HAL Typefaces’ HAL Casino is a single-weight serif, sans and mono — The Brand Identity – Home of the Greatest in Graphic & Brand Design

HAL Typefaces, an independent type foundry operated by Studio HanLi, has released HAL Casino – a typeface in a single weight across five styles. The serif and sans are both available in Regular and Italic, with an accompanying Mono subfamily. All five support more than 385 languages, including Vietnamese. “We believe in designing typefaces that are accessible to as many languages as possible,” Co-founder Lucas Liccini tells us. “This approach produces high character counts and requires more work, but it makes the typefaces more versatile and user-friendly.”

HAL Casino began as a well-balanced text serif, easy to read and effective at small sizes. HAL Typefaces counts Peter Behrens’ 1914 serif typeface Behrens-Mediäval as an early inspiration – a point of departure from which Casino distanced itself in the end. The serif version went through many rounds of proofing and refinement to adjust its rhythm and texture in text.

“Traditionally, countless typeface designs reveal a slight curve on the horizontal edge of their serifs when inspected up close,” Lucas explains. “This might help them seem less heavy or yield a more dynamic, agile appearance. Picture the natural arch of a human foot.” Casino’s serifs exaggerate that curve and simplify it at the same time into a roof-like shape, adapted from the strongly angled serifs of F. H. Ernst Schneidler’s Schneidler-Mediäval, a serif typeface first published in 1938. At small sizes, the angled shape gives the letters stability on paper and on screen. “In larger point sizes, the serifs become a distinctive design feature, providing an original, unconventional impression,” he adds.

While testing different serif styles, HAL Typefaces occasionally looked at Casino with no serifs at all. It liked the result and developed the sans from there. Rather than simply cutting the serifs off, the team fine-tuned the sans. It shares the serif’s feel and has a shift between thick and thin strokes, resembling a straightened version of the typeface Optima. The overhang on the ‘G’ and the sharp cut at the end of the leg on the ‘K,’ ‘R’ and ‘k’ are among its contemporary details. Optima’s sloped style is a slanted version of its upright, but Casino’s italic is a true italic. The third subfamily, a seriffed monospace in which every character takes the same width, followed the serif and sans. Of the three, Lucas notes, “They can be effortlessly mixed and matched in one piece of design, providing individual voices without undermining the overall harmonious blend.”

Lucas tells us the word ‘Casino’ “looks good when written in the typeface” and, for the most part, “it’s a well-known word that’s easy to remember and also easily pronounced in many languages. The swash alternates for the caps and lowercase characters, for both italics of the serif and sans, really justify the font’s name, Casino,” Lucas adds. “They contribute some suitable swagger and flamboyant spirit.”

The swashes – alternate letters with extended, flourished strokes – suit headings and display work such as book covers, posters, billboards and logos. The swash capitals are inspired by Friedrich Peter’s 1966 typeface Vivaldi, and the lowercase has swashes for the start and end of words. The sans italic has every swash of the serif italic, and both have several standard and decorative ligatures. Every style also has alternate diamond punctuation. “We added this as the diamond shape fits well to the angular serifs,” Lucas concludes. “And the diamond is also a playing card suit.”