Typeface Design for Karloff Positive
Beauty and ugliness engineered into one coherent system
Karloff Positive is the high-contrast, Didone-inspired member of the Karloff type family, conceived around the idea of combining irreconcilable extremes into a coherent whole. The broader family spans three contrast variants—Positive, Neutral, and Negative—the last drawing on the eccentric reverse-contrast 'Italian' style, historically the most negatively received in typography. Karloff Positive offers three weights, each with an italic and small caps. Peter Biľak and Pieter van Rosmalen designed the Latin; Maria Doreuli designed the Cyrillic and Greek.
More in gray
Set in Karloff Positive
Insights
- The family's conceptual spine is the tension between Didone high-contrast (Positive) and reverse-contrast Italian (Negative), with Neutral as the third variant.
- Script responsibilities were divided by designer: Latin by Biľak and van Rosmalen, Cyrillic and Greek by Doreuli.
- Each of the three Positive weights ships with a matching italic and small caps.
- Released in 2012 by Typotheque; Nikola Djurek and Igino Marini are credited as contributors to the Latin.
Related articles
1 / 3Swipe
Keep exploring
Related cases
