TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Fri Dec 13 01:09:29 EST 2024

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Mario de Libero

Italian type designer whose typefaces include:

• Cairoli Classic and Cairoli Now (2020, Italian Type). Cairoli was originally cast by Italian foundry Nebiolo in 1928, as a license of a design by Wagner & Schmidt, known as Neue Moderne Grotesk. Its solid grotesque design (later developed as Aurora by Weber and Akzidenz-Grotesk by Haas) was extremely successful---it anticipated the versatility of sans serif superfamilies thanks to its range of weights and widths, while still retaining some eccentricities from end-of the century lead and wood type. In 2020 the Italian Type team directed by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini and Mario De Libero produced a revival of Cairoli, extending the original weight and width range and developing both a faithful Classic version and a Now variant. The Cairoli Classic family keeps the original low x-height range, very display-oriented, and normalizes the design while emphasizing the original peculiarities like the hook cuts in curved letters, the high-waisted uppercase R and the squared ovals of the letterforms. Cairoli Now is developed with an higher x-height, more suited for text and digital use, and adds to the original design deeper inktraps and round punctuation, while slightly correcting the curves for a more contemporary look. Cairoli Variable has a weight and width axis.
• Etrusco Now (2020, Italian Type, with Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini). Etrusco Now is the revival of the lead typeface Etrusco originally cast by Nebiolo in the early 1920s. Heavily inspired by the design of the medium weight of Schelter & Giesecke's Grotesk, Nebiolo's Etrusco was an early precursor of the modernist grotesque superfamilies: a solid, multi-purpose workhorse typeface family that could solve a wide range of design problems with its range of widths and weights. When designing the new incarnation of Nebiolo's Etrusco, Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini and Mario de Libero decided to extend the original weight and width range. Etrusco Now has 42 styles; the original weights of the typeface have been collected in the Etrusco Classic subfamily. The lighter weights of the normal width have been heavily influenced by the modernist look of Recta, while the heavy condensed and compressed widths refer to the black vertical texture of Aldo Novarese's Metropol.
• In 2020, Cosimo Pancini, Andrea Tartarelli and Mario De Libero drew the 60-style Cocogoose Pro Narrows family, which features many compressed typefaces as well as grungy letterpress versions.
• Amazing Slab (2021). A 20-style typeface family designed by Francesco Canovaro, Mario de Libero (who did the inline versions), Sofia Bandini and Andrea Tartarelli, developed from the Amazing Grotesk family designed by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini. Characterized by outward-pointing top serifs, this typeface is designed for use in athletic lettering, logos and titling. Zetafonts writes: Mixing an Egyptian serif, low contrast approach with the curved endings and open shapes of humanist sans grotesques, it was developed to embody the energetic and friendly nature of the startup scene---a feeling of innovation, information and energy, with a desire for simplicity and straightforward communication. The basic design shapes for the font come from the strong personality of the extrabold letterforms drawn by Francesco Canovaro for his StartupItalia logo, that informed the display design of the four darkest weights (from medium to black).
• Heading Now (2021). A 160-strong titling font (+2 variable fonts) by Francesco Canovaro, Cosimo Pancini, Andrea Tartarelli and Mario De Libero that provides an enormous range of widths.
• Asgard (2021). A 72-strong experimental display sans superfamily with a 3-axis (weight, width, slant) variable font, designed by Francesco Canovaro, Andrea Tartarelli ans Mario De Libero.
• Swanstone (2021). Influenced by Theophile Beaudoire's Romana (1860), Miller & Richard's Modernised Old Style, and especially Raffaello Bertieri's Raffaello, that De Libero used as the starting point of his research in a contemporary retelling of these exuberant and sexily unsettling letterforms [quote by Zetafonts]. Zetafonts refers to the evil beauty of sharp serifs.
• Keratine (2021, Cosimo Pancini, Andrea Tartarelli and Mario De Libero) is a German expressionist typeface that exists in a space between these two traditions, mixing the proportions of humanistic typefaces with the strong slabs and fractured handwriting of blackletter calligraphy.

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INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type design in Italy ⦿ Variable fonts ⦿ Letterpress ⦿ Typefaces related to German expressionism ⦿