Back in the day (puff) when I was but a wee design student, my fellow classmates and I were in love with Emigre both for its fonts and magazines. Over time, however, the magazine grew into a conservative, full-color booklet devoid of its original large-format beauty. And as with time, many of the fonts lost their ability to retain contemporary or classic styles, but that’s why society fosters used CD stores. If not for the occasional font release, one could almost forget the company still exists.
Today Emigre sent an e-mail announcing the release of Malaga, a new font by Xavier Dupré. Lo:
Dupré is the new global designer who can take disparate influences and fluidly process the information into a coherent whole. Malaga is a case in point. It is inspired by ideas ranging from blackletter to Latin fonts, and from the Quattrocento’s first Venetian antiquas to brush stroke types. This makes Malaga a richly animated font saturated with unorthodox detail. Its black and bold weights are particularly suited for headlines and short texts, while the subtle modulation and moderate contrast in the regular and medium weights makes it perfectly readable in extended text settings.
The font itself is pretty to look at and seems extensive for a family, but where are the ligatures? Where are the finishing touches that make me want to slap this font on everything from storefront displays to advertisements in The New York Times? Where is the love? Maybe it’s just me and my ability to retain the theme of a movie I watched the night before, but if you aren’t willing to fly the flag at half-mast, don’t be surprised when people call for the absolution of the monarchy.
Which has everything to do with my point: not a goddamn thing. For real, y’all.
Furthermore, and forsooth, what does the font have to do with the real Málaga? And did you even know that Mobile, Alabama is twinned with this Spanish city? Do they even know?
Some of the best font designs can come from the very people who use them. Case in point: Critique | Typophile. All the design, none of the pretense or legacy of used CDs.