Industry: Design

Typeface Design for Dash Casual

Four writing speeds encoded in a single typeface system

Dash Casual is one of four writing-speed variants within the Dash connected script system, designed by Petra Dočekalová at Typotheque with contributions from Peter Biľak, Héctor Mangas Afonso, and Sébastien Morlighem. The family draws on over a year of research into Western educational handwriting models to simulate how handwriting evolves from taught convention into personal expression. Variable axes control writing speed, letter spacing, and weight, while OpenType logic automatically substitutes locale-preferred letterforms depending on the active language.

Set in Dash Casual

Insights

The design process included documentary research into the historical evolution of Western handwriting alongside more than a year of educational handwriting model study.
Language-specific letter preferences—such as the Spanish crossed q versus the Italian simplified form—were catalogued and embedded as automatic substitutions.
The 'familiarity effect' in handwriting perception was studied by Typotheque's in-house cognitive psychologist Héctor Mangas Afonso, informing the letterform decisions.
Increasing writing speed progressively strips letters to essential forms, pushing the boundary between expression and legibility.