Cardinal Classic Long

Styles

RegularBuy from €70 ItalicBuy from €70 MediumBuy from €70 Medium ItalicBuy from €70 SemiBoldBuy from €70 SemiBold ItalicBuy from €70 BoldBuy from €70 Bold ItalicBuy from €70

Cardinal Classic Long In Use

Deus ex Machina is a lifestyle brand rooted in Sydney, Australia. We recently featured a no-nonsense jacket from their collection. This time we’d like to share two apparel prints that are undoubtedly about having fun – fun with content, and fun with fonts. The first one is a T-shirt titled “Pipes”. In it, a cartoon from the Andy Capp series, very famous in Great Britain and Australia, stands central. It depicts a man playing a phantasy instrument reminiscent of bagpipes. The punchline below reads “loud pipes save lives” which is a famous excuse among motorcyclists to justify the noise of their machines. This line as much as the brand name above the drawing displays Cardinal Fruit, a sub-family in the larger Cardinal collection designed and published by Production Type under the guidance of Jean-Baptiste Levée. Cardinal Fruit is a condensed roman style referencing the advertising aesthetics of the 1980s, especially in the field of personal computers. “Deus Recs and Publishing” is added in Grilli Type’s GT America Mono. The prints on the “Nimbus” shirts and longsleeves feature Cardinal Fruit, too. It’s used for the brand name, combined with Deerfield JNL, a boxy all-caps sans designed by Jeff Levine, for “Worldwide Service Manual”. Here the “meaning” of the message goes deliberately bananas: “We’ve tipped the cap to the modern day grovers and gone all out on the logo-heavy, non-sensical slogan vibe, added a few flashes of color and voila: a long sleeve set to lift even the most pessimistic of outlooks.” To be complete, additional fonts visible in the images are Cal Fraktur Modern, Windsor, and Eurostile.
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Cardinal Classic Long Bold
Deus ex Machina – “Pipes” and “Nimbus” apparel
Trax is France’s leading magazine and website for electronic music and culture. Founded in Paris in 1997, Trax was historically intermingled with its subject (from the early days of the “French Touch” to later major acts), witnessing, recording, and surviving the dramatic changes of the music industry and the rise of electronic culture. In 2013, the magazine was eventually bought by its own employees. Trax turned 18 in 2015 and decided to reflect these changes with a new format. Production Type’s Jean-Baptiste Levée, in collaboration with Large design studio, rethought the new Trax from the ground up. Starting from a new magazine format and art direction, and a new logo drawn by Levée (based on Stunt Nord, a standalone style of the Stunt family, to be released), the overhaul extended beyond the magazine to all aspects of the Trax brand, such as the website, events, and digital products. The type palette provided by Production Type is a compound of existing off-the-shelf types, new extensions, and previously unseen designs. The main text typeface is Cardinal, a serifed alphabet drawn by Yoann Minet & Quentin Schmerber under Levée’s guidance. Cardinal refers to many classic Jannon-inspired typefaces that were popular in 1990s digital culture, and distantly echoes the ill-fated typeface ITC Garamond. In this way, Cardinal Photo and Cardinal Fruit are two extra sidekicks, reminiscent of an era where the early photocomposition faces were swapped with their electronic counterparts. Stratos, Minet’s own design, while being unreleased at the time, was featured in the layout since the first issue redesigned by the team. Minotaur Lombardic & Proto Slab debuted on the cover of Trax magazine (respectively on issues 185 & 190), too. Existing designs from the Production Type catalog were also put to use across all Trax channels: Minotaur, Minotaur Sans, Minotaur Beef, Countach, and Proto Grotesk, which gained newly drawn weights specifically for the brand. Read more about the project on It’s Nice That and see more pictures on Large website.
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Cardinal Classic Long Bold + Stratos Black + Proto Grotesk Bold + Proto Slab Bold + Countach Bold + Minotaur Lombardic Bold + Minotaur Beef Bold + Minotaur Sans Bold + Minotaur Beef Bold
Trax magazine

Information

Design

Jean-Baptiste Levée

Team

Yoann Minet

Quentin Schmerber

Hugues Gentile

Arthur Schwarz

Dorine Sauzet

Suehli Tan

Igino Marini

Version

2.001

Download PDF Specimen

About this font

Synthetic organisms look human, yet are made of artificial materials. Cardinal is the equivalent of the androïd characters called “synthetics”, which were developed in the movie series Alien. Synthetics entertain a close relationship with the living world and have a troubling resemblance with the models they imitate — humans. Androïds do not emit heat, smell or pheromones, and their synthetic origin is thus hard to detect. Cardinal is an exploration of that idea in type design. It navigates between the organicity of classic text typefaces and the plasticity of contemporary digital type. It has some traits of designs by Garamont and Granjon but bears its own dryness and rigidity. Reminiscent of an era of “old digital typefaces”, Cardinal evokes the early computing days. Synthetics do not die, they are just sometimes deactivated.

