Laica’s unprecedented style and rhythm is a result of cruel methodology: the forced collaboration between two common but very different tools, the broad nib and the pointed nib pen.

Early stages of Laica were frivolously sketched by hand in spare time and lounging in uncomfortable places between Rome and The Hague. Using poor if not entirely unsuitable surfaces such as receipts, boarding passes or envelopes proved to be challenging to the pointed nib in particular. Laica’s reviewers and co-chiselers at the Type][Media course at the Royal Academy in The Hague included some of the finest typeface designers out there, such as Tobias Frere-Jones, Lucas de Groot and Fred Smeijers. Under their guidance, which he largely ignored but much appreciated, Alessio hustled hard to keep Laica – its early sketches now digitised – awkward yet suitable for long and small texts. The resulting patchwork of shapes may hurt the traditionalist’s eye but will certainly please the conscious, open mind.

In 2017, after graduating from Type][Media, Alessio could not only officially call himself a “master of type” but Laica immediately won him two awards: the Type Director’s Club New York and the Bronze Medal at the European Design Awards. Later on, Laica was expanded and developed further under the Milanese sky, with the helps of Franziska Weitgruber. Well done!

The end of this story is what we’re releasing at Dinamo: two versions, Laica A and B. Laica A sports chiseled transitions that guarantee good rhythm and balance from small-sized text use to eye-catching billboard applications. Laica B has straight transitions at its joints and therefore an overall more simplified, elegant tone. Both families come in Regular, Medium, Bold weights and corresponding Italics.