Coming full circle: Suitcase Type Foundry on Franci, a sequel to one of their decade-old typefaces

Suitcase Type Foundry have announced the launch of Franci, a geometric typeface that strikes a balance between unwavering boldness and subtle precision. It’s a sequel to the Prague-based foundry’s Ladislav typeface created ten years prior, which founder Tomáš Brousil explains “is a modest tribute to the typography of Ladislav Sutnar.” And as a continuation, it maintains the strong graphical impact and Bauhaus aesthetic of its muse, built on the basic shapes of circles, squares and triangles. “The shapes of the characters based on circles, which in Ladislav’s typeface were hidden in stylistic sets, gave rise to the fundamental proportion of the Franci,” Brousil tells us. “This further plays out its own choreography, which moves further back in time. It thus logically encounters, for example, the typographic expression Avant Garde Gothic, and comes to terms with it in its own way through its geometric rawness.” With styles ranging from Light to Black, the Franci family also offers two subfamilies, A and B, which arose as a natural part of the typeface’s development process. “From the large number of possible alternative versions of the basic characters of the alphabet,” Brousil reflects, “another set gradually began to take shape, forming its own character, which was closer to the geometric abbreviations of the characters as we know them, for example, from Stop by Aldo Novarese.” While they share many common glyphs, each subfamily has its own distinct character that sets it apart. This division into two subfamilies allows users to conveniently merge the two variants and unleash their creativity in a variety of compositions. “The biggest challenge was to choose from the large number of characters those that would be significant enough for each version, while remaining consistent in their expression and in the complete image that the whole set contains,” Brousil notes. “But it’s safe to say that this part of the production was also the most fun part of the whole type design process.” Its timeless appeal, clean lines, and uniform shapes make it versatile for various uses in visual communication. “Franci is a typeface that is great for creating logotypes and offers a very distinct expression that can be used in branding, poster design or striking visual styles,” says Brousil. “I'm very excited to see how users will work with the font, and how they will be drawn into the game that Franci offers them.”