10 Nov 2011

Meet the Stack

The stack

It took me five years to develop Elena. During that time, my constant companion was what we have taken to calling ‘the stack.’ Standing roughly a foot tall, the stack is a chronological collection of laser prints used to test Elena.

Sadly, after a couple of studio moves, the current stack only dates back to 2009. Luckily, 2006, ’07 and ’08 are somewhere. Test documents never get thrown away, only stored absentmindedly awaiting future serendipitous discovery.

The stack - abc's

Long hours were consumed poring over each and every test document to continually refine the typeface. Some tests are set in stone like the archetypal ‘a b c’ run through. Others are created on the fly to test a particular character, language or typographic convention. Sometimes, they’re just gibberish.

The stack - punctuation

The stack - gibberish

Whatever happens to the stack in the end (shoved into a box and stored in the basement?), it’s a tangible testament to the effort and thought process of a typeface.
ND

1 Nov 2011

New Release: Elena

Elena specimen

We’re pleased to announce the long-awaited release of Elena from type designer and Process Type Foundry partner Nicole Dotin. Designed specifically for text and extended reading, Elena is a contemporary text face well suited for magazines, books and editorial design. Pairing the inspiration of the broad-nibbed pen with a desire for a modern page color, Elena is a face of economical proportions, moderate x-height and spare details.

Available in Regular and Bold with accompanying Italics, each style of Elena is replete with the necessary features one would expect for proper text work like small caps, case sensitive forms and a diverse range of numeral styles including those specifically for small caps. Basic versions start at $39 and full versions at $75.