Slave King: Rebels Against Empire is a novel about a slave uprising in Sicily, circa 140–132 BCE, seven decades prior to the better known Spartacus rebellion. Younis, born in the area now known as Syria, is brought to Sicily as a slave, became a tutor to wealthy children, then forged a coalition of slaves, farmers and herders that defeated Roman armies and established a more egalitarian polity for a time.

Cover art by Mustafa El Hallaj

Epic Games and LEGO used Komplekt for their collaboration on LEGO Fortnite. The font has some minor modifications: the A is narrower at the top and the S uses more open counters.

The Fortnite logo uses a customized Burbank Big Condensed Black, see the dedicated post.

Narwa was used for the headline branding of the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. Some glyphs like the A and some numerals were customised to help with legibility at small sizes. The secondary typeface is the custom CWC.

Табия тридцать два (“Tabia thirty-two”) is a novel by Alexei Konakov. The softcover was designed by me, Maxim Balabin, and published by Individuum.

From writer and artist Pavel Pepperstein (translated):

Before you lies a captivating narrative, built upon the laws of chess and carrying on the tradition of renowned ‘chess’ texts like Alice Through the Looking Glass and The Luzhin Defense. However, this novel isn’t about chess—it’s about literature. The author sketches a grim future where literature is displaced and forgotten. In truth, this mirrors our current reality. Yet, the very fact that literature is becoming aware of this signals the first steps toward overcoming the crisis. The emergence of Tabia Thirty-Two instills a paradoxical but unmistakable sense of optimism for the future of literature.

Sciences Po, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies is a research university located in Paris, France. They have their own publishing house, mostly publishing essays from researchers. They are now launching a bi-annual magazine focusing on the actuality of research, with a political angle. The first issue, released in April 2024, is titled “Une Europe fragmentée ?” which translates to “A Fragmented Europe?”. The many illustrations opening most articles are by Félix de Combat.

The whole first issue of Comprendre son temps is freely accessible as a PDF.

The magazine features a changing typographic cocktail, bringing new titling fonts for each issue while keeping Tekst A and NaN Metrify A (mostly in its Wide subfamily) for texts and sub-headings for all issues. A duo of contrasting sans serifs is sharing the spotlight for this first issue. Bureau Brut's Ostia Antica, in all caps, shows its very classical proportions inspired by monumental inscriptions while Brieface's Falser Grotesk appears very geometric and modern in comparison. The difference of proportion between the very wide round letters in Ostia Antica and quite narrow in Falser, is quite startling.

NaN Metrify is mostly used in its wider versions for all introductory paragraphs and recurring info, grounding the layout with subtle confidence. Teskt, in it A version (for Analog), the only serif of the four typefaces, strikes by its very organic, soft and calligraphic influences in comparison with the three sans serifs. As the text duo, Metrify and Tekst are opposite in their construction, contrast amount, but also in proportions, AAAAA using Metrify in its Wide subfamily while Tekst sports a quite narrow fit.

Evgeny Brusilovsky. Memories with Comments and Illustrations (original titel: Евге́ний Брусило́вский. Воспоминания с комментариями и иллюстрациями) is a book edited by Nari Shelekpaev and published by Tselinny Art Center. The typefaces in use are Columba Ruby and Text by Lewis McGuffie.

The hardcover publication measures 170×248 mm and was printed on Mondi 60 g/m² paper by Service Press in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in an edition of 1,000 copies. ISBN 978–601–7158–06–4.

Note from the publisher (translated):

The memoirs of E. G. Brusilovsky deserve interest for many reasons. Firstly, they are a valuable ego-document that not only describes the life path of Brusilovsky himself, but gives an idea of the country in which the author lived most of his adult life, and of the people with whom he communicated and worked in Kazakhstan. Many of these people were key figures in Kazakh politics and culture in the second third of the twentieth century. Secondly, the memoirs help to understand how the Sovietization of Kazakh culture took place in the 1930s and 1940s, shedding light on this process “from the inside.” In this way, they compare favorably with official sources, which inform the reader about what the local or union leadership wanted to achieve, but leave without attention to how exactly certain directives of the Soviet government were implemented. Thirdly, Brusilovsky’s diaries are of interest precisely because of their subjective view of Soviet Kazakhstan: not being a native of Kazakhstan, the author discovers the country for himself and writes about it with disarming frankness.

