Mysteries & Subtleties, by Hoefler & Co.

The back acreage of a typeface conceals some of its greatest treasures, and tells some of typography’s most fascinating stories. Meet four typographic curios on which the designers at H&Co love to lavish special attention, and learn how these piquant spices can help turn up the flavor of your design.

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Citarella Gothic Ultralight

I’m happy to announce that Citarella Gothic Ultralight is officially on-sale at MyFonts. Here’s the description:

About Citarella Gothic:
In seeking a strong, utilitarian gothic alternative for Helvetica, we’re left with few options for unobtrusive functionalism. As such, I decided to create the Citarella Gothic family. The ligatures are characteristic of the signage and architecture around Sarno, Italy, where the Citarella family originates. The sweeping arcs, broad counters, and clean swashes allow for the architectural design to be imbued with the warmth and humanity of its namesake.

Over time, I hope to extend the family to other weights and styles, but decided to start with the ultralight version and work my way through black. In the meantime, visit MyFonts.com to play around with the font. Your feedback is appreciated, as is, of course, your patronage.

MyFonts: Citarella Gothic Ultralight

Citarella Gothic

Citarella Gothic Ultralight

This is the beginning of a new type family that I’m working on, tentatively titled Citarella Gothic. I’m beginning with the Ultralight variant (seen above) and will be working through Black. I’d originally liked the idea of calling the font Citra, but a cursory Google search reveals there are already a number of brand names associated with Citra, so I may default to my last name. After all, I already have fonts named after this blog and my company, so why not create an eponymous one?*

The sizing and kerning are very rough, though your thoughts and feedback are certainly appreciated. Incidentally, here‘s a homework assignment from kindergarden my mom found in our basement. Apparently, I was designing fonts at Age 5.

* It’s not egoism if Francois Didot, Claude Garamond, Nicolas Jenson, Lucian Bernhard, Hermann Zapf, Giambattista Bodoni, Adrian Frutiger, John Baskerville, William Caslon, Eric Gill, Ed Benguiat, Frederic Goudy, and Herb Lubalin all did it.