FontWalk 3 Strolls/Scrolls Through Noteworthy Releases

FontShop launched the third instalment of their scrolltastic interpretation of the type catalogue / specimen / newsletter with FontWalk 3. This award-winning microsite – nominated for Jahr der Wer­bung 2013, Silver at the Eu­ro­pean De­sign Awards 2014, and Gold at the Annual Multimedia Award 2014 – in­tro­duces new typefaces and high­lights in­ter­est­ing top­ics. By adding movement it takes the viewer quite literally on a journey from one typeface to the next, showcasing the features of the fonts and illus­trating their unique qual­i­ties. Concise descriptions (in German*) give additional information. FontWalk 3 will inspire and delight designers and clients – and the casual type enthusiast – with specimens of Shameless, Pruno, and the extended character sets of FF Unit Slab Pro, FF Sero Pro, and FF Pro.

* I have provided translations after the jump.

With his festive Shameless U.S. type designer Neil Summerour pushes the possibilities of digital script faces to their limits, both stylistically and technically. The script's aesthetic is informed by the Japanese http://fontfeed.com/archives/fontwalk-3-strollsscrolls-through-noteworthy-releases/Kuretake Zig Cocoiro pen Summerour used to not write but scratch the calligraphic letter forms. To recreate an authentic handwritten look he digitised over 2,200 glyphs for Shameless Regular alone. The more sophisticated Shameless Deluxe contains an additional 200 characters, which lends amazing credibility to the script through OpenType programming.

Prumo is a coherent, easy-to-use type system consisting of 92 fonts that can handle any typographic challenge. Portuguese type designer Dino dos Santos developed the super family over a period of two years, from 2011 to 2013. It consists of six type families – the core family Prumo Text (20 styles), Prumo Slab with heavier serifs and decreased contrast (18 styles), the high-contrast Prumo Display (18 styles), Prumo Deck (16 styles), Prumo Banner (16 styles) and Prumo Poster (4 styles). All the variants are based on the same unique skeleton along which the letter contours flow – just like a pendulum – from high to low contrast and from fine to heavy stroke width. Prumo Poster contains four decorative styles that can be layered to produce polychromatic type.

All Pro versions of FontFonts support the languages from Central European countries, including Turkish, Romanian and Baltic languages​​. Several of them, like FF Unit Slab Pro, FF Sero Pro and FF Trixie Pro, also include the Greek and Cyrillic character sets. As Jörg Hemker, the designer of Sero, says "It is a very important issue for me, because I want to offer a font family that can be used for international corporate design jobs in our increasingly globalised world".

See also FontWalk Microsite Wins Gold at Annual Multimedia Award 2014, my interview with the creators of FontWalk.