Typeface Review

Newzald

Reviewed by John Boardley on April 4, 2009

It was love at first print. An exceptional text face, constructed by an engineer, brought to life by an artist, a craftsman.

Inspired by the very best of the Dutch types, it is however, no redrawing or revival. All too often, types with such distinguished pedigrees make recourse to bells and whistles, to incongruous embellishments, in an effort to differentiate themselves from their forebears. Newzald shuns these in favour of refinement, clarity, and sobriety, alloyed with a maniac’s attention to detail, and spacing.

When Sowersby describes Newzald as “a text typeface [of] economical rigour”, he’s spot on. It’s economical without ever feeling claustrophobic; and rigourous without coming off as overbearing or overly dark in colour.

A broad character set, well-drawn and well-proportioned small caps, a warm and unfussy italic, and plenty of everything else to make this one hell of a typeface.

John Boardley is a British-born writer, publisher, and graphic designer living in Saigon, Vietnam. He is founder and editor of ILT and publisher of Codex.

5 Comments

  1. Bill Woodruff says:

    Would be nice to see a sample in “regular” weight 12 point.

  2. Unfortunately desktop computer displays aren’t quite good enough yet to do a typeface justice at that size. I recommend downloading the PDF.

  3. Mikey P. says:

    This, almost instantaneously, became my favorite typefaces, both serif and sanserif (if I’m even allowed to compare the two). I’m new to the world and art of typography, so I was wondering if anyone could point me to, even vaguely, similar typefaces, in terms of style, structure, feel, and use?

  4. Typographica says:

    The nearest neighbors I can think of are Arnhem and Documenta. You might also like FF Milo Serif.

  5. Mikey P. says:

    FF Milo Serif is gorgeous! O if only I could afford to buy just one basic family (just starting college this year, no money, no job, y’know). There aren’t any similar fonts on a more affordable scale, I presume? I suppose quality comes with a price.

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