99 / Problems but fonts ain’t one 🙌

Fontwerk released a new version of McQueen (previously called McQueen Display) as part of a superfamily that also includes McQueen Grotesk. Designed by Loris Olivier, Noheul Lee, Katja Schimmel, and Olli Meier, the McQueen subfamily reconciles design features that seem incompatible: enormous contrast, ink-trap-like ornaments, and geometric shapes. You guessed it, with these features, McQueen is better suited for use at large — and extra large — point sizes. McQueen comes in nine weights, ranging from XLight to XBlack. Also, the italic styles are definitely worth mentioning here, I find them so amazing that I would totally use them on their own.

For a limited time, upgrade to our paid membership and get a never-expiring license that includes:

• The complete McQueen subfamily (18 font styles)
• Use in personal and commercial projects (not transferable to client)
• Desktop use (for up to 3 users)
• Web use (with up to 20k monthly pageviews)

✌️ Cancel your membership anytime, use McQueen 2.0 forever.

Remember Droulers from Bureau Brut? An experimental typewriter font with bracketing and clasping glyph structures? Well, the French foundry is now releasing Droulers Clarendon, a new version of Droulers that draws inspiration from the sources of these typewriters — the Clarendons in particular. Thanks to the original and distinctive features of Droulers that were maintained in its design, Droulers Clarendon brings a new and very fresh energy to the table. The family consists of 16 font styles, or 8 weights (from Line to Black) with matching italics.

Originally published in 2013, Parachute is introducing a reinvigorated version of Das Grot. This new version is enhanced with two new widths, Condensed and Narrow, including their italics. This makes it a large family spanning eight weights (from Thin to Black) across three widths (Condensed, Narrow, and Regular) for a total of 48 font styles. In addition, Das Grot is now fully variable, and offers several alternate characters. But these features wouldn't mean much if it wasn't for a versatile design that sets it apart — demanding attention at larger sizes, yet assuming a legible and space-saving role at smaller sizes. Das Grot now provides seamless support for Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts.

The latest release of Production Type, Qommodore by Hugues Gentile, defies convention. At first, you see a display serif typeface with a high contrast, but upon closer look, you'll notice that its proportions are unusual, because the typeface is, in fact, monospaced. Qommodore comes in six weights, gaining weight only in its thick strokes, while the hairlines remain hairlines throughout. As a result, the stroke contrast increases as you move towards its heavier weights, making the Extra Bold style practically egregious in its contrast: "the thick strokes borrow from the interior space, creating a dramatic and glitchy texture." Hard to categorize, perhaps, but lovely to use.

Cabrio is the work of Berlin-based foundry HvD Fonts. The typeface is a humanist sans serif that combines geometric shapes with subtle, but playful details of a script typeface. “The first sketches of Cabrio contained weights ranging from Light to Black. But when testing this scope in trial layouts, it was clear that this family would easily endure a super-strong-heavy-weight.” And so, Cabrio Poster was born. However, the design of this extreme additional weight required some specific considerations. One of the main differences in the Poster weight is the “half-dot” of the lowercase ‘i’ — its unusual shape does not get in the way with tight line spacing. I also find the italic styles of Cabrio particularly well done: lively and beautiful.

MCKL Type dropped a bombshell of a release with Trust. Trust is a collection of display typefaces comprising 144 styles across 9 families. The fonts are organized along a continuum of sans to serif, low to high contrast, and light to black weights, in roman and italic styles. It’s extensive and thorough, to say the least. The original inspiration comes from US coin designs, and is also influenced by a multitude of typefaces from the 1960s and 1970s American phototype. You can read more about the inspiration and design process behind Trust in the foundry’s well-documented essay.

Marbles started off as a bespoke, typographic proposal for a magazine. The original design was based on 3D numerals with an organic, hollow centre (see the ‘100’ visual above). But the designer decided to take it to another level and “stripped everything back to flat 2D lettering.” As the experimental typeface developed, the internal forms within the body and counters of the numbers became more intricate and reminiscent of the internal patterns of marbles — hence its name. More recently, the project was updated and expanded thanks to type foundry F37 and their collaborative F37x series. Marbles is now available in four, all-caps font styles and you can purchase them from the F37 website.