ITC Needlescript
It’s been said that creativity requires ten parts to perspiration to one part inspiration. But not always. According to its creator, Mira Vucko, ITC Needlescript was designed “in one breath.”
An accomplished lettering artist, Vucko was sketching letters one afternoon. “I was using a calligraphy nib and was drawing the alphabet without much thought,” she recalls. “When I allowed the down strokes of a couple of letters to fall below the baseline, I realized that I had created the impression of movement. I kept drawing letters in this fashion and did the same with horizontal lines. I added a firm ending to the descenders. Instead of dots above the ‘i’ and ‘j,’ I placed strokes in the opposite direction.” In this way, the first characters that were to become Needlescript emerged.
The finished design is a lively, distinctive alphabet that produces a striking texture on the page. Letters intertwine and overlap to create a sense of movement and graphic intensity, especially when reversed out of a dark background.
Vucko lives, works and was educated in Zagreb, Croatia. She lived in France and Sweden while in her twenties, but then returned to Croatia to work as a graphic designer for the country’s largest newspaper. It was here that her passion for type and typography was born. Vucko has since gone on to become one of Croatia’s leading graphic designers, and has won many awards for her advertising and packaging design.
Vucko recommends that Needlescript be used for “titling, lively but ‘thorny’ content, and anywhere that a little typographic drama is called for.”