The Cardinal system is developed in three distinct directions. First, the core styles are Cardinal Classic Short, Mid, and Long, which have three x-heights that can be adjusted depending on body copy point size and line length. We recommend using Cardinal Classic Long for titles and subheads or brief paragraphs of text. Cardinal Classic Mid fits standard body text sizes, and Cardinal Classic Short works well at small sizes. Second, Cardinal Fruit is a very specific flavor of condensed, recalling early computer advertisements. Its Italics are particularly sharp and will convey a sense of liveliness and accuracy.

Designed for large, bold headlines, Cardinal Photo is a member of the Cardinal Collection. It is derived from the Cardinal Classic Mid series, only with more dramatic contrast, and tight, oh-so-tight spacing.

The idea behind Cardinal Photo sprung from photojournalism magazines and their typography, where headlines splash all over the page, with shallow linespacing. High contrast images and high contrast type were MFEO (made for each other.) Cardinal Photo is a natural matchmaker, referencing phototypesetting just like its sibling, Cardinal Fruit, references 80s typography. “Photo”—as in photojournalism and phototypesetting—are both concepts that translate well to digital design, where long headlines are consumed in big bites.

Why wouldn’t someone just tighten the spacing manually? Well, Cardinal has this TNT (tight but not touching) idea built-in, where the shapes closing in are meticulously placed, and already kerned for you, giving you all the credit for that tight-tight-tight design—achieving compactness without crude compression, that typographical equivalent of a car crash. Cardinal is tight so that you can stay creatively loose. Headlines, slogans, eye-catching clickbait: you name it. Cardinal is here for big things.

Cardinal Classic Long CJK support is powered by FZYaSongGBK (Founder Type), Sandoll Jebi2 (Sandoll), TP Mincho Fitfont (Type Project).

Formats

Static (OTF, TTF, WOFF, WOFF2)

