Italian co-operative CAST Foundry joins TN
The Bolzano-based, research-driven type co-operative, which has released some of the best original 21st century Italian typefaces, joins Type Network. In this conversation with members Valentina, Giulio, and Riccardo, we learn the ins and outs of working as a co-op. Plus, how their scientific approach helps their distributed team.
I’m delighted that CAST is joining Type Network. Let’s start with some quick introductions and each of your roles at CAST.
Valentina Casali: I’m a project manager and type designer. I’m happiest when I’m drawing script fonts, but I am also learning to do font engineering.
Giulio Galli: I'm mostly a type designer. Together with Riccardo I handle reviews for retail families, both internal and from outside designers.
Riccardo Olocco: I'm the president of CAST—mostly because I’m one of the elder members and a co-founder. I co-lead reviews with Giulio, pitch in on communications, and my main background is research in the history of type. I publish, and I try to mix research and contemporary practice.
Designing the Type Revivals, the book you wrote with Michele Patanè, is one of my favorites! For people new to CAST, what makes a co-op foundry different?
RO: The short version: we decide together. Not symbolically—really together. That means more meetings, more persuasion, more time… and a much stronger sense that the work is ours. There’s minimal hierarchy beyond basic bureaucracy and the review role Giulio and I fill. We vote when we must. It’s slower sometimes, but it changes your attitude toward the work in a good way.
GG: Also, most of us could work independently. The co-op lets us stitch different strengths into something bigger than any single person—without pretending we’re all the same.
CAST is an independent Italian digital type foundry, Cooperativa Anonima Servizi Tipografici, established as a cooperative in Bolzano, Italy.
In 2019 he completed his PhD A new method of analysing printed type: the case of 15th-century Venetian romans at the University of Reading, while in 2022, with Michele Patanè he wrote Designing Type Revivals.
She graduated in 2021 from the Type@Cooper Extended Program at the Cooper Union, she also graduated with ‘greatest honour’ in 2022 at the Expert Type Design Class at the Plantin Instituut voor Typografie in Antwerp.
Giulio teaches typeface design and typography at the Pxl-Mad School of Arts in Hasselt, Belgium. He’s been collaborating with the CAST Foundry since 2018.
How did each of you end up at CAST?
GG: I joined around 2017 or 2018 while studying in Urbino. Luciano was my teacher; I got pulled into a couple projects and… that was it. First real job, great people… I’m still here!
VC: I joined in summer 2023 after Typographics. I’d co-run Sunday Büro with my husband, doing editorial lettering for clients in Italy and the U.S. I wanted to get serious about type, especially scripts. CAST first needed help with accounting—glamorous!—then they slid a custom project into my lap. Riccardo reviewed, Daniele sat with me for hours to get me started on engineering. Watching things work in a font file is addictive.
RO: The seed was a short course at Politecnico di Milano in 2007. Many future CAST people crossed there. In 2012 a bunch of us met at a conference bar in Amsterdam and said, “Italy needs a foundry—let’s do it.” Half drifted, half stayed. We formed the co-op officially in 2013, and really hit our stride by 2015. We registered in Bolzano because my consultant there specializes in co-ops. (If you know Italian bureaucracy, you know why that matters.)
Marche was a geometric sans with some idiosyncrasies that reveal its Art Deco origins. The AM Marche digital revival sticks to the original design – albeit with some minor adjustments.
You offer custom families, spacing/kerning, scripting/automation, training—basically everything type-related. How do you route such a variety of projects through the foundry?
VC: Availability first—most of us also teach. We share timelines and the load (“six hours a day for two months” versus “two days a week for six”). Then skills and interest. One recent example: a client needed a script. Luciano brought it in; I drew the concept, Riccardo reviewed, Daniele built the OpenType features. In parallel, Giulio, Stefano, and Luciano were deep in a different custom project. It flexes project by project, but we have a big group to call on.
Loacker Script is a contemporary script font based on the informal hand of Alfons Loackerr, the founder of Loacker Company. The font follows an alternate character design, making extensive use of OpenType features to emulate handwriting.
Giulio, your talk at Typographics on evidence-based type design stuck with me. Is that a CAST policy or more of a toolkit you pull out when the client’s right for it?
GG: It’s a set of strategies, not a rigid methodology. We borrow from scientific practices—more structured questions, mapping expressive qualities to typographic variables, measuring feedback in a way that isn’t just vibes. How far we push it depends on the client. If the setup is there, we loop in folks like Luciano, reshape the team, and go a little deeper than the average creative chat. Some of these strategies are becoming part of CAST’s regular approach.
RO: When the experiments prove useful, we fold them into our normal workflow. The hardest part is explaining the value to designers without drowning them in technical detail.
Zenon is a book typeface for print and screen with a wide range of applications. Zenon aims for a synthesis, combining various characteristics in a design that can fit snugly into a contemporary environment.
You publish a lot of work by non-members. How do you manage outside designers?
RO: The pain is time. The fun part of a typeface lasts a month or two; then there are ten more months of work! Sometimes people realize that too late and step away. It’s not common, but it happens, and we’ve invested real hours by then. Usually designers approach us; we help tighten the concept and review along the way. Sometimes we invite someone we admire.
GG: The support level slides with experience. With newer designers we may help build the idea and review heavily; with veterans we’re light-touch. We’re beginning to formalize those tracks, but we still trust our sense of people.
VC: Engineering is especially time-hungry, so we’re capping outside-designer releases at about two per year—the Alfabeti Modernisti collection is the big exception because it’s a whole ecosystem. And fonts are never “done”—standards evolve, validators get pickier, customers find edge cases—so the limit protects the catalog we already have.
What are your thoughts on the “Italian type scene”?
GG: Labels like “national scene” flatten reality. Type is global, and scenes grow where people actually meet—notably schools and conferences. Italy could have more of those. Also, there’s a cultural reflex to sell “tradition” first. We respect history—many of us research it—but leaning on the stereotype can trap you.
RO: We respect the other Italian type designers, too. Many of them are friends. We have different approaches and could probably learn more from each other. We’re glad to see some of them represented at Type Network, as well.
Chikoria is an unusual script face for display work. With its decisively quirky appearance, it could be the perfect choice for light-hearted entertainment or cheerful communication.
Why join Type Network—and what are you most looking forward to?
GG: Honestly, it started as a human decision. We met, talked, liked each other’s way of working. Without that, it would’ve been just “one more option.”
VC: We want dialogue and reliable partners. CAST has people, skills, and a lot of ideas; we need a bigger platform to reach the right clients. Not to mention, your partners are some of the best in the industry; it doesn’t hurt to be counted among them.
Custom Iris Sans 1961 and Iris Serif 1961—crafted by CAST Foundry to give Iris Ceramica’s rebrand a distinctive, timeless typographic voice.
Is there anything else we should be sure to include?
RO: Yes—our long project Modernisti wraps this autumn with 25 typefaces. It connects to a book by our friend Luca Lattuga, a printer who has been collecting type from closed shops. He suggested we create digital revivals from what he found and we couldn’t resist. The book is essentially a catalogue of those typefaces; alongside it we’re publishing Alfabeti Modernisti Type Specimens—similar format and cover, with fewer pages. It will be out by November.
Thank you all for your time. I’m excited that CAST is joining Type Network and look forward to working together.
VC: Thank you! We’re excited, too.
RO: Yes, we’re all very happy.
GG: It’s been a pleasure. Till next time!
All CAST Foundry fonts are available for print, web, applications, server, and enterprise licensing. To stay current on all things CAST, subscribe to our email newsletter featuring font analysis, designer profiles, type and design events, and more.