Welcome to Typogram’s FontDiscovery newsletter, written by your resident font and design nerd, Hua, and edited by Wenting. You can also read it on our blog.

Hi Everyone 👋 

Welcome to issue 45! I hope you had a lovely weekend! 

This weekend was relaxing for me. My family came to visit. Because of the pandemic, I haven’t gotten a chance to spend much time with them in the last two years. We mostly stayed in because the weather was a little cold this weekend. It was so lovely to hang out with them.

What did you do this weekend? Reply to me via email - I would love to hear about it!

In this issue

• Theme: Reserved Creativity

• Font of the Week: Enriqueta

• Design idea: Tools for Self Publishing 

• Color Inspiration: Niagara Falls, New York

{img: sample of Enriqueta – Do you have a friend who could profit from the weekly design tips, just like you do? Please consider forwarding or sharing FontDiscovery with your friend by clicking on the button down below.}

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Font of the Week 

All about Enriqueta 

Enriqueta is a beautiful slab serif with a crafty spirit. Initially, it was created for silk screen printing. A slab serif is a serif with large, block-like serifs. Ultra is a slab serif we covered in the past in this newsletter. Due to their large serif sizes and wide letter width, slab serifs usually come off warm and inviting. Many brands love this agreeableness. Brands like Martha Stewart, Medium, even the US Postal Service have used slab serifs for their warmth. 

{img: stamp by USPS - “Nevada” is in Archer, a slab serif; source: FontsInUse}

Design-wise, Enriqueta communicates forthrightness and warmth with a reserved creative spirit. There is a slight contrast between the strokes and bracketing, adding a human touch to the letters. The tails on letters like “k” also are flowy, but with control. The pleasant and inviting visual qualities of Enriqueta make it great for projects in service, hospitality, and publishing spaces.

Font Details

• Large block-like serif 

• Calligraphic influence with varied stroke width and controlled flowy tail

• Four weights and no italic 

{img: font details of Enriqueta}

How to use it for logo? 

Medium and bold weights work great for logos. It can be great for projects that want to communicate warmth with a creative kick.

How to use it for marketing?

Enriqueta has no italic and four weights and is legible in text size. Because Enriqueta has no italics, I prefer to pair it with a sans serif with italics for projects. Enriqueta makes excellent pairs with humanist sans serif like Noto.

{img: Enriquetta used on website menu of a restaurant; source: theSwan}

{img: four weights of Enriqueta}

{img: Enriqueta pairs great Noto Sans}

Design/Marketing Idea of the Week

Tools for Self Publishing

Self-publishing is an excellent technique for marketing. It is ubiquitous in the design industry to self-publish magazines and photobooks (and they are beautiful too!) for personal projects. This week, we share free self-publishing resources: 

Lulu Self Publish

Link: https://www.lulu.com/

A great self-publishing site for printing and making books. Physical books are created by uploading a pdf. The Platform is free to use, and Lulu charges for printing and shipping. I have only used the paperback service, and the quality is ok for the price.

Self Happy, Be Happy  

Link: http://selfpublishbehappy.com/information/

This nonprofit organization focuses on helping photographers and creative people to self-publish their zines. They have free lectures and online classes available on Vimeo on demand. If you want to get creative with books and photos, this might be an excellent place to start.

Color Inspirations of the Week 

Niagara Falls, New York

Enjoy the colors from Niagara Falls in New York, US. 

Winter White #E3E9F0 | Icy Blue ##9EB4C8 | Deep Blue #6385C0 | Dark Blue #456F8D

{img: color inspirations from Niagara Falls}

Jargon Buster!

Humanist Sans Serif 

First seen around 1916

Humanist sans serif is characterized by calligraphic influence. You can see it in the stroke contrast. Overall, it has a more organic structure such as a double-story “a” or “g.” (A double-story “g” has a circular bottom part, like below. See issue 4 for a review.)

{img: Open Sans is an example of Humanist sans serif}

Creative Prompt 

Create a quick graphic with Enriqueta!

Thank You

Thank you for reading and hanging out here this week! You can find Enriqueta here. It is designed by FontFuror.

{img: Infographic for Enriqueta}