TL;DR
Guka is Fontfabric’s new Clarendon/Ionic-inspired serif, reimagined with a bolder, more industrial edge. It’s a collaboration between Founder & CEO Svet Simov, Type Director Vika Usmanova, and independent designer Trifon Andreev. Guka swaps traditional Clarendon drops for thick geometric terminals and gives some letterfonrs distinctive horizontal endings, with squarish ovals and closed apertures reinforcing its sturdy, structured feel. The family spans 18 styles (9 weights and Italics), a variable font, with stylistic sets and full Latin/Cyrillic support.
What happens when you set out to create a Clarendon-inspired typeface, but add a touch of boldness to it? And what dances in a designer’s mind as they go on a journey to reimagine a classic?
These questions started swirling right after Guka appeared. A contemporary reinterpretation of classical Clarendon and Ionic-inspired typefaces, it was designed with a stronger industrial character and a more modern attitude.
Who better to tell the tale than the people behind the font – Svet Simov, our Founder & CEO, Vika Usmanova, our Type Director, and Trifon Andreev, an independent type designer whose work demands attention.
The Inspiration Behind Guka
“The process was about taking an existing inspiration and transforming it into something personal, building a distinct visual identity.” – Svet Simov, Founder & CEO
It all started with a journey to the past.
“When Svet and I first met, I was deeply immersed in researching the historical development of Scotch types. It happened naturally – as he showed me his initial sketches, I instantly recognized something that resonated with my own preferences.”, Trifon recalls. “Ideas started flowing, as we both explored how this could become a bold, conceptual typeface with a mechanical character, combining elements of Scotch and Clarendon traditions.”
Svet talks more about the practical side of working on the typeface: “I worked on the design and concept of the upright style of Guka. The project originally started as an internal workshop with my colleagues about a year ago, where each of us chose a different style to explore and develop. I found a reference that served as the initial starting point and helped define the direction of the project. From there, I expanded on the idea, reinterpreting and reshaping it through my own perspective.”
“Guka was inspired by Clarendon-like typefaces, but we wanted to reinterpret them with a more contemporary and industrial feeling. Instead of traditional Clarendon drops, Guka uses thick geometrical terminals — especially in letters like C, G, and S — alongside distinctive f and j forms with horizontal endings, which gives it a noticeably different personality.”, Vika ads, shedding light on some of the details.
Guka may be grounded in the sturdy structure of Clarendon forms, but it shifts away from traditional conventions toward a more expressive and distinctive visual language. Here’s how.
The Character(s) of Guka
Inspired by the broader tradition of Clarendon and Ionic typefaces, Guka balances expressive detailing with systematic consistency. It was carefully developed to remain cohesive across multiple weights, italics, and stylistic sets, ensuring strong usability without losing character.
Speaking of character, we’ve asked our designers to imagine what kind of personality would Guka embody if it was a real human.
For Svet, it would be an Italian.
“I imagine it as someone who effortlessly balances elegance and warmth. They would be well-dressed and slightly formal, with a strong sense of confidence, stability, and character, yet never feel distant or intimidating.
Guka would have sharp, distinctive features and a solid presence, but would communicate in a human, approachable way. It would be someone I could sit down with to discuss how to present ideas in a clear, functional, and thoughtful manner, someone with whom I’d happily enjoy a cup of mint tea. That balance between professionalism and genuine warmth is at the heart of its personality.
There is a contrast in Guka’s character that I find particularly appealing: refined yet organic, structured yet relaxed, sophisticated yet playful. It is intelligent and articulate, but also easy to talk to, engaging, and memorable. If I had to imagine a specific person, Guka might be someone from southern Italy, stylish and expressive, with a natural sense of elegance, warmth, and charm.”
For Vika, “Guka would be confident, bold, and strong-minded, with a clear sense of identity. It would feel sturdy and charismatic, with a slightly rough industrial edge and no interest in blending into the background.” That definitely sounds like someone we’d love to meet in real life. Add Trifon’s vision – “Straight in your face, punchy, and full of presence. Guka would be the kind of person who always has something up its sleeve to impress – whether that’s its distinctive character or its wide range of stylistic sets.”, and we’re in for a great tea party.
When we take the time to dive deeper into the character of Guka, we start noticing even more details about the characters of the font.
For example, instead of classic Clarendon drops, Guka uses thick geometrical terminals, giving the typeface a bold, sculptural rhythm. As Trifon says, “The oval letters such as C, G, S, a, c, and s are among our favorites because their geometrical terminals became a defining feature of Guka.” On the other hand, the distinctive f and j forms with horizontal endings further define its personality and strengthen its industrial edge.
Now, look closer. Do you see how the serifs are sharp on the outside and rounded on the inside? This creates a tension between precision and softness. The ovals lean squarish rather than circular, reinforcing the typeface’s structured, industrial backbone. Apertures are closed, giving Guka a compact, self-contained presence. And the terminals – curved on the t, straight on the r, prove that a small decision can add rhythm and intentionality to the whole. The Q, however, might be our favourite – with its peculiar tail, it is a quiet showstopper.
The result is a striking balance between expressive detailing and systematic consistency.
Weights, Styles, and Variable Flexibility
Guka comes with 18 styles spanning the full weight range from Thin to Black, each with a matching Italics, giving you complete control over tone and hierarchy. The variable font version lets you move fluidly across the weight axis, fine-tuning exactly where you land rather than snapping between fixed steps.
Stylistic sets add another layer of creative flexibility. Multilingual support covers both Latin and Cyrillic scripts, making Guka a practical choice for international projects. This typeface also effortlessly pairs with other font families from Fontfabric’s library – Mont, Nexa Text, Matt, Muller, and Fabric Grotesk among them, giving you a ready-made ecosystem to build from.
