West Bubble Gum’s Blockshadow style in bichromatic use for a matchbook by Holiday Inn, probably from around the mid-1970s: the slogan “Get that holiday feeling” was introduced in late 1974 by J. Walter Thompson.

“Get that” is set in squeezed Romana. “The World’s Innkeeper” uses PLINC’s Standard Intermediate Extended, a slightly narrower version of Akzidenz-Grotesk breit on the matchbook shown above. The ones below use the similar Venus Extended.

Romana and Figtree are paired in the visual identity for the 2026 edition of Open Books, Open Minds , a conference by the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec (AELAQ).

I had the pleasure of creating the visuals for AELAQ’s (Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec) presence at the Salon du Livre de Montréal (not shown here) and for their own event, the Read Quebec Book Fair 2024. Visual assets needed for both events were a branded kiosk, web banners for workshops and panels, ads, signage, posters, flyers and a sticker.

The design concept centers around books falling from the sky and piling up. The books are different sizes, colors and shapes to show variety and diversity. The key concepts here are are Elegance, Liveliness and Abundance. They are conveyed through the amalgamation of a variety of abstract shapes, the use of classic yet modern typography and a warm and inviting color palette.

Gjöfin til Íslenzkrar Alþýðu / The Gift to the People was published in 2019, coinciding with the opening of an exhibition of the same name at the ASÍ Art Museum. This comprehensive publication includes all 147 works donated by collector Ragnar í Smára. Featuring pieces by many of the nation’s most renowned artists, the collection was the driving force behind the establishment of the ASÍ Art Museum. Ragnar’s vision was to create an art museum that would make art accessible to Iceland’s working class.

The book features reproductions of each artwork, paired with insightful commentary and historical context. Edited by museum director Elísabet Gunnarsdóttir, the book includes contributions from art historian Kristín G. Guðnadóttir, English translations by Sarah M. Brownsberger and photography by Vigfús Birgisson.

Designed by Arnar&Arnar and published by the museum itself, The Gift to the People won the golden prize at the FÍT – Icelandic Association of Graphic Designers Awards – in 2020.

Several weights of Boogie School Sans are used throughout. In one of the chapters, Romana makes an appearance alongside Boogie School Sans.

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Jens Jørgen Hansen, bogtrykker and tagged with “barnum”. License: All Rights Reserved.

20 pkt Barnum from Bauer & Co, shown in use in a small letterhead for Engelsk Beklædnings Magasin, advertising English menswear, lingerie, and hats. The store on Ringkjøbing’s Nygade was still in operation in the 1960s.

It was printed by A. Rasmussens Bogtrykkeri sometime in the 1910s. In fact this is not just an identical fount of Barnum used for this little print – this little print is set and printed from the exact same types now in my collection, when they was a part of the type collection at A. Rasmussen. The fount is together with its sisters on 36 & 60 pkt pin marked Bauer & Co Stuttgart. In 1897 the foundry was purchased by H. Berthold, Berlin, which continued to run the Bauer foundry as a branch.

Other typefaces include a Latin Antique – a style known in Germany as Breite Etienne – and one not further identified style (or two?) from the Romana genre, in roman and italic.

Remember that it is always possible to book a workshop if you are interested in playing with my rich collection of historical types and ornaments.

Audo Copenhagen is a new interiors and homewares brand created through the merger of two much loved businesses, by Lassen and MENU. Launched in 2023, the new label combines a rich history of Nordic modernist design with a modern and international perspective.

Studio C assisted the brand through their transition period – to create a single voice and visual identity for the next chapter of the company.

Audo’s distinctively typographic identity explores the interplay between old and new – utilising lettering from the early 20th century in modern layouts. This elegant and yet playful balance between the past and future mirrors the companies attitude and strategic ambitions for the next phase in their history.

Deutsche Fotothek dates this photograph to “around 1935/1940”.

Historic image of a printing firm’s building in Frohburg, Saxony (Germany). The firm printed newspapers such as Frohburger Wochenblatt and later Wirtschafts-Anzeiger, the latter using Triumph (1929) for its masthead. The signage on the building was created using the same typeface.

Parts of the signage on the landmarked building have survived until today: the word “Buchdruckerei” (print shop), the stylized printers coats of arms, as well as a ceramic relief showing Johannes Gutenberg created by Kurt Feuerriegel.

Nameplate of the Wirtschafts-Anzeiger issue from January 30, 1943. The smaller lines are set in Romana and Nofretete.

