Certain Magazine is an independent curatorial platform that chronicles contemporary graphic design and celebrates handpicked design projects from around the world.
1. Decay White by Due studio
Designers: Massimiliano Vitti / Alessio Pompadura
Decay is a modern serif that brings the idiosyncratic philosophy of Decadent Movement into our darkest future mixing sinuous curves with eccentric pointed serifs and drastic ligatures between multiple and single letters. A typeface on the border between irrational aesthetics and rational function. The first release (Decay White, v1.0) comes in one weight and two different serif cut styles (Std, Alt) plus a variable font based on serif axis in which you can move and control the serif angles. Its contrasts make it ideal for display texts but it also works well for medium to small texts. With 450+ glyphs Decay was developed to support Latin Extended-A block.
Due Studio on
Perugia, Italy
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2. NB International Pro by Neubau Berlin
Designer: Stefan Gandl
NB International™ pays tribute to popular Grotesk typefaces of the ‘international style’ era. With a focus to detail and reference to traditional letterpress printing each glyph was designed with precise five units radius corners. The result is a softedged and warm characteristics that translates beautifully both in print and on screen. NB International™ comes in 7 styles Bold Bold Italic Regular Italic Light Light Italic and Mono
Neubau Berlin on
Berlin, Germany
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3. Gatwick by Pangram Pangram
Designer Morula Type by Valerio Monopoli
Gatwick is a wide incise sans that grows in funkiness as it gains weight.Vaguely vintage and fiercely syncopated it is the perfect choice when it comesto displaying names of kung fu movie stars pretentious yachts and sci-fi convention speakers.
Pangram Pangram Foundry on
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Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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4. Good Sans by Good Type Foundry
Designed by Good Type Foundry
Good Sans is a contemporary sans serif typeface inspired by mid-century neo-grotesques. It is available in 6 weights from Thin to Black with corresponding italics and geometric alternate characters/stylistic set.
Good Type Foundry on
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Oslo, Norway
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5. Domaine by Klim Type Foundry
Designer: Kris Sowersby
Domaine is a sharp elegant serif that blends traditional French and British genres into a contemporary aesthetic. Its curvaceous Latin detailing centres upon gently bracketed triangular serifs complemented by distinctive hooked terminals. Horizontal head serifs provide a calm stable ground for the figurative detailing to shine. Domaine’s italics are inspired by Deberny & Peignot’s Labeurs Ordinaires Série a subtle and assured complement to the romans.
Klim Type Foundry on
Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington / Aotearoa, New Zealand
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6. Sangblue Versailles by Swiss Typefaces
Designers: Ian Party / Swiss Typefaces
SangBleu Versailles could be described as an alternative Republic – a softer rounder sibling with wider capitals (see e.g. ‘P’ or ‘S’) and a gracefully curved leg for ‘R’ returning to the crescent-shaped bowls for ‘bdpq’. It caters to a similar set of applications but is distinguished by flatter less spikey top serifs and introduces lachrymal terminals for ‘acfry’ (but not ‘g’ or ‘s’). Most other glyphs are virtually identical in both collections – a kindredship that is particularly evident in the italics. The difference in rhythm and feel is nevertheless immense. Just like with Republic the four-weight span of Versailles includes a Book indicating that these two collections are made with text sizes in mind. A notch bolder than the Regular this weight can be employed to finetune the typographic color.
Swiss Typefaces on
Vevey, Switzerland
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7. Garnett by Sharp Type
Designer: Connor Davenport
Garnett is the first typeface designed by Connor Davenport. The evolution of it’s design has tracked the development of his craft, beginning as an incredibly ambitious and comprehensive drawing exercise, and culminating in a typeface both rooted in history and imbued with the perfectionism and eccentric personality of its creator. Garnett is a sturdy, contemporary grotesk that glows with the affable quirkiness of 19th-century metal type.
