Di Mare specimen

Typeface Review

Di Mare

Reviewed by Lila Symons on July 5, 2017

As a type designer who is currently landlocked in the middle of the United States, I have moments of envy when I scroll through Instagram and come across square after square of oceans. So it doesn’t surprise me that the typeface I decided to write about means “sea” in Italian.

Di Mare is a three-font monoline script by Russian type designer and lettering artist Ksenia Belobrova. Not only has she designed and developed connecting scripts and textured display fonts that are thoughtfully made, but she also has a point of view that isn’t dated, naive, or overly trendy.

The family consists of three impeccably drawn styles that work great individually or layered on top of one another. What I love about Di Mare is that it’s crisp and sharp, but undulates and flows as you type. It’s a typeface that would look as at home at the Jersey Shore as it would on the Amalfi Coast.

I predict that I will see some great uses of this series of fonts — especially with the monoline and the built-in small caps. Just as we really never know what the ocean will do next, we can always count on a designer coming along who will use a font in unexpectedly wonderful ways.

I look forward to seeing what Ksenia does in the future and discovering where her fonts take my imagination (or travel fantasies) next.

Lila Symons is a graduate of Type@Cooper and SCAD. When she is not making typefaces for Hallmark Cards or working as a freelance lettering artist, she enjoys drawing on eggs, visiting new places, and watching Mets baseball. She currently lives in Kansas City, Missouri.

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