Tifo

Five styles, one frame

Tifo draws from the lettering on banners carried by Italian football supporters, emerging in the early Years of Lead era. Romain Tronchin initiated the project in 2021 as an ECAL Master's in Type Design, researching tifosi fanzines from the 1970s–80s to develop five styles named after Italian cities. All five share identical proportions and a geometric underlying frame.

Set in Tifo

Insights

Each style reflects a distinct lettering approach: Roma uses square counterforms; Venezia, rectangular outlines with circular counterforms; Bologna is an outline; Palermo a stencil; Milano, closest to the family's base frame, is suited to both titling and running text, while the other four target large-size titling.
Typographic irregularities from the vernacular source material were deliberately retained to preserve the authentic character of Italian public lettering traditions.
Shared proportions across all five styles allow designers to combine them within a single composition.