Kitsch: An Interview
Kitsch is a typeface happily living at the crossroads between classical latin and medieval gothic letterforms. But, rather than referencing historical models like the Italian Rotunda or the French Bastarda scripts, Kitsch tries to renew both its inspirations, finding a contemporary vibe in the dynamic texture of the calligraphic broad-nib pen applied to the proportions of the classical roman skeleton. We talked to the designers of Zetafonts to learn more!
What inspired you to design this typeface? Were you designing for a specific use case or customer? Or were you more focused on a particular artistic vision? Or some combination of both?
I was always interested in gothic script and my sketchbooks are filled with possible ways of reinventing the traditional blackletter shapes. Kitsch was born as an experiment in giving the blackletter texture and feel to a more traditional humanist serif skeleton. The challenge was to create a typeface that could appear like a traditional serif in text size, revealing his sharp blackletter details only at big point size.
Walk us through the process of designing this typeface. Was there anything different about it, compared to your usual process? Did it come along more easily than others, or were there unique challenges?
There have been many attempts to create typefaces at the crossroads between classical Latin and medieval gothic letterforms. Rather than referencing historical models like the Italian Rotunda or the French Bastarda scripts, I wanted Kitsch to renew both of its inspirations — finding a contemporary vibe in the dynamic texture of the calligraphic broad-nib pen applied to the proportions of the classical roman skeleton. As usual, I started with a sketching phase that was later digitized. The first draft of the typeface was then defined together with our team of designers: Andrea Tartarelli added Cyrillic and refined the charset, while Maria Chiara Fantini worked with him on the italics adding her love and knowledge of classical Italian letterforms.
Looking ahead, are there new projects you’re excited about? Anything you haven’t tried yet but are eager to explore?
Our newest typefaces will be exploring the incredible design opportunities offered by variable type. We currently offer variable versions for Hagrid, Codec Pro and Kicker. Variable type is fun, provides solutions for usage on different media and gives designers a new set of great tools for creativity.
