ITC Cinderella
Some typefaces are staid, somber design tools. Then again, there’s ITC Cinderella from Patricia Lillie: a typeface that’s light-footed as a ballerina and joyful as a child at play. “There is a group of display faces that I simply love. Type that just seems to dance, type that makes me smile, designs that, when I see them, I say, ‘Boy, do I wish that was one of mine,’” says Lillie. “Although I never wanted to imitate these designs, when Cinderella started to emerge, I felt like it was the closest I’ve come to that quality.”
ITC Cinderella projects gaiety and freedom. Capitals harmonize with a lowercase that bounces along with a lively, carefree attitude. Stroke weight stress is, well, all over the place. Curlicues abound. This delightful design is just that: brimming with delight.
ITC Batak
In Northern Sumatra, the crystal clear waters of Lake Toba lap gently against the surrounding mountains. In the middle of the lake sits the island of Samosir, for centuries the secluded home of the Batak people.
Visitors arrive by ferry into the tiny town of Tuk Tuk, escaping the heat and humidity of the Sumatran jungle. Throughout the village, restaurants and guest houses are adorned with hand-painted signs in bright colors. Perhaps due to Sumatra’s long history of European colonization, the letterforms are reminiscent of those used for posters and handbills in America and Europe at the end of the 19th century, but with a distinctly Southeast Asian flavor.
Charles Nix, intrigued by the combination of Victorian fancy and Batak arabesque, photographed, sketched and translated the letterforms into a design that is now ITC Batak. Named for the proud ancestors of Samosir’s inhabitants, it is a bold condensed letter with hexagonal serifs – a sort of properly dressed grotesque.
Batak is available in either Condensed or Condensed Bold