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Designer(s)

Neil Summerour

Foundry(ies)

Positype

Release Year

2011

Country of Origin

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Classification

Sans Serif, Grotesque

Original Format

Digital

Distributor(s)

MyFonts

Tags

grotesque,, rounded,, sans

Air Soft’s development came as a natural progression in my exploration of Air’s skeleton. I wanted to see Air ‘softer’ in some of the test typesettings I was using during its development… so, well, I went about deriving a visual methodology to soften it. Early attempts had me producing solutions similar to all of the other ‘rounded’ types. I rebelled against that. Had to. Ultimately, I wanted to show that you could put a radius on a corner without rounding it to oblivion. The solution is completely subtle and very intentional along each weight/style, but drastically changes the personality of the letters when contrasted against each other. Radii used to soften the letters were not interpolated across the range of weights but were rather derived independently to balance stroke and proportion.

The Air system began as an attempt to unify the prevailing traits of German and English Grotes(que/k)s in order to make something different but familiar. I am NOT trying to reinvent Helvetica (snore), so get that out of your system (get the pun). From the onset, I intended this typeface to be a true workhorse that offers infinite options and flexibility for the user. At its core, it is the maturation of the Aaux Next skeleton I developed years ago. I worked out Aaux Next to settle my issues and love for Akzidenz. With Aaux Next, I strove to be mechanical, cold and unforgiving with it. I was single, young, cocky and it fit. Now I’m married, kids, dog and have found that I’ve turned into a big softy. When I look at Aaux Next (and have for the past few years) I see another typeface trying to eek out. I wanted it to avoid the trappings of robotic sans, quick tricks and compromises. The typeface’s DNA needed to be drawn and not just generated on a screen – so I set aside a year.

Listing Info

Last edited by Dave Dawson on December 27, 2011, 11:24pm EST

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