TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Thu Nov 28 19:07:31 EST 2024

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Kickingbird [Seymour Caprice]

I like the description of this Catalan foundry at MyFonts: A foundry with a home in Catalunya. Kickingbird font work takes place in the quiet treehouse headquarters near a former Barcelona textile homestead. Font sketches are completed anywhere a notebook is handy... in the cafes of Gràcia, on the RENFE railway or outside the cloisters of Santa Maria del Mar. Font design inspiration comes from many sources. Faded broadside wall manifestoes in Ravel, broken floor tiles washed up on the shores of Vilassar de Mar or from old cigar boxes found at the Mercat de Sant Antoni. For those who know Barcelona, sweet memories. The designer, Seymour Caprice, created the vernacular typefaces Pop Manta (2009: Pop Manta has been described as "Morris Fuller Benton meets Roy Lichtenstein". Benton's 1903 neo-grotesque letter shapes set to a Pop Art beat.) and Locutorio (2011).

Typefaces from 2013: Bathysphere. This is a steampunk sans described as follows: This steam era typeface, created by Gustav Schroeder in 1884, found popular use on soap box labels and tobacco tins during its initial release. Then, later, a successful and stout revival of Gustav's face, named Othello, was carried out by Morris Fuller Benton in 1934, and the typeface's appeal widened to include items such as broadside posters featuring Boris Karloff's Frankenstein. After metal gave way to film type, Gustav's creation experienced a brief fashion moment in the 1960's, but then disappeared entirely, never re-surfacing as a full digital typeface. With the release of Bathysphere, the typeface comes full circle, having been completely redrawn from scratch using Gustav's original specimens. The new extended language support establishes the typeface firmly in the modern era, while Bathysphere's refinement of subtle blunt corners restores a deep-sea grace to this iron giant. However, Nick Curtis's Iago NF (2011) is also based on Othello, and is close in execution.

In 2016, Caprice designed Trop Magus and writes: Trop Magus is a rugged typeface following in the tradition of Ramon Llull and Jean Jannon. Llull's illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages inspired many later Alchemical texts in the Renaissance. And it was during this era, in 1615, that Jannon cut the matrices for Typi Academiae. Sixty-five astrological and alchemical symbols are included.

Klingspor link.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Kickingbird
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INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Commercial fonts (small outfits) ⦿ Type design in Catalunya ⦿ Popart typefaces ⦿ Steampunk typefaces ⦿ Astrological (or Zodiac) fonts ⦿ Typefaces for alchemy ⦿