Hasta La Ideas

Blend is a large system of twenty-one display faces for packaging and advertising. It pulls off the considerable feat of being puppy-dog cute and charming while retaining the strength and readability of classic roman letterforms.

It has a soft-ended, upright lower case that incorpor­ates some italic features, while retaining the authority of a roman. Its narrow letterforms would not be ideal for extended text, but it is perfect for its intended use of short display. Designer Sabrina Mariana Lopez has also drawn a lovely relaxed cursive for the system.

But the glory of Blend is its many sets of caps. It has regular, bold, inline, engraved, and fills for both the open styles. The caps have been softened and made charming through subtle stressing and modeling, rounded terminals, and art deco features. The result is that they are totally pleasing, yet classically sound and readable. With its huge palette of related faces, I really hope we will be seeing a lot of Blend. Because it is at the same time so charming but free of excess and quirkiness, I don’t think we will get tired of seeing it. This one can last.