Canada Type announced today the release of Torquemada, a new calligraphic font family by eminent American calligrapher Philip Bouwsma. The Torquemada family marks the long-anticipated return of Mr. Bouwsma to the digital type scene after almost 7 years of hiatus. The new Torquemada family is now available through the Canada Type web site: https://www.canadatype.com/showfont.php?id=64
It can also be viewed, tested, and purchased for immediate download in all major formats, at the MyFonts site: https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/canadatype/torquemada/
“Having Philip on board is sheer pleasure for us. Discussing calligraphy with him is an unparalleled experience, and working with him on Torquemada proved to be a very professionally rewarding task,” said Patrick Griffin, co-founder of Canada Type. “It is a great honor to be working with him. Canada Type has already proven to be a hot spot of digital calligraphy. Working with Philip is definitely a boost to us in that regard. We would definitely like to see more calligraphy giants join the digital revolution. With the advanced font technologies we have right now, there truly is a lot of opportunity for digital calligraphy. It is certainly our duty as digital designers and technicians to introduce the world to the masters of calligraphy, the real masters of the alphabet, whenever the opportunity arises.”
“I’m delighted to be working with Canada Type,” said Bouwsma. “Patrick and Rebecca share my dream of producing excellent calligraphic fonts, and with our combined expertise we should be able to come up with some great designs. I have dozens of new alphabets in various stages from concept to near completion that are clamoring to get out there, as well as old fonts that want to evolve. Torquemada sets a new standard for me – it required a complete retooling of technique, software and vision, plus Patrick’s help, support and flattery. Now that everything is in place, I think we can be a major factor in the coming calligraphic renaissance. I want to focus on elegant formal scripts with lots of flourishes and variations, finished fonts that really set and still have some life after passing through the hands of the typographic inquisition.”
Philip Bouwsma was one of the main catalysts of the New Calligraphy movement in 1970s and 1980s New York. A lifelong calligrapher, he studied history and Greek at UC Berkeley, and he has since pursued a career filled with art and design and the alphabet. Over the years, he has worked in the publishing and advertising fields, created and exhibited fine art, taught and conducted workshops, produced art-jewelry, and designed digital type. His works of synthesis between contemporary type styles and historic scripts and symbols from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance are still inspiring, in demand, and widely used among designers in many fields. He is currently refining and expanding some of his famous calligraphic faces for future release with Canada Type, as well as working on new typefaces that take root in traditional calligraphy.
Canada Type is an independent digital type design and development firm based in Toronto. After its humble artistic start with a few retail typefaces and some custom publishing work in early 2004, the quality and affordability of Canada Type’s work popularized it with the academic, calligraphy, and scrapbooking crowds. The Toronto studio has since published many bestselling typefaces, including Adore, Bella Donna, Diva, Dominique, Odette, Quiller, Sincerely and Secret Scrypt. Canada Type continues to expand its library of affordable, high-quality retail typefaces, as well as to provide custom work, technical support, and multiple type licensing to a large list of hardware manufacturers, publications and specialty organizations.
For further information about this press release, please contact in**@********pe.com.
This article was last modified on January 18, 2023
This article was first published on July 20, 2005
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