Posters made in 1968 by art director/designer Bernie Zlotnick at Young & Rubicam for the Advertising Council as part of a campaign for the Peace Corps, a United States government agency and program dedicated to training and deploying volunteers to provide international development assistance. Copywriting by Mort Redner. Photo by legendary George Lois-era Esquire photographer Carl Fischer.

The poster shown above may have been one of the original uses of ITC Bernase Roman (my theory: Bernie Zlotnick + Tom Carnase). Adverts with Bernase Roman appeared in magazines in January 1969, February 1969, and March 1969.

An earlier version used Railroad Gothic, see further below. Adverts with Railroad Gothic can be found in magazines from December 1968 and January 1969.

Detail

Landscape version (11″×28″) dated 10/68 featuring Railroad Gothic and Romana

Poster with Railroad Gothic and Young & Rubicam credit line

Print ad with Railroad Gothic

Unnumbered label from 1920

The label design by famous luthier Carlo Carletti from Pieve di Cento near Bologna, Italy, uses Bastoni Larghi, a wide sans-serif typeface of unknown origin, for the luthier’s name, and Romana, which was distributed by Nebiolo as Romano, for the rest of the text.

Carlo Carletti (1873–1941): First of the Carletti family of makers from Pieve di Cento, near Bologna. Initially a carpenter and antiques dealer, he appears to have learnt the craft with Raffaele Fiorini in Bologna in the 1890s. His straight work shows the influence of Fiorini, Pollastri and Sofritti, but he also made some highly creative fakes. He produced instruments in the white for Leandro Bisiach and Romeo Antoniazzi. [Tarisio]

Label from 1927

Label from 1931

+Kote is a bi-annual student publication dealing with architecture and urban planning. Allemannsgreie is the title of the 14th edition, exploring the topic of objects in public spaces.

Pilowlava, Digestive and Romana were used for headlines, Freight Text for body text.

+Kote is a bi-annual student publication dealing with architecture and urban planning.

“Inkludering / Ekskludering” (“Inclusion / Exclusion”) is the title of the 12th edition, exploring the topic of inclusion and exclusion in urban settings.

Romana was used for headlines, Freight Text for body text and Freight Sans for captions and page numbers.

The art of sculptor Florian Ecker is the result of an exploratory curiousness, in which he examines natural phenomena with scrupulous precision and the experimental set-ups of a scientist.

His artworks do not represent this explorative movement but its result, once Ecker feels it as being finished. Thereby the traces of its experimental undergoings are of varying recognizability. However, they belong to the artwork no less than the visual impression we get.

The book structures Florian Ecker‘s work in the form of a scientific journal into research, experimentation and results, and is thereby reflecting the creative process of the artist.

Rooted in editorial design and journalism, my work centers around visual storytelling. My artist books are driven by an intensive personal dialogue between artist and designer, verbally and creatively. Having had the great pleasure to have been invited into the archives and production of the artists, I help translate the artworks, mindset and process into a book object.

Words from Animal Spirits' website:

Animal Spirits is a factory of unruly objects: it creates products, experiences and mythologies that enhance the capacity of individual action in the public space. It is conceived as a series of capsule collections in constant evolution, limited editions of customisable products with strong narrative and symbolic elements, able to transform the imagination of its owner into that of a political animal ready for action.

It's a particular project created by Mali Weil, an artistic collective based in Trento.

This catalog by the lighting department of the Berlin-Anhaltische Maschinenbau-Actien-Gesellschaft, or Bamag-Licht for short, was issued in 1909 in Charlottenburg, some eleven years before this city became incorporated into Greater Berlin.

The booklet cover was printed in two colors, using fonts that can be combined in layers. The main typeface is a version of De Vinne Open, or De Vinne Outline. Like regular De Vinne, this variant originated with the Central foundry, in roman and italic styles. Catalogs by ATF, the successor to Central, pointed out that the Italic would register for color printing with solid De Vinne. They didn’t do so for the upright style. Also, ATF’s catalogs from 1896, 1897, 1899, and 1902 all show the Italic only. The earliest appearance for the roman Open that I found so far is from 1903.

