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LUC DEVROYE

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The best typefaces of 2013: Luc's selection

This is my own selection of the best commercial and non-commercial typefaces published in 2013, grouped by category.

Text typefaces: Aria Text (Rui Abreu, R-Type). A magazine or newspaper type in three optical sizes of six styles each. Essay (Stefan Ellmer, Type Together). Still under development, I can't resist adding this very readable text font to the best-of-2013 list. Louize (Matthieu Cortat). Six styles, about 6000 glyphs in all. This is a major revival of the Elzevirian style Augustaux type by Louis Perrin, 1846-1855. A slightly flared version is called Louize Display. Desire (Charles Borges de Oliveira). A good old condensed typeface for book covers, editorial work, packaging, advertising, branding and more. Quars Black, a weight of Quars by Pilar Cano and Ferran Milan, Letterjuice. Urge Text (Dave Rowland). Damien, the graduation typeface family of Lukas Schneider at KABK in Den Haag. Richler (Nick Shinn). Originally designed in 2001 to commemorate Mordecai Richler, it was released to the public in 2013. FF Dora by Slavka Paulikova. Karol (Daniel Sabino, Type O Tones). Mauritius (Patrick Griffin and Kevin King, Canada Type). A revival of Georg Trump's last typeface, the transitional Mauritius (or: Barock Antiqua; 1967, Weber). Bridone (Josep Patau Bellart). This is a didone typeface family that takes elements from Victorian British slab typefaces to add a dash of old charm and sturdiness.

Sans typefaces: PF Square Sans Condensed Pro (Panos Vassiliou, Parachute). Canaro (Rene Bieder). Large counters, no spurs, simplicity and under-the-radar charm, ideal for information design. Clear Sans (Neil Summerour). Unclassifiable, semi-geometric, appealing. A good choice for web use. Divenire (by FF3300 and Molotro Type Design). This typeface was commissioned for the identity of the Italian Democratic Party. Sensato (Jasper De Waard, Bureau Roffa). A humanist almost flared sans family. A few days after its publication, Sensato had to be renamed---the new name is Proza. MTT Milano (Mattia Bonanomi). Inspired by the Milanese typographic heritage and the Futurist movement behind it. FF Mark (by Hannes von Döhren, Christoph Koeberlin and the FontFont team). Equip (Dieter Hofrichter) and Equip Condensed. A geometric sans in two families of 16 styles each. Mandag-Fredag (Maximilian Huber; buy it at Ten Dollar Fonts). Freight Neo Pro (Joshua Darden, Garage fonts). Westeinde (by Adam Katyi). This geometric sans is Adam Katyi's graduation typeface at the KABK in Den Haag. Brisbane: a wayfinding sans created by Troy Leinster for his graduation project at KABK. Gentona (2013, Rene Bieder) is a neutral neo-grotesque sans that has 18 styles/weights. Niveau Grotesk (Hannes von Döhren). Bicyclette (Nikola Kostic). A slightly rounded sans with small x-height and elegant proportions. Tenso by Jos Buivanga. A lively humanist sans family. Core Sans NR (Hyun-Seung Lee, Dae-Hoon Hahm, Min-Joo Ham). This large soft-edged typeface family has a few oddities like very short descenders but should be useful in a variety of situations. Core Sans G (Hyun-Seung Lee, Dae-Hoon Hahm, Min-Joo Ham). The G sans for geometric. This is my favorite typeface family from S-Core. Mettro Pro (Olivier Gourvat) is an elliptical style sans family. The family was renamed Metronic Pro after a few weeks. Rams (Ramiz Guseynov). Azo Sans (Rui Abreu, R Type) and Azo Sans Uber, its heavy headline partner. Estragon (Johannes Steil, Stabenfonts). This humanist sans has Venetian touches and small uppercase characters for use in languages such as German. Acronym (Michael Jarboe, Reserves). Brandon Text (Hannes von Döhren).

