Grifo

Grifo Introduction

The typeface Grifo was designed by Rui Abreu in 2016. The distinct look and feel of Grifo relates to the Portuguese translation of “grifo” which means the word “griffin”. A griffin is a mythological creature that is half-eagle (the head, the talons, and the wings) and half-lion (the body). These characteristics directly correlate with the look and feel of this typeface. These talon-like shapes are especially visible in the characters c, e, and t when looking at the bottom terminal of the characters.

This typeface was a redesign of a typeface named Catacumba designed by Rui in 2008. Catacumba was a Victorian style typeface that was inspired by inscriptions in church catacombs located in Porto, Portugal. During Rui’s process of the redesign he states, “Eventually, letters transitioned from being hand-drawn, to being cut with a scalpel” (Abreu, ilovetypography.com). This use of scalpellike cuts promoted a more geometric, sleek font-family in comparison to the more hand-drawn and loose feeling that Catacumba possessed.

Rui Abreu is an accredited type designer and owner of R-Typography Type Foundry. In Rui’s student years he studied Communications and Graphic Design in Porto, Portugal at Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto. Although Communication and Graphic Design were his main focuses within school, he also found a love for type design. Now, Rui is living in Lisbon, Portugal creating custom fonts for professional clientele. These custom fonts can be found on his type foundry website, r-typography.com.

Typeface Description

Grifo is a beautiful typeface that was released in 2016 primarily for editorial design. Grifo is very distinct due to its high stroke contrast along with its sharp, geometric terminals and bracketed serifs. This typeface comes in three optical sizes: S, M, and L

1. Grifo L is used for display 2. Grifo M is used for titles and subheads 3. Grifo S is used for body text Each size has 5 different weights, including italics in each weight as well. These weight are classified as light, regular, medium, bold, and black. This typeface is not only a bold choice when designing, but an economic choice as well. Rui Abreu, typeface designer of Grifo, specifically designed this typeface to make a beautiful display, but also save an optimal amount of space. This was made possible bythe design choice of using hairline strokes, which then enabled a very open feel for the counters of the letters.

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The Breakdown

When analyzing Grifo as a typeface, there are many subtle distinctions between the individual letter characters that demonstrate its economic properties. For example, the cap line and the ascender line are at the same height, and the descender line is a little shorter than the ascender line, thus, saving room above and below the typeface. When it comes to the space between letters, Rui altered some of the commonly used letters to save space. The bracketed serifs of the lowercase l, d, and u are shaved off to create a straight line and a blunt terminal, so that other letters are able to sit closer without crowding the letter form. The last aspect of this typeface that adds to its economic qualities is the optical axis used throughout the type family. This optical axis is adjusted per letter to use the optimal amount of space when typeset. Other distinctions within this typeface are its hairline strokes, which contribute to the overall high stroke contrast of the typeface. This contrast is also emphasized within the horizontal cuts that are executed on the mean line and the base line.

Some of the standout letters within this type family are the lowercase, double-story g and the lowercase y. The lowercase g has a distinct ear that embodies the triangular terminal shapes, along with a sharp slice at the connecting point of lower bowl. The lowercase y has a blunt slice at the crotch, and then connects to a swinging tail that also has a blunt terminal.

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Mean Line

Base Line

Descender Line