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Feliciano Type Foundry [Mário Feliciano]

Feliciano Type was established in 2001 by Mario Feliciano. The foundry's main design studio in Lisbon, Portugal, with two additional offices, in Povoa de Varzim, Portugal, and in The Hague, Netherlands. Mário Feliciano (b. 1969, Caldas da Rainha, Portugal). Feliciano studied graphic design at IADE, Lisbon, and began working as a graphic designer at Surf Portugal magazine in 1993, where he stayed as art director until 2000. In 1994 he founded the design studio Secretonix in Lisbon. He has been heavily involved in type design since. In 2005, he joined the type coop Village. John Berry reviews Mario's oeuvre. His gorgeous creations include the following:

• Escrita ([T-26], a great calligraphic font), Gazz (1997, in Regular, Paint and Stencil styles), MexSans (1997, [T-26]), Aurea Ultra (1997, [T-26]), Bronz (1997, [T-26]), Cepo, Tpac family (1996, [T-26], under the name Mariachi Fontexperience), Strumpf (1994, comic book font family at Adobe), Caligrafia Debula (1997, PsyOps).
• Geronimo (2010, Enschedé; not to be confused with an earlier 2005 font at Canada Type called Geronimo) was started in 1997. He says: Geronimo is a historical revival, a digital interpretation of the types cut by Geronimo Gil in Spain in the eighteenth century. In fact it is not only the first digital version, but as far as I can tell it is also the first typeface family ever designed using Gil's types as a model. Working in Madrid, Geronimo Gil produced an enormous collection of very interesting and idiosyncratic types that can be found in Muestras de los Nuevos Punzones y Matrices para la Letra de Imprenta executados por Orden de S.M. y de su Caudal destinado a la Dotacion de su Real Biblioteca, a specimen from 1787. It shows titling and text typefaces both in italic and roman styles. His typefaces are not only very Spanish but they are also very sophisticated when compared to the ones of contemporaries such as Eudald Pradell and Antonio Espinosa. Geronimo's typefaces have a sense of modernism but they are not modern in a Bodoni or Didot kind of way. Yet they are actually very old style---particularly the lowercase letters--but with reduced contrast and a generous x-height. Even in the bigger cuts, ascenders and descenders are not long but appear to be even shorter than in text sizes. This creates a kind of rolling effect while reading.
• He is working on Espinosa, and Eudaldo (a typeface in the style of and apparently predating the successful Pradell by Andreu Balius Planelles).
• MyFonts sells BsLandscope, BsMonofaked (octagonal), BsKombat (1998), BsLooper (stencil), BsArchae, BsRetchnov (constructivist), BsMandrax (octagonal).
• Stella (2001, a humanist sans family with 26 weights). FTF Stella 2 is a 2005 upgrade of this family.
• The 14-weight Rongel serif family (1998-2004, updated in 2005 as FTF Rongel V2) is his best work. Feliciano states: an interpretation of the types showed in eighteenth century's Spanish catalogue: "Muestras de los Punzones y Matrices de Letra que se funde en el Obrador de la Imprenta Real, Madrid, Ano de 1799", and titled with the name Rongel, whom I suppose, cut them. Another example of these types can be found in "Las Eroticas, y Traduccion de Boecio" by Villegas and printed by António de Sancha in Madrid, 1774.
• Atanasia. Based on a 1771 example by Antinio Espinosa. That same semi-calligraphic example was also used by Carlos Winkow in his famous Elzeviriano Ibarra at Richard Gans's foundry.
• Salustiana. Based on a 1772 type by Antonio Espinosa. Ibarra used that typeface to print Salustio in 1772.
• Monteros (1998-). Based on a 1799 type at Imprenta Real in Madrid.
• In 2003, he won an award for the extensive FTF Morgan family at the TDC2 2003 competition (subfamilies have suffixes Avec, Sans, Sans Condensed, Big, Poster, Poster Avec and Tower). Morgan Sans was originally developed in 2001 with 44 weights. Each version of Morgan has multiple weights as well---for example, Morgan Big (2001) is a 12-weight titling family. Avec denotes Slab Serif.
