Cave Canem
Kit Sans and Eiko are the typefaces chosen for the refreshed identity of Cave Canem Foundation, a non-profit organization “committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of Black poets.”
Darden Studio’s Kit Sans is a workhorse sans of extraordinary legibility. The new Cave Canem website is excellent proof for this: Kit Sans serves as the text typeface throughout the site, from the main menu and the news items to the descriptions of the various programs, down to the list of board members and the contact form.
We love how the designers of Barcelona-based studio Calor pulled out all the stops to present the information in a way that’s easily digestible and yet appealing. They applied Kit Sans in a carefully selected set of sizes and in several of its weights, establishing hierarchy and structure. This way, even text-heavy pages look inviting and are easy to scan and read. The fonts are used with their oldstyle figures – which blend better into mixed-case text than ligning ones. Italics are used to subtly accentuate quotes and titles of works. For major titles, Kit Sans is supported by Caio Kondo’s Eiko.
The Cave Canem logo references a Roman mosaic warning about a dog. The wordmark seems to be custom – the letterforms are similar to Normande, Thorowgood and other Fat Faces.
Kit Sans was designed by Onur Yazıcıgil and Eben Sorkin and is available from Darden Studio.
Paragraphs and lists are in Kit Sans Light, with headlines in the Medium weight.
The History section has a title in Eiko, while the timeline labels feature the oldstyle figures from Kit Sans.
Kit Sans in various styles and sizes on the page about the board members
The directory of fellows contrasts the entries in a small size of Kit Sans Medium with large caps from Eiko Heavy.
Eiko and Kit Sans are also used for social media, here for announcing an event hosted by