The Hoffmeister foundry from Leipzig, Germany showed an upright Zierschrift „De Vinne“ with open styles for bicolor printing already in 1895. This design was named Amerikanische Mediäval by 1900, and continued by Stempel under that name after the acquisition of Hoffmeister in 1918. Klinkhardt, another Leipzig foundry, had such open styles, too, as Bianca breit with Bianca Kursiv. They added a schmal (condensed) style before 1905. Bianca was continued by Berthold into the 1920s.

However, the specific version used here can’t be Klinkhardt’s: in Bianca, even thin strokes like the bars in f or t are outlined – in De Vinne Outline, this is only true for the largest sizes. More decisively, Bianca’s T is flat at the top, without any upward-pointing serifs. We’re hence looking at Hoffmeister’s cut, which closely follows the original De Vinne design, including this detail. It also sports the double hyphen, a remnant of blackletter conventions that lingered on in roman type and lettering at the time.

Lichte Amerikanische Mediäval (“Open American Oldstyle”) is filled with its solid counterpart (≈ De Vinne), and paired with a shaded all-caps grotesque for “Abteilung 12”. This face appears to be one of the precursors to a design that ATF reissued in the 1930s as Marble Heart. It may have originated in France, and was carried by Haenel and many other German-speaking foundries. Flinsch had a version for bicolor printing as Buntdruck-Schriften 1874–1876, released around 1894. Three cheers for Dan Reynolds and his invaluable work on cataloging the sans serif type­faces sold in German-speaking Europe during the nineteenth century! As coincidence would have it, Hoffmeister’s bicolor De Vinne and Flinsch’s Buntdruckschriften were presented on opposing pages in the first issue of Archiv für Buchgewerbe und Gebrauchsgraphik from 1895.

The header on the title page is set in Sorbonne (1905), Berthold’s recutting of Cheltenham. The products – torches, outdoor lamps, incandescent bodies, equipment – use Grasset (1898; cast in Germany by Genzsch & Heyse before 1904). The insert mentioning a 20% discount combines Romana and Undine. The latter was made at Stempel in mager (1902) and fett (1903) weights, as an extension of the all-caps Graphik, which was their version of Edina. Undine’s lighter style was digitally revived by Linotype as Grafiko.

The typography on thsi spread exclusively uses Grasset.

+Kote is a bi-annual student publication dealing with architecture and urban planning. Tomrom (void) is the 13th edition, exploring the idea of nothingness within an urban context, dwelling on topics such as death, identity, drug abuse and alienation.

Eurostile was used for the cover as well as appearing in headlines alongside Romana and Bluu. Freight Text was used for body text.

The title was die-cut on the front page – spelling it out using a physical void.

Front and back cover of Der Chanchito, a German journal for aquarium and terrarium lovers. Issue 12 with the first part of P. Engmann’s treatise on cichlids was published by Gustav Wenzel & Sohn in 1908.

The design is framed by topical water lily border elements and features a number of typefaces. The title is in Kalligraphia, set on an angle, flanked by stars, and framed by thick-thin borders. Kalligraphia probably originated at the Gustav Reinhold foundry in Berlin around 1892. “Bibliothek für Aquarien- und Terrarienkunde” is in one of the narrow bold sans serifs that went under generic names like Grotesk or Steinschrift, possibly the Halbfette Grotesk as cast by Berthold, Stempel, and Weber. The modernized oldstyle serifs seem to include styles both from the Romana and De Vinne branches of this genre. “I. Teil” might be (Breite) Fette Renaissance, a German typeface similar to Latin Bold.

For the publisher’s name on the back, a grotesk with two-story g has been used – it appears to be Stempel’s Breite Grotesk. “Wochenschrift für Aquarien- u. Terrarienkunde” is set in Concordia, a condensed flare serif by Berthold that appears to be a recutting of the American Lafayette.

Halyard Display and Domaine Display form the typeface pair used for Plum Guide’s brand typography.

Plum Guide is a vacation rental company trying to distinguish itself as high-end and curated, including only those homes that pass a quality test. The brand typography on the Plum Guide website as well as on social media channels uses Domaine Display Narrow (Klim Type Foundry) for headings. The high-contrast serif is supported by the sturdy sans Halyard Display (Darden Studio) which serves for all text. On plumguide.com, Halyard Display is also specified for menus, modals, tags, buttons, and other UI elements. The Plum Guide logo is based on Romana.

Halyard Display for the main menu (expanded).

Language and currency modal in Halyard Display.

Landing page for a single home, with Domaine Display Narrow Medium for the title and two weights of Halyard Display for all text and navigational items.

