VTC Garibaldi Font

VTC Garibaldi Font, this family is inspired by the prolific typographic production of anti-fascist material distributed during WWII: flyers, journals, posters, etc. Works made in clandestinity to avoid the heavy repercussions people could face if found out.

The print work is utilitarian and informal, using what was available. Letterpress, typewriters, cyclostyle machines. The typography is eclectic: we can recognize classic typefaces from the Nebiolo type-foundry, imported typefaces from Germany, wooden type used for headlines or mastheads, monospaced types, and occasionally some decorative faces. There was no time, resources and often the typographical skills to create elaborate designs. The production of was an ephemeral material was limited to a couple of hundred flyers or less to be distributed locally. In cases like the journal ‘Il Combattente’ (The Combatant), published between December 7, 1943 (No. 1) and July 25, 1944 (No. 11), the project is more accomplished and elaborated. It was in fact the journal of the ‘Brigate Garibaldi’, one of the biggest and better organized groups of the Resistance.

The type family has been conceived as a combination of different styles that work together, giving life to a typographic palette where differences and analogies across the family are the elements that define its own nature. The overall palette will offer a modernized toolkit of what could have been available to the printers of the Resistance during the fight for liberation from the Fascist regime that ruled Italy.

In the overall production, we can synthesize a few recurrent themes into a typographic palette made of a Sans, a Monospace, and a Serif type.The first piece of this puzzle is made of a Sans typeface, beginning with the Extra Condensed type that we find in use for big headlines across a variety of materials. Among these, some of the most significant examples can be found in the the masthead of ‘Il Combattente’.The nature of the letterforms here is quite structured, mechanical, and showing the flavour of wooden type production. We extended the range of weights available at the time trying to preserve that same feeling of utilitarian, sturdy letterforms.

VTC Garibaldi Font is the FREE version for personal use. For a commercial use license click here: https://www.vocaltype.co/history-of/garibaldi