Bella Belyakova

Jam jars Warhol's "Tomato Soup" chalk lettering and baseball. Those were the triggers to make this soft chancery cursive turned into a script font.
Brand is thought mainly for packaging but can be used in magazines and invitations also. It can be easily converted into a logo when using it and its features.
Pro styles are loaded with the most complete sets of alternates, ligatures and ornaments; while Std styles are smaller versions of the font, with no decorative alternates.

Indie is a trendy script, result of the wide range of possibilities that can be achieved using a pointed brush. (1)

“You Only Live Once” say The Strokes, (to me, symbols of indie music) so, what would represent that sensation of volatility better than a brush?

As you may already know, this time inspiration came from hipsters and indies around us: We may sometimes criticise them, we may sometimes want to be like them, but the truth is that the universo gráfico they generated these past years is gigantic, full of colour and variations. (2)

Brush lettering and Sign painting are fields I've been fond of since I started as a designer. Nowadays, these styles are getting a lot of attention and maybe it’s due to the undeniable mark of life that is materialised when using a brush. This tool is so expressive that shows the passions and fears of the artist, and materialises that idea of “living the present”, so popular in this era.

When you see Indie, you think of skaters, rollers, surfers, hiphop dancers, street artists, summer, and why not? California beaches.

So if you feel life is only one, it’s high time you got Indie into your fonts' collection!

STYLES

Indie comes in 4 styles plus another one which consists only in capitals. Indie; Indie Shade; Indie Shade Solo; Indie Inline are all open-type programmed and have exactly the same glyphs and metrics, so you can combine them without probem. (I.E. You may use Indie Inline, then write the same word using Indie Shade Solo, and finally put them together).

In applications such as Adobe Illustrator, the font has nice results when fi ligatures is activated. However, if you want a more casual look, activate the contextual and the decorative ligatures.

NOTES

1. After several years of practicing calligraphy I can say that to me, there’s nothing more satisfying than being able to create fonts out of your own handlettering. I owe a lot of this brush-style to Carl Rohrs. He was the very first calligrapher who taught it to me. His style is unique and what he can do with a brush is truly marvelous. I'm serious.

2. In spite of some particular cases, I can say I'm happy to live in a present in which Typography is living a kind of Renaissance along with Lettering. Like it happened with W. Morris a hundred years ago, handcrafts are being revalued/reborn, and some of this may be happening thanks to these indie designers that, trying to be unique, gave new/fresh air to different areas of graphic design.

INTRODUCTION

I have always wondered if the circle could ever be considered as an imperfect shape. Thousands of years have passed and we still consider circles as synonyms of infinite beauty. Some believe that there is something intrinsically “divine” that could be found in them. Sensuality is many times related to perfectly shaped strong curves, exuberant forms and a big contrasts. Erotica is a font created with this in mind.

THE PROCESS

This story begins one fine day of March in 2012. I was looking for something new. Something which would express the deep love I feel regarding calligraphy in a new way.

At that time, I was practicing a lot of roundhand, testing and feeling different kinds of nibs; hearing the sometimes sharp, sometimes soft, sound of them sliding on the paper.

This kind of calligraphy has some really strict rules: An even pattern of repetition is required, so you have to be absolutely aware of the pressure of the flexible pen; and of the distance between characters. Also, learning copperplate can be really useful to understand about proportion in letters and how a minimum change of it can drastically affect the look of the word and text.

Many times I would forget about type-design and I would let myself go(1): Nothing like making the pen dance when adding some accolades above and below the written word.

Once something is mastered, you are able to break some rules. At least, that’s my philosophy. (2)

After some research, I found that the world was in need of a really sexy yet formal copperplate. (3)

I started Erotica with the idea of taking some rules of this style to the extreme.

Some characters were drawn with a pencil first because what I had in mind was impossible to be made with a pen. (4)

Finding a graceful way to combine really thick thicks with really thin hairlines with satisfactory results demanded months of tough work: The embryo of Erotica was a lot more bolder than now and had a shorter x-height. Changing proportions of Erotica was crucial for its final look. The taller it became the sexier it looked. Like women again?