Type system: Duplicate (Sans, Slab, Ionic) (Christian Schwartz and Miguel Reyes, Commercial Type). Audree (Typonine's Nikola Djurek and Marko Hrastovec): a parametrized tour de force with hundreds of type styles. Hermecito (Ari Rafaeli, AR Types) has 46 styles including phonetic, mathematical, Cyrillic, Vietnamese and Greek subsets geared towards readability in small print. Unimed (Sans, Slab, Serif): a large bespoke type system by Eduilson Coan for the Brazilian health care company, Unimed. Herman (Rogier van der Sluis, Geen Bitter). A layered monospaced elliptical signage family.

Architectural typefaces: Landmark (Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones, HFJ).

Garalde: Portrait (Berton Hasebe, Commercial Type). A large family, with inline, that modernizes, purifies and sharpens the French Renaissance style. Henry (Matthieu Cortat, Nonpareille). This is a wonderful revival of a 1914 typeface by Henri Parmentier. Quant (2013, Dieter Hofrichter).

Typewriter typefaces: Courier Prime (Alan Dague-Greene).

Display typefaces: Trump Gothic Pro and Trump Soft Pro (Patrick Griffin). A revival and major optimization of Georg Trump's Signum (1955) and Stanislav Marso's Kamene. Elettra (Leonardo Di Lena). A Titling typeface with mostly but not entirely didone features. Spoloch (Denis Izotov). Progressiva (a sans family by Ricardo Esteves Gomes). VF Didot (Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz), a custom Didot for Vanity Fair, based on Didot specimen of Molé le Jeune. Streets of London. A lapidary typeface family by Boris Kochan and Robert Strauch of Lazydogs Type Foundry, based on David Kindersley's street signs in the city of London. New Paris (Swiss Typefaces). A didone family. Domaine Text and Display (by Kris Sowersby, KLIM). A wedge serif family with 48 weights, on a didone body. The Display and Fine subfamilies are pure fashion mag delights. Curtis, the calligraphic and text typeface family by Bernd Volmer. This is his his graduation typeface at KABK, Den Haag. Core Circus (Hyun-Seung Lee, Dae-Hoon Hahm, Min-Joo Ham). A layered type system. Woodstik (Pedro Lobo, Uppertype). A layered wood / letterpress style typeface family. I will also nominate Pedro Lobo's other layered 3d typeface system, Player. Capline (Jeremy Tankard). A bilined and inline all-caps layered typeface system. Le Havre Layers (Jeremy Dooley). A layered art deco typeface system. Houston (Alexey Frolov). Styla Pro (Joao Henrique Lopes, URW++): a flared romantic sans with a gorgeous small caps weight. Selenic (Paul Dersidan). Taxi (Patrick Seymour). Tushi (Ossi Gustafsson). A brush face.

Sketched or poster typefaces: Kafka (Florent Texier). Harper (Jennifer DeAngelis, Design 23). Garda (Sebastian Cabaj). Sniff (Joan Barjau, Typeotones). Based on the 1995 script Joan used in his cartoons for the Spanish satirical magazine El Papus. Haber Squiggle (Terry Koppel). Festo (Ewen Prigent). Kurkuma (David Kerkhoff, Hanoded). Pumpkin Soup (David Kerkhoff, Hanoded). Galangal (David Kerkhoff, Hanoded). Karl (Andreas Gustavsson, Jagjavi).

Fat typeface didone: Model 4F Unicase (Sergiy Tkachenko). Die Puppe (Ali Ogilvie). An outstanding Argentinian student project in the fat didone category. ATC Rosemary (Alex Sheyn, Avondale Type Co). Poster (Inigo Jerez, Type O Tones). Vera (Andrés M. Briganti). Salomé (Atipo).

Technical sans: Herrmann (Antje Driemeyer).

