Alphii

I launched Alphii on June 22, 2006. It was a continuation of ideas I had explored earlier with Jillican, but I took a different approach this time. Instead of directly tracing or simplifying an existing typeface, I borrowed the rhythm of Franklin Gothic and used it as a hidden foundation. The goal was to create a polygonal design that felt like an automatic polygon reduction had been applied — the same kind of look you see in low-poly LOD (Level of Detail) models in video games. Unlike a strictly octagonal face such as ITC Machine, Alphii implies an underlying curved typeface that has been pared down into facets.

I imagined Alphii working in general contemporary contexts, especially where a post-modern, deconstructed look was appropriate. It wasn’t meant for any one niche but to give designers something that carried a fractured, polygonal character while still being usable.

The family included four weights with italics. Over time I updated it several times: on June 30, 2022, I added italics, lowered the inverted question and exclamation marks, and removed deprecated characters. That update also expanded OpenType fractions, added prime symbols, optimized kerning, and introduced additional currency symbols. Later I added the capital German eszett (ẞ), bars on ordinals (ªº), and the № symbol. In October 2024, version 3.002 improved menu style sorting.

I once spotted Alphii used on restaurant signage, but otherwise it never drew much attention. It didn’t create any buzz when it was released, but I still think it holds up. It doesn’t feel locked in the 2000s and still works as a deconstructed geometric style.