One of the typefaces that makes me happy is Catalina by Kimmy Kirkwood. The Catalina font family includes a bunch of wonderfully organic fonts, giving you options for variety, yet they still cohesively work beautifully together. And when I say options, I mean options — We’ve got quite a few…
I love that there are both slab and serif styles to this tall, thin, all caps font. Plus, stylistic alternatives for select letters, and contextual alternates! The hand drawn nature is apparent in the sketch-like irregularity of the strokes.
Catalina Avalon, also tall, thin, and all caps, has a high contrasting line weight, along with an inline style. As with Catalina Anacapa, we’ve got alternates and small caps for both slab and serif styles.
Catalina Clemente, with an open, rounded quality to the letterforms, is not as narrow as the previous two. Since it also includes lowercase letters, it can work well for body copy.
What type family would be complete without a script style? Catalina Script provides a feminine cursive flair to complement the other fonts in the family. Again, it comes with OpenType features of contextual alternates (with two variations for each letter) and special ligatures.
Catalina Typewriter is another lovely variant, with open rounded letters that allow it to work well as either body copy or headlines.
Two other fonts are Catalina Flourishes and Catalina Extras. These arrows, banners, flourishes, borders, and other graphic elements are all drawn in the same style to integrate perfectly into the family. What else could you ask for?
This is a fun type family — perfect for small, local companies who want to convey a non-corporate, friendly brand. It can work for bakeries, craftspeople, day cares or children’s books, local organic restaurants, tea shops, ice cream shops (or shoppes — it seems almost mandatory to spell it that way). I could see it being used for family-friendly outdoor entertainment such as state fairs and festivals or on circus posters. Anything handmade. Need I go on?
I’m stashing this one away for the next time I need to design something with a casual, handcrafted quality. Can’t wait to use it!
(If you want to grab Catalina for yourself, I recommend heading over to myfonts.com. I’ve been using MyFonts for most of my career, and they are always my first stop for exploring and purchasing fonts.)
Watermarks grace dollar bills, important documents, and checks and are there to prove authenticity, origin, or ownership. But what role do they play in online images and your marketing images?
What does it take to be a graphic designer? Is it a natural talent? A degree? Technical ability? An artistic eye? Creative vision? The ability to solve problems?
Let me let you in on a little trick of professional graphic designers. This little last-minute tweak can make a huge difference—and it’s a key factor separating the amateurs from the experts.
