Map Roman
David Jonathan Ross · David Jonathan Ross · 2023
A display serif drawn from the hand-lettered map titling of MacDonald Gill, balancing constructed typographic forms against calligraphic energy in the lowercase.
About
Rooted in the illustrated maps of MacDonald Gill from the first half of the twentieth century, the typeface favours the formal elegance of his large-scale titling capitals. The lowercase, introduced in the Compressed variant, threads a line between constructed rigidity and Gill's looser calligraphic hand, retaining extra-long ascenders and descenders, flat connectors on p/d/b/q, and swashing descenders on j, g and y. The result carries a productive tension between typographic discipline and handmade warmth.
Classification
Map Roman is a display serif drawn from the hand-lettered titling caps of cartographer MacDonald Gill, with formal constructed letterforms and calligraphic tension in the lowercase, placing it firmly in the display category.