Basco, a mix of Renaissance & tropical atmosphere
Basco, a new design by Bruno Mello is an exploration of the Renaissance style, a period in which letterforms were informed primarily by hand writing. It is clearly a contemporary interpretation of calligraphic shapes forms. The best way to discover Basco is to visit the mini site, in order to test some OpenType features.
Basco: How the project started?
Back in 2012, Basco started as the Type@Cooper program final assignment. It’s an exploration with the broad nib pen, working on the softness and sharpness of serifs and counter shapes based on the ductus. The initial idea was to undertake the design as a learning process: looking back to the early drawings, the essence of the concept remains the same. Over the years, the project has greatly evolved during the collaboration with Typofonderie, starting with the romans, then adding italics, then small capitals, swashes and contextual OpenType features.
Super fluide curves of Basco
The serifs are subtly asymmetrical. Slightly curved arches on the n, m and u are noticeable, creating an interesting tension in the text. Bruno Mello’s distinctive style is most obvious in his mastery of super fluid curves. It is a result of his extensive exploration of calligraphic forms, their tensions and dynamics, mixing angularities with curves. The roman weights include alternate swashes, as well as initial and terminal glyphs. The italics, based on chancellery script, feature simple stroke endings, most visible on the s and c. Alternative swashes, as well as initial and terminal glyphs are available for all weights: just use your own mix of OpenType features. Thin weights, generally seen only on Didones or Lineales, but extremely rare in a Renaissance-inspired type family, are fabulous for display, while the Regular, Demi and Bold weights make for excellent readability, thanks to their low contrast.
Basco: Availability of the new typeface family
Basco is the first typeface by Sao Paulo based designer Bruno Mello to be published by Typofonderie. The family includes 9 weights, available in Roman & Italics. Following Typofonderie standards, Basco:comprises a large set of glyphs including small caps, full latin language support, superiors, alternates, swashes and dingbats. Specific OpenType features include three categories of stylist sets. From Ss01 to Ss06: various alternates access of K R g k & alternates. From Ss06 to Ss12: various way to activate Swashes from words to lines, initials and so on. From Ss12 to Ss15: Dingbats, Boxes.
Basco: digital PRO fonts includes 960 glyphs in romans, 1015 glyphs in italics, extended language support, 4 sets of numerals, capitals, small capitals, lowercases, superiors, ligatures, swashes, alternates, dingbats, etc. The new Basco fonts in OpenType format are available in STD (only 250 glyphs) Web and ePub format as well as in the PRO version which is exclusive. Download the specimen pdf for all the details about advanced typography features.
➽ € 55 for one of the Basco Pro individual style
➽ € 147 for the mini family of Basco Pro in 4 styles
➽ € 574 for the Complete family Basco Pro in 18 styles
➽ Download the free Try-out version of Basco now
Basco in use
As a tradition, at Typofonderie, we test a new typeface family on various applications, using existing designs. It’s the final step of any project and it’s great fun for us. See our Fonts in use section for more.
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