Korchma was created solely to be used in books or any other printed texts that are meant to be read. At some point the reason for this was to explore a new dimension, for text typefaces are made completely different than any other type of font and etc. The process of thinking and creation seems invisible,
as it should be. Book typefaces hold their power in imperceptible details
that shape it as a whole.
There is also a personal agenda too. Through my whole life I loved reading the most but because I had to move to another country I couldn’t do that anymore, both because there were no books in the language I could understand and because this huge life change shook me to my core so much I couldn’t read for some years. So, this typeface and its creation is like a tribute for my past and for something I’m slowly coming back to.
The name has also a rather deep meaning for me. It might remind you of a Czech word “krčma” what means “tavern”. Yet I used a Russian translation of this word “Корчма” that adds letter “o” there, so it can be easier to pronounce. The reason I named it like this is because I wanted to give it a feeling of something “humble” or “serving a purpose for many people” and also something from the past that still exists. Even tho we don’t call a pub or a restaurant a tavern anymore, but in some way it still exists and it will keep on existing for this is a rather important place for us people.
A good quality book typeface should be simple and recognisable which is why I decided to base it on the humanist types of the Italian Renaissance. For all people are connected to the past by the shape of typography. The individual is not aware of it. They are unaware or indifferent to the fact that we owe the Renaissance the printing of the present, and that it is often precisely the typography of the Renaissance. They accept letters as a given and a basic way of communication. As refferences were used: Granjon (George Jones, 1924), Goudy (Frederic Goudy, 1915), Palatino (Hermann Zapf, 1949), Aldus (Hermann Zapf, 1954), Sabon (Jan Tschichold, 1967). A reader shouldn’t be aware that they are indeed reading. So coming back to the Renaissance was like an obvious choise.
Korchma is simple, neutral, quiet and peaceful, what I believe makes it stronger. It supports about 40 languages, has cyrillics, italics, small caps, old style figures, tabular lining, fractions, superior and inferior numbers, ligatures, symbols such as manicules and arows and etc...