Scripts: Australis Pro Swash (Francisco Galvez). XXII Yonia (Doubletwo Studios). A yummy signage script. Tulipan (Felipe Calderon). Al Fresco (Laura Worthington). Ameglia (Carine de Wandeleer, Eurotypo). Odesta (Ondrej Job, URTD). Mercy (Eduardo Recife). A set of Spencerian scripts and ornaments. Chameleon (Hanneke Classen). A 16-style family of script typefaces with the possibility of layering. Caligo (Aron Jancso, Die Gestalten). A calligraphic script with flared serifs. Asterism (Dathan Boardman and Molly Jacques Erickson). Erotica (by Maximiliano Sproviero). A copperplate calligraphic script of extreme contrast and award winner at TDC 2013. String (Maximiliano Sproviero): a hairline Spencerian script. Ondise (Jessica McCarty, Magpie Paper Works). Cantoni Pro (Debi Sementelli). Ignorance (Michael Parson). Zulia (by Joluvian and Alejandro Paul). A gorgeous brushy packaging script. Lust Script (Neil Summerour). A high-contrast curvy fashion script. Aparo (Pedro Leal and/or Dino dos Santos, DS Type). Calligraphy, flair and penmanship, all in one. Cal Cursive Roman (Lazar Dimitrijevic). A pure calligraphic cursive script. Harlowe (Laura Worthington). A rough-edged quirky script, later renamed to Harlean. Voyage (Emil Karl Bertell). A vintage script. Medusa (Ramiro Espinoza, Re-Type). Bellissima (Alejandro Paul, Sudtipos). Southern Aire (Mans Grebäck).

Dingbats: Wayfinding Sans Symbols (Andreas Wohlleben, FDI).

Fashion mag typefaces: Solyaris (by Christoph Ruprecht). Hoban (Galen Lawson, CV Type).

Slab Serif: Roble (Daniekl Hernandez). Novecento Slab (Jan Tonellato). This is a slab version of Novecento that comes in uppercase only. Rieux (Neil Patel). Madame (Przemek Hoffer). A triplet of thin slab serifs for glamour mags. Nexa Slab (Svetoslav Simov). Sabel (Jan-Christian Bruun). Fatum (Sveta Morozova, Paratype). Cyntho Slab Pro (Andriy Konstantynov). Knubi (Matt Vergotis). Quadon (Rene Bieder). More elliptical and contemporary. Aldogizio (Thierry Gouttenègre, Tegetype). A slab serif in the classical Egyptian sense. Sanchez Slab (Daniel Hernandez, Latinotype).

Art Deco: Oskar (Paul van der Laan, Bold Monday). A superb collection of caps only display sans and inline typefaces based on art deco shopfront and architectural lettering seen in The Netherlands. Biko (Marco Ugolini). MB Deco (Ben Mecke-Burford). New Art Deco (Patrick Seymour). Rispa (Konrad Bednarski): one of the few free fonts to make the cut. Arbotek (José Manuel Urós) for its grand contrast between the hairline (Thin) and the ultra-fat (Ultra). Arthur Cabinet (Andreas Stötzner).

Copperplate: Niveau Serif (Hannes von Döhren).

Multilingual typefaces: Teras (Selma Losch, MATD program of the University of Reading). A lapidary Latin base family and several styles of Arabic, Tamil and Greek. Salom (Igor Labudovic, MATD program at the University of Reading). A superfamily that covers Latin, Arabic and Hebrew, and the perfect name. Makeda (Liron Lavi Turkenich, MATD program at the University of Reading). A balanced take on Latin, Amharic (Ethiopic) and Hebrew. Laowai Song (Roman Wilhelm). Showing the way how romans can be mixed with Chinese ideographs.

Blackletter: Black Diamond (Sanchit Sawaria). Berliner Fraktur (Giuseppe Salerno). Fette Fabel (by Lukas Klimmek). German expressionism and new ideas for blackletter.

Wood type revivals: Gothic Round (Miguel Sousa, Hamilton Wood Type). Quentin (Sasha Iudashkin). A playful B-movie take on old Italian wood style posters done for his graduation project at BHSAD in Moscow.

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Best typefaces of 2013 ⦿ Articles on type design written by Luc Devroye ⦿