Natasha Lucas’ harmonious typeface family is launched by her old university tutors

MuirMcNeil has recently published a family of typefaces, Orca, Minke and Beluga, by North designer, Natasha Lucas. The new edition to the foundry boasts rounded geometric shapes and negative space, born from the desire to create “a visual harmony through shapes, grids, compositions and of course, space”, the designer tells us.

Natasha has always had an interest in the reciprocal relationship between forms and counterforms, and “how they are manipulated to work interdependently when constructing letters”. When creating, she is constantly considering mathematical aspects such as the ratio between positive and negative space, and using this as a framework for exploration. “Often the grids I work with deny the proportions necessary for conventional letterform construction,” she tells us, “meaning that negative space takes on a more vital role in providing the integrity and legibility of a letter”. Enjoying the process of “teetering on the edge of ambiguity”, the characteristics of Orca, Minke and Beluga offer symbols within letters, while still remaining true to Latin script.

Natasha’s collaboration with MuirMcNeil began during the her final major project while studying at the University of the Arts London’s LCC, in 2018. “I had always been inspired by Hamish Muir and Paul McNeil as tutors throughout my time there – their methodology and refreshing stance on the design process deeply resonated with me, and of course, their typographic practice,” she tells us. At the time, she was set to create a visual system across four posters, and she chose to design geometric lettering. Paul reached out to her after seeing her work in the studio: “he asked if I wanted to develop them into a typeface, and little did I know it would become an ongoing collaboration,” she says.

Using her Instagram as a playground for typographic experimentation, and to birth new collaborations, all of the works in her feed are passion projects and rarely ever planned or bound to deadlines. For Natasha, the core difference between Orca, Minke and Beluga, and her previous typefaces is the free flowing quality of the curves that still sit within its geometric constraints. “We developed the prototype design into three typefaces because their different structures provide different tones of voice,” she tells us. Orca possesses more curves and negative space inside the shapes, making it the most buoyant of the sets, which bears similarities to the Motter Ombra font, designed in the early 1970s. Whether as Minke has brush-like curves that are reminiscent of logo symbols and inspired by “robust architectural structures”, while Beluga is quieter, with a quality that subtle space for surprise especially when you consider it alphabetically.

Natasha often imagines the family of typefaces being used for brand identity projects and logo creation. “It could also work well in wider identity systems,” she tells us, “like packaging, signage, placemaking, exhibitions, posters, and so on,” she adds. The designer has found a certain equilibrium between distinction and familiarity, that she would love to see plastered throughout projects in fashion, beauty, culture and the arts, or much like how it started – “for personal use, fun or more exploration”.