After 4 months of work, Giuseppe Salerno of Valencia-based Resistenza has released Arcano Type. Inspired by nature, symbols, icons and jewels, the Arcano typeface was designed completely by hand. I discovered this typographic jem on David Airey’s design blog. I was even lucky enough to win a free version of Arcano by posting in David’s comments. Can’t wait to try it out!
“Arcano was born with drawings of special glyphs in Chinese ink. In each letter you will find symbols, diamonds, leaves, and more. I usually work with Chinese ink because the black is always so deep and sharp. The substrate was a Japanese calligraphy paper, used because it’s smooth, bleed-proof, and the warm white of the sheets makes the ink come out even more.
I studied calligraphy more than 10 years ago, and in a way, I stopped for a while because of my Mac. The calligraphy world is very extended and there are people that work solely in that niche. You need practice, time, patience, and of course good taste.
I’m a graphic designer, web designer, and typographer. I have always had an interest in writing, and I developed 10 fonts last year. My studio is called Resistenza.es, basically we are two — me and Paco González. We have a lot of collaborators and friends who help us when we need an extra bezier.
Arcano has been scanned and traced, with Fontlab, the best typography software that I know. It was a lot of work, spanning four months, 26 letters and 10 numbers. There are no commas, dots, or accents, and I recommend Arcano Type for large text.” — GIUSEPPE SALERNO
Available as a Font and Vector. EPS files are included. You can buy Arcano Type here for $42. Share your Arcano designs with Giuseppe and your images might appear on his It’s Not My Type, a blog about typography and everyday inspirations.