As a practicing graphic designer there have been numerous occasions when I have needed a font that didn’t exist. More often than not the style I was looking for was described as an extra-condensed sans-serif with a contemporary look that was available in a variety of weights. Small caps would be useful, so would a range of numeral styles. And matching italics too, of course.
The proportions would consider viewing on hand-held devices, cell phones, remote controllers etc. And not forgetting that the font would be used in situations which required stacking the lines close. So the overshoots needed to be eliminated – the exaggeration of extremities that are intended to avoid round characters appearing smaller than their more squarish counterparts, often colliding when linespacing is tight.
As I refined the typeface, I used it on a few works-in-progress which provided a valuable testing ground proving popular with my clients. Aodaliya comes in 8 weights with italics for all weights, small caps to match lowercase x-height, proportional lining, oldstyle and also small caps figures which can be accessed through the Opentype palette.
