Rivea is two-font, hand-lettered script family designed to mimic real calligraphy. Each font dances along a natural, variable baseline and has a distinctive slant. Long, thin upstrokes contrast with rich downstrokes in a style reminiscent of “wet noodle” pen writing.

Rivea is a font family 2 years in the making. After extensive sketching, I inked two sets of letterforms; the letters are nearly identical but by twisting and lengthening the exit-strokes of one set, two very different fonts emerged.

Rivea Upright’s vertical stance is angular and kinetic – the letters appear to jump across the page as you type. Contrast between the thick & thin areas of ink is highlighted. For a calligraphy script, Upright has an almost masculine vibe.

By contrast, Rivea Twist flows languidly as you write. The effect is languid and even though the hairline portions of the letters are thin, the wide downstrokes make words easy to distinguish. Twist creates beautiful logos and signage with an organic feel.

As usual, both fonts are loaded with Opentype features; each includes eight different ampersands, a swash feature that automatically substitutes beginning & end of word letters, a set of alternate letters, old style numerals, arbitrary fractions, six common “word-art” prepositions and six common honorifics. All Opentype features have been duplicated in Stylistic Sets for Microsoft Word users. Each font includes nearly 1,000 characters.