Sirte stands out as a highly condensed sans with an unusually strong thick/thin contrast. Repeated modular units make up most of the letters and apertures in upper and lowercase are wide open. Idiosyncratic letterforms like rounded E, M and N, as well as the ‘typically modernist’ S also contribute to Sirte’s distinctly original personality.
Sirte
Courtesy Archivio Luca Lattuga
The original Sirte was designed by the wood type manufacturer Xilografia di Verona and released around 1940 in 11 sizes from 50 to 600 points (or, in wood type jargon, from 4 lines to 50 lines). Though its condensed proportions and strong thick/thin contrast share similarities with some better-known typefaces of those times – like Alessandro Butti’s Hastile (Nebiolo) – these features, along with some idiosyncratic letterforms, give a unique distinction to Sirte which comes across perfectly in the revived digital version.
Courtesy Archivio Luca Lattuga
While designing AM Sirte, Fabrizio Falcone had to tweak several of the excessive irregularities of the original typeface. Indeed, the original letterforms are a concoction of round shapes and sharp angles that look random and inconsistent – as if the original designer tested different solutions and eventually included them all. In the AM Sirte digital revival there is more uniformity among the rounded letterforms, the thick/thin contrast has been standardised and optical corrections have added consistence to the whole alphabet.
Alternative A (SS01)
