Magdelin: A Warm Gothic Sans Serif From Adam Ladd
Adam Ladd is a graphic designer and typographer with a wealth of experience in art direction, logo design, print and magazine design, lettering, and branding. Based in Cincinnati, Adam has been incredibly active in the design scene, taking on a number of in-house positions and freelance projects over the course of his career.
Adam first got his start in the industry after completing two years at a portfolio school, an experience that jump-started his career working in an in-house environment. He gained a lot of valuable experience over his years working in-house, but it was his decision to go freelance that led to a broader educational experience in terms of organization, client relations, marketing, and self-promotion.
One memorable moment came with the creation of a branding video starring his then-five-year-old daughter, which gained a million views and a ton of unexpected exposure in just one week’s time. Adam considers that a pivotal moment in his freelance career because it enabled him to see how one idea, even a simple one, could open up an entirely new world of opportunity.
When it comes to his workflow, Adam keeps himself on task with little in the way of distraction. He is particularly inspired by the trailblazers of early graphic design, including Saul Bass and Paul Rand, because of the way they used the principles of design in their own work. He finds that talent is a gift of sorts, but it still needs to be honed through practice and dedication.
Having worked in graphic design, Adam understands the needs of other designers and makes a point of crafting type designs that are strong in their architecture and flexible in their application. One of his most recent releases through YouWorkForThem is a perfect pairing of contemporary design and impeccable versatility.
Magdelin is a gothic sans serif with minimalist undertones. The fundamental structure is a gothic sans design with simplistic strokes that carry low contrast, but humanistic elements that were inspired by cursive lettering and calligraphy can be found in its italics and in the bowls of letters like “b” and “d.”
Magdelin effortlessly straddles vintage and contemporary design style through its small x-height, semi-condensed proportions, and elongated ascenders and descenders. Conveying a message with warmth and hospitality, this type design provides excellent legibility – even in small point.
Magdelin is a workhorse family that’s available in Thin, ExtraLight, Light, Regular, Medium, SemiBold, Bold, ExtraBold, and Black, with corresponding italics for each. It also includes an entire Magdelin Alt family featuring the same weights and italics with a little more calligraphic detailing.
The full range of weights and styles make Magdelin ideal for everything from website designs to publishing, editorials, headlines, advertising, logos, product packaging, corporate communications, white papers, infographics, presentations, marketing materials, labels, tags, business cards, and mobile applications. It’s beautifully suited to identity and branding projects that require design cohesion across multiple media types.
For even greater versatility, Magdelin is loaded with OpenType features that include case sensitive punctuation for all caps, standard and discretionary ligatures, fractions, ordinals, subscript, superscript, scientific inferiors, tabular figures, slashed zero, and stylistic alternates. It extends multilingual support to Basic Latin, Western European, Euro, Catalan, Baltic, Turkish, Central European, Romanian, Pan African Latin, Dutch, and Igbo Onwu for exceptionally far-reaching accessibility.
Right now through October 9, Magdelin is on sale for 80% off of its regular price so it’s a great time to add this one to your font collection!
Adam Ladd currently offers 25 products through YouWorkForThem, including a varied range of serifs, sans serifs, scripts, and display fonts to suit design projects of all kinds. Visit his portfolio to see the rest of his work and if you love what you find, bookmark it so you can check back for new additions as they arrive!