Typeface of the Month: Heldane

“Like the Neanderthal face, Heldane is a hybrid, a bastard, a fabrication. I vultured my way through history picking the bones from old fonts I like to make something new. I hesitate to call it original, but it is new. But only in a strict temporal sense—that is, this exact typeface hasn’t existed before.” (Kris Sowersby, Heldane Design Information)

Kris Sowersby, the designer of Heldane, a contemporary serif family, was inspired by the Renaissance works of Hendrik van den Keere, Claude Garamont, Robert Granjon and Simon de Colines. Rather than emulating a specific font, Heldane amalgamates the best details from these sources into a cohesive whole. The characteristics of this typeface date back five centuries to its origins, but the new combination creates a typeface whose clarity and tranquillity remains interesting for future generations. The classical typographic foundations of Heldane are refined with rigorous digital drawing.

Over a decade in development, Heldane comes in two families: Heldane Display and Heldane Text. The fine detail and tight spacing of Heldane Display is best expressed at large sizes. Heldane Text thrives at smaller sizes, taking stylistic cues from the display cuts, but with an additional focus on optical functionality.

Read more about the development of Heldane on Klim’s site.

You can also see, test and download free trial fonts for Heldane Display and Heldane Text.

Heldane

Foundry: Klim Type Foundry
Designer: Kris Sowersby
Release: November 2018
Format: Desktop, Web, App
Weights: Regular & Italic, Medium & Italic, Bold & Italic for Heldane Text and Heldane Display
Price: from 50.– USD