This is the weekend edition of TheMarioBlog post and will be updated as needed. The next blog post is Monday, April 24.
The arrival of a new font is almost always an auspicious occasion. When it is a Cyrus Highsmith creation, we all stop and take a good look. I have done just that upon seeing the launch of Allium.
Cyrus describes his new font as “humanist” and tells why he named it Allium:
“My latest series is a new humanist sans serif. It’s a calm—maybe even quiet—design, drawn for headlines and deck sizes. I call it Allium, after a genus of flowering plants that includes onions, leeks, and garlic.
“Harmony and balance sound like high-minded goals for a type designer. They can be achieved in many different ways and I don’t claim to have them figured out. However, these were the themes I was exploring in Allium.”
The designer and type expert Roger Black calls it “beautiful and useful.” He adds:
“The key to this font is that is that it is a well accomplished new Humanist sans—and a Cyrus Highsmith design!
“All of Cyrus’s fonts have a distinctive personality. If you there are critics of designs like Antenna, Relay, Scout, Stainless, Quiosco, Dispatch, Prenza, Amira, Heron or Gasket, it’s because his work has so much flavor.”
Roger tells me that, as Mark Davis suggests in a post on TYPEemag.org, maybe this new restraint is a result of spending a lot of time in Asia in the last few years. “There’s a bit of zen calmness in Allium. However it happened, this font shows real mastery of the craft. And I bet it’s a huge success,” Roger said.
As a designer always looking for the right font for a project, I feel that Allium is one of those sans serifs that can bring elegance either as a primary font, or as an accent one. I think it has great potential for branding, too. I can see that if one is looking for a logo that is clean and has a lasting presence, Allium fits the bill.
Congratulations to Cyrus Highsmith for yet another great font.
An offer from Cyrus
Cyrus is giving away a print to whoever buys first 10 licenses for the complete family of Allium. For those interested, go here:
Speaking Engagements Coming Up
SIPConnect 2017, to be held in Miami June 21-23, is a program of the Inter American Press Association, IAPA, or SIP (Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa). The venue will be the Hilton Miami Downtown Hotel.
Details:
Join us at the SIPConnect Hemispheric Conference 2017. Organized by the IAPA, SIPConnect is a gathering of media and digital businesses to encourage more audiences and higher revenues. It’s a laboratory for new ideas and successful experiences for the digital transformation. As in the 2016 successful meeting that was attended by media from the US, Latin America and the Caribbean, experts in digital businesses and representatives of innovative companies will participate in this event.
For more information: http://www.sipiapa.org/notas/1211078-llamado-sipconnect-2017