AM Augusta
CAST · Riccardo Olocco · 2024
A digital revival of a 1930s Neapolitan metal type, combining geometric inline construction with residual Art Nouveau letterforms in a single all-caps weight.
About
Designed by Riccardo Olocco, this revival traces back to the Fonderia Tipografica Meridionale Armando De Luca of Naples, a foundry active from 1896 until the early 1980s. Each character pairs a solid side with a shaded side built from a grid of thin parallel lines, a construction technique shared with certain German inline types of the late 1920s, though Augusta is considered an original design. Olocco tightened the letter spacing, regularised the grid construction across the full character set, and retained an alternate round E, accessible via OpenType features, that carries the Art Nouveau flavour present in a handful of the original letters.
Classification
An all-caps inline geometric revival with a characteristic shaded grid construction, placing it firmly in the display category. The hybrid of late-1920s German inline conventions with residual Art Nouveau letterforms makes it distinct from a standard geometric sans.