News

On December 22, 2024, typographer and publisher Piet Jacobs, with whom I had the pleasure of being friends, passed away.

I wish I had found the time—and the right frame of mind—to write this article a little sooner, although perhaps, on reflection, it’s sometimes better to let the memory of certain events mature a bit.

I won’t try to be objective; my wife, Paula, and I had great affection for him and deeply regret his passing. Every year, we tried to visit his s … > Read article

After six months of intense work, we are proud to introduce Brutal Types—a collection of display fonts inspired by the lettering works created by designers and architects associated with the avant-garde movements of the interwar period.

The project originated during a working meeting between Ramiro Espinoza and Paula Mastrangelo, the partners behind Retype Foundry. They discussed how best to publish display-oriented projects without straying from the stylistic paramete … > Read article

Henk van het Nederend is a graphic designer with Moker Ontwerp, a branding and design studio based in Amsterdam. Founded in 2008, the studio is known for its striking book cover designs, which often feature Retype fonts. Yves Peters interviewed Henk for us.

How did you get into book cover design?

As a studio, Moker Ontwerp basically designs everything. Somehow we showed up on the radar of publishing houses that found our visual output interesting. Over the period of a y … > Read article

While studying at the Plantin Institute of Typography in Antwerp, Ramiro Espinoza chanced upon the work of an obscure sixteenth-century French punchcutter named François Guyot. The more canonical designs of the period had already been digitized, but Espinoza saw an opportunity to reimagine certain aspects of Guyot’s Gros Canon and Ascendonica types for the contemporary editorial market.

Although Espinoza drew the text sizes first, he initially launched the collectio … > Read article

At the end of 2022, Retype got a call from the brand consultancy The Stone Twins, with whom we had successfully collaborated in the past. Declan and Garech had exciting news: they had been tapped to revamp the corporate image of G&S Vastgoed, one of the leading real estate developers in the Netherlands.

Central to the brand refresh was the design of a new monogram based on classical and humanist letterforms—which is where Retype came in. Said monogram should have uni … > Read article

Retype is proud to announce the release of SuperBlue, a brush-based sans serif with flared letterforms. Its affable shapes make it particularly well suited to relaxed, friendly designs for video games and apps, children’s books, food packaging, greeting cards, and theme park identities.

Seán Sebastian Donohoe, a visual designer with a love for craftsmanship, designed the striking new family. Born and raised in Frederiksberg, Denmark, Seán runs two businesses: his graph … > Read article

Due to policy and management changes on Twitter we have opened an account on Mastodon. It can be found at the following address: https://typo.social/@RetypeFoundry
… > Read article

We are thrilled to announce that Guyot Text and Headline were selected for The Other Collection’s exclusive edition of Any Human Heart. The Intimate Journals of Logan Mountstuart. This beloved 2002 novel by Ghanese author William Boyd, which was nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize, offers an inventive, funny, and playful history of the twentieth century. Any Human Heart is the fourth publication to join The Other Collection.

The Other Collection publishes cont … > Read article

In November of 2019, Retype introduced Dejanire Headline, a roman type family loosely inspired by an anonymous display typeface found in a Claude Lamesle type specimen, which was published in Paris in 1742. Ramiro Espinoza expanded the system with Dejanire Sans in the months that followed.

Today we introduce the third installment in the series: Dejanire Text and Dejanire Jewel. Dejanire Text shares the same basic design principles as Dejanire Headline, but with proporti … > Read article

Kranto, a sans serif superfamily composed of 144 fonts designed by Ramiro Espinoza, draws inspiration from a group of mainly British and German grotesque typefaces from the first half of the twentieth century. Its three subfamilies—Kranto Normal, SemiCond, and Condensed—grow progressively narrower.

Each subfamily comes in seven weights, from Thin to Black—and, for maximum typesetting and typographic flexibility, each weight is available in three different x-heights: … > Read article

Earlier this month, García Media presented its redesign of Handelsblatt, one of Germany’s major financial newspapers. Retype proudly announces that the main type family in the daily’s new design is Guyot, a contemporary reworking of the typefaces cut by sixteenth-century punchcutter François Guyot.

