Irregular Italic

Didactical project by E. Fontana, R. Frusteri, C. Costanzo - Bachelor of Arts in Communication Design - IED Roma

Academic year

2024/2025

A typeface that becomes a voice: with Irregular Italic, the Communication Design students of IED Roma reinterpret the typography of Italian public institutions to represent those who live in Italy without being officially recognized as citizens.

Irregular Italic was developed in response to a brief from Monotype, one of the world’s leading companies in type design, which asked for a campaign capable of conveying a social message through typography, starting from a controversial Italian law on citizenship.

Students Elisa Fontana, Riccardo Frusteri and Cesare Costanzo chose to address the topic by intervening directly on the typeface: they created a hybrid font by integrating glyphs from six writing systems used by the most widespread ethnic minorities in Italy. The result is Irregular Italic, a typeface that visually communicates the country’s cultural plurality and makes visible, through its very forms, the presence of those who are part of the community but are not yet recognized as citizens.

The campaign unfolds through a series of typographic applications and communication supports, turning the font into a narrative device that gives space and dignity to voices that are often overlooked.

The project was awarded Gold in the Student Experience category at the ADCI Awards 2025, a recognition that highlights its conceptual strength and cultural impact, and its ability to use design as a tool for social awareness.