Thelo

Six years of development across three optical sizes

Thelo is a type family designed by Tassiana Nuñez Costa between 2014 and 2020, addressing editorial demands for coherence and legibility across reading formats and media. The family comprises three optical-size variants—Display, Text, and Micro—tuned respectively to headlines, running text, and small-scale composition such as footnotes and captions. The approach draws on the punchcutter tradition of optical sizing, applied to both screen and print contexts.

Set in Thelo

Insights

The three optical variants carry distinct structural personalities: Text has a clean, functional character evoking modernist typefaces, offset by pointed connections and terminals characteristic of flared glyphic designs; Display is defined by lively, sharp strokes for large-scale use; Micro employs solid rectangular serifs giving it a slab-serif aesthetic suited to dense small-size setting.
Optical sizing is framed as the explicit organizing principle, reviving a lead-type punchcutter practice to address screen legibility across scales.
The family name references the Thelocactus cactus of Mexico, with the designer drawing a direct conceptual link between arid desert conditions and the constraints of on-screen display.