Arlt is a family of contemporary typefaces for a wide variety of applications. It includes text, display, and decorative fonts. Its style gives the text a sort of spicy atmosphere that makes it ideal for composing literature. Arlt has been created for the demanding, inspired designers. Being the result of 3 years of intensive work, the types aim to balance a strong personality against comfortable readability. The fonts have been carefully crafted in every detail, to offer you the highest visual quality standards in typography.

Arlt is inspired by the novels and plays of Argentinean writer Roberto Arlt, active in the 20s and 30s. He pioneered the introduction of Lunfardo (Buenos Aires slang) into literature, and he was the first to write about the crook and the madman. His novels and plays refreshed the spirit of Hispanic literature of early 20th century, and anticipated the work of English-speaking writers such as Irvine Welsh or William Burroughs.

Arlt is a complex typeface. Its characters have vigorous counterforms. As individual shapes the letterforms can feel impulsive and capricious, but once they are combined into words, they look elegant and sober. The text line in Arlt creates a dynamic, stimulating rhythm, which is still very comfortable at immersed reading.

Arlt is a contemporary interpretation of the alphabet which finds inspiration in some classic sources. The italics are linked to the glamorous, mannerist typography of 17th century Baroque (Dutch designer Christoffel van Dijck, Hungarian printer Miklós Kis). While the romans are a new attempt at capturing the warmth and vehemence of Expressionism. This style may be traced back to the 18th century: the singular work of German punchcutter Christian Zinck, and later to some 20th century East European type designers such as Preissig, Dyrynk, Menhart, and Frantisek Storm, probably today’s finest representative.

Arlt includes 11 text fonts with roman, italic, and small caps in 4 different weights.

The titling versions of Arlt include 4 delicate, space-saving fonts: romans and italics in two weights; and it also include a bold, elegant open face for special occasions (Arlt Titulo Hueca). The vigorous spirit of the text is slightly tempered in the titling versions for its use within bigger body sizes.

Both text and titling versions of Arlt take advantage of valuable OpenType features: stylistic alternates for capitals and lowercases, some refined ligatures, and 4 different sets of figures (proportional oldstyle, proportional lining, tabular oldstyle, tabular lining). Small caps have their own figures design.

Arlt 7 Locos is a series of seven irreverent fonts inspired by the harsh voices of the characters of “Seven Madmen”, the most celebrated novel by Roberto Arlt. Arlt 7 Locos fonts are based on the proportions and rhythmic qualities of the text romans, but their outlines have been carefully deconstructed, giving the text a spicier and more expressive flavor. All 7 Locos fonts share the exact spacing and metrics, so they are interchangeable, with the advantage of leaving texts lengths untouched. Eyecatching at big sizes due to its expressiveness, but perfectly readable at tiny body sizes, these seven fonts offer you a variety of expressive tones and slightly rough textures, good for irreverent messages and slang tongues.

Finally there is Arlt Deco. The obvious pun with ‘Art Deco’ just has to do with the natural difficulties of pronouncing correctly the name “Arlt” (it was actually so for Roberto Arlt himself). These two decorative fonts took much design and detail work, in particular Arlt Deco 2. Arlt Decos are a new, contemporary reinterpretation of 19th century, Victorian ornamental faces, mostly used in advertising and posters, and usually missing in today’s designers typographic preferences.

PampaType wishes you an excellent design project with the Arlt typefaces.