Mario García’s agency, headquartered in New York and Buenos Aires, has been recognized as one of the world’s leading companies specializing in newspaper and magazine design. … > Read article

In November of 2019, Retype introduced Dejanire Headline, a roman type family loosely inspired by an anonymous display typeface found in a type specimen by Claude Lamesle, published in Paris in 1742.
In the months that followed, Ramiro Espinoza worked to expand the system with Dejanire Sans, a refined, multipurpose sans family consisting of twelve fonts. Its compact proportions and neutral appearance make Dejanire Sans especially well suited for corporate websites and commercial … > Read article

Dejanire is a type family loosely inspired by an anonymous display typeface found in a type specimen published by Claude Lamesle, published in Paris in 1742. It takes its name from Deianira, a Calydonian princess in Greek mythology and the wife of Heracles.
The font originally introduced under the name of Gros canon deux points de gros romain was neither handsome nor elegant, suggesting that its punchcutter wasn’t a very talented artisan. In spite of this, Ramiro Espinoza saw e … > Read article

We proudly introduce Dan Milne’s Tasman — a sturdy, warm type family that is neither mechanical nor fragile. Originally published by OurType, Tasman has found a new home at Retype.
This type family borrows its name from Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603–1659), a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant who mapped parts of Australia in 1642, including Van Diemen’s Land (now known as Tasmania).
Milne first conceived Tasman as a typeface for newspapers. This influenced the proportio … > Read article

In May 2017, Retype Foundry released Guyot Headline; a few months later the family was expanded with Guyot Text. Designer Ramiro Espinoza was praised for drawing a sharp and economical type family that combined the elegance of its historic model with contemporary dynamism and efficiency. Inspired by French punchcutter François Guyot’s 16th-century typefaces, the Guyot family was well received by colleagues and clients alike, and in early 2018 it was awarded a Certificate of Ex … > Read article

Reiher Headline is a type family inspired by two fonts displayed in the famous Ploos van Amstel specimen, first printed in Amsterdam in 1767.
Ramiro Espinoza’s affinity for Baroque types and his desire to study their characteristics in detail were the driving forces behind this new type family. As is typical of his revivals, Reiher Headline does not faithfully follow the forms of historical sources. Espinoza made numerous updates and modifications to the design so that it woul … > Read article

In the beginning of 2018 and after a meeting in which we assured him we will assist him with the production, Jan Middendorp decided time was ripe for a reprint the 2004 edition of Dutch Type, out of print and one of the most sought after second hand typography books of the 21th century. After a very successful crowdfunding campaign it was clear that Dutch Type reprint edition will become a reality.
It took us some months of restoring old backups and replacing corrupted image file … > Read article

Don’t miss this opportunity to subscribe to our (very sporadic) newsletter and receive news about our next type releases with juicy discounts for early buyers.
Just input your name and email at: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/y/2F6261797B8C29D8
… > Read article

We are super proud to announce our type family Guyot, designed by Ramiro Espinoza, has been awarded with a Certificate of Typographic Excellence by the prestigious Type Directors Club.
Guyot will be included in the Annual of the Type Directors Club, The World’s Best Typography, and will also be shown at the 64th Awards Exhibition (TDC64) in New York City.
Beside this New York event, it will also be included in 8 identical exhibitions that will tour dozens of cities in the Unite … > Read article

I met Piet Jacobs in November 2017, during the Dutch ‘art of the book’ fair (Boekkunstbeurs) in Leiden. He was in one of the stands, selling a compelling selection of fine Dutch type specimens and booklets. I noticed among them A tot Z, the rare autobiography of Paul H. Rädisch, the famous punchcutter of Jan van Krimpen’s typefaces. After a brief conversation, I purchased the book—a fine green clothbound volume.
It was only when had I arrived home and had time to begin r … > Read article

Five months after the release of Guyot Headline, Retype proudly introduces Guyot Text, a new installment of the type family inspired by the work of the sixteenth-century punchcutter François Guyot.
Ramiro Espinoza first got acquainted with Guyot’s work in 2016, while attending the Expert Class in Type Design at Antwerp’s Plantin Institute of Typography. His Guyot is not a strict revival, but rather a contemporary type family that combines the charm of classic French-Flemish … > Read article

On Thursday, June 22 at 18.30, Ramiro Espinoza will talk about his time at the Plantin Institute of Typography and his research on the types of lesser known punch cutters such as Joost Lambrecht and François Guyot. Reviving Guyot’s types as part of this experience led him to begin learning the art of punch cutting itself.
Letter Exchange Amsterdam’s 8th talk is hosted by:
Café de Bieb
Saenredamstraat 32, Amsterdam
Letter Exchange is a society founded in London in 1988 … > Read article

