Penina
From the Foundry:
“Penina is a single weight elegant serifed type that results from a typographic adaptation of some of the work of William Hugh Gordon (1860s–1920). Penina comes in three contrast grades: Small, Medium and High Contrast, plus a variable font. When purchasing Penina you get the three grades and the variable font.”
Character Set:
NOTES:
Overall, Penina is a beautiful typographic expression of the edged pen style of letter-making. So often, the spirit of the pen is lost once the letterforms are translated to the digital realm, but it looks like Mario Feliciano went to great lengths to make sure that didn’t happen. There is an old world elegance to this type family, surely thanks to the inspiration, but it plays out beautifully in the terminal strokes and statement serifs. The caps show this especially well like in the C, K, R, Q, and M, and lower case letters like the e, u, r, s, and z. Even thought this typeface is essentially just one weight, you can sense the numerous possible applications in its bones… essentially, this typeface is an indulgent buy, and one that I think will surprise us down the road with where it shows up.
I’m unfamiliar with the work of William Hugh Gordon, but I’m glad Feliciano Type has brought it to light in this way. The variable font format really helps this typeface unfold… using a contrast axis to effectively mimic a change in pen width is rather novel and well done here. Penina is the second type family released in 2021 so far to reinvigorate the work of a calligraphic master from the 19th or 20th Centuries. (see Salter from Sharp Type) I hope it’s not the last.