Glyphs make the typographic world go round—and with Agatized Formal and Agatized Informal, Michael Gills has infused his new faces with more than 2,500 of them. (As he details, “There is a saying: ‘Use sparingly.’ Whoa! Not here, no, no, no. Make your Glyphs palette earn its money.”)
Agatized Informal began life as lettering for a killed book project. Gills, who runs Ulga Type, was fond of the character shapes, and eventually fell down the typographic rabbit hole, emerging with a full design—one that he would adapt and refine to produce Agatized Formal.
As for the descriptions of the two display faces, they’re best left to Gills’ signature stylings:
Agatized Informal: “The design is something of an enigma, a curious mish-mash of genres—imagine splicing Uncle Buck and Deadpool into a horror movie—it's big, bold and funny but it also has a dark side.”
Agatized Formal: “It exudes authority without taking itself seriously, like a plump jolly uncle in charge of a brass band. Agatized Formal is a big, bold typeface with a charismatic presence that commands attention—in a friendly way, of course.”
As for the name, well, “Agatized” does have a meaning—essentially, something that has been fossilized. Yet—
“I felt the name suited the solid, almost rock-like letterforms, but most of all I just wanted a typeface name that began with the letter ‘A.’”
Grab copies of the typefaces, with glyphs galore, here.
Images: Ulga Type