Social media slides with Domaine and all-caps Halyard in interplay.

Center-aligned Halyard Display Regular for teaser headings.

Article beginning from the Plum Guide journal, featuring Halyard Display Book for text, with a drop cap from Domaine Display Narrow Medium.

Halyard Display is set on a circle for the Nominated Home and Award Winner seals.

Homepage with booking modal.

The Plum Guide logotype uses all-caps Romana, customized with an elongated G bar.

Cocktail menu featuring outlined Vitesse (“Alpen Rose”) and Forza (“Contents”), with Bryant (“Cocktails”) and Schooner Script for the “handwritten” additions.

The newest addition to Philadelphia’s Schulson Collective, Alpen Rose is an intimate steak restaurant that forgoes the macho trappings of the typical steakhouse. With a jewel-box-sized bar, tinkling chandeliers and romantic lighting, it’s not your typical porterhouse purveyor.

For a uniquely immersive experience, Mucca created a fictional world based on a female botanist from a bygone era who travels the globe in search of the elusive Alpen Rose. This world inspired details throughout the space that surprise and delight—from an index card cocktail menu to flowers frozen in ice cubes. A system of multiple logos in different styles suggest billheads collected from exotic locales, and a richly layered menu system recalls a collection of botanical research.

Alpen Rose logo variations, partially hand-lettered, partly type. In the top row, the first logo is based on Argent Octic; the second one is a modified version of Alloy Condensed, outlined with a thin dropshadow; and the third variant uses Plaak 4 34-Regular B. The middle row variations use ITC Tiffany, Barclay Outline, and Romana. The bottom row has a script and a monogram that both are custom drawn, while the last logo is set in Sackers Gothic with a manually added dropshadow.

Detail of a desert menu set in Virgo Mono.

Index cards featuring Virgo Mono. The tab headers use Bryant.

Postcard featuring Alloy Wide for the address on the front, as well as ITC Tiffany, Sweet Sans, and Akzidenz-Grotesk.

The handwriting fonts on these address cards are (from top to bottom of the stack): Beer Dip, Lamar Pen, Texas Hero. The shaded caps for “Alpen Rose” are from Sweet Sans.

Form with labels in Akzidenz-Grotesk and “handwritten” text in Schooner Script.

Founded in 2018, Shikoba Therapies combines the therapeutic power of essential oils, herbs and gemstones with reflexology techniques and energy principles to nurture your physical and spiritual well-being.

Studio Work worked closely with Shikoba Therapies to create a strategy that represented their ethos. With wellness and beauty in mind, we aimed to create an identity to attract the eye of individuals who practice self-care, ritual, and natural therapies. With a niche product and audience who practice wellness daily, it was important to look closely at where else this demographic shops and what they are attracted to. This trail of research led to us exploring outcomes, with a final execution of two typefaces, Romana for its distinctive cuts and Sporting Grotesque for its attitude and minimalist design. Art direction followed for all photographic shoots, using natural environments and candid poses of the products being used in daily life. To tie everything in primary brand colours of black and ivory deliver an effortlessly elegant aesthetic.

Product photography: Stitch Productions.

Page with classified ads for German North Sea resorts and the respective ferry connections, from the Reise- und Bäder-Anzeiger (“Travel and spa gazette”) in Reclams Universum, a weekly magazine printed and published by Philipp Reclam jun. in Leipzig, 1909.

While the title (“Deutsche Nordseebäder”) shows some clunky lettering, the ads themselves are set in a range of jobbing typefaces that were in fashion at the time. The credit line at the very bottom is the only occurence of a fraktur. The single display face that can be classified as blackletter is Bradley, see “Wyk Insel Föhr”. The actual font in use is probably Altgotisch or one of the numerous other German copies of Bradley.

“Wangerooge” and “Westerland-Sylt” both combine Viktoria (AKA Phönix, Medea) with an enlarged and lowered initial W from Siegfried. Another interesting face is the one used for “Wittdün”: It appears to be the solid version of Alexandra, which in turn appears to be Berthold’s bichromatic copy of Washington (Central). The use of all caps for emphasis is limited to “Borkum” (Romana) and “Juist” (Fette Bauersche Antiqua or similar).

Head of the Reise- und Bäder-Anzeiger with lettering modeled after Eckmann, including a fancy highlight version. The smaller text is set in Sorbonne-Circular, an italic with swash caps that was part of Berthold’s recutting of Cheltenham.