Trailer For Heroine, A New Typeface From Fountain

Type designers and foundries sometimes go to great lengths to have their latest typeface stand out amongst the many new releases. While expertly designed specimens are an ideal way to present and promote a new typeface or family, once in a while an animated specimen appears. We have seen the gracious trailer for Rui Abreu's contemporary blackletter Orbe, and now Fountain does it again for Heroine, a new typeface designed by Göran Söderström.

Heroine is inspired by Windsor, designed by Eleisha Pechey in 1905. As Göran explains:

I have always loved the style of Windsor. A modern interpretation of this rusty pearl is what was missing in the major type libraries. But Heroine is not only an interpretation, it goes beyond that. With the addition of swashes and alternate letters in several styles it becomes very addictive. It's like a breeze of Art Nouveau with modern Bézier skills, old and new celebrated in a typeface family with nine styles. The weights are hand-picked with small intermittent steps to bring out the best of Heroine. True to history, condensed versions are also included in the family.

Heroine from Fountain Type on Vimeo.

A well-known trivia in the type world, Windsor is the typeface used in the titles of most Woody Allen movies. According to Randy J. Hunt who took a typeface design course with Ed Benguiat, the type design legend was asked by Allen in a New Jersey diner what a good typeface was. As he had an affinity for the classic face, Benguiat suggested Windsor to him. Allen has been using it for over 25 years now.

Fountain produced a beautiful commercial that looks exactly like the trailer of an Allen movie, with music by Harland "Whitey" Pepper, courtesy of Fontaine Records. The grainy black-and-white footage was shot in New York City and Connecticut from a Miata driven by fellow type designer Matthew Chiavelli. The short looks very convincing – so convincing in fact that it has been mistaken for the trailer for an actual movie. In one week it has garnered over 15,000 views on YouTube, and I wonder how many more it will get now it also has been posted on Vimeo. Peter Bruhn, owner of Fountain and type designer, says:

I think it's a fun thing, to make movie trailers for typeface releases. You don't see that many. Rui [Abreu] did the other two for his Fountain releases. We probably will do more if we find the right concept for the next one.

Heroine is a lyrical design with a carefree look; it "sings" on the page. Though inspired by Windsor, it is not a copy. Göran succeeded in making something new out of the old face, as if he took influences from an old song, a golden oldie, and remaking it in a contemporary way. For people who don't like the vintage-looking curvaceous shapes of a number of key characters and prefer a more "conventional" appearance he provided stylistic alternates. It is always fascinating to see how only a few letters can change the feeling of a typeface so much. It is well suited for advertising and editorial use, as the beautiful sample by PDF, also designed by The Bruhn Family. Now available through FontShop.

View the promotional trailer in HD on YouTube or Vimeo,

or download for iPhone (11 Mb) or High Resolution (35 Mb).