Martin Wait’s WilliamLucas™ typeface is slightly retro, surprisingly versatile and totally charming. Wait developed WilliamLucas from a handlettering style he had created and then refined over many years. The final free-flowing script is expressive and very easy on the eye.
The lowercase of WilliamLucas combines full-bodied open counters and stroke loops, with the classic proportions of tall, elegant ascenders and descenders. These make the face robust and readable even at small point sizes. As for the capitals, Wait has kept them to a modest height, allowing the ascending and descending lowercase strokes to rise and fall stylishly above and below them. Wait comments, “This aspect of the design stems from my experience with lettering for greeting cards. The copy could not be very large but had to be quickly and easily read by people of all ages. Graceful proportions are key to this.”
Wait created a suite of swash and alternate characters that are available in OpenType™ format, giving graphic communicators exceptional flexibility and opportunity for customization. These include: characters with beginning strokes; some that gracefully loop though or caress surrounding letters; a suite with ending swashes; and fancy alternate swash capitals — in a few cases as many as four per letter. The Open Type format allows those using the face to benefit from OpenType’s capabilities that provide for the automatic insertion of ligatures and alternate characters drawn by Wait.
As for the name WilliamLucas, Wait says simply, “My grandson’s name is William Lucas. For years, I’ve wanted to name a typeface after him, and he showed great interest in this design while I was working on it. The name was a natural choice for me.”