Guyot Headline is the first of two type families inspired by the work of the punchcutter François Guyot, who lived and worked in Antwerp during the sixteenth century.
Ramiro Espinoza got acquainted with the work of Guyot in 2016, while attending the Expert class Type design (EcTd) at Antwerp’s Plantin Institute of Typography. Researching French and Flemish punchcutters with the prospect of creating a revival, Espinoza soon realized that the work of the most important masters o … > Read article

In November 2016, Singapore Airlines opened an pop-up Gallery at Hobbemastraat 3 in Amsterdam. Agency Hammerfest.co designed a campaign to promote the occasion. They chose our Krul as the main typeface in their work.
The campaign’s logo was later hand painted on Singapore Airlines gallery’s windows by Miranda Ensink, a member of the Amsterdam Signpainters group.

… > Read article

2016 brought us many opportunities to team up with the Amsterdam Signpainters crew and recreate Amsterdam’s traditional traditional curly script known as Krulletter.
Our work helped to launch Proeflokaal ’t Kelkje, a liquor store founded early last year on the Oudezijds Achterburgwal in Amsterdam. The company’s owner was interested in a logo with a typical old Amsterdam look so we designed some lettering which was skillfully hand painted by Jasper Andries on the store windo … > Read article

In the context of Frank Blokland’s PhD research at Leiden University on the origin of patterning in movable type, the Meermanno Museum will host on 10 of October a serie of short lectures by Frank Blokland, Lukas Schneider and Ramiro Espinoza.
… > Read article

ReType Foundry proudly introduces Brinkhuis. This typeface is a liberal interpretation of the Art-Deco lettering found on several facades of the famous avant-garde Betondorp neighborhood located in Watergraafsmeer, Amsterdam. The original letters were probably designed by the Dutch architect Dick Greiner.
Paula Mastrangelo fixed many inconsistencies in the original model, completely redefined several letters, added punctuation marks, and turned a simple alphabet into a striking t … > Read article

On Amsterdam’s west side is De Gouden Hoek, a chic fish & chips restaurant. Seton Beggs and Jochem Ruijgrok of local design agency Studio Bar were charged with designing a new graphic identity for the space. Determined to contribute to the city’s noble sign painting tradition, they designed a window sign in the distinctive local style. Studio Bar consulted with Ramiro Espinoza to ensure authenticity, making the final sign as beautiful and true to the krulletter originals … > Read article

In 2014 we presented Paula Mastrangelo’s first type family, Laski Slab. Over the last year, Ramiro Espinoza worked to expand the system and today we are proudly introducing Laski Sans, a refined humanistic sans addressing many of today’s design requirements, and specifically optimized for editorial and corporate use.
Laski Sans is a family of 20 fonts with weights finely balanced so that they can be easily combined in a wide range of environments. Its open forms and solid str … > Read article

In the second number of 2016, Monocle magazine has published a well informed article telling the story of the Amsterdamse Krulletter’s origins and our efforts for preserving and reviving the tradition. Thanks a lot to Marie-Sophie Schwarzer and ‪Monocle’s team for bringing attention to this topic. Thanks also a lot to Studio Bar and Jasper Andries from Amsterdam Signpainters for your design inputs and hard work.
… > Read article

Few months ago the identity agency Design Bridge Amsterdam contacted us for an assignment. Their office was recently renovated and – in accordance with their appreciation for local crafts and traditions – they wanted to recreate Amsterdam’s curly letter in a series of words to be painted on the doors of their meeting rooms.
Design Bridge Amsterdam’s building was once a stable. As a nod to this history each meeting room was named after a horse breed: Chesnut, Bay, Roan, St … > Read article

Becky Chilcott from Chil3 has amused us again with a beautifully designed book by author and journalist Susan Maushart. This Little World is Perth’s Presbyterian Ladies’ College (PLC) centenary book. Although it has a fairly formal structure in terms of its 11 chapters, every page engages the viewer with different standout images, stories and factoids. The spirit of camaraderie, innovation and achievement are strong elements throughout the book in line with PLC’s 100 year h … > Read article

Simone Massoni is an Italian illustrator with a deep appreciation for typography. He runs the website chicksandtypes.com where he likes to pay homage to some of his favorite fonts. In past months well known typefaces like Meta, Archer and Matrix – among others, have been interpreted pairing each font with the illustration of a sensual woman that – in Massoni’s view – embodies the typeface’s attributes.
Last month it was the turn of our font Tomate and Massoni cr … > Read article

Few days ago Ramiro was invited by Design Bridge Amsterdam to talk about his research on the curly script of Amsterdam and how vernacular letters can be used in contemporary identity systems. Many thanks to Zayne Dagher, Marguerite Rubens and the rest of the Design Bridge team for a wonderful evening.
More information: http://www.designbridge.com/at-the-bar-with-ramiro-espinoza/
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Ramiro Espinoza has recently delivered a workshop on sketching ‪Krulletters‬ at Amsterdam Signpainters’s headquarter. Drawing letters is hard work but at the end of the day, all sketches looked much more refined. We hope the AS team enjoyed it and that soon they will be able to draw and paint krulletters as good as the ones produced by Visser and Beukeboom.
Here you can see some images of the workshop.