The result is a font filled with tons of alternates which can make the user think he/she is the actual designer of the word/phrase due to the huge amount of possibilities when choosing glyphs.

To make Erotica work well in small sizes too, I designed Erotica Small which can be printed in tiny sizes without any problems.

For a more elegant purpose, I designed Erotica Inline, with exactly the same features you can find in the other styles.

After finishing these styles, I needed a partner for Erotica. Inspired again in some old calligraphic books I found that Bickham used to accompany his wonderful scripts with some ornated roman caps. Erotica Capitals follows the essentials of those capitals and can be used with or without its alternates to accompany Erotica.

In 2013, Erotica received a Certificate of Excellence in Type Design in the 59th TDC Type Directors Club Typeface Design Competition.

Meet Erotica, beauty and elegance guaranteed.

Notes

(1) It is supossed that I'm a typographer rather than a calligrapher, but the truth is that I'm in the middle. Being a graphic designer makes me a little stubborn sometimes. But, I found that the more you don't think of type rules, the more graceful and lively pieces of calligraphy can be done.

(2) “Know the forms well before you attempt to make them” used to say E. A. Lupfer, a master of this kind of script a century ago. And I would add “And once you know them, it’s time to fly...”

(3) Some script fonts by my compatriots Sabrina Lopez, Ramiro Espinoza and Alejandro Paul deserve a mention here because of their undeniable beauty. The fact that many great copperplate fonts come from Argentina makes me feel really proud. Take a look at: Parfumerie, Medusa, Burgues, Poem and Bellisima.

(4) Some calligraphers, graphic and type designer experimented in this field in the mid-to-late 20th century and made a really playful style out of it: Letters show a lot of personality and sometimes they seem drawn rather than written. I want to express my sincere admiration to the fantastic Herb Lubalin, and his friends Tony DiSpigna, Tom Carnase, and of course my fellow countryman Ricardo Rousselot. All of them, amazing.

I've always been in love with fat didones. That’s the reason of Posh.

In search of something unique, I started this family back in 2013 with the aim of creating the fattest yet readable bodonian typeface in the market: It was a challenge, because roman fonts need generous counters (or what some call white spaces) and taking them to the extreme of inexistence attempted against the construction of many glyphs. Ears, dots, terminals and serifs always need some extra space so I had to find the exact point of boldness to make characters which have those attributes work well in the middle of those which haven't. (1)

After a while, I felt I was again ‘in my element’: Big contrasted letters, sexy and elegant curves, and that Lubalinesque feeling that characterise my fonts. (2)

Words written with Posh are a explosion of elegance and sensuality due to the fact that its didone attributes were exaggerated. Since it’s full of alternate glyphs, one can change and choose them until a nice block of ‘‘black’’ is achieved. (3)

To accompany the regular style, I designed Posh Inline, a font with the same quantity of glyphs than the regular one; an all caps style called Posh Capitals, and also a really playful Italic version.

I hope you find this one delicious like I do! This font is dedicated to all who understand letters are not just meant to be read, but also to be appreciated in group and individually.

Enjoy it.

NOTES

(1) In example, it can be easy to design a fat letter ‘n’ with almost no counter, but really tough to make a satisfactory letter ‘s’ with serifs to match that ‘n’.

(2) Also, it wasn't my first attempt in fat didones. Take a look at my font Reina, made in 2012.

(3) Posters above show many words with ball terminals that seem to dance above and below the words in order to fill those “undesired” blank spaces.

