Story

Originally released as just two styles in 2017 after three years work, Morion has been one of our most popular typefaces. The demand and love for it meant we never stopped working on it and although it’s been over six years total of an on/off-relationship, there has been enough challenges in the design of it to last a lifetime. The final release has come a long way, the result; a semi-text classical serif with a display like nature.

The main goal was to find out how well a typeface can work in both text and display roles while not overlooking either. When we started to develop an aesthetic for Morion many years ago, the details didn’t quite match and the proportions were off, but the potential was there. A seemingly endless number of revisions later not only helped to get a better quality of drawing and interaction of the shapes, but also resulted in a typeface worth spending time with and using in our own work. The combination of calligraphic elements and rigid serifs has been a challenge since day one, but with this last revision it feels even more balanced and usable than ever. It can appear rather wide and geometric to the common reader, but works surprisingly well in a paragraph in the eyes of a designer.

Weights

The first step for the extension of the basic weights was to draw a third, a thin master to gain better control over the extremes. In the regular weight, the serifs felt a bit out of tone and so did the contrast. After some time in the process we decided to re-interpolate the original (regular) weight, which helped us get a step closer to harmonized details and text characteristics. Furthermore, we’ve set the proportions of the uppercase letters to a classic structure, based on the well-known Roman Capitals.

Italics

While the upright letterforms have been reshaped to slowly gain a more solid and confident expression, the first sketches for the italics gave us a softer feeling for the partnering set of styles. To achieve some contrast in running text we aimed for a slightly condensed version with more calligraphic expression and freedom in the drawings of the lettershapes. Eccentric forms like the lowercase f and y needed a bit of extra care — since they tend to clash with other descenders, we’ve implemented a substituting shape with a shorter tail.

Other Additions

The Glyphset of Morion was joined by practical, stylistic and other absent glyphs that make a font work better in a Latin environment. Old-Style figures for example act as a welcoming alternative to proportional ones in text-use and Lining Figures do a better job in calculations. Case-sensitive forms help with designing uppercase sets of type while refined accents or combining marks solve every question in multiple written languages. Besides all that, Morion has received fresh spacing and completely new kerning sets. We’ve listened to our past customers and paved the way for intense use in the future.

Goods

Supporting the release we have produced a 110 page book and T-shirt. Click the links to learn more.

Previous License holders

We will be in touch in the next few days with instructions on how you will receive the new versions at no cost, as well as a discount on adding additional styles to your license.

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03.27.20

COVID-19 creates shipping delay

03.27.20

COVID-19 creates shipping delay

01.28.20

New Release: Morion

01.28.20

New Release: Morion

01.28.20

Morion T-Shirt

01.28.20

Morion T-Shirt

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