font_designer: Philip Bouwsma

Torquemada

Torquemada font

The Torquemada family marks the return of eminent American calligrapher Philip Bouwsma to the type scene after almost 7 years of hiatus, and he is certainly coming back with a lot of bells and...

Bouwsma Script

Bouwsma Script font

Bouwsma Script, based on Philip Bouwsma’s own handwriting, was originally released in 1994 and settled for nothing less than being an instant classic. One of Bouwsma’s widely used works in the 1990s, Bouwsma Script...

Alexia

Alexia font

Philip Bouwsma is concerned about the survival of calligraphy in the computer age. The last time there was a technology shift of this magnitude, in Gutenberg’s day, the metal workers shouldered out the scribes...

Luminari

Luminari font

Philip Bouwsma returns with yet another great manifestation of historical calligraphy. Luminari is an amalgam of High Middle Ages writing, a blend that combines the ornate Church hands with the simple Carolingian from the...

Mirabel

Mirabel font

Mirabel is based on the handwriting of Beverly Bouwsma (Philip’s mother), which she developed in the 1930s in, as she puts it, an act of teenage rebellion. In the 1960s, Philip gave her a...

Bouwsma Text

Bouwsma Text font

Bouwsma Text is what Roman type would look like if it had been designed by calligraphers instead of metalworkers. The formal harmony of the Roman capitals, with tapered stems, graduated curves and serifs which...

Styx

Styx font

Philip Bouwsma makes use of his extensive calligraphy and type design experience by reaching into his vault and completing one of his unfinished projects from the mid-1990s. The result is Styx, a four-font connected-script...

Maestro

Maestro font

Out of a lifelong inner struggle, Philip Bouwsma unleashes a masterpiece that reconciles classic calligraphy with type in a way never before attempted. Maestro takes its cue from the Italian chancery cursive of the...

Tupelo

Tupelo font

Philip Bouwsma’s offbeat mind, always working in mysterious ways, brings us one of the unlikeliest syntheses of historical influences in a perfectly fluid, organic, and highly expressive connected script. Tupelo takes its inspirational roots...

Testament

Testament font

From the standpoint of calligraphy, a font family of capitals and uncials makes perfect sense. The Roman square capitals, the quadrata, are matched by round capitals of older Greek origin; the word “uncus” means...