alvarofran.ca
Selsdon — Álvaro Franca
http://alvarofran.ca/selsdon
Selsdon is a wedge serif text typeface for small sized print and in-depth reading. It also is the typeface that you are reading right now. Made for a target size of eight points, Selsdon is focused on legibility and tries to keep flashy details to a minimum. I began designing Selsdon as part of the intern training program at Dalton Maag and it is still under development.
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Typewritten Portraits — Álvaro Franca
http://alvarofran.ca/typewritten
Typewritten Portraits is an ongoing art project. During my exchange period at Cambridge School of Art. I developed a technique for creating grayscale images on a typewriter and from it I was able to create portraits of sone of my favourite authors in literature who worked on typewriters. I am available for commissions in this technique, let me know about your project and I'l send you a quote. This work has been featured in newspapers and magazines from Brazil.
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Noturna — Álvaro Franca
http://alvarofran.ca/noturna
Noturna is a single style text typeface for editorial use. It was designed loosely based on the hand made lettering used extensively in Noturno , a photonovel magazine which ran in Brazil in the 1940s. Contrast in stroke thickness is moderate, and at an angled axis like in an Old Style face, but Noturna has no serifs. Instead, it’s terminals swell up into bulbous shapes, like the ink blots in the original. Noturna was commissioned, designed for and is temporarily licensed exclusively to Pitomba!
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Baleia Heavy — Álvaro Franca
http://alvarofran.ca/baleia
Baleia is mostly a nummerals typeface but it also features an array of acompanying symbols to put the numbers to use, things like basic punctuation, currency symbols, maths operators and more. Influenced by Herb Lubalin's as well as House Industries' work, Baleia evolved from the lettering I had created for a New Year's greeting card, it has very high contrast and a perfectly vertical axis. The typeface is ready but still unavailable for purchase. Hit me up. If you'd like to use it.
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Bonde — Álvaro Franca
http://alvarofran.ca/bonde
Bonde is a typeface in nine different widths. It is the result of a year long research project on the hand painted lettering used in Rio de Janeiro tramways between 1868 and 1966. The carioca engineers who lettered the original signs used compression and expansion of letters so that station names of all sizes would occupy the same horizontal space. Following the original designs, Bonde includes upper-case, true small caps and superscript. Thanks to Rodolfo Capeto, and Gustavo Ferreira.
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Lettering — Álvaro Franca
http://alvarofran.ca/lettering
A collection of the lettering work I made in the last couple of years. The work shown here was used for a broad range of applications, from company logos to animated film titles, publications, a tattoo and some concrete poetry. Letterings were made with calligraphy, hand drawn, vectors, or animated depending on the needs of each project. Many thanks to my wonderful clients for the opportunity to convey their many different values, ideas, people in each project using only letterforms.
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Poesia da Máquina — Álvaro Franca
http://alvarofran.ca/poesiadamaquina
Poesia da Máquina is a project in experimental typesetting. I created a device which let me put a black pen in place of the drill in a CNC machine, which I then programmed to write a poem about machines by portuguese Álvaro de Campos. When converting the type into a drilling path and following it, the machine created accidental new strokes that weren't planned for by me, but rather a fruit of the machine's own limitations and how it processed my instructions. Made in 2011, with help from Fernando Reiszel.
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It's okay, we're all friends here — Álvaro Franca
http://alvarofran.ca/itsokay
The agency The Beautiful Meme. Put together a happening at the Design Museum. In London called "It's okay, we're all friends here", and they invited a team of type designers from Dalton Maag. To occupy a couple of walls in the museum with chalk lettering. Attendees of the event would answer a series of yes-or-no questions in order to trade their personal information for currency, no cash allowed. It's Okay We Are Wall Friends Here" was a happening created by The Beautiful Meme for the Design Museum London.
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Writers Room — Álvaro Franca
http://alvarofran.ca/writers
Writers Room is a signpainting project I did along with the inimitable Daniel Rocha. On the walls of Giros. A production company from Rio. We filled the walls of their writers room with terms from screenplays and cinema jargon, to help the writers get their creative juices flowing. The whole thing was filmed by our good friends and videomakers Nickolas Borba. Thanks to Bianca Lenti and everyone at Giros for the help throughout the project.