Kairos, a contemporary take on traditional Grecian-style slab serifs, is a brand new display typeface released today from Monotype.
Grecians — octagonal slab serifs — first achieved popularity in the US in the 1800s as both metal and wood types, especially with beveled, shadowed or faceted lettering.
Designed by Terrance Weinzierl of Monotype Studio, Kairos — Greek for opportunity — is designed to cast an industrial, sporty feeling to a wide range of branding and packaging, commerce, consumer items, sports, video games, websites and apps.
Why this new face? Weinzierl sought to build a display family reminiscent of the older octagonal look, but with a fresh modern feel. Inspired by customer requests for a strong, athletic, octagonal design for both digital and print uses, Kairos is designed to fit right into the resurgence of the craftsman aesthetic.
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Whereas display typeface families typically have a limited number of weights, Kairos features a lush 51 weights with an extensive range of condensed and extended selections, from thin to black, with corresponding italics and small caps.
Its square, geometric form gives designers who use Kairos a lot flexibility to easily change weights and widths.
Kairos also includes display weights that can be layered: highlight weights can sit on top of solid weights; and shadow weights can be used for color.
Kairos can be licensed as either desktop or Web fonts from MyFonts, Fonts.com and Linotype.com. It is also available through the Membership by Monotype subscription program.
Kairos costs $49 for a single font and $499 for the full family. If you license the entire Kairos typeface family of desktop fonts from the above three outlets, an introductory $99 promotion is available for the Pro version.
➤ Monotype
Featured image by Katt Phatt
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