Really nice! Dwiggins lives, eh?
I especially like the italic: a breath of fresh air.

hhp

A beauty!

Do you guys know if it was originally designed for any particular newspaper/magazine?

Are you wondering why it's called "Prensa"? Me too.

BTW, Highsmith did recently design the new body face for the El Universal newspaper (of Mexico City), and it has some similarities. Here's a sample of some titling:

http://www.themicrofoundry.com/other/universal.gif

hhp

Not that I dislike it, but it seems that there is a "trend" on Dwiggins-Electra-M Formula, doesn't it?

Prensa figured in the redesign of Inc. magazine back in October 2001. Cyrus showed me samples at TypeCon that summer. I don't recall if he said he designed it specifically for them or not. I suspect that the sketches for the design started as a personal exploration, but then Inc. commissioned the completion and licensed exclusivity for the past year and a half. But that's pure speculation on my part.

-- Kent.

> there is a "trend"

There very much is, yes. And it's broader than just resurrecting Dwiggins's angularity. I call it the "fauve" style, and one of its strongest constituents is the recent -or recently revived- Eastern European school of type design.

It seems to be somewhat of a reaction to the clean-cut Dutch style that has dominated the "serious" font scene in the past decade or two (as opposed to the "frivolous" scene coming from NoCal). Some would call it Baroque. But essentially it seems to tap into the less controlled, the warm fuzzy side of shapes.

> It's beautiful.

Which however is exactly the problem with using it for news - as you can see from that particular (and actual) setting. To me a certain neutral, maybe even austere atmosphere is the main requirement for news setting - especially titling, especially in this Age of War.

hhp

Oh, don't take me wrong: I like Prensa very much, and other
recent Dwiggins followers too. And I don't know much about
him and his work myself, so all this attention he's getting now
is good. :-)

What you mean by serious and frivolous, please give example, to understand to what you refer?

Neutral and austere are very subjective, nobody see same things.

Language is always a little fuzzy - some words especially. But humans use language because it's useful! The word "neutral" for example does mean different things to different people, but certainly more people would agree that Minion is more neutral than Lexicon for example - it's a useful distinction.

Although nothing exists in a pure state, to me there are two opposing forces here, based on design intention: on one side we have self-expression, doing it because "it's cool" etc., and this is typified by the Emigre school; on the other hand we have the more populist desire to serve other people, more typical of European design. And this is a cultural difference that pervades everything, not just design.

As examples I might give Suburban and Fedra-Serif. But sometimes the two poles appear in strange places. Seria for example has a serious Roman but a frivolous Italic.

hhp

I totally agree with Hrant on that a more austere atmosphere benefits news type setting. As beautiful as it is, I think Prensa adds a dramatic component to the text set on it, in Highsmith's words at FB's site:

Thanks for that El Universal sample, Hrant. It's beautiful.
Let's not forget about Schwartz's upcoming Farnham.