Lyon. Humoral typefaces.

Lyon is not a typeface family in the traditional sense of the words — it consists of four individual and independent typefaces:

Lyon Romain, a Roman face with small capitals and a boldface; Lyon Italique, a calligraphic cursive with over 100 ligatures and swash characters; Lyon Civilité, a modern interpretation of a 16th century interpretation of the (then) contemporary handwriting; and Lyon Fleurons, a set of floral ornaments that can be used to compose patterns.

What they have in common is their starting points: They are all inspired by the work of the French punchcutter Robert Granjon from the 16th century. They are also all influenced by the medical theory of the four humours, developed by Hippocrates in the 4th century bc, that makes an attempt in characterizing four personality types. These four types are the Phlegmatic, the Melancholic, the Choleric and the Sanguine. During the development, trying to incorporate these character traits into the typefaces became less of a priority, but the original idea can still be found in all of them.

Additionally to these typefaces, together with Susana Carvalho, I also developed a promotional poster/specimen for the Lyon typefaces, and a 400 page process report.

Made as my graduation project at Type]Media programme.