Havelock - XO Type Co

The Havelock series is actually two related families—Havelock and Havelock Titling.

Havelock’s essential idea is “pure geometry with austere spacing.” Square, triangle, circle: each letter is reduced to only its required forms. Joints are rounded to give an aerodynamic sense of motion, and to thwart the sense of stiffness that always happens when letters are reduced to basic geometric shapes.

Havelock actually began as a sketch for Gia (which branched off into something different). I made that first drawing in 1996, put it away, and promptly forgot it for 20 years.

When I found it again in 2017, I wondered, “this is good; why did I never complete it..?” So I did. And now here is Havelock.

Size

Try me.

Size

Try me.

Buy Havelock: Full Family

Solid | Stencil | Inline | Multiline

Buy Havelock Titling: Full Family

Light | Regular | Medium | Bold | Black

Buy Havelock Complete which contains all Havelocks in a single package.

Download a specimen of all the Havelocks

Havelock is four related typefaces built to layer with transparency effects, and make interesting forms with those layers.

Solid is the base layer, fill it with solid color. Atop that, you can layer Inline, Stencil, and Multiline. Each of those has cutouts drawn to fit nicely within each other, no matter how you layer them.

Havelock Titling actually came about after Havelock—it became clear that designers liked the essential geometry for its beautiful, clean, aerodynamic shapes—but wanted to use it without layering effects.

Havelock Titling uses Havelock’s essential shapes, and iterates those shapes through five weights—Light to Black.

Havelock is made to play with, and to make very graphic shapes. It gives the impression of being a neutral typeface—one you don’t really notice while reading—but it is actually very, very there. Havelock’s shapes and spaces are quite distinct.