Megumi was originally commissioned as a headline face for a fashion and lifestyle magazine with a heavy Japanese influence. The uppercase letters are narrow and have an almost monospaced aesthetic, being influenced by Romaji letterforms. Serifs are severe, and curves sinuous. Although experiments were made with extra weight, it was decided that only this ultra light weight would be developed, to be set large in headlines. The italic has an over-the-top 35° slant (so slanted in fact that the backslash from the italic is the exact same shape as the forward slash in the Roman) and a discretionary ligature feature that can be engaged to add extra interest to headlines. The Roman has a few wide alternate glyphs for round uppercase characters. Both styles have a stylistic set (ss03) feature which switches regular parentheses for angle brackets, which the Art Director thought “looked cool”.
In a mess of venture capitalist pull-outs and Covid related issues, the publication never came to be, but the Hipster Japanophile Magazine World’s loss is your gain, as this beautifully crafted, editorial oddity is now available to license. Use it editorially, obviously, but it would also look great on posters, perfumes, postmodern publications, and perhaps some other things that don’t begin with p.
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