One of my dreams as a type-designer was making a good looking chancery cursive. Full of life, like some of the best calligraphers around the world do on their artworks.
With Julian Waters, John Stevens and Denis Brown (just to name a few of them) (1) chancery, or italic script, was transformed into a new, exciting and very fresh style of calligraphy mainly at the end of 20th Century.
Dream Script may be that dream named above made true. I have been practicing chancery in the way I learnt from those calligraphers for many years now.
Making a font out of my ink-sketches was a tough work, since they were closer of -being art- than of -being type-. However, this font rescues many aspects of handmade calligraphy: You have to look at it really close to notice it is actually a font, and that was one of my goals.
The secret of a good looking chancery is on its subtle details: pen angle is constantly changing, even on the strokes which seem straight. Capitals and swashes have to be done a little faster than lowercase letters. The rhythm has to be even, in spite of its playful look.
The fact that makes Dream look alive is that it has many alternates per glyph. This makes each word look unique like it happens in calligraphy: you will find alternates for the beginning/ending of a word/phrase, some for the middle of it, some interchangeable.
Also, to accompany the script, you will find Dream Caps, which was inspired in the eternally beautiful trajan capitals. Place them like I did on the posters and you will have great results for sure.

The font works great in small, middle and big sizes and can be a great election for magazines, wedding invitations, perfumes, and posters.

Close your eyes, and Dream with me...

TECHNICAL
Dream Script Pro is the most complete style, it contains all the alternates and ligatures (OT programmed, better if you use Adobe applications)
If you plan to use the font for text, be sure to activate the less decorative capitals, which are placed in the "salt" group of alternates.
Dream Script Standard has less glyphs than the Pro one, it contains just some ligatures for a better legibility. (OT programmed, better if you use Adobe applications)

NOTES
(1) Not only are they great artists, but also good people, who are always willing to share with their students all what they know. I would also like to thank Ricardo Rousselot, whose work inspired me this time to make "The Dream Script" exlibris; and to Alisara Tareekes, a very talented friend which international calligraphy conferences gave me: She kindly helped me with some tips to make this font better.

A FEW THOUGHTS

Indie is a trendy script, result of the wide range of possibilities that can be achieved using a pointed brush. (1)

“You Only Live Once” say The Strokes, (to me, symbols of indie music) so, what would represent that sensation of volatility better than a brush?

As you may already know, this time inspiration came from hipsters and indies around us: We may sometimes criticise them, we may sometimes want to be like them, but the truth is that the universo gráfico they generated these past years is gigantic, full of colour and variations. (2)

Brush lettering and Sign painting are fields I've been fond of since I started as a designer. Nowadays, these styles are getting a lot of attention and maybe it’s due to the undeniable mark of life that is materialised when using a brush. This tool is so expressive that shows the passions and fears of the artist, and materialises that idea of “living the present”, so popular in this era.

When you see Indie, you think of skaters, rollers, surfers, hiphop dancers, street artists, summer, and why not? California beaches.

So if you feel life is only one, it’s high time you got Indie into your fonts' collection!

STYLES

Indie comes in 4 styles plus another one which consists only in capitals. Indie; Indie Shade; Indie Shade Solo; Indie Inline are all open-type programmed and have exactly the same glyphs and metrics, so you can combine them without probem. (I.E. You may use Indie Inline, then write the same word using Indie Shade Solo, and finally put them together).

In applications such as Adobe Illustrator, the font has nice results when fi ligatures is activated. However, if you want a more casual look, activate the contextual and the decorative ligatures.

NOTES

1. After several years of practicing calligraphy I can say that to me, there’s nothing more satisfying than being able to create fonts out of your own handlettering. I owe a lot of this brush-style to Carl Rohrs. He was the very first calligrapher who taught it to me. His style is unique and what he can do with a brush is truly marvelous. I'm serious.

2. In spite of some particular cases, I can say I'm happy to live in a present in which Typography is living a kind of Renaissance along with Lettering. Like it happened with W. Morris a hundred years ago, handcrafts are being revalued/reborn, and some of this may be happening thanks to these indie designers that, trying to be unique, gave new/fresh air to different areas of graphic design.

With Skill I wanted to create something wild. Something that splashed the letters with life. To do this, I knew I'd have to break the barrier between analog and digital, so I took my best brush and started to play.

