Untitled Case

A 1916 aircraft-engine book as the seed of a contemporary text serif

Aeroplan is a text serif family by Nina Faulhaber, developed during her type design course in Augsburg and rooted in a forgotten custom font discovered in a 1916 book about aircraft engines. Faulhaber's background in sculpting informed a goal of tactility and physical presence across print and digital contexts. The family launched in 2023 with eight text styles (four uprights plus italics) and variable fonts, with ten Titling styles announced as forthcoming. It received the Gerard Unger Scholarship in 2021 and subsequent awards including Hiiibrand Gold and an ISTD Certificate of Excellence.

Set in Aeroplan

Insights

Slightly wider-than-classical proportions were a deliberate choice to modernize the historical source while retaining a familiar feel.
Functional inktraps are built into the text styles to optimize rendering in both print and on screen.
Specific letterform decisions—bracketed E/F, modern K/k connection, sharp serif turns on C/G/S/Z—distinguish it from conventional revivals.
The italic was designed with sufficient independence that setting continuous text in italic only was an intended use case.