• FTF Grotzec Headline Condensed (1998, created for Surf Portugal magazine), Grotzec More.
• FTF Merlo (1998-2009): an interpretation of the 18th century Spanish types cut by Ismal Merlo.
• FTF Flama (2002, a neutral sans in 50 styles). Flama is used, along with Greta Text and Sunday Times Modern, by the Sunday Times.
• FTF Garda Titling (1998-2005): an exceptional caps only family with both serifed and sans inscriptional (Trajan) letters.
• Eudald News (1998-2009, Vllg).
• Sueca (2009): a new typeface for the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, which writes: Sueca is a family of serif, slab, sans serif, text typeface and typeface for listing. The idea behind Sueca is to be able to talk with the same clear voice but be able to change the tone of voice in different section. During the work with developing Sueca, SvD had help from the design consultants Palmer Watson from Edinburgh, Scotland as the second opinion.
• Villeneuve (2010-2017).
• Marcin Antique and Marcin Typewriter (2017, Vllg). A slightly modulated contrasted, almost Peignotian, pair of typefaces, based on types shown in Gustave Mayeurs's 1894 and 1912 catalogs.
• Mazagan (2019, Vllg). Mazagan gets its inspiration from Marocaines, a novelty type reproduced in the Fonderie Mayeur Type Specimen (Paris, 1912). The face is also featured in other specimen books of the same period, including the FTF (Fonderie Typographique Française) specimens that show a narrower version.
• Crisol (2019). An art deco stencil influenced by Futura Black (1929) and Braggadocio (1930).
• Parnaso (2019), classified as neo-Elzevir.
• Optional (2020-2021). A contemporary elliptical high contrast sans serif available in five weights.
• Hiper Sans (2021). A wide sans in four styles.
• Korrodi (2020). A monolinear version of Otto Weisert's art nouveau typeface Arnold Böcklin (1904), named after Portuguese (Swiss-born) architect Ernesto Korrodi (1870-1944).
• Miletus Grotesk (2021). A contemporary grotesque inspired by Standard Gothic (Keystone Foundry, circa 1906).
• Parafina (2021). An art deco sans remotely inspired by a hand-lettered display-sized alphabet dating back to the mid-20th century by Spanish letterer Miguel Pedraza.
• Penina (2021). A single weight elegant and delicate serifed typeface that is based on some of the work of William Hugh Gordon (1860s-1920). Penina comes in three contrast grades: Small, Medium and High Contrast, plus a variable font.
• Rotep (2020; in Alvor and Bornes versions). A ten-style collection of all-caps typefaces inspired by the lettering used through the ROTEP (Roteiro Turistico e Economico de Portugal) map collection, a mid-century Portuguese map collection of almost 300 maps published for almost two decades.
• Grosa and Grosa Mono (2020-2021). A 12-style modernist sans serif designed originally as the main typeface for Feliciano's website.
• Sebenta (2020-2021). A take on bthe Clarendon genre.

Feliciano designed custom typefaces for the Portuguese weekly newspaper Expresso [a font called Expresso], for the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet [a font called Sueca], for the Spanish newspaper El Pais [a font called Majrit] and for Banco Espirito Santo [a font called BesSans].

Klingspor link. FontShop link. MyFonts interview.

View Mario Feliciano's typefaces.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Feliciano Type Foundry
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Monotype link
Klingspor Museum page
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INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Comic/cartoon fonts ⦿ Calligraphic typefaces ⦿ Type in Portugal ⦿ Commercial fonts (small outfits) ⦿ Stencil fonts ⦿ Octagonal typefaces ⦿ Type design and constructivism ⦿ Typefaces inspired by the Trajan column in Rome ⦿ Typewriter fonts ⦿ Stencil fonts ⦿ Art deco typefaces ⦿ Elzevir ⦿ Corporate typefaces ⦿ Clarendon ⦿ Variable fonts ⦿ Art deco typefaces ⦿ Art Nouveau typefaces ⦿