WORK ABOUT ME RÉSUMÉ

sappho: an open source display typeface

MY ROLE

Type design

CONTEXT

Personal project

Art of Sappho (the historical figure) with the word Sappho overlaid in Sappho, the typeface I designed.
Art of Sappho (the historical figure) with the word Sappho overlaid in Sappho, the typeface I designed.

SAPPHO is liquid and solid, loud and soft, ancient and contemporary.

SAPPHO’s ligatures twist around each other, desperate to close the space between but almost never touching.

the extreme contrast within SAPPHO mirrors the beautiful dissonances and harmonies of a queer identity.

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A Sappho fragment: 'In the crooks of your body, I find my religion.'
Large text showcasing the pangram: 'Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.'
A grid displaying the basic alphanumeric set.
A Sappho fragment: 'Slender Aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a girl.'
Large text showcasing words with heavy use of ligatures.
A grid displaying all of the ligatures. There are over 100, the longest spanning 6 letters.
A Sappho fragment: 'Someone will remember us, I say, even in another time.'
A Sappho fragment: 'Large text showcasing punctuation and symbols alongside letters.
A grid displaying all of the punctuation and symbols.
A grid displaying accented characters and additional latin characters.
A Sappho fragment: 'May I write words more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, sensitive than nerve.'
A Sappho fragment: 'In the crooks of your body, I find my religion.'
Large text showcasing the pangram: 'Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.'
A grid displaying the basic alphanumeric set.
A Sappho fragment: 'Slender Aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a girl.'
Large text showcasing words with heavy use of ligatures.
A grid displaying all of the ligatures. There are over 100, the longest spanning 6 letters.
A Sappho fragment: 'Someone will remember us, I say, even in another time.'
A Sappho fragment: 'Large text showcasing punctuation and symbols alongside letters.
A grid displaying all of the punctuation and symbols.
A grid displaying accented characters and additional latin characters.
A Sappho fragment: 'May I write words more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, sensitive than nerve.'

created by JP Pascarella and released in 2026 as a free/libre open source project under the SIL Open Font License (OFL).

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