Sharp Type on
New York, United States of America
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8. Ambit by CoType Foundry
Designer: Mark Bloom
Ambit is an eccentric and unique sans serif font inspired by early grotesques but adapted for the 21st century. Its most striking details are the curly “f” and “r” (don’t worry, there are simple alternate versions available via Stylistic Set 02). Shapes like “c” “C” “s” and “S” seem to curl in onto themselves giving this type family a very distinctive look. Also noteworthy are the “R” and “K” which feature curly legs.
Ambit features 7 weights (from Thin to Black) each with oblique italics. Featuring a Latin Extended character set Ambit covers most languages written with the Latin script.
OpenType features include ligatures and a full range of lining and old-style numerals each with tabular versions. Each weight also comes with case-sensitive punctuation and three stylistic sets giving access to alternate letter shapes. The first set includes single-storey “a” ”g” and an alternate “y” the second set gives access to less curly versions of “f” and “r” which might be more appropriate for setting text at small sizes the third set features an alternate “Q” design.
CoType Foundry on
London, United Kingdom
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9. Radial by Gradient
Designer: Milos Mitrovic
Radial is an emotionally charged geometric-turned-humanist sans serif of 5 weights and infinite variable sub-instances. It’s informal geometry and wide span of tonal variety spreads over conventional barriers of traditional sans-serif typography. It resonates in dramatic personality range that performs flawlessly on both muscular display and small font sizes. The variable font support comes naturally to it as it’s fundamental geometry principles are built upon motion in mind. Weight and slant are two variation axes that can be controlled simultaneously in the variable version.
Gradient on
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Bergen, Norway
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10. BT Brick by BurnType
Designed by BurnType
BT Brik is a zero bullshit type family available in three weights and two styles. Its blatant brick-like construction is honest coarse and unapologetic. The family is littered with hard angles chunky corners and exaggerated ink traps for maximum weight and impact at any scale. BT Brik was crafted with love and a New Yawk attitude by BurnType 2018.
BurnType on
New York, United States of America
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11. Monument Grotesk by Dinamo
Designers: Kasper-Florio / Larissa Kasper / Rosario Florio
Monument Grotesk owes its point de départ to a few contours Kasper-Florio stumbled upon online in 2013 in Palmer & Rey’s New Specimen Book 1884 on page 81. It relied on a sturdy and compact skeleton high vertical contrast and surprisingly sharp end strokes. The “o” “c” and “e” with their squarish inner counters pressing against their outer parts or the elongated “r” in particular gave reason for a couple of screenshots and later a digitisation.
Since founding their studio in 2013 Kasper-Florio have masterfully worked on commissions from the Swiss cultural design landscape and been awarded the prestigious Most Beautiful Swiss Books prize in 2013 2016 and 2017. Their output is conceptually to the point awfully consistent and print-fetishistic – with Monument Grotesk serving as their house typeface almost exclusively.
Dinamo on
Switzerland
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12. FK Grotesk by Florian Karsten
Designer: Florian Karsten
FK Grotesk is a universal yet distinctive type family. Completely redrawn in 2019, it now ranges from thin to black weight and corresponding italic and mono styles. FK Grotesk was originally designed in 2014 when we were lacking a typeface we could easily modify and use within our projects. Since then it was persistently tested in various media outputs and eventually released as a first-ever FK typeface. Together with FK Roman, it is a universal tool that is usable across various media applications.
FK Grotesk supports Latin Extended-A character set (i.e. Western European, Central European and Southeastern European languages) as well as Vietnamese language and several OpenType features.
Florian Karsten on
Brno, Czech Republic
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13. Surt by Blaze Type
Designer: Matthieu Salvaggio
This typeface family inspired by Norse mythology and Scandiavian Architecture draws a bridge between a geometric sans and a human process in the whole shape design.As such each glyph has been designed based on a similar structure. Circles ovals rectangles and squares compose the basic ground on which the font is built.
