FS Olivia Capturing the poetry of pen, ink and paper.by Eleni Beveratou

&Sometimes, it's the smallest detail that can spark an idea. For me, and for FS Olivia, this came during a trip to Belgium and the Netherlands in 2011 while studying for my MA at Reading University.

At the Plantin Moretus Museum in Antwerp, my attention was drawn to the letter 'g' from the Didot family. At first, it appeared to me almost like a mistake, standing out from the text. But at the same time, it seemed to blend quite harmoniously with the rest of the letters.

Later, in Amsterdam, I discovered a completely chaotic bookshop and emerged three hours later with an armful of old poetry books.

Most were typeset using Sjoerk Hendrik de Rooss typefaces: Egmont cursive and Erasmus and I became fascinated by the details of the letterforms such as the serifs on the 'l', 'h', 'k', 'b' and 'd' in Egmont making each character unique while simultaneously creating an interesting texture on the paper.

And there it was, the spark. I decided to design a typeface that would capture the details of the process of writing.

It would be intended mainly for poetry books, since short lines allow more freedom to differentiate each letter, making it unique and even irregular within the character set, but at the same time blending together with the other letters as a harmonious whole.

Regular414pt

FS OliviaFS OliviaCapturing the poetry of pen, ink and paper.by Eleni Beveratou

Say or recite with little rise and fall in the

pitch of the voice.

oo ov o o o.

Italic46pt

FS Olivia

gcI shared my initial thoughts with Phil and Jason. I think they saw something they liked among these first tentative sketches and they gave me every opportunity to develop my ideas further.

Throughout the remainder of the design process, Phil in particular gave plenty of valuable input as FS Olivia began to take shape.

When creating a typeface it's fair to say that it reflects some of the designers personality. And that's certainly the case with FS Olivia.

Although technology is part of my everyday life, I am a great admirer of traditional graphic design where you can touch and feel paper and ink.

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Bold252pt

A typeface that captures the motion of the pen, with low junctions,deep top serifs and semi-rounded edges.

FS Olivia

OpenType TrueType

Lining and Old Style figures in Tabular and Proportional widths.

Superior & Inferior Numerals and OpenType Fractions. Small Capitals in all Latin, Cyrillic and Greek including Polytonic.

OpenType Ligatures.

Mac and PC

AVAILABLE FORMATS

AVAILABLE WEIGHTS

RegularItalicBoldBold italic

FS Olivia

Italic200ptQi

REGULAR

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFG HIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789ITALIC

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFG HIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789BOLD

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFG HIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789BOLD ITALIC

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFG HIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789

REGULAR

Zz

ITALIC

ZzBOLD

ZzBOLD ITALIC

Zz

REGULAR

ITALIC

BOLD

BOLD ITALIC

LANGUAGE SUPPORT

POLYTONIC GREEK

Italic 180pt

CYRILLIC ALPHABET

GREEK ALPHABET

FS Olivia suports Greek and Cyrillic alphabets in addition to the standard Latin characters.

For further information and to buy FS Olivia visit fontsmith.com

FS OliviaWhat I particularly like is that a printed item can develop its own personality sometimes as a result of imperfections in the print.

FS Olivia has some of these characteristics as it's inspired by handwriting, and yet it includes some very modern features.

FS Olivia is a friendly and feminine typeface that captures the motion of the pen, with low junctions, deep top serifs and semi-rounded edges.

The round shape of the outstroke contrasts with the rough corners of the instroke, while strong diagonals and inclined serifs create an intense pattern with rich textures and unexpected irregularities.

In the future everyone will be discredited Everyone must act now to avoid the future

~ Stephen Roxborough

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Bold40pt

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