All the letters have similar proportions, based on a square, with some missing counters and others made up of small circles, always of the same size. 

Some letters, such as E, F and T, have a pronounced thick/thin contrast, while others display decisively idiosyncratic designs: see for instance H, which is based on a lowercase h, and the extremely slanted S – which was very fashionable in the 1930s and has been dubbed ‘the escalator S’ by Paul Shaw.

Novecento was produced as a wood type by Xilografia di Verona between 1937 and 1940, and was released in a few quite small body sizes (for wood type) ranging from 2 to 3 lines (about 24 to 36 points).

Courtesy of Luca Lattuga

The Xilografia di Verona also produced a decorative version called Venezia, with the same type design and two horizontal white lines entering the letters from the left. The name is probably due to the resemblance of letter A to the bow of a gondola.  

Courtesy of Archivio Enrico Tallone

True to its origins and designed to meet today’s needs, AM Novecento includes Venezia as a stylistic set available via Opentype. The digital revival has been provided with the optical corrections needed today to achieve greater consistency in the digital environment, where the original letterforms (with the round O as tall as the square M and N, for example) would look rather odd. ‘The aim,’ says the designer, ‘was to retain the original modernist look while improving the overall visual balance.’