I released Ulian on August 14, 2002. The design began as a simple experiment during a vacation in Vancouver: I wondered what would happen if I took a serif typeface and sheared the sides so the letters could lock together more tightly. The result was a hybrid of blackletter influence and contemporary letterforms, with flat vertical edges and curved serifs giving it a mix of sharpness and flow.
The name Ulian came from the resemblance to the word “alien.” It had no other meaning beyond suggesting something unfamiliar, which suited the odd character of the typeface. From the beginning, Ulian was sold commercially and was never released for free. It was designed for display use and has not appeared in notable projects.
On June 18, 2021, I updated Ulian with technical fixes. Deprecated characters were removed, the ellipsis width was narrowed, and the vertical metrics were reduced by six percent to improve compatibility in web environments. I also lowered the inverted question and exclamation marks and corrected some curve issues in the outlines. These adjustments improved reliability without altering the design itself.