CL Municipal geometric typeface
Municipal is an elegant geometric typeface with very round counters, the least optical correction that I could get away with, and chamfered terminals, giving it a sometimes playful, sometimes more aggressive look. It is this ambiguity that lets it pair so well both with serifs and other design elements such as images, bounding boxes, lines and colorful contrasts. It is legible even in very small sizes, in spite of its low x-height, due to the simplicity and distinctiveness of its forms.
Municipal is born from the antropophagic impulse to incorporate much of the beginning of the 20th century design that I came to observe and admire during my constant ambulation around my hometown, São Paulo. It is heavily inspired by, and takes many ideas from two iconic font designs, Rudolf Koch's Kabel and Paul Renner's Futura, both from 1927, as well as various art deco designs of the era, all of which are nearly ubiquitous on the façades of buildings and shops around the city. Those ideas, nevertheless, are incorporated in a singular manner, upside-down, so to speak, so that they could work, together, the way I intended, building my own edifice, in spite of their mutual contradictions. Antropophagic and cordial, as we are.
This release marks the beginning of Carretel de Linha digital foundry. The name, meaning "reel of thread", suggests both the hasteless workmanship of a work done with passion and a promised continuation with future projects: a slab serif font, called Silaba, and a grotesque one, still in planning. Municipal Book will be accompanied by a Light, Thin, Medium and Heavy styles, along with their italic counterparts. For now, only the base glyphs for a, g and f have stylistic alternates, but these will be expanded in future versions to accomodate all of the respective accented glyphs as well.