New Additions: March 2025
31st March 2025
From the hundreds of fonts we add to the Identifont database every month we chose a selection of the most interesting recent additions, and interviewed the designers about their approach to each design:
Petra Dočekalová and Peter Biľak – Dash (Typotheque)
Dash is a very natural-looking handwriting font with four styles, three widths, and five weights. Where did the idea for the typeface originate?
The idea emerged a long time ago, while Peter was reading the book “Understanding Comics” by Scott McCloud, and came across this illustration. Since then he was looking for an excuse to design a typeface based on the concept of personalised/generic models of writing; something that on one extreme is very specific, and gradually can become very generic.
He came to me with the idea of a script typeface that could be truly complex and fully harness the potential of variable technology – not just by changing in weight, but primarily in expression, styles, and connections. I immediately loved it! The goal was to create a versatile typeface that could also become highly sophisticated.
We initially started with the idea of nine masters, but as we progressed we ended up with 16 masters and four variable axes.
An interesting feature of Dash that I haven’t seen in a handwriting typeface before is that there are four styles representing the writing speed: Dash Casual, Dash Slow, Dash Fast, and Dash Fastest. What gave you this idea, and where does Dash Casual fit in the sequence of slow to fastest?
It was always an idea to have a variable typeface with gradual progression, as described above, but it was not clear how to translate this into the realm of type design. The idea of speed seemed to be quite an adequate solution.
As a letterer, I often work with speed when handwriting. It’s a key factor that significantly affects the precision of individual letterforms and the overall character of the final lettering. So for Peter and me, it was obvious to incorporate an axis that could replicate this effect. Dash Casual fits probably somewhere slightly above slow in the sequence.
What is the basis for the handwriting in Dash? Is it your own handwriting, or did you base it on research from several writing samples?
For the generic part, we did a lot of research, collected hundreds of samples of handwriting for individuals across the world, and researched primer books for teaching writing how they actually correlate with the actual handwriting over time. We tried recording the time it took to write the sample sheets we collected, but that turned out to be less useful.
So the fastest writing is based on my own handwriting with marker on paper. Digitization and the entire process of font making inevitably reshape the final curves, often evolving through countless adjustments. All the corrections and ideas make it a true collaborative typeface.
I understand that Dash automatically switches to the preferred forms of certain letters based on the language being used, such as a ‘q’ with a cross bar rather than a loop in Spanish. How does this work?
Technically, it is simple: we used OpenType layout features, and Localised forms, so when a text is tagged as Czech in an application such as Adobe InDesign, it will use the forms that a Czech reader would expect where they differ from a standard model. In script typefaces, handwriting is deeply influenced by local traditions – how people write and read varies across cultures. For instance, the handwritten forms of letters like ‘p’, ‘t’, or ‘S’ in Czech school cursive are almost unreadable to Americans.
The hard part was to collect reliable information to know which forms to use, and we conducted a large-scale study, collecting samples across 46 countries, presenting them to people of the same region and also a very distant one, to understand what people expect to see.
Since typefaces are meant to be used globally, we need to incorporate an understanding of local writing preferences, which is something I truly love about Dash.
Moritz Kleinsorge – Werkdruck (Identity Letters)
You’ve written that you designed Werkdruck as a companion to your sans-serif font Werksatz, released in 2021. How did you decide what style of serif to choose as the companion?
It was a question of period authenticity to me. Werksatz was inspired by typefaces like Akzidenz Grotesk (1898) and Venus (1907), which were designed around 1900; so I aimed for a serif typeface that paid homage to the visual conventions from around this time.
The closest font I can find to compare with Werkdruck on Identifont is Egizio, Aldo Novarese’s take on Clarendon. Was that an influence on Werkdruck?
Thanks for pointing that out – I didn’t know this typeface until now, but I can see the similarities. Novarese’s approach to the Clarendon genre is inspiring. The original Clarendon, on the other hand, was indeed an influence on Werkdruck, as were some typefaces of the Century series to a certain degree – like Century Schoolbook.
In Werksatz the italic is an oblique version of the regular style, but in Werkdruck the italic is a true italic, with script-style letter shapes for the ‘a’, ‘f’, ‘g’, ‘k’, ‘w’, and ‘y’, and exit strokes on letters such as the ‘d’, ‘i’, ‘l’, ‘m’, and ‘n’. Why did you decide on this approach?
Werksatz was always supposed to be released as a single variable font, so it was obvious to opt for an axis-dependent, optically corrected oblique instead of a true italic (like the one I created for another of my sans-serifs, Faible).
Werkdruck, on the other hand, is a classic serif font, a genre which historically didn’t have the convention of slanting uprights for emphasis but instead accrued from the combination of upright and italic forms as two independently developed concepts.
Therefore, I decided to go for a true italic and created a family of static fonts, which also meant deciding against a variable font.
I personally like to go the extra mile of designing a true italic. However, my customers often demand a simple slanted version. The true italic form of the ampersand seems to cause problems in particular.
Did you choose the names of Werkdruck and Werksatz to signify that they are intended as industrial workhorses, for applications such as book, web, and newspaper typesetting?
The first version of Werkdruck, a Lab pre-release, was released quite soon after Werksatz. The two similar-sounding names were to signify that both typefaces belong together, even if their skeletons and design principles were obviously different.
Both names, Werkdruck and Werksatz, refer to honest, down-to-earth material and techniques in traditional German printing craftmanship. The names were to underline the versatility and modesty of the superfamily. I also liked the proximity to the English ‘work’.
