My thoughts on Ferryman
The blackletter inspired typeface Ferryman sets a traditional, historic, and expressive vibe, while being made for everyday use. The typeface is wild in the stronger weights, giving you a more obvious blackletter connection. The light weights are de-light-ful – I know, I’m the best writer 🤪 – with an unusual monolinear elegance, something you don’t know from traditional broken fonts.
But Ferryman also works surprisingly well when used for a fair amount of copy, retaining its readability. The secret behind this, is that Ferryman replaces unfamiliar characters from traditional blackletter typefaces, with letter shapes that are common to modern readers. Also the reduced contrast and large x-height contribute to better readability.
The goal of Ferryman was never to accurately reproduce a historic style, so it surprises with italics, something you would not find in traditional in blackletter fonts. These are my highlight – energetic, snappy and contrasting!
Ferryman is a wonderful mix of traditional and modern, unusual and familiar. Making it ideal for larger display text, strong headlines, logotypes or poster design. A counterpoint to blunt and slick geometric sans-serif typefaces.
Recommended Font Pairing
Ferryman pairs well with snappy Piazzolla or contrasting Comma Base, but also would be great companion to smooth Foreday Sans.
- Headings
- Copy
Learn more about pairing typefaces using the Font Matrix.
What do you think? Is Ferryman that would work for a project celebrating retro aesthetics? Tell me in the comments!