Language support

Abaza, Acheron, Achinese, Acholi, Adyghe, Afar, Afrikaans, Aghul, Ahtna, Alekano, Aleut, Amahuaca, Amarakaeri, Amis, Anaang, Andaandi, Dongolawi, Andi, Anuta, Ao Naga, Aragonese, Arbëreshë Albanian, Archi, Arvanitika Albanian, Asháninka, Ashéninka Perené, Asu (Tanzania), Atayal, Avaric, Balinese, Bari, Bashkir, Basque, Batak Dairi, Batak Karo, Batak Mandailing, Batak Simalungun, Batak Toba, Belarusian, Bemba (Zambia), Bena (Tanzania), Bezhta, Bikol, Bislama, Borana-Arsi-Guji Oromo, Bosnian, Breton, Budukh, Buginese, Candoshi-Shapra, Caquinte, Caribbean Hindustani, Cashibo-Cacataibo, Catalan, Cebuano, Central Aymara, Central Kurdish, Chamalal, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chechen, Chiga, Chiltepec Chinantec, Chinese Buriat, Chokwe, Chuukese, Chuvash, Cimbrian, Cofán, Congo Swahili, Cook Islands Māori, Cornish, Corsican, Creek, Crimean Tatar, Crimean Tatar, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dargwa, Dehu, Dido, Dungan, Dutch, Eastern Arrernte, Eastern Oromo, Embu, English, Erzya, Ese Ejja, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Gagauz, Galician, Ganda, Garifuna, Ga’anda, German, Gheg Albanian, Gilbertese, Gooniyandi, Gourmanchéma, Guadeloupean Creole French, Gusii, Haitian, Halh Mongolian, Hani, Hiligaynon, Ho-Chunk, Hopi, Huastec, Hungarian, Icelandic, Iloko, Inari Sami, Indonesian, Ingush, Irish, Istro Romanian, Italian, Ixcatlán Mazatec, Jamaican Creole English, Japanese, Javanese, Jola-Fonyi, Judeo-Tat, K'iche', Kabardian, Kabuverdianu, Kala Lagaw Ya, Kalaallisut, Kalenjin, Kalmyk, Kamba (Kenya), Kaonde, Kaqchikel, Karachay-Balkar, Karelian, Kashubian, Kazakh, Kekchí, Kenzi, Mattokki, Khasi, Khinalugh, Kikuyu, Kimbundu, Kinyarwanda, Kirghiz, Kituba (DRC), Komi-Permyak, Komi-Zyrian, Kongo, Konzo, Kuanyama, Kumyk, Kven Finnish, Kölsch, Ladin, Ladino, Lak, Latgalian, Lezghian, Ligurian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low German, Lower Sorbian, Lozi, Luba-Lulua, Lule Sami, Luo (Kenya and Tanzania), Luxembourgish, Macedo-Romanian, Macedonian, Makhuwa, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Makwe, Malagasy, Malaysian, Maltese, Mandinka, Mandjak, Mankanya, Manx, Maore Comorian, Maori, Mapudungun, Matsés, Mauritian Creole, Meriam Mir, Meru, Minangkabau, Mirandese, Mohawk, Moksha, Mongolian Buriat, Montenegrin, Montenegrin, Munsee, Murrinh-Patha, Muslim Tat, Muslim Tat, Mwani, Mískito, Naga Pidgin, Ndonga, Neapolitan, Ngazidja Comorian, Niuean, Nobiin, Nogai, Nomatsiguenga, North Azerbaijani, North Azerbaijani, North Ndebele, Northern Kurdish, Northern Qiandong Miao, Northern Sami, Northern Uzbek, Norwegian, Nyanja, Nyankole, Occitan, Ojitlán Chinantec, Orma, Oroqen, Otuho, Palauan, Paluan, Pampanga, Papantla Totonac, Papiamento, Pedi, Picard, Pichis Ashéninka, Piemontese, Pijin, Pintupi-Luritja, Pipil, Pite Sami, Pohnpeian, Polish, Portuguese, Potawatomi, Purepecha, Quechua, Romanian, Romansh, Rotokas, Rundi, Russian, Russian Buriat, Rusyn, Rutul, Rwa, Samburu, Samoan, Sango, Sangu (Tanzania), Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Sena, Serbian, Serbian, Seri, Seselwa Creole French, Shambala, Shawnee, Shipibo-Conibo, Shona, Shughni, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Soga, Somali, Soninke, South Azerbaijani, South Ndebele, Southern Aymara, Southern Qiandong Miao, Southern Sami, Southern Sotho, Spanish, Sranan Tongo, Standard Estonian, Standard Latvian, Standard Malay, Sundanese, Swahili, Swati, Swedish, Swiss German, Tabassaran, Tagalog, Tahitian, Taita, Tajik, Talysh, Tatar, Tedim Chin, Tetum, Tetun Dili, Tiv, Tok Pisin, Tokelau, Tonga (Tonga Islands), Tonga (Zambia), Tosk Albanian, Tsakhur, Tsakhur, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen, Tuvinian, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Uab Meto, Udi, Ukrainian, Ume Sami, Upper Guinea Crioulo, Upper Sorbian, Venetian, Veps, Võro, Walloon, Walser, Wangaaybuwan-Ngiyambaa, Waray (Philippines), Warlpiri, Wayuu, Welsh, West Central Oromo, Western Abnaki, Western Frisian, Wik-Mungkan, Wiradjuri, Wolof, Xhosa, Yanesha', Yao, Yapese, Yindjibarndi, Yucateco, Zapotec, Zulu, Zuni, Záparo

About the designers

Jean-Baptiste Levée is a type designer with a strong focus on corporate and bespoke typefaces.
Jean-Baptiste Levée
CEO, founder
Jean-Baptiste Levée (1981) has designed over a hundred typefaces for industry, moving pictures, fashion and media. He is the founder of the independent foundry Production Type.
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Stylistic Set 4

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Discover the Cardinal family

Cardinal Classic Short

8 styles: Regular, Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, SemiBold, SemiBold Italic, Bold, Bold Italic

Cardinal Classic Mid

8 styles: Regular, Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, SemiBold, SemiBold Italic, Bold, Bold Italic

Cardinal Fruit

8 styles: Regular, Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, SemiBold, SemiBold Italic, Bold, Bold Italic

Cardinal Photo

12 styles: ExtraLight, ExtraLight Italic, Light, Light Italic, Regular, Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, SemiBold, SemiBold Italic, Bold, Bold Italic