Retros
Schrift Foundry · Rustam Gabbasov
A single-style serif by Rustam Gabbasov that fuses broad-nib brush calligraphy with the incised letterforms of stone carving, drawing on East European calligraphic traditions of the 1960s and Highgate Cemetery inscriptions.
About
Retros merges the fluid stroke contrast of broad-nib calligraphy with the precision of chiselled stone lettering, producing a typeface that reads simultaneously as written and carved. Character proportions reference the calligraphic work of East German, Hungarian and Bulgarian artists from the 1960s, alongside modern English calligraphy and monumental inscriptions near Karl Marx's grave in Highgate Cemetery. The single Regular weight includes dozens of ligatures and stylistic alternates, with coverage extending to 233 Latin-based and 53 Cyrillic-based languages.
Classification
Retros sits at the intersection of broad-nib brush calligraphy and inscriptional letterforms, producing a high-contrast serif with dynamic, expressive strokes drawn from both written and carved traditions rather than the conventional transitional or old-style models.