Named after the city district located where the old Western Gate of Copenhagen once stood, Vesterbro is an expressive and versatile serif typeface from Black[Foundry]. Conceived by Jérémie Hornus in collaboration with Alisa Nowak and Ilya Naumoff, the type family blends historical inspiration with contemporary warmth. The core design of the Vesterbro family is the Poster weight, a high-contrast typeface that merges characteristics from Scottish and Garalde models. Unlike traditional Didot-inspired display faces, Vesterbro Poster has a friendlier, more organic structure, featuring a generous x-height, short serifs, and a tilted axis. Its supple curves bring a distinct charm—just look at the smiling lowercase 'e' or the elegant sweep of the ampersand. Impressed by how well this typographic fusion worked, the team developed a text version that carries the same DNA. The Regular weight introduces more pronounced serifs and lower contrast, ensuring a calm yet confident presence in paragraphs. Delicate leaf terminals on letters like 'a,' 'c,' and 'f' add a subtle calligraphic elegance, while heavier weights enhance impact without sacrificing the typeface's distinctive warmth. As part of Black[Foundry]'s commitment to global typography, Vesterbro was expanded to support Greek and Cyrillic early in development. Most recently, the family welcomed Vesterbro Arabic, crafted by Hirbod Lotfian. This extension preserves the expressive charm of the original while embracing the fluidity and calligraphic heritage of Arabic script. It supports Arabic, Persian (Farsi), Urdu, and Kurdish, making Vesterbro a truly multilingual type system. With more than 600 ligatures and contextual alternates, Vesterbro Arabic brings an elegant and rhythmic flow to typesetting. Additionally, three distinct middle-teeth variations, automatically applied based on context, ensure the best possible visual rhythm—particularly when similar letterforms with different dot configurations appear in sequence. Designed to perform across branding, editorial, and digital applications, Vesterbro's comprehensive character set includes various numeral styles, an extensive ligature set, and a full range of typographic refinements. Whether in display sizes or text layouts, Vesterbro offers a sophisticated yet inviting tone, ready for global storytelling.