Throughout the years as a type-designer I've met and become fan of many calligraphers. My belief that only a good calligrapher can make good typography (1) has become even stronger. I'm now absolutely sure that only practice improves the skill, especially in this field. So, with this in mind, I started a font which was a challenge for me because sometimes the gap between paper and screen can be gigantic.

Skill is another of my attemps (2) to capture the spirit of the pointed brush, its expressiveness, the passions and fears of the artist. This font is about freedom. Freedom everywhere. Movement, velocity, passion. To achieve this, many alternates and ligatures per glyph were designed. Use it on magazines, posters, book covers, music albums, t-shirts, skates, tattoos.

TIPS

Thanks to Open-Type, the font gives the user the chance to play and get many wonderful results: In example, using the font with “discretionary ligatures” activated will give more life to the written word. Some letters will jump of the base, while others will ligate or not with the following (typical of gestural calligraphy).

Adobe Illustrator is recommended.

STYLES

Skill is the most complete style. It has all the alternates and ligatures that can be seen in the posters and more!

Skill Standard is a variant with no decorative glyphs. It has the basic alphabet and some ligatures for better legibility.

A FEW THOUGHTS

Indie is a trendy script, result of the wide range of possibilities that can be achieved using a pointed brush. (1)

“You Only Live Once” say The Strokes, (to me, symbols of indie music) so, what would represent that sensation of volatility better than a brush?

As you may already know, this time inspiration came from hipsters and indies around us: We may sometimes criticise them, we may sometimes want to be like them, but the truth is that the universo gráfico they generated these past years is gigantic, full of colour and variations. (2)

Brush lettering and Sign painting are fields I've been fond of since I started as a designer. Nowadays, these styles are getting a lot of attention and maybe it’s due to the undeniable mark of life that is materialised when using a brush. This tool is so expressive that shows the passions and fears of the artist, and materialises that idea of “living the present”, so popular in this era.

When you see Indie, you think of skaters, rollers, surfers, hiphop dancers, street artists, summer, and why not? California beaches.

So if you feel life is only one, it’s high time you got Indie into your fonts' collection!

STYLES

Indie comes in 4 styles plus another one which consists only in capitals. Indie; Indie Shade; Indie Shade Solo; Indie Inline are all open-type programmed and have exactly the same glyphs and metrics, so you can combine them without probem. (I.E. You may use Indie Inline, then write the same word using Indie Shade Solo, and finally put them together).

In applications such as Adobe Illustrator, the font has nice results when fi ligatures is activated. However, if you want a more casual look, activate the contextual and the decorative ligatures.

NOTES

1. After several years of practicing calligraphy I can say that to me, there’s nothing more satisfying than being able to create fonts out of your own handlettering. I owe a lot of this brush-style to Carl Rohrs. He was the very first calligrapher who taught it to me. His style is unique and what he can do with a brush is truly marvelous. I'm serious.

2. In spite of some particular cases, I can say I'm happy to live in a present in which Typography is living a kind of Renaissance along with Lettering. Like it happened with W. Morris a hundred years ago, handcrafts are being revalued/reborn, and some of this may be happening thanks to these indie designers that, trying to be unique, gave new/fresh air to different areas of graphic design.

With Skill I wanted to create something wild. Something that splashed the letters with life. To do this, I knew I'd have to break the barrier between analog and digital, so I took my best brush and started to play.

Throughout the years as a type-designer I've met and become fan of many calligraphers. My belief that only a good calligrapher can make good typography (1) has become even stronger. I'm now absolutely sure that only practice improves the skill, especially in this field. So, with this in mind, I started a font which was a challenge for me because sometimes the gap between paper and screen can be gigantic.

Skill is another of my attemps (2) to capture the spirit of the pointed brush, its expressiveness, the passions and fears of the artist. This font is about freedom. Freedom everywhere. Movement, velocity, passion. To achieve this, many alternates and ligatures per glyph were designed. Use it on magazines, posters, book covers, music albums, t-shirts, skates, tattoos.

