Industry: Design

Type Design for Marco Font Family

Angled asymmetric baseline serifs designed to propel the eye forward

Marco is a humanist serif text family designed by Toshi Omagari and published by TypeTogether in 2015. Rooted in 15th-century Italian humanist models—particularly typefaces associated with Nicolas Jenson and Aldus Manutius—it pairs calligraphic energy with careful construction. The family spans six styles across three weights, with extended Latin, Cyrillic, and polytonic Greek support. It was recognised with an Honorary Diploma at Modern Cyrillic 2014 and a TDC Tokio award in 2015.

Set in Marco

Insights

Angled asymmetric baseline serifs and slightly flared stems are explicitly designed to direct the reader's eye upward and to the right in Latin-based scripts, per the foundry's stated rationale.
The italic styles were engineered to show distinct contrast from the romans—different stem angles, outstrokes, and unique letterforms for 'w' and 'x'—to highlight the quality of writing speed.
Stylistic alternates activate visible calligraphic changes: ascenders bend right, the 'i' dot becomes a jab, and vertical strokes extend further; swashes add instrokes on leading capitals and flourishes on trailing characters.
Character count reaches over 1,900 glyphs per roman style and nearly 2,600 in the italics, supporting lining and oldstyle numerals, fractions, ligatures, and swashes across Latin and Cyrillic italic styles.