Fontin and Fontin Sans 94 pt

Delicious roman 64 pt, Delicious italic 113 pt and Delicious bold 104 pt strong bends

48 A Type Face
A font for every season
LFT Etica
 A strong yet delicate Sans

LFT Etica, the moralist typefamily project, was

born at the end of 2000, but its development
is ongoing, overcoming many hurdles and di-
versions. The starting point for the designers at
Leftloft were the common “cold” grotesk sans
serifs, ubiquitous and often badly applied in
their everyday visual environment. The chal-
lenge was to obtain the same force, versatility
and colour, but with a much warmer feel. The
resulting design has soft strokes, open counters
and terminals;

Aesthetically resting somewhere

between a grotesque and humanist
sans serif, it successfully combines
masculine force with female delicacy
LFT Etica’s wide range of styles, together with
a large character set and OpenType features,
such as 4 sets of numerals, fractions, several
stylistic alternates and a set of arrows and ding-
bats, allows for a vast variety of applications, be
they editorial or corporate.
What do we like about Etica is its relaxed mood,
fresh but with a personality. It has a very simple
design, but without the swiss rigidity.
In the heavy weights Etica has a soft look, that
feels like Bree, from Marina Mario, and Ronnia,
from Chewbacca Delorean, in a perfect Type-
Together style.
LFT Etica full set of weights and opentype fea-
tures make this family a good choice for large
projects.

50 A font for every season

 LFT Etica Display Thin

LFT Etica Extrabold

LFT Etica Regular with alternate “a” and “y”

LFT Etica Bold

LFT Etica Light

LFT Etica Display Heavy

Discretionary Ligatures 51
 Ascendent and capitals have
the same height.

ascendent
capital

x-height

baseline

descendent

“R” crossbar stays much under half Terminals are slanted, so that the let-
the x-height, which gives the coun- terformes stay open.
ter a great legibility even with heavy
weight.

52 A font for every season

 “i” dot is ellyptical and lays “t” cross bar is aligned
over the capital height line. to the x-height.

Descendent strokes are slightly longer

than the ascendents.

Discretionary Ligatures 53
LFT Etica, Light – 50/65 →

54 A font for every season

 LFT Etica comes with several alter-
nates that make this font even more
precious and desirable, an irresistible
detail for every type geek.

The most common ligatures are in- LFT Etica has a regular width, about
cluded as an Opentype feature. 3/4 of the height. Regular weight is
1/12 of the height. The crossbar is at
2/3 of the total height.

Width: 3/4
Weight: 1/12

LFT Etica has Old Style Figures, which

come handly for use in text.

Discretionary Ligatures 55
 The designer

Leftloft is a visual communication studio based

in Milan since 1997. The studio has grown to a
staff of 16 people with multi-disciplinary skills,
able to provide solutions for all information and
communication needs. Leftloft creates projects
that aim to improve and implement successfull
communication channels for companies, insti-
tutions and cultural organizations. www.leftloft.com
The studio has been established by Andrea
Braccaloni, Francesco Cavalli, Bruno Genovese
and David Pasquali. All are members of AIAP
(Italian Design Association for Visual Commu-
nication) and BEDA (Bureau European Design
Association).
In addition to their design activity, the partners
teach at the Milan Politecnico Faculty of De-
sign. Leftloft is also a promoter of the Graphic
Ministry, a cultural association promoting de-
sign culture. In autumn 2008, Leftloft opened
a new additional office in New York City, USA.

56 A font for every season

 LFT Etica, Extrabold

Etica vs. Helvetica

Helvetica Neue, 95 Black

LFT Etica, Extrabold

Ronnia, Heavy

Bree, Extrabold

Discretionary Ligatures 57
 LFT ETica Extrabold
LFT Etica supports over 50 languages using latin alphabet

Czech Polish Hungarian

58 A font for every season

 ↓ LFT Etica – 10/12 pt (bodytext), 11/13 pt (title)

Veronika Burian gave a lecture at

Typo Berlin 2010. Read the report at
page D10.

Discretionary Ligatures 59
60 A font for every season
Discretionary Ligatures 61
 The Glyph
can you recognize the font for each &?

note: the tiny cyan circles are hints to help you guess. Enjoy!

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20

62 The Glyph
63 Discretionary Ligatures
at page 52 of Contextual
Haiti. 1. Baskerville italic 2. Diavlo 3. Arno Pro italic 4. Eurostile 5. Cholla sans 6. Latinaires bold
raise funds for the reconstruction of italic 7. Auto3 italic 8. American Typewriter 9. Hoefler Text black italic 10. Bello Pro 11. Electra
project “An ampersand for Haiti” to 12. Chino ITC Pro 13. Garamond italic 14. Amplitude ultra 15. Scala Sans 16. Bree 17. Candy
over the world partecipated in the Script 18. Auriol 19. Marat Pro black italic 20. Giddyup 21. PF Champion Script Pro 22. Affair
Together font. 400 designers from all 23. Cooper black 24. Foco bold 25. Quadraat italic 26. Ronnia italic 27. Calcite pro 28. Bodoni
you may want to check Coming black 29. Sneaker Script 30. Cochin bold italic 31. Vista Sans alt black 32. Fedra Sans italic
If you’re not sick with ampersands, 33. Goudy heavyface 34. Democratica 35. Klavika medium italic
 If you guessed at least 15 fonts, you can enter the Type Geeks League!
coming together Check you answers below.
35 34 33 32 31
30 29 28 27 26
25 24 23 22 21
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64
Discretionary Ligatures
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65