By the way, naming a typeface and writing the copy for it is not my favorite part of the type business, so I gladly hand this over to people who have a knack for it. My contribution mostly boils down to saying ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to individual proposals.
Do you have any plans to extend the family?
Werkdruck is quite wide, so I’m thinking of designing a Condensed version very soon. That way, it will work even better with long copy (which was the idea behind the likes of Century Expanded). I’m not done with the ‘Werk’ fonts, yet!
Dani Senso - Velma (Dani Senso)
Velma is a sans-serif typeface with strokes that look carved or moulded. What inspired you to design it?
Velma began as a personal project after I completed my typography studies at the Eina Design School in Barcelona ten years ago. After creating a couple of styles, I put the project on hold because it felt too ambitious for me. After gaining more experience by collaborating with Latinotype I decided to revisit the project more professionally.
Regarding its design, the intention was not initially to create carved strokes. My original inspiration came from the idea of asymmetry, always within a regular structure. I was drawn to typefaces that created tension in their counterforms while maintaining a readable appearance. I specifically sought this dynamism in the strokes, in their uneven modulation. That is, if the stroke’s outer part was curved, I would make the inner part more angular, and vice versa, to create characters with striking internal shapes while keeping a classic sans-serif base.
Unlike geometric typefaces, Velma has no straight lines or pure circular arcs. Did that make it harder to design while still achieving a readable appearance?
Well, the goal was to break away from that regularity, and it was fun to do so. However, the design process was straightforward since the idea was to make each stroke's internal shape different from its external one. The rule was to find something different in every part of the letter while staying within the proportions of a humanist sans typeface.
The closest fonts I can find on Identifont to compare with Velma are Fenland by Jeremy Tankard and Massif by Steve Matteson. Did these or any other fonts influence Velma’s design?
The typefaces that influenced me the most, due to their angular internal shapes, were Arek by Khajag Apelian and Nassim by Titus Nemeth. In terms of structure, the humanist sans serif Frutiger was also an influence.
I can imagine Velma being used in packaging or marketing for products that want to convey an organic or hand-made feeling. Are these the sorts of applications you had in mind when you designed it?
It could definitely be applied to what you’re suggesting. Initially, I designed it with the idea that it could be used for solidarity, social, or environmental projects. Later, as the type family expanded, I also saw it as suitable for more informal themes, such as children's publications, educational books, comics, or packaging for general consumer products.
Arne Freytag – Cubo (Fontador)
Cubo is a unicase geometric font with the characters constructed from horizontal or vertical lines on a strict grid. What inspired you to design it?
The basic idea for the font originally came from a poster design for a dance performance by the artist Elizabeth Ladrón de Guevara. The choreography thematised the slow disappearance and invisibility of the Selknam, an indigenous people of Chile. This was the starting point for a typographic exploration of visibility, coding, and systematics. Rather than a direct historical reconstruction of indigenous writing systems, the focus was on visual logic: many South American writing systems feature modular principles, regular arrangements, and grid-like structures. This aesthetic – a form of language coding – served as the basis for Cubo, which was intended to transform the principle of character coding into an independent, futuristic form.
Cubo is reminiscent of the alphabet designed by the Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg in 1919 and revived in the fonts Van Doesburg and P22 De Stijl. Was that an influence on its design?
Certainly, and also Rudolph de Harak and others. I think pretty much every type designer has had the idea of subjecting type to a square grid. When monitor resolutions were not yet so high, there were many pixel fonts that consisted only of horizontals and verticals to avoid aliasing. The past provides the building blocks, and the future recombines them. This principle was the basis of my design approach. My aim was to develop a futuristic interpretation from the original font idea: a font that relies on a reduced but consistent system.
The font follows a minimalist approach in which a single formal principle in combination with defined spaces determines the entire structure. It is not just about the pure reduction of character shapes, but also about an alternative way of coding: How can letters be kept legible with minimal means? How can the relationship between sign and space be redefined? Cubo is an invitation to experiment: with stroke widths, modular fillings and the perception of writing as a system. It plays with the boundary between convention and abstraction and challenges us to understand type as a dynamic, variable grid.
The Cubo Fill styles provide an unusual variant of the regular styles, with short line segments occupying the white spaces. Was this a variation you planned from the beginning, or did it result from experimentation once you had created the regular styles?
Yes, exactly, they came later. The monospace structure has design and functional reasons: The even spacing enables a consistent, block-like arrangement of the typeface. In justified text, the text almost automatically fits into a rectangular shape. If the line spacing corresponds to the word spacing, the visual illusion of potential horizontal or vertical legibility is created. This creates a different perception of type as a purely linear system. To reinforce this block-like impression, I added the Cubo Fill styles. As a result, all characters have approximately the same grey value, ie the same distribution of black and white, which increases the homogeneous overall impression.
For some characters, such as the symbols ‘@‘ and ‘%’, you’ve departed from the strict grid. Did you feel that it was more important to make these characters recognisable rather than create stylised versions adhering to the grid?
The difficult part was reversing the grid from the light to the heavy cuts, ie the stepless connection of two grids. What worked and looked good in Ultra Light no longer worked in Ultra Bold. The latter only has nine bold blocks, so it was not possible to construct a legible ‘@’ and I favoured legibility. Also, the accents are deliberately kept inconspicuous and smaller in order to preserve the square character as far as possible and to emphasise it more. The font design is subject to a visual system and this is precisely why it is intended to encourage experimentation and variation with stroke widths and/or filled and unfilled characters.