Bleed Out front cover

Bleed Out is the eighth studio album by Dutch metal band Within Temptation, released on 20 October 2023. A tour of the same name will start in 2024, with shows in Latin America and Europe. From Wikipedia:

The album marks the first time the band opted for releasing a full record without the support of a major record label. Musically, the record incorporates elements from symphonic metal, gothic metal, metalcore, and djent. Lyrically, the band approached themes related to freedom. They addressed subjects such as war, oppression, women’s rights, religion, bullying, and inner-struggles.

The album and the two latest singles were designed by Frank Burghout of Voutloos (and formerly of M-Design Wormerveer), with artwork by Anato Finnstark and photography by Tim Tronckoe.

Burghout combined two interesting typefaces. The one used for the band name is called Narwa. This “robust medieval-modernist display type” was drawn by Lewis McGuffie of East of Rome, inspired by “a combination of Rudolf Koch style lettering, some old book covers and a masthead from a printed tour guide of Narva, Estonia.” It caught my eye when McGuffie made a beta version available in January 2022 via Future Fonts. Narwa then already spanned eight weights and also came as variable font. The typeface family was finalized in October 2023, now with support for extended Latin and Cyrillic. Make sure to read Identifont’s latest blog post: it includes an interview in which the designer provides some insight into the process. McGuffie reveals that he started with the bold uppercase characters, as he’s found that “graphic designers often just use all-caps in the designs”. Case in point: Narwa is here used in all caps, too, featuring its whimsical W with the vertical middle part, the characteristic asymmetrical A and M, and the round uncial E.

The low-contrast sans used for the titles – also in capitals – is worth a closer look, too. It’s English Egyptian, a digital interpretation of William Caslon’s Two Lines English Egyptian of 1816, which arguably is the first sans-serif printing type to be sold commercially. Conceived by Adrien Vasquez and John Morgan, it was released by Abyme in 2017. Just last week, Abyme published a slightly revised and newly illustrated version of “Caslon’s Egyptian: the first sanserif type” by James Mosley. This essay was first printed by I.M. Imprimit in a pamphlet produced for a visit by members of the Arbeitskreis Druckgeschichte in 1988.

In addition to Narwa and English Egyptian, the tour posters and graphics use Daubenton. I don’t know if these were designed by Burghout as well. Daubenton is a caps-only design by Olivier Dolbeau, reviving the engraved letters seen of the façade of the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution of Paris’s Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle.

[More info on Discogs]

Bleed Out limited edition box set

Bleed Out album poster flag

Bleed Out front cover with smoke vinyl edition

Bleed Out 2024 tour graphic

Bleed Out 2024 tour poster with dates for the European leg

Bleed Out back cover of the CD release

“Ritual” single cover

“Bleed Out” single cover

Band T-shirt

Visual identity and label design for Vermeil Spirits, a brand based in Languedoc Roussillon (France) that creates and distributes spirits made up of local and natural ingredients. The design by Cylindre Studio features Ziggy from MA-MA Type in combination with Mushy by East of Rome and Maxi by Dinamo.

A handout designed for the Isolde Venrooy solo exhibition •R•E•S•P•O•N•G•E• in De Fabriek in Eindhoven. The text takes unexpected detours following the line of ‘between’ in order to queer directions, a connecting theme in Isolde’s work.

The title •R•E•S•P•O•N•G•E• refers to Isolde Venrooy’s fascination with sponges (the animals) and the sponge-like quality in ourselves. The exhibition reveals the interwoven nature of Isolde's walking performances, her Indonesian heritage and her artistic working methods, which are rooted in ecological thinking and making.

Drôles de sports: curiosités olympiques (“Funny sports: Olympic oddities”), illustrated by Cecile Gariepy and published at La Pastèque, presents:

Pelote basque, cane fighting, ski ballet, dog sled race, rope climbing, bowling and even pigeon racing; all demonstration sports. Although demonstration sports were not part of the official Olympic Games, they delighted spectators eager for thrills. Witnesses of their time, they all have their share of funny anecdotes, disappointments and surprises...

On the book cover, the title is set in F37 Bobby. In the book interior, the same typeface is used for headlines and paired with Columba for body copy.