Henrik Kubel was inspired by 16th century samples found in the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp and his design evolved over ten months as he traveled between the Belgian city and his home in London. The typeface has a good color (the Medium weight makes for rich, dark text) and a familiar feeling, with a structure that is traditional but also leaves room for personal interpretation,such as in the contemporary proportions. Kubel applies many of his more unexpected ideas in the italic with its brave angle, double-story ‘g’, and magnificent ampersand. But in the spirit of a true text face, most of these details don’t call too much attention to themselves.

With five weights, Antwerp is designed to be a workhorse not only for books, but newspapers and magazines as well. Its forward-thinking design gives it a good chance to be just that for many years to come.

Based in Stockholm, Stefan Hattenbach has been producing type since 1997. After many years as a designer in the advertising world, he now works fulltime on custom fonts for clients and retail fonts for his MAC Rhino foundry.