TIPS

Thanks to Open-Type, the font gives the user the chance to play and get many wonderful results: In example, using the font with “discretionary ligatures” activated will give more life to the written word. Some letters will jump of the base, while others will ligate or not with the following (typical of gestural calligraphy).

Adobe Illustrator is recommended.

STYLES

Skill is the most complete style. It has all the alternates and ligatures that can be seen in the posters and more!

Skill Standard is a variant with no decorative glyphs. It has the basic alphabet and some ligatures for better legibility.

A FEW THOUGHTS

Indie is a trendy script, result of the wide range of possibilities that can be achieved using a pointed brush. (1)

“You Only Live Once” say The Strokes, (to me, symbols of indie music) so, what would represent that sensation of volatility better than a brush?

As you may already know, this time inspiration came from hipsters and indies around us: We may sometimes criticise them, we may sometimes want to be like them, but the truth is that the universo gráfico they generated these past years is gigantic, full of colour and variations. (2)

Brush lettering and Sign painting are fields I've been fond of since I started as a designer. Nowadays, these styles are getting a lot of attention and maybe it’s due to the undeniable mark of life that is materialised when using a brush. This tool is so expressive that shows the passions and fears of the artist, and materialises that idea of “living the present”, so popular in this era.

When you see Indie, you think of skaters, rollers, surfers, hiphop dancers, street artists, summer, and why not? California beaches.

So if you feel life is only one, it’s high time you got Indie into your fonts' collection!

STYLES

Indie comes in 4 styles plus another one which consists only in capitals. Indie; Indie Shade; Indie Shade Solo; Indie Inline are all open-type programmed and have exactly the same glyphs and metrics, so you can combine them without probem. (I.E. You may use Indie Inline, then write the same word using Indie Shade Solo, and finally put them together).

In applications such as Adobe Illustrator, the font has nice results when fi ligatures is activated. However, if you want a more casual look, activate the contextual and the decorative ligatures.

NOTES

1. After several years of practicing calligraphy I can say that to me, there’s nothing more satisfying than being able to create fonts out of your own handlettering. I owe a lot of this brush-style to Carl Rohrs. He was the very first calligrapher who taught it to me. His style is unique and what he can do with a brush is truly marvelous. I'm serious.

2. In spite of some particular cases, I can say I'm happy to live in a present in which Typography is living a kind of Renaissance along with Lettering. Like it happened with W. Morris a hundred years ago, handcrafts are being revalued/reborn, and some of this may be happening thanks to these indie designers that, trying to be unique, gave new/fresh air to different areas of graphic design.

Bold, rounded and super cool. Those are the attributes of my latest font “Vinyle”, french for vinyl.

In this epoque where all fields of Design are giving a lot of importance and attention to Typography and Lettering, I felt it was my duty to contribute with something that could really stand alone and ‘say something else’ that just words to be read.

I've found that lately in the world, regarding a finished piece of design, the role of Typography (and of letters in general) went from being secondary, (like a minor player or a supporting actor) to the most important one. People are starting to understand the beauty of a well-done letter: they want their storefronts with unique scripts, they want to drink coffee surrounded by lettered blackboards, they want to buy books with astonishing covers with swashes ‘por doquier’.

I'm more than happy to be alive in a present where even the most unimaginable friends of mine, (who couldn't spot differences between comic sans and helvetica before) are now conscious of the importance of a letter, or let’s say: Of the ‘voice’ of Typography.

With Vinyle I tried to make a font with power. Following the nowadays trend of, let me say, “the vintage sans renaissance”.

This time I put my brushes and nibs aside and experimented with something new. It wasn't easy, if you will pardon, for me to see swashes all over the place withouth the classic calligraphic ‘thick and thins’, but with after some weeks of work I started to love them.

Like I already showed you in other creations (1) let me finish with the phrase: GEOMETRY IS SEXY!

