ITC Tempus Volume

Phill Grimshaw developed an interest in type design while studying for his master's degree in design at the Royal College of Art in London between 1972 and 1975. Grimshaw claims that every calligrapher's aspiration is to render Roman capitals perfectly with a pen, but admits that it is very difficult to do. For ITC Tempus he used a fountain pen on cheap, porous paper, and as you would expect, the ink bled. The resulting letterforms are classically based, but have rugged edges, so they deviate from the “preciousness” of hand lettered romans. Released in 1996, ITC Tempus is a parody of a classical roman design. It is dictated by proportions, particularly those of capitals. The lowercase is somewhat loose and uninhibited. “Tempus Sans is just Tempus with the serifs surgically removed,” Grimshaw says. “Yet the proportions of the characters work nicely.” Because of its toughness, the typeface works best at larger point sizes, yet maintains its characters when set at small sizes. You might consider it a “punk roman” that work where a roman face is desired, but the fine edge is not.