Behind the Font – an Interview With the Designers
We sat with the designers, curious to learn more about the process of creating a new typeface.
Vika, a type designer and Type Director here at Fontfabric, is someone whose work combines a passion for experimental letterforms with systematic thinking. She’s always searching for peculiar details while ensuring that fonts remain functional as cohesive systems.
Svet, our founder and CEO, is a visionary designer known for creating bestsellers that have left a mark on the design world. You might have heard him saying he prefers working on geometric sans serif typefaces because of the balance of simplicity, structure, and versatility that the style offers. This, however, definitely hasn’t stopped him from going wherever the craft demands, including the occasional industrial serif.
Trifon is an independent type designer based in Düsseldorf and Berlin. Guka was the first collaboration between him and the foundry, but it will definitely not be the last one. Alongside developing his own retail catalogue, Trifon regularly collaborates with foundries, expanding typefaces and creating new ones. His work as a Cyrillic consultant and researcher often leads him to question established conventions within the script, advocating for the rationality behind so-called humanistic Cyrillic letterforms.
Here’s the full interview with Vika, Svet, and Trifon.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced during the font creation process?
Vika: One of the biggest challenges was balancing the recognizable Clarendon-inspired structure with a more contemporary and industrial character. Maintaining consistency across nine weights, italics, and multiple stylistic sets also required careful refinement.
Svet: One of the most challenging parts of the process was the initial development stage. I was fascinated by analyzing how the original letterforms had been constructed and understanding the design decisions behind them. The challenge was finding a way to reinterpret those forms and translate them into a typeface that felt contemporary and relevant. It required a lot of analysis and experimentation – my goal was not simply to replicate the reference, but to create something more functional, modern, and distinctive while still retaining the essence that initially inspired me.
Trifon: I wouldn’t say that the genre is entirely absent from the Cyrillic landscape, but it still feels somewhat underrepresented to me. That presents both an opportunity and a responsibility when designing Cyrillic. We went through numerous iterations of certain characters before arriving at forms that felt fully integrated within a coherent multiscript system, without compromising the script’s individual voice.
How do you envision Guka being used by designers in the creative industry? What would be the best implication for Guka in terms of usability?
Vika: We imagine Guka being used in branding, editorial design, packaging, posters, and visual identities where typography needs a strong and distinctive voice. Its large family and stylistic sets make it flexible for both expressive display use and broader design systems.
Svet: I envision Guka being used across both indoor and outdoor applications, particularly in branding projects within industries such as fashion, food, film, and editorial design.
I would love to see it appear on signage, packaging, book and magazine covers, posters, and printed materials. I can also imagine it being used for film titles or inspiring phrases on posters – contexts where typography plays a central role in communicating an idea or emotion.
What makes Guka especially suited to these applications is its ability to convey messages in an elegant, memorable, and visually engaging way. It has a distinct character that allows it to stand out while remaining refined, making it a strong tool for designers looking to create work that feels both expressive and timeless.
Trifon: Clarendons are here to stay, that’s for sure. I can easily imagine entire visual identities built around Guka, and, most importantly, I believe ambitious designers will immediately recognize the unique texture the typeface brings to the palette.
Did other fonts inspire you in the design process of Guka?
Vika: Guka drew inspiration from the broader tradition of classical Ionic and Clarendon-like typefaces rather than one specific reference. We were interested in preserving their sturdy and confident character while introducing a more industrial feeling and contemporary details.
Svet: Clarendon-style typefaces provided the foundation, but the direction pushed well beyond tradition.
Trifon: I wouldn’t say there was one particular source of inspiration – it was the genre as a whole. What I especially enjoyed was the historical dimension of the process, as Vika also brought a deep and immersive body of research to the project. Analyzing the key features and the skeleton of these modern types gave us the confidence to deconstruct certain conventions and push some of the original ideas even further – such as completely eliminating the vertical serifs.
Do you have any set of characters that you favor most?
Vika: Besides the oval letters, I’d say the distinctive f and j also play an important role in shaping the typeface’s personality.
Svet: The lowercase “a” is usually the character I spend the most time thinking about, because it defines the tone and personality of the entire typeface. For me, it is the letter that sets the character of the design, so it naturally receives the most attention during the development process.
In Guka, I am particularly fond of the uppercase “G” and lowercase “g.” The capital “G” has a slightly unusual and intriguing quality that gives it a distinctive presence, while the lowercase “g” is always a challenge to design – a rewarding one, but often a bit of a pain as well.
When it comes to the Cyrillic character set, some of my favorites are “ж”, “к”, and “л”. These letters offer interesting structural and stylistic possibilities, and they played an important role in shaping the overall personality of the Cyrillic side of the typeface.
Trifon: I have a soft spot for the letters where we broke away from the expected forms, especially C, S, and the lowercase a, where we removed the vertical serifs entirely. They make the typeface easier to combine with others, while also reducing visual clutter. Another favorite detail is the asymmetrical counter of the lowercase c, which we translated into the Bulgarian lowercase г. It’s one of those small decisions that gives the typeface its own voice.
Guka in Use – a Multifaced Typeface
This font is built for designers who need typography that can move between bold headlines and structured design systems while maintaining consistency and impact. Guka is great for branding, editorial, packaging, posters, and visual identity systems. Its geometrical terminals and industrial character details give it a strong, recognizable voice that stands out in both display and system-driven environments.
What started as an internal workshop sketch grew into a typeface with a clear point of view. Guka is now confidently presenting itself as a contemporary voice that has plenty to say.
