Mar 12

Erotica

Posted in: Lián Types, Maximiliano Sproviero, Typefaces of 2013

Erotica is truly worthy of its name. Its character springs from its excesses, but its allure is owed to Maximiliano Sproviero’s developed skill in coordinating the complex relationships among the voluptuous thicks and razor thins, as well as the seemingly endless flourishes and alternates.

Erotica’s three script variants (Big, Inline, and Small) playfully move between the natural flaring of a steel pen’s written forms and the tricks only possible in a drawn Spencerian script. Erotica offers filled loops and delicious curves that lasciviously and lachrym­osely flare just before the turns, promising delights to those willing to explore. And though it pushes the boundaries of scripts in these constructed ways, it avoids losing itself to them. As a result, Erotica can stand with ease in the most sophisticated contexts, which only heightens its appeal. The TDC’s imprim­atur only confirms what is clear from just a few settings: there is excellence on display here.

Though Erotica comes in weights named Big and Small, there is truly no way to set Erotica below 48 points without losing all of the benefits of the design. And though the Small cut seems to acknowledge that not everyone has the luxury of placing a single word on a magazine cover, you should put away any thoughts of setting an entire formal invitation with this family (which wouldn’t have been terribly erotic, anyway). Fortunately, all of this space-consuming script eroticism comes with a hairline slab serif to provide a fantastic contrast. Erotica Big is a garden of delicate vines through which Capitals Big can weave.

The best aspects of Erotica’s character are likely owed to the relative youth of Sproviero as a script designer. This family feels unique and alluring because it skirts the edge of what “should” be and equips the typesetter with enough flourishes and ornaments to be danger­ous. In fact, it seems to knowingly go too far at times, just to remind you that the guard rails are gone. It’s a simple matter to create a terrible mess with Erotica’s cabinet of tricks. But the rewards for purposefully indulgent play are simply too great to resist.

For a deeper look at Erotica, Spencerian scripts, and Sproviero, I recommend Paul Shaw’s excellent review for Print.

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Jan 25

Reina

Posted in: Lián Types, Maximiliano Sproviero, Typefaces of 2011

Maximiliano Sproviero’s Reina starts with Bodoni and Didot and adds aspects of Spencerian script and the work of Herb Lubalin. The results are stunning – magnificent and graceful.

Sproviero has demonstrated his love of calligraphy in earlier work, such as Breathe (2010) and Parfait Script (2009–2010), but Reina is his most ambitious project yet, boasting 12 separate fonts. That is, three optical weights (12, 36, and 72) and an Engraved weight, plus two sets of Words (common words found in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, each enclosed in a calligraphic cartouche), a set of ornamental Capitals, and a set of Flourishes. It’s clearly a labor of love, which Sproviero completed at the ripe old age of 24.

OpenType technology, of course, has allowed script and calligraphic typefaces to come back in a big way. The Pro versions of Reina – with their alternate glyphs, contrasting thick and thin strokes, swashes and flourishes – make this typeface soar.

Personally, I am especially smitten with Reina’s Engraved set, which is beautiful and refined. Combine it with the Words and Flourishes components and you have a complete headline kit. I recommend checking out Reina’s PDF specimen to get a mouth-watering glimpse of Reina’s possibilities.

Ricardo Cordoba is a graphic designer based in Brooklyn, New York. His interests include typeface design, book cover design, and poster design. Ricardo is a frequent contributor to Typographica and also a contributing Quipsologist.


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