Type of Feeling’s elegant new serif is an ode to passion

A labour of love five years in the making, the Type of Feeling foundry was launched by Jessica Walsh earlier this year with the goal of embodying emotion through typographic forms. Its latest typeface, Meraki, is no exception. “It’s inspired by the Greek term for pouring passion, creativity, and love into your work,” says Jessica. “With the rise of AI-generated programmes, Meraki is an ode to loving the work and valuing all the little imperfections and humanness that a person can bring into the process.”

Type of Feeling’s debut was marked by a diverse and expressive lineup of typefaces, ranging from bold and playful to understated and elegant – a versatility reflected in Jessica’s broader vision of making typography that doesn’t just communicate visually but also resonates emotionally.

The single-weight typeface, drawing off Greek influences, is ardent and, ultimately, sincere: proudly emphasising the means of its creation through design – wearing its craft on its sleeves. “What makes this typeface special is its warmth and versatility,” Jessica says, a tone notably captured through its rounded serif. “We crafted various characters so you can use Meraki as a traditional warm serif that is very legible, or as something more elaborate.” Its warmth is accentuated by its rounded serifs, and elaborate potential enhanced by the decorative alternates of Meraki’s uppercase letters. This duality, whereby character meets a practical, robust form, is at the heart of Meraki, feeling right at home in simple or experimental typographic compositions alike. 

“Typography has the power to communicate so much more than the words on the page,” Jessica explained to us earlier this year, speaking to Type of Feeling’s broader mission – a sentiment that is ultimately felt at the heart of Meraki’s design. Using the typeface as a platform to explore how type can evoke, embody and amplify passion, Meraki, through its thoughtful balance of tradition and innovation, perfectly encapsulates this philosophy. As such, Jessica concludes, by outlining her favourite Meraki glyphs, “I love the ampersand, the uppercase G, M, and S,” the bubblesome, sincere forms of which epitomise its namesake definition.