I released Gildabeth on July 1, 2023. The design was based on two ornate late-19th-century typefaces: Campanile, created by William W. Jackson and patented in 1879, and Attic, a lighter companion by Herman Ihlenburg. My approach was similar to what I had done earlier with Telemachus—I took an elaborate, decorative model and reworked it for contemporary use. For Gildabeth, that meant simplifying the forms into a sans-serif structure while keeping some of the Victorian and Edwardian qualities in its stroke modulation and narrow proportions.

The family consists of six weights, from Thin through Extra-Bold, each with obliques. It was released in full at launch and has not been updated since. Gildabeth was always a commercial release, offered through my normal retail channels, with no free styles.

Its timing coincided with a broader design climate in which maximalist styles were beginning to displace the minimalism that had dominated for years. While that context gave the typeface a certain relevance, I haven’t seen it adopted in notable projects so far. For me, it remains an example of adapting ornate historical models into a modern sans-serif system.