Sometimes a project comes along that requires us to leave our type in its cases, the inks on the shelf and fire up our Macs instead.
If it’s the right people asking, that is.
Fontsmith is London’s leading independent type design studio, and with good reason. While their work adorns everything from global brands to tv channels, and apps to airlines, their printed specimens grace the bookshelves and reference files of design and advertising agencies around the world.
So we were honoured to be asked to create the type specimen for the release of their latest font, FS Brabo: a contemporary reinterpretation of the early serifed typefaces, known as Garaldes, that originated in 16th century Europe.
Celebrating the typeface’s literary lineage, we created the persona “The Eloquent Type” and the core idea “FS Brabo has a way with words”, which sat at the heart of the project.
The typeface itself was inspired by the extraordinary archive of punches, type and books at the world-renowned Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, so we based the specimen on an equally historic Belgian paper size. Taking its cue from the font’s letterpress leanings, the large newspaper format incorporates a number of different typographic formats, including book title page, chapter openings, a play manuscript, and an editorial piece: the perfect way to show a typeface intended primarily for books, magazines and newspapers. And having been named after the mythical hero of the city of Antwerp, what better story to tell than the myth itself – beautifully written for us by Michael Evamy – as the centrepiece of the specimen.
A story, a play, an article, a newspaper, a type specimen. Introducing FS Brabo. The eloquent type.
Printed offset litho by CPI Colour.