TIPS

Vinyle has a lot of attitude, it shouts “here I am!” it really can ‘design an entire piece’ for you with just a word or two: It was designed with a 10 degree slant on purpose so the user may rotate it (like on the posters) that amount of degrees in order to see better results.

Use Vinyle with the ‘fi’ standard ligatures activates for better kerning and ligatures!

NOTES

(1) See my font Selfie, the ‘little sister’ of Vinyle.

With Skill I wanted to create something wild. Something that splashed the letters with life. To do this, I knew I'd have to break the barrier between analog and digital, so I took my best brush and started to play.

Throughout the years as a type-designer I've met and become fan of many calligraphers. My belief that only a good calligrapher can make good typography (1) has become even stronger. I'm now absolutely sure that only practice improves the skill, especially in this field. So, with this in mind, I started a font which was a challenge for me because sometimes the gap between paper and screen can be gigantic.

Skill is another of my attemps (2) to capture the spirit of the pointed brush, its expressiveness, the passions and fears of the artist. This font is about freedom. Freedom everywhere. Movement, velocity, passion. To achieve this, many alternates and ligatures per glyph were designed. Use it on magazines, posters, book covers, music albums, t-shirts, skates, tattoos.

TIPS

Thanks to Open-Type, the font gives the user the chance to play and get many wonderful results: In example, using the font with “discretionary ligatures” activated will give more life to the written word. Some letters will jump of the base, while others will ligate or not with the following (typical of gestural calligraphy).

Adobe Illustrator is recommended.

STYLES

Skill is the most complete style. It has all the alternates and ligatures that can be seen in the posters and more!

Skill Standard is a variant with no decorative glyphs. It has the basic alphabet and some ligatures for better legibility.

This is a cute story about a mother and her son. :)

About a decade ago my own mother got very interested in my work. She used to say my letters had so many swirls and dazzling swashes, and suggested my job seemed to be very fun. She wondered if she could ever try to make her own alphabet... Well, she is a civil engineer and a maths teacher, and appeared to be a little tired of exact sciences...

I remember answering this, while she was listening with her typical tender look: -"Mamá... While type-design may be a really enjoyable thing to do, it also involves having a great eye and knowledge about the history of letters: nice curves and shapes require a meticulous study and, like it happens in many fields, practice makes perfect"-. Well, she raised her eyebrows at me. -"and so what?"-

She didn't have any experience neither in the field of art nor in the field of graphic design so, I told her that if she really wanted to get into this she should borrow some of my calligraphic books from my beloved shelves in my office. So... she did.

Some weeks after that, she came to me with many sketches made with pencils and markers: some letters where very nice and unique while others naturally needed some work. I remember she added ball terminals to all of her letters (even if they didn't need them) because that was one of the rules she imposed.

After some back and forth, we had the basis for what would be today, ten years later, the seed of this lovely font Girasol.

Her proposal was nice, something I was not accustomed to do, that’s why many years later I decided to watch it with fresh new eyes and finished it.

While she was in charge of making the lowercase letters, I helped with the uppercase and also added my hallmark in the alternates, already seen in others of my expressive fonts.

The result is an upright decorative font that follows the behavior of the copperplate nib with a naive touch that makes it really cute and useful for a wide range of products.

Many alternates per glyph make Girasol a very fun to use font which will delight you. Above posters are a proof of that!

This font is a gift for my mother, Susana, who, in spite of her exacts academic background, taught me that beauty can also be found in the imperfect.

-But first, let me take a Selfie!- said that girl of the song and almost all of you at least once this year.

While some terms and actions get trendy, some font styles do it too. It wouldn't be crazy to combine these worlds, in fact it happens often.

Selfie is a connected sans serif based in vintage signage scripts seen in Galerías of Buenos Aires. These places are, in general, very small shopping centres which pedestrians sometimes use as shortcuts to get to other parts of the city.

Their dark corridors take you back in time, and all of a sudden you are surrounded by cassettes, piercings, and old fashioned cloth. For some reason, all these shops use monolined geometric scripts. Surely, neon strings are easier to manipulate when letterforms have simple shapes.

