Script typeface

from Blaze Type
designed by Laurene Girbal

Variable Font

1 axis: Weight

5 Styles

5 Weights: Thin to Bold

Best for

  • Headings (display text)
  • Long reading text (body text)
  • User Interfaces (functional text)

License starting

around $50 (one style)
around $250 (bundle)

Specialty

An expressive script font, that balances out flowing curves with rigid horizontal lies. Formidable in large, charming posters, logos, and headlines.

My Avril Font Review

When it comes to legibility, this week’s font recommendation might be a bit challenging. But that’s also where its incroyable charm lies. Avril is a gorgeous script font with its roots in French sign painting, ideal for large, expressive text, logos, posters or attention grabbing headlines.

Bold & Strong, Thin ’n’ Delicate. Avril has a lot of character, it does not matter in which weight. It is both rigid and organic. Impressive when set in large & expressive text, conveying playfulness.
You can imagine how Avril was inspired by French sign painting from the 1950ies

Avril’s flowing curves, especially in the upper case letters, remind me of neon signs. Like with the expressive capital “S” or the meandering “E”, but also with or the unusually splayed lower case “f”. To balance it, the typeface shows rigid top serifs and horizontal bars.

The lower case “d” shows subtle ink traps in the bolder weights but also rigid serifs and horizontal lines. You find wild and flowing curves at the lower case “g” and upper case “T”. The horizontal bar and the stem are also connected in a charming bow. The lower case “f” is splayed and has an unusual shape.
The details show how Avril balances its flowing curves with rigid serifs and horizontal lines.

These serifs and horizontal lines also give it a clear flow, connecting adjacent letters, often without actually connecting them. This creates a somehow mechanical impression, where the occasional ligatures almost come as a pleasant surprise, like a little treat to your eyes.

Most letters are disconnected, the occasional ligatures give Avril additional charm

I recommend Avril for larger and short text. However, it still might work for a little intro, one paragraph, where it is reminding you of eccentric handwriting, without being as posh as a roundhand script.

Font Pairings for Avril

Locating Avril on the Font Matrix does not make a lot of sense, since it is so unusual. You can see that it is a linear typeface, and since it already is quite expressive, I recommend pairing it with something like a rational sans-serif, like Oldschool Grotesk. But also the soft serif font Domine would make a good match.

Avril
Avril
  • Headings

Learn more about pairing typefaces using the Font Matrix.


Did you fall in love with Avril too? Tell me in the comments!

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Edition #155, published

3 Comments

  1. Absolutely in love with Aril Oliver! On the list of my fav this year, so far so fun
    Every weight especially, Thin has its charm. How the letters are shaped is just a miracle.
    Snakey g, schoolwork s, hieroglyph f, spaceship D, sweety a, manic c, friendly w… Thanks for the delight, I look forward to March 19th Live

    No emojis this week ’cause my keyboard went crazy!

    1. “Snakey g, schoolwork s, hieroglyph f, spaceship D …“ LOOOOVE it! Looking forward to seining you in the stream, Jana ☺️.

  2. The T, g, and z (and maybe E and Z) look inconsistent the rest of the font. The s looks like it is supposed to connect with preceding letters but doesn’t. Without the ligature, the Th combination just looks wrong. But for the most part, it does look “playful.”

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