Free Font Friday: Eagle Lake

by Taylor Slattery | February 12, 2021

Eagle Lake is a calligraphic script typeface designed by Astigmatic. It’s got a light, airy feel that feels reminiscent of some sort of elvish script from a Tolkien novel. Eagle Lake is based on Running Book Hand but has been modified to include shorter capitals, which in turn raises the x-height, giving the typeface greater readability. It has a very natural, honest feel about it, equal parts poetic and musical, with each letter flowing up into a crescendo before terminating into a crisp point and evaporating into the next.

The serifs are nice and sharp, and the razor-thin strokes found as the letterforms turn up and to the right give it the unmistakable calligraphic signature without being overly decorative or proud. This subtle contrast between the thickness of the letterforms and the thinness of serifs is further reinforced through Eagle Lake’s general roundness but thin angular serifs which serve to balance the forms and prevent them from feeling overly simple or friendly.

Eagle Lake carries an undoubtedly older, distinguished feel but isn’t overly rigid like its calligraphic cousin, blackletter. This lack of hard geometry does serve to date it a bit and it isn’t the most flexible in use, but that may just be the kind of contrast you’re looking for, it’s certainly a look that’s become more common in brutalist web design as of late. Eagle Lake is available in a single weight and can be found for free here.