Valnera
CAST · Riccardo De Franceschi · 2010
An angular, low-contrast humanist serif by Riccardo De Franceschi, drawing on broad-pen calligraphy and the spiky character of 1970s photocomposition faces such as Cartier and ITC Mendoza.
About
Sharp connections between stems and arches, flat horizontal curves and ink-trap-like crotches give the typeface an interrupted, almost fragmented counter construction reminiscent of Dwiggins's m-formula. Eight weights with matching italics cover text and display use, while three additional subfamilies -- SemiRandom, Random and the headline-only Monster -- introduce glyph variation to break up the regularity of typeset text. The family is also available as variable fonts and supports an extensive Latin Extended character set across dozens of languages.
Classification
Described explicitly as a low-contrast humanist serif with angular construction, broad-pen influenced terminals and simil-slab serifs; its calligraphic origins and ink-trap-like crotches place it firmly in the humanist serif tradition.