Circulation: a new text typeface family

“Circulation” is a new typeface for text and editorial uses, completed and presented as my final project requirement at the post-grad Type Design program in the summer of 2021 at Cooper Union, NYC. It is intended for long-form text at small sizes (6pt to 12pt), but it’s a versatile face for headlines and other editorial uses.

Because of its sober and sturdy forms, the primary use cases suited to Circulation are editorial, academic, and government or Crown communications, where conversations between past and present seek to explain and understand; or where a trusted voice is needed to speak to the future with new ideas.

This design began with a focus on classical proportions but ultimately through my sketches it meted out a personal preference for very open and squared forms: a conversation of its own with a long history of type and lettering alongside my own tastes, influences, questions, and sense of playfulness.

My design aesthetic gravitates to mid-century Modernism, the ideals of Brutalism, and perhaps most strongly defined by the Constructivist movement, which rejected decorative stylization in favour of the industrial assemblage of materials, looking to the particular properties and ‘thingness’ of a thing to define itself and its form.

As the design for Circulation came together, many connections were made to inform the process, including the mid-century architecture that surrounds me daily in my Toronto neighbourhood and the iconographic forms of early modern sculpture and letter carving, through a lens of bringing forms into their self-defined ‘thingness.’