In yesterday’s post I wrote about combining type and brought up the concept of a superfamily: a collection of fonts in different classifications (usually at least a serif and a sans) sharing a name and similar design features. Today I want to explore one superfamily a little further.
The Questa Project is a type design adventure by Dutch type designers Jos Buivenga and Martin Majoor. Their collaboration began in 2010 using Buivenga’s initial sketch for a squarish Didot-like display typeface as a starting point. It was a perfect base on which to apply Majoor’s type design philosophy that a serif typeface is a logical starting point for creating a sans serif version and not the other way around. The extensive Questa family includes serif, sans, slab and display typefaces.
Intro to the Quest Project specimen, available to download from thequestaproject.com
I highlighted that bit in the blockquote, because yesterday I also linked to the examples of Meta/Meta Serif and Proxima Nova/Proxima Sera, two examples of serif faces designed and released after their sans-serif counterparts. Intuitively, I think of basing a serif typeface on a sans-serif skeleton form, but I’ve never properly designed a typeface myself.
The serif
Twenty years after entering graphic design school, certain type classifications still throw me off. I wrote recently about Old Style serifs, and I understand what makes them different from Transitional serif faces, but I struggle to accurately slot certain fonts into either category. The type specimen states that Questa belongs to a group of neoclassicist typefaces, but I’m more used to seeing these called Modern or Didone.
The Questa text face is the foundation for the three other designs in the superfamily. The high-contrast faces Didot (1784), Bodoni (1796) and Walbaum were reviewed for the design, but Questa is not a revival—it is an original design. The contrast between strokes is a bit lower from what you might see in digital revivals of Bodoni, for example.
The design of the italics is also interesting. There is an angle to the italic, but it is more upright than Bodoni’s. There are more humanist, or handwritten elements to the letterforms in the Questa italic. Check out the y, the reverse-contrast z, as well as the slight curve in the captial V. Contrast also reverses in the italic numerals.
The display
Questa Grande is meant for bigger type sizes. The contrast is noticeably higher in Questa Grande, compared to the text. All the serifs are very thin, and in five weights from Light to Black, these hairline serifs stay the same thickness. The teardrop-shaped terminals in the a and g curl inward on the Grande display version.
The sans
Questa Sans was created by removing the serifs from the text face, changing the contrast, closing some of the open spaces, and optically correcting the shapes. The italics in Questa Sans are also based on the italics of Questa, so these are “true” italics, not an oblique, like many grotesques.
The slab
Questa Slab was created by addings serifs back to Questa Sans, but thicker, chunkier serifs. Certain characters like a, e, g, and s don’t have serifs at all in the slab version and could almost be interchangeable with the sans. The italic styles of Questa Slab feature “bended” stems.
There are some awesome looking design projects at Fonts in Use using type from the Questa superfamily.
Other typefaces to explore
Martin Majoor’s triumph is Scala and Scala Sans, which I believe I encountered in Ellen Lupton’s Thinking with Type book as a young design student. You can find more of Majoor’s fonts on Adobe Fonts.
Jos Buivenga designs and releases digital fonts through his foundry exljbris. I feel like Museo was popping up everywhere in 2009 and 2010, at least in my memory, but Calluna and Calluna Sans are his more triumphant designs as far as I’m concerned. You can find more exljbris fonts on Adobe Fonts.
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