JY Raj has had a lengthy gestation. The original one was a sans serif
adaptation of a slab serif typeface design by Jure Stojan. The slab serif, which he called Pekel after the town he lived in, was quirky, and in turn had been based on one he used for Christmas cards the year before.
Raj looked instantly better as a sans serif. After refining
it further one lengthy night in 2001, he showed the drafts to Jack Yan,
who completed the character sets and finished the kerning (again, over
3,000 kerning pairs per font are present). As with the majority of JY&A
Fonts typefaces, Raj is euro-equipped.
A characterful sans serif, JY Raj pushes the boundaries
of what is possible with various geometric shapes, combining legibility
and tradition with sharp, unexpected angles. As with Stojans earlier
JY Koliba, it possesses a delightful balance,
thanks to the designers eye for detail and typographic harmony.
The name has little to do with the Asian subcontinent:
it translates to paradise in Stojans mother tongue, Slovenian. |
Jure Stojan, 2002
138 JY Raj package, US$99
1381 JY Raj Roman, US$39
1382 JY Raj Italic, US$39
1383 JY Raj Bold, US$39
1384 JY Raj Bold Italic, US$39
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Above: Stojan has created four weights for JY Raj, including
an extra bold roman that has sharp forms yet a gentle, legible appearance.
Below left: The letter g is highly distinctive, just as
it is in JY Koliba. Below right: Four
letters that show how how JY Raj breaks from tradition. It is in the overall
form that Raj maintains its legibility, not in the outline shape or the
stroke width. Bottom: Despite the unconventional forms, it is one
of the most legible sans serif typefaces available.
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