Shakespeares Globe unveils typeface using intricate designs from playwrights First Folio [Video]

The project was initiated by Globe’s in-house design team. It entailed picking decorative patterns from the First Folio, which were originally used as illustrative devices to break up text. Typeland worked through the Folio, reworking elements to create a base thematic treatment, before creating the bespoke layer font.

“The challenge was to create combinations and variations that were intricate in their design, but that could also work across different scales,” a release explains. “This meant creating a design that would be effective at varying sizes and levels of detail, depending on how big or small the decorative initials were in a given scenario.”

The typeface uses an entirely uppercase alphabet, inspired by the decorative initials from the original Folio. For greater versatility, the Amifer Folio family features two separate styles – a simplified version in Amifer Folio Small and one with a greater number of elements and fills, “providing a …