Kornel is the brand new serif type family for long reading designed by Radek Łukasiewicz for CAST foundry. Inspired by Renaissance typography rather than by a specific typeface, it shows ideas that ensure consistency and clarity to texts on screen or printed.
Kornel & Jantar Flow
Following Jantar, this is your second release with CAST. Kornel, as well as the Jantar superfamily, was conceived for continuous text and has a Polish name. What does ‘Kornel’ mean? Is it another semi-precious stone?
Radek Łukasiewicz – Not at all. Jantar is effectively the old Polish name for ‘amber’, while Kornel is a male name in Polish, which has the connotation of calm and quiet on the surface but buzzing inside. I thought it nicely reflected the character of the typeface. Under the classic look of a seriffed text face, Kornel deploys some peculiar design solutions expressly adopted to improve its performances.
How does Kornel meet the requirements of a good text face? What are its main design features?
RL – Generous proportions and a wide range of weights are mandatory to ensure reading comfort as well as the variety of options needed by today’s designers.
Treatment of stems is worth mentioning. Since outlines often avoid curves, there is a noticeable tapering of thin diagonals of A, Y, V, W, Y, v, w, y, x to make a more harmonious appearance by reducing the rigid logic of contrast. Furthermore, notice the slightly back-slanted stems of r and f to balance those letters.
How did you approach the italics?
RL – The Italics are gently slanted and have a compact appearance when compared with the Roman. They started as a sloped Roman and this origin can still be perceived. But the shapes in combination with the slant angle weren’t enough for the italics to stand out as a secondary style. While mindful of their use in text sizes (also on screen), I wanted to avoid any overall ‘poetic’ connotations.
And as clarity was the goal, some of the shapes were simplified – e.g. by doing away with serifs in characters like R,K, k, v, x, y, w. Several other treatments to italicise the lowercase, such as the absence of horizontal baseline serifs or deeper joints and other previously described characteristics, concur to make the italic a viable secondary style.
Kornel is said to be ‘inspired by Renaissance typography’. Can you tell us more about any models you were looking at during the design process?
RL – Aiming for a harmonious rhythm in text, inspiration came from Renaissance types in general rather than from any specific typeface. On the other hand, simplified treatment of the serifs and terminals adds a modern twist and translates well into screen rendering. These details can be attributed to British influences from the Arts and Crafts movement and the types of William Morris or Eric Gill. I also drew inspiration from the Säculum typeface by Heinrich Hoffmeister produced by Stempel in the early 20th century (and later recast and issued under multiple different names in Poland).
Some images of the Säculum typeface
Kornel is a complete text face that comes in two styles and seven weights. Does its character set hide any pearls each user should know and be able to exploit?
RL – The Kornel type family includes small caps, old-style figures, small figures, and a selection of case-sensitive characters. Those OpenType features make the typeface a complete toolset for the most demanding of text compositions.
