Cortado Script

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cortado Script: A New Typeface from Jesse Ragan and Ben Kiel

Promotional website: http://cortadoscript.com
Press Images

Press Contacts:
Jesse Ragan & Ben Kiel / 314-833-7646 / info@cortadoscript.com

Brooklyn, N.Y. and St. Louis, Mo. (December 8, 2014)—Jesse Ragan and Ben Kiel announce the new typeface Cortado Script, their first intensive collaboration as well as the first retail typeface to be released independently by either designer. The typeface’s launch is celebrated in the website cortadoscript.com, designed by Graham Bradley.

Cortado Script found its inspiration in Swedish illustrator Cecilia Carlstedt’s freestyle pointed brush lettering, a lively aesthetic reminiscent of mid-century European advertising scripts. “Cecilia wrote out extensive texts by hand as the need arose, so we had authentic reference points for every character,” Ragan says. “Our trickiest design puzzle was capturing the organic rhythm of her style within the constraints of a digital font. Collaborating with Ben on this project made this sleight of hand possible, calling on our collective design experience and his technical prowess.”

Custom-built OpenType programming automatically pulls from Cortado Script’s character set of over 1,100 glyphs, determining which letterforms to use based on context. Double letters always have different shapes, ligatures fix problem pairs, and words end with restrained flourishes. The typeface also lightens the monotony of cursive strokes by strategically inserting connection breaks, a signature feature of Carlstedt’s hand lettering. Taking a cue from that choppy texture, Cortado Script is named after café cortado (Spanish for “cut coffee”), a popular beverage in which espresso is cut with steamed milk.

“Finding the right balance of stroke breaks and shape alternates is the challenge of a project like this,” Kiel says. “We wanted the programming to add to the design, not be the design—a balance that we struck in Cortado. The typeface works very well with only default glyphs, but when OpenType features are on, the alternates bring the spirit of the original lettering into a useful typographic system.”

MP Creative, a creative agency focusing on fashion and retail, originally commissioned the custom typeface for shoe and accessory brand Aldo. After Cortado Script debuted in the July 2013 campaign “Give Me Aldo,” the typeface was used extensively for their in-store design and e-commerce. In 2014, Ragan and Kiel thoroughly overhauled and streamlined the typeface. Through a special arrangement with The Aldo Group and Cecilia Carlstedt, the updated typeface is now available to designers everywhere for desktop, web, and app use at cortadoscript.com.

About Jesse Ragan

Jesse Ragan is an independent typeface designer in Brooklyn. Over the past decade, he has created custom types and lettering for brands, publications, and cultural institutions. He currently serves on the board of directors for AIGA/NY. A co-founder and former primary instructor of the Type@Cooper certificate program at Cooper Union, he has also taught at Pratt Institute. Jesse started his career as a staff designer at Hoefler & Frere-Jones. He has collaborated on many retail typefaces, notably Gotham, Archer, Chronicle, and Omnes. Freelance clients include Pentagram, Landor, Reebok, The New York Times, Font Bureau, and House Industries. His work has been recognized by AIGA, Type Directors Club, Brand New Awards, and the Museum of Modern Art. He holds a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design.

www.jesseragan.com

About Ben Kiel

Ben Kiel is a typeface designer and educator. He runs Typefounding, a typeface design and production studio in St. Louis, Missouri and is the Education chair of AIGA St. Louis. Before starting Typefounding, he worked at House Industries where he was a typeface designer, director, and developer. He teaches at Washington University in St. Louis and the Type@Cooper certificate program at Cooper Union, and has taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art and the University of Delaware. His clients include Commercial Type, House Industries, the New Yorker, Lucky Magazine, and Klim. At House, he was part of the team that developed the online Photo-Lettering service, shortlisted as a Design of the Year by the London Design Museum in 2012. He received his MA in typeface design from the University of Reading, UK, in 2005.

www.benkiel.com

About Cecilia Carlstedt

Drawing and painting have been Cecilia Carlstedt’s media of expression from an early age. After beginning her formal studies in Art History at the Stockholm University, she continued with a foundation and BA in graphic design and illustration at the London College of Communication, which also included a semester of exchange at FIT in New York. After graduating in 2003, she began her career as an illustrator and has since been commissioned for a wide range of clients such as H&M, La Perla, Swarovski, Paul Smith, Victoria’s Secret, Martini Gold, Elle, Vogue, New York Times, and W magazine.

www.ceciliacarlstedt.com