Hamish Makgill’s previous releases with Colophon (Pantograph 2009, Central Avenue 2011, Garton 2021) have been formed and adapted from lettering found on various, often rudimentary, ephemera, acting a catalyst for the typeface’s creation.

The original reference source for Auguste was a beautiful old ceramic bottle. Makgill’s original intention was a faithful redraw, retaining a peculiar mix of both Serif and Sans-serif qualities. One of the appealing qualities of the bottle is the apparent disintegration that has happened to the stencil through overuse.

The project forked, expanding from the development of a singular style, into two distinct type families, Auguste Sans and Auguste Serif, both with a variety of weights. As a result of this division, Auguste is able to build upon the original reference’s equity, whilst maintaining the individualistic qualities of both Sans and Serif genres within each variant. The two type families have strong and distinct qualities of their own, yet their common core DNA allows them to be utilised in unison or interchangeably with ease.

Auguste Serif is available in four weights — Light, Regular, Medium and Bold — allowing for use both at smaller sizes as well as the ability to be scaled up to larger title and display settings. It is open to licensing in both Standard (‘STD’) and Professional (‘PRO’) variants. The latter containing numerous OpenType features and stylistic alternates.

NB. See also Auguste Sans.