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The Journey of Codec ME

Posted by in Interview, New releases on Mar/2024

Designed with the precious collaboration of Omaima Dajani for Arabic glyphs and Oded Ezer for Hebrew, Codec ME is the first typeface by Zetafonts to include both Arabic and Hebrew scripts, expanding its language coverage to a wide range of MENA countries. In these challenging times for the Middle East Codec ME stands as Zetafonts’ humble way to celebrate its cultural richness, and the power of cultural exchange. In this interview, Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini answers the questions of guest editor Dario Manzo. You are an Italian foundry, based in Florence. What led you to study and…read more

THE ZETAFONTS TYPETOUR 2024

Posted by in News, Trip on Mar/2024

Our Spring 2024 Type Tour is unveiled! Meet the Zetafonts team in a festival near you! We’re delighted to bring you an exclusive update on our upcoming Spring 2024 Type Tour, where we’ll be diving into a whirlwind of events, conferences, and creative showcases across the globe. Not just a series of promotional events, but a way for us to meet with fellow type and visual enthusiasts, share our passions, and discover the diverse and dynamic world of typography. First on our itinerary is Hadath Alkhatt in Cairo, Egypt (3-10 March); this event celebrates Arabic calligraphy and will take place at the Seven Pillars International…read more

Maleficent types and where to find them

Posted by in Interview, New releases on Feb/2024

We are thrilled to introduce a new addition to our font family, and this time, it comes with the signature style of Valerio Monopoli – an Italian graphic designer hailing from Rome and currently making waves in Barcelona. Valerio has already left an indelible mark on the typography scene, notably with the development of his font families for Pangram Pangram (Gatwick, Migra, and Räder), Blaze Type (Sapfir,  Sagittaire), Colllettivo (Absans), and Cast (Gil Modern) foundries, each time showcasing his incredible skill and originality as a type designer. Now, Valerio brings…read more

The Counterspaces – Typography in the Age of Black Swans

Posted by in Editorial, Trend Reports on May/2023

Zetafonts presents the new issue of the Type Trends lookbook series, titled The counterspaces (Typography in the Age of Black Swans). Curated by the Type Campus team, it is an exploration of the many contemporary counter-trends in the world of design and typography, that have arisen in response to the unpredictable events that have occurred in recent years.  The counterspaces – Typography in the Age of Black Swans presents the work and the thoughts of some of the most interesting and innovative creators and thinkers in the typographic field, and…read more

Zetafonts goes to Offf Festival 2023

Posted by in News, Trend Reports, Trip on Mar/2023

The next stage of the Zetafonts Type-Tour takes us to OFFF Barcelona 2023, the largest showcase of contemporary visual creativity and design. With 3 full days of talks from 64 international speakers, interactive activities and more, this festival represents for us not only a fantastic opportunity for networking and good time together, but also punctuates the presentation of the new issue of our annual Type Trends publication.   The 2023 issue, The Counter Spaces – Typography in the Age of Black Swans, explores the counter-trends currently emerging in the world of design and typography, that have arisen…read more

A walk in deep dreams: designing type with artificial intelligence.

Posted by in Case studies, News on Nov/2022

In early summer 2022, two image generation softwares based on neural networks were released in open beta to the public: Dall-E by OpenAI and Midjourney AI. We had been interested in artificial intelligence and creativity assisted by neural networks since long time, and had been already admirers of their “unreasonable effectiveness“. But these new models not only far outperformed the older ones, but even our best expectations on the quality of imagery and design generated by neural networks.   While everybody was hooked on the capacity of these models to produce beautiful sci-fi concept art or realistic photographic imagery from…read more

Can typography generate a kinder world?

Posted by in Uncategorized on Nov/2022

With more than 90 design schools over the world, TypeCampus is a program to talk about visual and typography culture. It is born to inspire young and affirmed designers, visual educators, and type lovers. Being in touch with so many people has proved to be the perfect opportunity to enhance typography in all its potential: to convey messages of positivity and change. In an increasingly self-oriented society, good practices of kindness have collapsed, risking becoming a legacy of times gone by. That’s why Fight for Kindness is born: as a unique opportunity to bring…read more

A beautiful mistake

Posted by in Editorial, Trip on Sep/2022

Cover image ©OFFF TLV 2022  In May 2022 we were contacted by Nitsan Rozenberg and Liri Argov, co-directors of OFFF TLV, the Tel Aviv branch of the worldwide famous OFFF Festival. They asked us to design the catalog for the forthcoming edition, and as soon as they mentioned the proposed theme “OFFF*UCK, celebrating mistakes“, we were immediately hooked. The idea behind the festival theme, created by Awesome studio and described in their “OFFF*UCK manifesto”, is that mistakes are an essential part of the creative process, and that we should embrace them…read more

The Zetafonts TypeTour 2022 continues

Posted by in News, Trip on Aug/2022

After the stages of TypeCon21, Typographic Festival 2022 (New York), Milano Graphic Festival and Offf Barcelona 22, our TypeTour continues towards truly intense autumn. Here are the next design events in which we are proudly involved: TIPOTECA ITALIANA · Sept 16-17  We will start in Italy, and we will be hosted in a wonderful temple of typography near Treviso: Tipoteca Italiana. There will be a 6 hrs workshop to learn how to do a font in a day (type design basics), and a lecture about our challenge to rediscover the forgotten masterpieces of…read more

Interview with Julia Kahl

Posted by in Trend Reports on May/2022

Julia Kahl (born 1983) studied Communication Design at the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt before moving to Karlsruhe in 2007, where she now lives and works. Together with Lars Harmsen, she runs the independent publishing and media house Slanted Publishers, which was founded in 2014 and has received international recognition for its activities such as Slanted magazine, the Slanted blog and various publications in the field of typography and design. As a designer, editor and publisher, she has a great passion for typography, editorial design and all things print and…read more