Typeface Sintesi. Sans meets Serif.

Sintesi
Sans meets Serif.
# Superfamily
# Hybrid
Typefaces
Reflections
Trials Pack
Order

“It is wrong to remove the ser­ifs from a serif font.”
Erhard Kaiser, May 28, 2011.

… and yet one won­ders why this state­ment is treated like a phys­i­cal law. This project actu­ally arose from a sim­ple ques­tion that has shaped the his­tory of typog­ra­phy: Serif or Sans Serif? For decades, design­ers have felt com­pelled to choose between the warmth and tra­di­tion of serif fonts and the clar­ity and func­tion­al­ity of sans serif fonts. Each style car­ries its own voice and his­tory, and yet the dis­tance between them often seems some­what arti­fi­cial upon closer inspec­tion. Why, we ask our­selves.

This work explores the field between Sans and Serif – where con­trast becomes con­nec­tion and char­ac­ter emerges from imbal­ance. The goal was indeed to explore and con­sciously cross the bound­aries of tra­di­tional cat­e­gories. A calm super­fam­ily that nat­u­rally and humanely unites clas­si­cal and con­tem­po­rary qual­i­ties. With a sub­tle wink – even towards some “lumi­nar­ies from Ger­many.” Thumbs up … or thumbs down? 

Beyond Type: Thoughts on Typography, Design and Our Philosophy

Is Times New Roman better than Calibri?

You might have won­dered why the Trump admin­is­tra­tion recently decided to revert to Times New Roman for offi­cial documents—replacing the sans-serif Cal­ibri used under the Biden admin­is­tra­tion. The trig­ger may have been admin­is­tra­tive, but the impact is cul­tural.

«Type is not neutral.»

The Amer­i­can pres­i­dent rec­og­nized it this time: type is more than just a car­rier of infor­ma­tion. It con­veys val­ues, tone, and atti­tude. A sans-serif font com­mu­ni­cates func­tion, moder­nity, and effi­ciency. In con­trast, a serif font stands for tra­di­tion, con­ti­nu­ity, and insti­tu­tional her­itage. Her­itage instead of update.

«Form follows attitude.»

The return to Times thus means more than just a styl­is­tic cor­rec­tion. It is a con­sciously cho­sen signal—even though Times New Roman is merely a sys­tem font: nei­ther typo­graph­i­cally out­stand­ing nor par­tic­u­larly orig­i­nal.

This shows what a care­fully cho­sen font can achieve, even when it is visu­ally unre­mark­able.

Any­one who claims that font choice does not mat­ter in com­mu­ni­ca­tion either has never looked closely—or never under­stood how power speaks visu­ally.

«Type is the silent voice of a page.»

Nei­ther Times New Roman nor Cal­ibri is “bet­ter”. Both are mediocre sys­tem fonts that serve dif­fer­ent pur­poses. Which type­face is appro­pri­ate depends on the con­text and the intended effect.

Between con­ti­nu­ity and moder­nity, there is also a zone of typo­graphic medi­a­tion. The Sintesi super­fam­ily, for exam­ple, is posi­tioned pre­cisely between sans and serif: Sintesi, Sintesi Semi, and Sintesi Sans.

Fur­ther thoughts on typog­ra­phy and design:

What Remains of Calligraphy in the Digital Age? A Tribute to Katharine Wolff

The death of Katharine Wolff deeply affected many of us. She was a teacher in the CAS Type Design pro­gram, whose pas­sion for cal­lig­ra­phy was always evi­dent. As an Amer­i­can, she brought a spe­cial fas­ci­na­tion for his­tor­i­cal let­ter­forms.
Read more

What if readability is not the primary goal of typography?

Some­times we won­der if read­abil­ity really has to be the cen­ter of every­thing… We are con­tin­u­ally amazed at how tire­lessly the topic of “read­abil­ity” is debated within pro­fes­sional cir­cles. This fix­a­tion often leaves us feel­ing puz­zled. We would – fol­low­ing Erik Spiek­er­mann – rather say: “The dif­fer­ences in read­abil­ity between the most com­mon type­faces are min­i­mal” – the rest feels like typo­graphic white noise.
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How can you save money with fonts?

Some­times it feels as though many com­pa­nies under­es­ti­mate how much a sin­gle well-cho­sen type­face can actu­ally accom­plish… We keep encoun­ter­ing the same, almost coun­ter­in­tu­itive insight: a com­mer­cial type­face is one of the most afford­able and at the same time most effec­tive tools for devel­op­ing an inde­pen­dent cor­po­rate design. It cre­ates two cen­tral pil­lars of a visual sys­tem: the brand’s design auton­omy through a con­sis­tent type fam­ily — and a logo design that derives directly from the let­ter­forms them­selves.
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Where can I find beautiful fonts?

There are count­less font offers on the inter­net — rang­ing from high-qual­ity to rather ques­tion­able ones. We gen­er­ally advise against using free fonts, as there’s a risk that they’re also being used by count­less oth­ers — per­haps even by the kebab shop around the cor­ner — which can harm a brand’s image.
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How Do I Avoid a “Wall of Text”?

Is an image really always needed to build ten­sion? This ques­tion repeat­edly comes to mind when a neatly set block of text is hastily labeled as “too dense”—as if typo­graphic design could not exist with­out visual props. Visual relief is not cre­ated solely through dec­o­ra­tion, but pri­mar­ily through pre­cise han­dling of white space, con­trast ratios, and tar­geted asym­me­try within the design grid.
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