Pritzious
Pritzious is a flamboyant script typeface for branding and display purposes. It is based on Rosart’s and Fleischman’s ‘Financière’ style of script types.
This is a labour of love and it would not have been possible without the feedback and encouragement from Troy Leinster, Kyle Letendre and Marco Goran Romano. Marco also helped me with illustrations and graphic design.
With your support, you will contribute to fund field research in the Netherlands and, of course, technical implementation and character set additions. New and exciting things will come!
Pritzious was conceived and developed during the Type Design Expert Class 2021–2022 chaired by Frank E. Blokland, with the help of Jan Van der Linden, at the Plantin Instituut voor Typografie in Antwerp.
The course is held in the Institute, which is part of the Plantin-Moretus Museum, once home of the Officina Plantiniana: a very successful nine generation publishing firm started in 1555 by Christoffel Plantijn. The motto is quite explanatory of the dedication this family put into its business: Labore et Constantia.
The premises are really magic and you can breath type all around: I have never imagined that a business related to book publishing and type could have been such luxurious and opulent. If you have enough time, consider booking a visitor’s guide to show you around. The archive is full of matrices and punches, but you have to book weeks in advance to access the historical material.
Because of Covid-19, we could spent only four days in Antwerp, and on the last one we had the chance to visit the workshop of Patrick Goossens in Wilrijk (with demonstrations by Jurie Florijn and Wim). You can see from my face how concentrate I was while trying to cast a small piece of lead type.
The course
Part of the 2021-2022 Type Design Expert Class students in front of Patrick Goossens’ workshop (from left to right: Luis, Me, Louis, Oscar, Lena, Benjamin, Olga, Jan (from the Institute) and Pedro.
The typeface
Confectionery, pastry shops and wine labels are Pritzious favourite playground: a bit nostalgic but also sharp enough to keep it contemporary.
Pritzious behave with subversive intentions compared to a normal script typeface: uppercase letters are not afraid to touch and lowercases, on the other hand, keep a distance from each other, giving birth to unexpected and dynamic layouts.
Pritzious is extra in every way: there is so much going on that sometimes you might say that it is too much. And maybe it is true, but considering where it came from, how can you blame it?
Curious about it’s historical background, research and design process? Check Pritzious dedicated page on Cast Studies.