… > Read article

We are fans of the Amsterdam School and at least once a year we pay a visit to Het Schip, the museum dedicated to this avant-garde movement.
Last time we were there, we found this fine publication dedicated to the architect Eduard Cuypers. Its designer, Joep Pohlen from Polka Design chose Kurversbrug as the cover and headlines typeface and of course we think it was the right decision. 🙂

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Emergo is an interesting report on Amsterdam organized crime published by Boom Publishers. The book was designed by René van der Hooren making intensive use of our font family Krurversbrug. Much appreciated, René. We love to see book designers making good use of our fonts.

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Another great project using Kurversbrug: Sander Pappot from Zender.nu studio has redesigned the identity of the Amsterdam’s club Wester Unie and the new image looks wonderful!
… > Read article

In this post at Behance you can take a look to some of the steps in the production of a recent lettering based logo. We used a copperplate style with some traits typic of the Amsterdamse krulletter
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Thanks a lot to Jaap Biemans and de Volkskrant’s design team for choosing our font Krul for this beautiful spread in the Volkskrant’s magazine. It looks gorgeous.
… > Read article

Many thanks to Yves Peters for the thorough review of De Amsterdamse Krulletter published in Fontshop’s weblog.
… > Read article

The beautiful lettering painted on the windows of Café “Het Molenpad” was one of the first works with “Amsterdamse Krulletters” I could identify and photograph back in 2004. “Het Molenpad” is on the Prinsengracht, separated a few meters from the location of the building were the Public Library used to be located. Two or three years later, I started to be more systematic and take pictures of every window with krulletters, so I came back to this … > Read article

As every year we have made a Flickr’s album with pictures of KAKB’s Type and Media 2014/15 graduation projects: https://www.flickr.com/photos/retype/sets/72157654986009899
Enjoy!
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We have to admit we are terribly flattered by the very positive double page review of De Amsterdamse Krulletter that Bob Witman has published in De Volkskrant.
… > Read article

In the last weeks we have been busy making a number of lettering works in the style of the Amsterdamse Krulletters for some of our clients. Some will be printed and others will be hand painted by colleague sign painters. If you need a similar project, don’t hesitate in contacting us.
You can take a look to the complete set at our Behance account.

… > Read article

Ramiro has recently given a workshop introducing to copperplate calligraphy to the Amsterdam Sign Painters Guild. It was a great Saturday spent among home made walnut ink, oblique holders and vintage pointed nibs. Thanks to the ASG crew for the hospitality and the great company! (More pictures of the even can be seen at in Flickr’s account.)
… > Read article

Our typeface Laski Slab –designed by Paula Mastrangelo & Ramiro Espinoza – has been awarded with the highest prize of the Hiii Typography contest. Needless to say we feel deeply honored for receiving it. Thanks a lot to the jury and congratulations to the rest of the winers.
… > Read article

What are the origins of the exuberant swash letters that can be found on the windows of many of Amsterdam’s most traditional bars? Who painted them? Was it a collective creation, or the work of a lone gifted sign painter? How old is this style?
For almost a decade Ramiro Espinoza thoroughly researched the refined, swirling lettering style, examining every surviving example in Amsterdam, Maastricht and Ghent in an effort to answer these questions. He compiled his findings in De A … > Read article

Kerning fonts is a tiring activity that can put a big stress on your extremities. Following the advice given at Robothon conference by Andy Clymer, we are experimenting using MetricsMachine and an USB’s game pad with the help of the universal driver USB Overdrive. It works like a charm. We specially like to have a handy way to flip the selected pair when checking kerning symmetry. The next kerning work at Retype is much probably going to be performed with this method.
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‘De Amsterdamse Krulletter’ files have been delivered to the publisher and the book will be available approximately in one month. The book will be presented on 8 of April at the Bijzondere Collecties’s building in Amsterdam.

… > Read article