Eye Magazine

Alfredo Trivino is a journalist and editorial art director for new projects at News International.

I believe we do now live in a Golden Age, technically speaking, although craft is always important. The more democratic the tool, the harder it is for true innovation to emerge – and the easier it is to repeat and emulate others.

Perhaps one reason Latin American designers are so innovative is because they’re not attached to a strong historical background, as is the case in, say, the Netherlands.

Majerit conveys the perfect balance between tradition and modernity. It’s a family of 25 fonts designed in 2007 for El Pais by Mario Feliciano, a Portuguese designer whose work is inspired by eighteenth-century Spanish type. Majerit had to carry forward some of the DNA from Stanley Morison’s Times Roman, which had been used in the paper since 1976. It is extremely legible at small sizes, but its individuality amplifies at bigger and heavier sizes without losing its seriousness and warmth. A revolutionary new ‘Times Roman’ with a thick Mediterranean accent.

Sunday Times Modern by the Buenos Aires-born Eduardo Manso (now based in Barcelona) was commissioned for the redesign of The Sunday Times in 2008. A muscular and economical headline display typeface, it doesn’t divorce elegance from impact, and benefits from the colour, high contrast and intensity of a modern Dutch blend serif typeface. It challenges some traditional rules of proportion, size and shape, and boldly moves away from other contemporary Scotch, Venetian and Egyptian display fonts. And it gains personality in italic.

First published in Eye no. 71 vol. 18 2009