Blaze Type on
Lyon, France
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14. Sporting Grotesque by Velvetyne Type Foundry
Designer: Lucas Le Bihan
This typeface family inspired by Norse mythology and Scandiavian Architecture draws a bridge between a geometric sans and a human process in the whole shape design.As such each glyph has been designed based on a similar structure. Circles ovals rectangles and squares compose the basic ground on which the font is built.
Velvetyne Type Foundry on
France
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15. Labil Grotesk by Kometa Typefaces
Designer: Christian Jánský
The juxtaposition of the balance inherent in sans-serif letterforms and the notion of text being affected by the laws of gravity is a central theme for KOMETA’s first release. Labil Grotesk, an enfant terrible of the contemporary neo-grotesque genre with its subtly, yet comically exaggerated proportions.
Kometa Typefaces on
Czech Republic
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16. Sprat by Collletttivo
Designer: Ethan Nakache
Sprat is a sharp serif variable font, developed on two axes: width and weight. Inspired by an old lettering from Eric Gill, it features long sharps serifs, high contrast and round curves. Its appearance changes a lot between styles, the thin ones have more of a hard and aggressive look, the blacks are smoother but keep their attitude. Its use is mainly suitable for titling, posters and logos but depending on the weight Sprat could also work in a mid-sized body text.
Collletttivo on
Milan, Italy
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17. Typefesse by Velvetyne Type Foundry
Designer: Océane Juvin
Typefesse is a playful butt-shaped typeface in which the letters are rendered in such a way that the reading is done through the folds of the body
The design of Typefesse is motivated by the surprising combination of two vocabularies that of the body and that of the alphabet. The drawn alphabet reveals contortionist and playful creatures that either hide inside of it or that expose themselves to it. Is it the letter that defines the bodies’ shapes or is it the other way around?
These creatures play with the viewer’s gaze and fight against the lettershapes by disturbing their readability with their exuberance. The alphabet is laid bare and readers become spectator-voyeurs in spite of themselves. Typefesse is a typeface that generates a confusion between reading seeing and spying. It’s a titling font although it has a surprising readability at small body sizes. Its three styles have been named in reference to the moon and its mysteries.
Velvetyne Type Foundry on
France
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18. Güggeli by Fabio Biesel
Designer: Fabio Biesel
Güggeli is a slightly slanted sans-serif typeface. The goal was to create a contemporary typeface with some unique and slanted letterforms based on the principle of unawares. Güggeli is available in four styles: Regular bold regular-round and bold-round. Each style has 500 glyphs with latin language support accents and a row of alternates.
Fabio Biesel on
Ravensburg, Germany
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19. Tactic Regular by Antoine Elsensohn
www.antoine-elsensohn.tumblr.com
Designer: Antoine Elsensohn
Tactic was designed between 2016 and 2017 as a single cut by Antoine Elsensohn. The general shapes are inspired by classical geometric fonts. The idea was also to find some grotesque feelings, with a generous x-height. The drawing is quite basic but has details that appear in large and are forgotten in small. Thanks to this, the Tactic can be easily used for visual identities, from a gigantic poster to the text of a program/book.
Antoine Elsensohn on
Paris, France
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20. Archivo by Omnibus-Type Foundry
Designers: Héctor Gatti & The Omnibus-Type team
Archivo was designed to be used simultaneously in print and digital platforms. The technical and aesthetic characteristics of the font are both crafted for high performance typography. It was designed by Héctor Gatti to be used simultaneously in print and online platforms and supports over 200 world languages. Archivo is a grotesque sans serif typeface family from Omnibus-Type. It was originally designed for highlights and headlines. This family is reminiscent of late nineteenth century American typefaces. It includes single Black weight and Narrow styles and was derived from Chivo.
Omnibus-Type Foundry on
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Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Curated by Filippos Fragkogiannis
Founder and curator of Certain Magazine
filipposkogiannis.com
Tag:Certain Magazine, Type, Type Foundry, Types selection, Typography