My very first aim with Selfie was to make a font that would serve as a company to those self-shot pictures that have become so popular nowadays.

However, the font turned into something more interesting: I realised it had enough potential to stand-alone.

Selfie proves that geometry itself can be really attractive. In this font, elegance is not achieved with the already-known contrast between thicks and thins of calligraphy, but with the purity of form.

Its curves were based in perfectly shaped circles which made the font easy to be used at different angles (some posters show it at a 24.7º angle) without having problems/deformities.

In addition to its nice performance when used over photographs, the font can be a good option for packaging and wedding invitations.

Selfie is part of the "Favorite Typefaces of the Year" list by Typographica.com (2015) :)

TIPS

Adding some lights/shadows between letters will for sure catch the eye of the viewer: Words will look as if they were made with tape/strings; so trendy nowadays.

Try using Selfie at a 24.7º angle so that the slanted strokes become perfectly vertical.

Having the decorative ligatures feature (dlig) activated is a good option to see letters dance.

TECHNICAL

It is absolutely recommended to use this font with the standard ligatures feature (liga) activated. It makes letters ligate perfectly and also improves the space between words.

Preta, portuguese for a very pure kind of black, has its name very related to its concept: I wanted to make the fattest/darkest script ever.

People who follow my work may notice its forms are very related to works of my past (1) but this time the challenge was to be very cautious with the white spaces between letters. Not only I followed some rules and ductus of the copperplate style of calligraphy but also I took a lot of inspiration in posters of the early Art Nouveau (specially in Alfred Roller of the Vienna Secession) where letters forms looked like black squares if not looked from a close distance. With Preta, I wanted to achieve that same idea of “darkness” and thanks to the always welcomed question -what if?- the font grew a lot.

The result is a very fat font, that looks delicious. Due to possible customer needs, I designed Preta Small, so it can be used in smaller sizes.

Preta Ao Sol (which literally means under the sun!) is a style with those lovely tiny details to give the sensation of bright.

Preta Ao Sol Solo was made to be used as a layered font with Preta.

Finally, Preta Capitals serves as a company for Preta.

Hope you enjoy the font as much as I did when designing it: The fact that it’s full of alternates, swashes, ligatures and swirls makes it really pleasurable at the moment of using it.

Give it a try and dance with Preta!

TIPS

For better results, use Preta with the ‘standard ligatures’ feature activated.

Who haven't heard the phrase that ‘any past time was better’?. Although I sometimes find this phrase a little too pessimistic (because I try to think that the best is yet to come), it may be true regarding my passion, typography. I'm too young (29) unfortunately, and this means I did not have the pleasure of being contemporary with maybe the man who has influenced my work the most (1). The man that showed that letters are more than just letters to be read. Herb Lubalin (1918-1981), also called sometimes as ‘the rule basher’ (2), smashed the taboos and sacred rules of type design and gave it personality. He rejected the functionalist philosophy of europeans in favor of an eclectic and exuberant style. To him, letters were not merely vessels of form, they were objects of meaning. (3). Nowadays, when looking at his portfolio, who dares to deny that the term ‘typography’ and ‘beauty’ may go hand-in-hand without any problem? Ed Benguiat, one of Herb’s partners, still likes making jokes with the phrase “screw legibility, type should be beautiful” and what I understand of this is not to forget the rules, but to know and break them carefully.

In an era of pure eclecticism, we, the lovers of flourishes and swashes, can't do nothing but admire all the legacy that Lubalin, this wonderful type-guru, left.

My font Lubaline read as “the line of Lubalin” is my humble tribute to him. Those who know his work, may see the influences easily like in his ‘Beards’ (1976) and ‘The Sound of Music’ (1965) posters; the art-deco forms in many of his amazing logos and practically in all his creations where letters seem to be alive just like you and me.

I really hope that the future finds me still learning more and more about type-design and letterforms, and like him, always willing to make innovations in my field: Because letters are not just letters to be read.