Lucire first consumer magazine with all Kiwi Fonts

For immediate release Lucire LLC

Lucire becomes first consumer magazine to have all-Kiwi fonts

The first consumer magazine in history to have New Zealand-designed fonts, exclusively—a patriotic as well as quality choice for fashion mag

Wellington, October 23 (JY&A Media) Lucire, the New Zealand-owned international fashion title, says its 20th issue is the first time a consumer print magazine has used domestically designed typefaces exclusively.

The magazine features Slabb, designed by Kris Sowersby of Klim, and Lucire and Fiduci, designed by its publisher, Jack Yan.

'It has always surprised me that our competitors have never been patriotic when it came to magazine design,' says Mr Yan. 'But we produce the best, and some of the most technically demanding, fonts in the world. We always have.

'For reasons unknown to me, our competitors constantly license fonts from Americans and Europeans.'
Mr Yan says it was always his aim to go 100 per cent Kiwi for Lucire's typography.
The previous layout of Lucire featured Lucire and Fiduci, but they were complemented by a Dutch typeface family for introductions.

'Kris and I first discussed a range of typefaces years ago, and this year, I helped him complete the Slabb character set,' he recalls.

Mr Sowersby's design is a slab serif with a highly distinctive italic. A fan of Dutch typeface design, particularly the work of the Dutch Type Library, Slabb was designed with a European sensibility but the workability of a New Zealand style.

Slabb replaces Lucire in the body text of the magazine. The traditional Lucire typeface is now used on headings, the cover and some sidebars.

The typefaces contain between 2,800 and 3,300 kerning pairs, the standard at which New Zealand fonts are produced, says Mr Yan. He claims that many overseas offerings tend to have around 1,000—'another example of New Zealand superiority in typeface design,' he says.

They also contain a character set for Romanian and all western European languages.
The typefaces are not yet available to the general public, though both Messrs Yan and Sowersby are intent on offering Fiduci and Slabb in the next calendar year.

Mr Yan was New Zealand's first digital typeface designer, starting in the 1980s. By the middle of the last decade, he had created some 100 typefaces for JY&A Fonts. He was a co-founder of TypeRight, an advocacy group for American typeface designers. In 1996, he began a regular column on typography for Desktop, Australia's leading design monthly. Numerous designers worldwide have credited him for providing them a stepping-stone in the type design field.

His company celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2007.

Ends

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