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ABOUT

Borutta (or: Duce Type) [Mateusz Machalski]

Borutta (or Duce Type) is the creative studio of über-talented Warsaw-based designer Mateusz Machalski (b. 1989), a graduate of Wydziale Grafiki ASP in 2014, and of Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. His oeuvre is simply irresistible, charming and a worthy representative of the Polish poster style---witness Alergia (2016), Magiel Pro (2017) and Madiso (2017).

He is the creator of the blackletter-inspired typeface Raus (2012), which also could pass for a Cyrillic simulation font. It was possibly made with Pawel Wypych. He also made Kebab (2012, a fat caps face), Duce (2012, art deco: withdrawn from MyFonts after Charles Borges complained that it was a rip-off of his own Gloria), Fikus (2012), Woodie (2012, a condensed rough wood type face), Polon (2012), Aurora (2012, a German expressionist poster face), Musli (monoline connected script), HWDP (2012, poster font), Wieczorek Script (2012, hand-printed), Hamlet (2012, a sword and dagger typeface, renamed to Prince), Caryca (2012, Cyrillic simulation, done with Pawel Wypych), Bezerro (2012, poster face), Bitmach (2012, pixel face), Meat Script (2012, a caps only market signage brush script), Krac (2012, a tall poster font), Hermes (2012: Ten Dollar Fonts), Berg (2012, a roughened blackletter face), Buldog (2012), Dudu (2012, tall condensed face).

In 2012, Polish designer Wojciech Freudenreich and Mateusz Machalski combined forces to design the techno typeface SYN, which is based on an earlier De Stijl-genre alphabet by Freudenreich. In 2020, they released the free typeface family SYN Nova, which includes additional styles and a variable font.

Machalski likes old wood types, which inspired him in 2012 to publish a wood type collection of weathered display typefaces: Condom, Hype, Whore, Banger, Buka. Elo (2012) and Duce (2012) are fat weathered wood types.

Typefaces made in 2013: Wood Type Collection 2 (which includes Brie, Kaszti, Mader, Modi, Rena, Roast, Ursus), Zigfrid (headline face), Salute (letterpress style), Benito (a letterpress or geometric wood typeface), Bojo (heavy wood style poster face), Picadilly (heavily inktrapped open counter sans family), GIT (a manly headline sans), Lito (an eroded poster typeface), Haine (vernacular caps), Aneba (an organic sans family, renewed in 2016 as Aneba Neue), Vitali (sans), Korpo Serif (slab serif), Korpo Sans (elliptical family; +Greek, +Cyrillic).

Typefaces from 2014: Adagio Slab, Adagio Serif, Adagio Sans (a superfamily not to be confused with the 2006 typeface Adagio Pro by Profonts), Adagio Sans Script, Adagio Serif Script, Adagio Slab Script, Tupperware Pro. Tupper Pro (42 styles) was designed by Mateus Machalski and the RR Donnelley team.

Typefaces from 2015: Tupper Serif (again with RR Donnelley: a custom superfamily for pairing Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew an Greek; for Tupperware), Vitali Neue, Legato Serif, Corpo Serif, Corpo Sans, Zigfrid, Picadilly (a great ink-trapped sans typeface family with an erect g).

Typefaces from 2016: Nocturne (just like Magiel, this free typeface was designed as part of the Warsaw Types project: this wedge serif text typeface is inspired by the lettering on stone tablets commemorating the victims of World War II, and prewar Jewish shop signage), Favela (an experimental, geometric sans, for headline and fashion magazine use), Gangrena (a weathered typeface system co-designed with Ania Wielunska), Migrena Grotesque (earlier named Enigma Grotesque but probably in view of a clash with the name Enigma used by Jeremy Tankard changed to the appropriately named Migrena Grotesque), Alergia Grotesk (a take on the classical geometric grotesque style, in 60 weights, for Latin, Greek and Cyrillic), Alergia Remix (a hipster / hacker / Futura take on Alergia Grotesque).

Typefaces from 2017: Nocturne Serif, Massimo (copperplate semi-serif influenced by New York; originally called Madison, they were frced to change the name to Massimo), Magiel Pro (a geometric display family influenced by Polish banners from the Russian occupatuon era, 1945-1989; it has a charming Black and a hairline, and covers Cyrillic too).

