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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

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

Aldo Novarese and the exploration of Design Space

Posted by in New releases on Mar/2021

A true work of art – a poem, a statue, a melody – is a form that pre-exists in the possibilities of language, of marble, of musical notation. The artist discovers it like a theorem. Italo Calvino 1. Archive discoveries Our exploration of Aldo Novarese’s design space began in 2019, with a visit to Archivio Tipografico in Turin. Born as a love project from a bunch of graphic designers and typographers, Archivio Tipografico is a collaborative space for the preservation, study and practice of the typographic arts, set in a printing office that hosts…read more

Stadio Cup

Posted by in New releases, Promotion on Feb/2021

On the occasion of the birth centenary of Italian type master Aldo Novarese, Zetafonts foundry has created a revival of Stadio, a typeface created by Novarese in the seventies and published only as a rub-on transfer by R41, Letraset’s Italian competitor. To honour its football-inspired name and its vintage look, Zetafonts foundry has organized the first Italian football poster tournament: Coppa Stadio. Twenty of the best Italian graphic studios and digital illustrators were invited to play with Novarese’s letters to create a poster dedicated to a football team from their home region.

100 Years of Novarese: Stadio Now

Posted by in New releases on Dec/2020

2020 is not only the year of Covid. For typography lovers it also marks the 100th birth anniversary of Aldo Novarese, Italian master of type design. To celebrate it, Zetafonts is going to release the digital revival of Stadio, a forgotten reverse contrast masterpiece designed by Novarese in 1974 and published only as rub-on transfer. Our revival, Stadio Now, is a full family with nineteen variants that explore all the possibilities of the original design space. It is available for pre-release on Zetafonts website, with exclusive perks for supporters.

Rediscovering Cairoli

Posted by in New releases on May/2020

This new technique is that of the deliberate anachronism and the erroneous attribution. This technique, whose applications are infinite, prompts us to go through the Odyssey as if it were posterior to the Aeneid and the book Le jardin du Centaure of Madame Henri Bachelier as if it were by Madame Henri Bachelier. This technique fills the most placid works with adventure. (Jorge Luis Borges) Specimen pages for Cairoli Tonda Neretta 1. The case of the old specimen It was at the October 2019 TypeThursday Florence meeting that we first discovered…read more

Quarantype Collection

Posted by in New releases on Mar/2020

SPREAD SOME GOOD KARMA WITH FREE TYPE IN DARK TIMES LET’S MAKE YOUR DAYS SWEETER WITH SOME POSITIVE TYPE Trapped home during the Coronavirus outburst of March 2020 the Zetafonts team found some solace from the world-wide anxiety by designing letters for the #36daysoftype challenge. To fight dark thoughts and spread some good karma we decided to add a free font twist, selecting the best glyphs drawn to develop a collection of ten free typefaces for download: the Quarantype Collection! We did our best to make this little gift to…read more

It’s Bulletto Time

Posted by in New releases on Mar/2015

Script logos and calligraphy-inspired fonts are a big trend today. But script typography is not easy to use. Legibility issues, long ascenders and descenders, problems with all-uppercase words. We saw some interesting typefaces trying to address at least the readability issue – like the ubiquous Lobster font – but we were still not satisfied. We wanted to create a script typeface that was a bit like a swiss knife for designers, with easy to use features and a good result in display use but also in typesetting for short texts. This…read more