What started as an interpretation of the Brasilia typeface (1958) is now Bolivia, a versatile grotesque in four widths: condensed, normal, semi-extended, and extended. In addition, Bolivia comes in two different versions: a first one with slightly squashed counters, and a second one (G) featuring vertical terminals and open counters. Last month, our members received a license to use the full family in print and on screen.

CoType Foundry just released its first serif, and I can’t take my eyes off of it. It’s a typeface so perfectly adapted to any project that it makes you want to put it to use immediately. Orbikular comes in six weights, from Extra Light to Extra Bold, each with matching elegant italics. The fact that a variable font comes included with the family is truly a cherry on top. And… look at that alternate ampersand 😍

🎁 For a limited time, get a free print specimen (pictured above) with any Orbikular Essential and full family purchases.

Decidedly, Blaze Type is becoming a reference for sharp and original serifs. Their latest release, Sigurd, is a family in seven weights, with matching italics, and even semi-italics, which are less slanted than their italic counterparts. The typeface comes with a large set of alternates, allowing you to switch between ball and sharp terminals, and add swashes — to both uppercase and lowercase characters.

This skinny and surprising serif is the work of Michelangelo Nigra, who graduated from TypeMedia in 2019 (and I really encourage you to check his thesis project, Rapida, and its impressive three italics). Mirta, on the contrary, doesn’t feature any italics just yet. This initial release (version 0.1) counts only one style (Light) but it also means that the typeface is affordably priced — starting at only $33 — until more styles are added.

Formale Grotesque is not new, but so fresh! While its initial release dates back to 2019, I only stumbled upon this gem recently. It’s from a little-known foundry based in Bern, right in the heart of Switzerland. Formale Grotesque is a large family in twelve weights, with matching italics, small caps, and several alternate characters. I love the lowercase ‘a’ on this one, and the story behind it is rather intriguing.

The small foundry of Henning Skibes, based in Hamburg, is behind this contemporary serif. It is the sister family of NewsSans, and yet, it was reworked to be much more than the simple adaptation of a sans to a serif. NewsSerif comes in three optical sizes (Text, Large, and Huge) with more prominent letterforms in the Large and Huge families. Fun to note, the Text family doesn’t have its own italics, instead, it comes with the sans-serif italics of NewsSans. This is definitely unusual, but somehow it totally works.

Designed in Barcelona by Jordi Embodas, Tinta comes in four subfamilies. First, Tinta Coated is a warm sans serif with soft contours. Tinta Uncoated, its sister family, features slightly blurry outlines. Both families come in ‘Broken’ versions to complete the collection. Worth noting, the width of a given weight is identical across the four families. This allows you to toggle between the variants without experiencing any text reflow — and is particularly helpful to create neat animations.