A particularly intriguing project in 2017 was Bona, which set out to revive and extend Andrzej Heidrich's old typeface Bona. Mateusz Machalski contacted him for advice on the revival project. The resulting typeface families were published by and are available from Capitalics. The centerpiece is the warm and wonderful text typeface Bona Nova. It is supplemented by the extreme contrast typeface family Bona Title and the inline typeface family Bona Sforza. Participants in the project also include Leszek Bielski, Ania Wielunska and Michal Jarocinski. Google Fonts link for Bona Nova. Github link for Bona Nova.

Typefaces from 2018: Bilbao (an innovative blend of sans, slab and mono genres in 18 styles), Cukier (a logo font family inspired by the vernacular typography from Zanzibar).

In 2018, Mateusz Machalski, Borys Kosmynka and Przemek Hoffer co-designed the six-style antiqua typeface family Brygada 1918, which is based on a font designed by Adam Poltawski in 1918. Free download from the Polish president's site. The digitization was made possible after Janusz Tryzno acquired the fonts from Poltawski's estate. The official presentation of the font took place in the Polish Presidential Palace, in presence of the (right wing, ultra-conservative, nationalist, law and order) President of Poland, Andrzej Duda. Calling it a national typeface, the president assured the designers that he would use Brygada 1918 in his office. It will be used for diplomas and various other official forms. In 2021, with Anna Wielunska added to the list of authors, it was added as a variable font covering Latin, Greek and Cyrillic to Google Fonts. Github link.

Typefaces from 2019: Gaultier (a sans family that is based on the styles of Claude Garamond, Robert Granjon and Eric Gill---a serifless Garamond and Gill Sans hybrid; includes a fine hairline weight), Aioli (a commissioned type system), Promo (a rounded sans family), Sigmund (the main style is inspired by the Polish road signage typeface designed in 1975 by Marek Sigmund: With the increase of weight, Sigmund turns into a geometric display in the spirit of vernacular typography from the signs of Polish streets; followed in 2022 by Sigmund Pro (15 styles)), Podium Sharp (based on Dudu, this 234-style family is a hybrid between different old Polish modular and geometric woodtypes such as Rex, Blok and Bacarat; note that 234=2x9x13, so fonts are numbered in Univers style from 1,1 (ultra-compressed hairline) to 9,13 (ultra expanded heavy)), Harpagan (an experiment in reverse and unusual stresses).

Typefaces from 2020: Tyskie (a custom sans for Tyskie Magazine), Habibi Display (an ultra-fat display typeface inspired by bold Arabic headline typefaces), Podium Soft, Afronaut (an experimental Africa-themed font). In 2020, the team at Capitalics in Warsaw, namely Mateusz Machalski, Borys Kosmynka and Ania Wielunska, revived Adam Poltawski's Antykwa Poltawskiego (1928-1931) as Poltawski Nowy.

Typefaces from 2021: Alfabet (a 20-style Swiss-inspired sans with narrow connectors, with support for Latin (+Vietnamese), Greek and Cyrillic scripts, including Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Serbian forms), Change Serif (a 10-style Robert Granjon-genre garalde designed as a part of Mateusz Machalski's PhD project, carried out in 2015-2021; the main goal was to create a typeface allowing for the typesetting of complex humanistic texts, containing many historical letterforms; each font contains 4000 glyphs and covers Latin, Cyrillic and Greek), Engram (a soft geometric sans family in 22 styles; close to his own earlier font, Enigma, 2016).

Typefaces from 2022: Yalla (inspired by Arabic headline type).

Home page. Behance link. Personal Behance link. Behance link for Duce Type. Another link. Fontsquirrel link.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Borutta (or: Duce Type)
 [Buy fonts]
 [Designer info]
Fontspring link [Buy fonts]
Monotype link
Monotype foundry link
Behance page
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INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ The Polish type scene ⦿ Blackletter fonts ⦿ Handwriting fonts ⦿ Wood Type ⦿ Pixel/bitmap fonts ⦿ Cyrillic simulation fonts ⦿ Signage typefaces ⦿ Commercial fonts (small outfits) ⦿ Typefaces related to German expressionism ⦿ Brush script typefaces ⦿ Art deco typefaces ⦿ Greek/Coptic ⦿ Cyrillic type design ⦿ Letterpress ⦿ Hebrew font links ⦿ Wood Type ⦿ Hacker fonts ⦿ Very thin (hairline sans) typefaces ⦿ Corporate typefaces ⦿ Hipster fonts ⦿ Garalde or Garamond typefaces ⦿ Very thin (hairline sans) typefaces ⦿ Experimental type ⦿ De Stijl and type design ⦿ Sites with only a few free fonts ⦿ Variable fonts ⦿