I have a soft spot for classic text faces carefully crafted in the digital format. They link historical tradition with modern technology in a perfect way. Antwerp is a prime example.
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 âgâ, and magnificent ampersand. But in the spirit of a true text face, most of these details donât 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.
I’m surprised this review doesn’t mention the highly idiosyncratic “j” and “J”. More.
Regarding the idiosyncratic “j”s in the sample images, they don’t seem to have made it into the final version; the “j”s in the release look as one would typically expect.