Type Foundry of the Month: Exljbris
July’s Type Foundry of the Month is Exljbris. This foundry came to my mind because we have more than a few current projects that are utilizing the font Museo — whether it is the slab, sans, or rounded version. Exljbris is a foundry created by Jos Buivenga from the Netherlands. He started a blog and website years ago where he posted his font experiments for free for others to download. Then, he opened a little shop on MyFonts.com and the rest is history…
All of the images below are from Exlijbris. Thanks for having great images of your type to share!
Museo, Museo Sans, Museo Sans Display, Museo Slab, Museo Sans Rounded, Museo Sans Condensed
Whew! That is a lot of different versions of one font! Hey, if you have a good thing going don’t stop – keep going! Needless to say, Museo in any of the above choices is a pretty solid selection. It is a super friendly, round font selection. You could use the lighter version as body text or even use it for headings and headlines. Museo is a wonderful font that can adapt to various layouts and designs.
In the type world, Museo took the web by storm. Exljbris was really smart to release some of his fonts for free right around the time that web fonts were taking the Internet by storm. Soon enough, we saw Museo sprinkled across a vast majority of new websites coming out — coincidence or strategy, I don’t know, but it launched Exljbris all over the Internet. People used it not only because it was free but also because Museo is a very functional, beautiful font that comes in a wide variety of styles and weights.
Museo might be the most influential font to come out of Exljbris, but there are plenty more that are just as striking and functional.
For those that like a bit of thrills and frills, I highly recommend this font. I love the shape and geometry of this family, and you can have a lot of fun playing around with the knocked out pieces and overlays. It’s a fun typeface to have in your design arsenal.
Exljbris describes this font as its “serious” typeface, and it’s definitely a more serious option. Calluna is a great serif font that would look beautiful as body type or even as headings. Calluna comes with beautiful glyphs and details you should also take a look at.
Changing the Way We Find Fonts
I think Exljbris has such an interesting story and is a great example of how the Internet is changing the way we find type. New type foundries can be launched into the spotlight overnight! Before blogs, social media, and free font downloads, it was nearly impossible for independent type designers or foundries to flourish that quickly or even follow their passion and be able to create typefaces for a living. Kudos to those making it happen!