Beauty will save us: Solare, a variable typeface by Nikolas Type, is simply drop-dead gorgeous

They say good things take time, and in the case of Solare – a versatile variable typeface by international foundry Nikolas Type – the thought rings especially true. Five years in the making and now finally released to the wild, Solare is a study in beauty and functionality. “After Grand Slang, Cosi Times and Cosi Azure, which are all very expressive, powerful and idiosyncratic display typefaces, I wanted to create a font that would own all of this beautiful and romantic energy, but would be more readable and functional, and suit for a wider spectrum of applications,” Founder Nikolas Wrobel tell us. If his past typefaces were a stunning evening dress, he says, then Solare is “a classic ensemble for everyday.” With chiselled edges and sensuous curves, Solare is available in sixteen signature font styles ranging from fine to black, including matching Italics, and “an alluring, glamorous intense style.” Wrobel collaborated with designer Nathan Riley to also conjure Casa di Solare – an entire evocative world that underscores the elegance and versatility of Solare’s letterforms. A few scrolls on the website will take you to a paragraph of text – as you hover on it, the words shapeshift between the many weights of the typeface, emphasising the visual range of Solare. This is also where you can see the Solare Intense range come into full play (the foundry’s website too has a metre with a toggle that lets you play around with the ‘intensity’ of the forms). “With Solare Intense, I wanted to transform the original shapes and make them playfully elegant, with a certain rich and opulent nostalgia,” notes Wrobel, adding, “I like to think of it as a Ferrari; it gets louder and wilder when you drive it, but looks elegant from the outside.” As the intensity increases, the lowercases become slightly more dense and compressed, and “then exaggerated serifs kick in, extremely angled and wide,” he adds. For example, on toggling the intensity, the serifs of the ‘R’ become sharper, while the sinuous curve of its tail becomes more angular with a subtle notch.