Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Brought to you by the letter...


Today's letter is brought to you by the letter: i.
Alfredo, Regular, lowercase i.

The lowercase 'i' is only important because of it's tittle. Hehehe, she said tittle. The tittle is the dot of the 'i'. And it is what keeps the lower case 'i' from falling into obscurity with the lowercase 'l' and amputated capital 'I'. And the fact that it conforms to the x-height (mean line) rather than the cap-line, also differentiates it from the 'l' and 'I'.

What's great about Alfredo Regular's lowercase 'i' is its stature. It leans away on its hind legs, shoulders back, almost ready to topple over, but really it's ganing momentum, ready to spring forward and throw it's tittle at you. I'm 50-50 on whether the stem gets too thin towards the top. This high thick/thin contrast is reminiscent of a modern typeface. I wonder if it's because 400px wasn't the display size the creator was working for.

In addition, I'm not crazy about Alfredo as a typeface as a whole. It's very 60s, groovy, curvy, decorative, but I think the 'i' manages to capture that attitude without being in your face about it. This is one case where the simplicity of the 'i' works in its favor.

Design Foundry: Unknown
Designer: Unknown
Date: Unknown
Classification: Decorative (?)

Hmm... Alfredo is not getting any hits on the Google radar. If anyone can shed light on this typeface, please do! Many variations of the name Alfredo, but no similar characteristics, very different families. I did however find an actor named Alfredo Font, which is kind of great.