Aperçu was started in December 2009, and was tried & tested throughout a number of design commissions into 2010. The conceit behind Aperçu was to create a synopsis or amalgamation of classic realist typefaces: Johnston, Gill Sans, Neuzeit & Franklin Gothic. Becoming, a sum of parts, building upon its initial reference points to create an extensive and usable family.

Since its release in August 2010, Aperçu quickly found its position in the market, being used across a variety of different media and sectors around the world across a multitude of touchpoints. Utilised by leading visual institutions such as MOMA, De Wiels, Zeit Magazine and the Walker Art Centre amongst many others.

The initial point of inspiration of Aperçu Arabic is the calligraphic Naskh style with a reference to the geometry and letter shapes of Aperçu Latin. This style has been used over the centuries for long texts due to its optimised organic letter shapes. However, Aperçu Arabic is a less organic and more geometric interpretation of the Nashk style; a modern Arabic sans-serif based on a calligraphic style.

Aperçu Arabic is available in four weights — Light, Regular, Medium, Bold. Aperçu is available to license in four flavours; Standard (‘STD’), Professional (‘PRO’), Arabic (‘ARABIC’) and Thai (‘THAI’). The PRO variant contains language support for Cyrillic and Greek scripts, alongside numerous OpenType features and stylistic alternatives. The Arabic variant contains the PRO variant alongside language support for Arabic script. The Thai variant contains the PRO variant alongside language support for Thai script.