Softening the typography
Three ways to take the edge off the current serif while keeping the letterpress feeling. Each specimen uses live Te Urewera content, so macron rendering (Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū) can be checked in every candidate.
Current · Playfair Display + Inter
TE MANAWA O TE IKA · Ngāi Tūhoe · Rūātoki
Playfair's thick-and-thin contrast is high and its serifs are sharp blades. That is most of what reads as "hard". Softening can come from a gentler serif, from lowering the case, or both.
Te Ata Hāpara
Spectral + Inter
The nearest evolution. Spectral keeps an editorial serif voice but with pen-stroke contrast instead of blades, and the hero drops to sentence case. The quietest change of the three.
Te Urewera Act 2014 · an identity in and of itself
Te manawa o te ika
Te Urewera is not a national park, and she is not owned by anyone. Since 2014 she has held her own legal identity, and Tūhoe speak on her behalf.
Te Kawa · the law of this place
Āā Ēē Īī Ōō Ūū · Tūhoe · Whānau · Rūātoki · Tāneatua · Pōtiki · Hinepūkohurangi
Te Kākahu
Lora + Sora
The warmest. Lora's letterforms come from calligraphy, so every curve is rounded and brushed. Paired with Sora's soft geometry for labels. The furthest from letterpress, the closest to hand-lettering.
Te Urewera Act 2014 · an identity in and of itself
Te manawa o te ika
Te Urewera is not a national park, and she is not owned by anyone. Since 2014 she has held her own legal identity, and Tūhoe speak on her behalf.
Te Kawa · the law of this place
Āā Ēē Īī Ōō Ūū · Tūhoe · Whānau · Rūātoki · Tāneatua · Pōtiki · Hinepūkohurangi
Te Pukapuka
Crimson Pro + Archivo
The most bookish. Crimson Pro carries the old Garamond lineage: low contrast, quiet authority, nothing showy. Keeps the caps hero, but the letterforms themselves carry no sharpness.
Te Urewera Act 2014 · an identity in and of itself
TE MANAWA O TE IKA
Te Urewera is not a national park, and she is not owned by anyone. Since 2014 she has held her own legal identity, and Tūhoe speak on her behalf.
Te Kawa · the law of this place
Āā Ēē Īī Ōō Ūū · Tūhoe · Whānau · Rūātoki · Tāneatua · Pōtiki · Hinepūkohurangi