ITC Tomism awakens primordial memories of a fantastical, myth-enshrouded time, when fairies and wizards roamed the earth. Curves are angular, serifs abound, and stroke weights show the clear influence of a calligraphic pen.
Designer Tomi Haaparanta does admit some real-world influences, however. “Tomism came about when I was studying the Eastern European and Cyrillic type styles,” he says. “I came across the Church Slavonic text and found it fascinating. I started to play with the letterforms and, in the end, melded these with Cyrillic and black letter shapes.” The result is a design filled with odd shapes and unexpected serifs. Haaparanta has carefully rendered each stroke and barb to suggest the fanciful, mythical and exotic. (Editor’s note: Church Slavonic is the liturgical language of the Russian Orthodox Church, and dates back to the 9th century A.D. It it written in an older version of Cyrillic script not commonly used today.)
As you would expect, ITC Tomism comes standard with old style figures. Haaparanta also drew a set of small caps to complement the full-size letters. An alternative “Flourished” design can be used as initial letters, or mixed with the regular design.
A magical potion brewed from elements of different genres, ITC Tomism is a surprisingly utilitarian typeface family. Use it, and you might just turn into a sorcerer yourself.