When I first saw the Horizona typeface family, designed by Anita Jürgeleit in 2022, and its brood of nine different weights, it reminded me of how, depending on the respective ages of a family’s siblings, there’s something common to them all. Horizona goes, so to speak, from toddler to middle age retaining its light and dark contours, as it gets bolder or fatter and ostensibly more mature with each evolutionary enhancement.
Horizona’s nine variations may seem like an excessive number but it’s not. Each increment has its own character. While the entire family evokes a pleasingly consistent sculptural aesthetic, the individual weights potentially serve different functions. For instance, Horizona Thin, Horizona Light, Horizona Regular — and even Horizona Medium — are useful as text faces, adding a subtle glimmer to a page. These are also appropriate for pull-quotes or subheads, and contrast well with the Semi Bold, Bold, Extra Bold, and Black weights, which in caps or upper- and lowercase make striking headlines.
My favorite member of this close-knit ensemble is Horizona Heavy. Only slightly bolder than Horizona Black, the details are a bit more exaggerated — and more sculptural. The Heavy caps could easily work as a wordmark for midcentury modern furniture store. In fact, come to think of it, Horizona is Art Nouveau meets 2001 — a 21st-century hybrid.
“…come to think of it Horizona is Art Nouveau meets 2001 — a twenty-first-century hybrid.”
If I were the production designer for a retro-sci-fi space movie I’d use the versatile Horizona family for just about every typographical detail, from the incidental signs to space-age letterheads.
| Font of the Month: Horizona | |
|---|---|
| Designer: Anita Jürgeleit | Foundry: TypeThis!Studio |
Steven Heller is nothing short of a legend in the design community. Award-winning graphic designer, author and editor of hundreds of books (yes, 100s!) and one of the world’s foremost authorities on graphic design history; and arguably its best design commentator. Follow Steven on the must-read The Daily Heller and read his latest book, Growing Up Underground: A Memoir of Counterculture New York.
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