ELLA

About the project

What is Ella?

Ella is a stencil typeface family consisting of four styles (Roman, Uncial, Rustic, and Brutalist) in two weights (Regular and Bold) with a calligraphic flair. Ella shares the logical principles of letter construction with calligraphy, but it does so under a typographic approach. The Roman, Uncial, and Rustic styles have different capital styles that mirror the evolution of the Roman script. They share a unique lowercase set that unifies the characteristics of the three styles. Besides, Ella’s fourth style, the unapologetic Brutalist, explores the next level of plasticity and takes the calligraphic expression to the limits of construction.
Ella wants to show how classic calligraphy models can be adapted into stencil-style fonts, and perform as a contemporary digital typeface. The two weights, Regular and Bold, with low-to-high contrast, are meant for use in text and display.

 

The shared characters
The Roman, Uncial and Rustic styles share a unique lowercase set that unifies the characteristics of the three styles, they also share numerals and punctuation. It is a conceptual approach to the fact that the three calligraphic styles were coexisting at the same historical time. The large x-height and triangular serifs of the lowercase bring sharpness while keeping some ductus and warmth.

 

The starting point: Typographers-in-Residence 2021: “Mujeres Hispanas y Tipografía”
ELLA was initiated as a custom research project HMCT Typographers-in- Residence program in 2021. It was called Mujeres Hispanas y Tipografía, and reflects the influences that individual cultures and histories had on the investigations of five designers, researchers and educators—embedded in Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and Peru—and what they deemed important and relevant to their interest in language, graphic design and typography.

Laura Meseguer (Spain) — Lettering & Type Design
Marina Garone (México) — Researcher & Historian
Jimena Gamio (Peru/Los Angeles) — Lettering, Sign Painting, Typography
Tipastype: Sandra García (Colombia) & Dafne Martínez (México) — Calligraphy & Type Design

 

If you are interested , you can watch the video of our Project Presentations here.
As the result of the research, the HCMT has published a superb bilingual catalog, that explains the project in deep compiling all the research and work process. You can purchase it here.

 

Prizes:
TDC 2023 winner. Certificate of Typographic Excellence
ISTD International Typographic Awards 2024

Designer: Laura Meseguer + Type-Ø-Tones / Barcelona
Client: HMCT Typographers-in- Residence program and Laura Meseguer (as personal project)

 

Thanks to
The great and somehow “brutal” graphics on display in the Ella “in use” section were designed by Gerard Joan.
For the specimen you can find at Type-Ø-Tones site, Laura decided to pick up some designers and artists who inspire her.
And huge thanks to Oriol Miró for his calligraphy models.

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