New System, More Weights, More Freedom
In 2003, I designed the first version of Sveva - Sveva Versal. I was playing with the new possibilities of the Opentype font features. I was able to include many crazy letter combinations that designers and sign painters invented and rediscovered in the years of Art Nouveau.
Sveva Versal is based on a typeface called »Moderne Versalien« (modern uppercase) from the Bauer & Co. type foundry, Stuttgart, which was one of the most innovative type foundries in Germany at the time. The decorative letters have some references to the well-known De Vinne Roman or »De Vinne Lateinisch« and their descendants.
Looking back, I feel this font was more of a »quick fix«. It was drawn and developed in just two months. It was the second release of astype fonts. Nevertheless, it still pleases its users today and is often used for book titles, especially for children, young adult and fantasy books.
Over time, I was often annoyed by the fact that the Sveva Versal is not quite logically constructed and also very often seemed too thin. In book titles, the Sveva Versal was therefore often contoured or a 3D effect was used to make it appear visually stronger.
Since about 2020, with the upcoming 20th anniversary of the font in mind, I've been working on a new Sveva alphabet with more consistent and logical letters. The whole same drawn from thin to very bold. When the alphabet and the numerals were ready at the beginning of 2022, I worked intensively on the new weights of Sveva. The new bolder font weights now work better on detailed background images. Even though they are technically completely new fonts, the name of the Sveva font family remains.
Since the old Sveva uses the style name »Versal«, it can be used well together with the new font weights (Light, Regular, Medium, Bold, Black, Ultra). However, the new Sveva fonts use completely different opentype features.
Old titles set in Sveva Versal cannot be flawlessly replaced with the new Sveva simply by switching the font style. But I am very sure that you can create similarly exciting titles.
Set fantastic headlines and have fun!
