Gestalten

Your name / Company name
Alexander Meyer / XYZ.CH

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m an independent graphic designer working in a studio called K18 where I share a working space with 25 other people. I mainly work with printed matter.

What is your direction in graphic design? How would you characterize your style?
Type is everything, image is nothing and color… I don’t like too much.

Place of work
Zurich, Switzerland

Can you tell us about your font?
Lacrima is based on a very old typewriter italic font called ‘Light Italic’ which features little rounded drops at the ends of the lowercase letters. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find out who designed the original font.

Is there a story behind the name?
Lacrima is Italian for teardrop. The little drops at the ends of some of the lowercase letters reminded me of tears.

Why did you design this font and what was your inspiration?
I’m interested in looking at the diverse analog and digital approaches type has had through history. I wanted to create a typeface that looked like a typewriter font but be able to apply it to a nice corporate logo for one of my own projects.

What was the main idea behind designing this font?
Digitalizing and re-interpretating IBM Ballhead-types as part of the digital revolution.

What is the ideal usage of your font?
Lacrima is great for creating corporate trademarks and lettering for candy wrappers.

Do you think that too many fonts exist?
No. It’s not a matter of quantity. The variety and number of existing fonts are closely related to trends, styles, fashion, legibility and time. Therefore, there will always be plenty of fonts to choose from to suit the specific time, situation and purpose.

Your future plans?
Make more fonts, more money and visit Timo in Berlin this summer.