Features

Orelega (pronounced in English: OR-ə-LAY-gə) is a heavy slab-serif font with a large “ear”—which is, typographically speaking, the stroke on the top right of the lowercase “g”. Orelega’s exaggerated, antenna-like ear seems to perk up to hear what you just said. Other glyphs have similarly large ball terminals, such as “c”, “f”, “G”, “J”, “Q”, “r”, “y”, “2”, “5”, “$”, “£”, “€”, and “&”. Orelega blends the time-tested dignity of Clarendon with playful features, reminiscent of children’s picture books frequented by Century Schoolbook.

The name “Orelega”

The Esperanto word orelega means “with big ears”. The word has been used at least once “in the wild” to describe Bing Crosby, the singer of White Christmas fame.

“Dank’ al iu orelega kantistiĉo de la 1940-oj, iksmaso estas asociigita inter usonanoj kun multa neĝo.”

“Thanks to a certain male singer from the ’40s with big ears, Xmas is associated among US citizens with lots of snow.”

The name was chosen to represent the big “ear” on the lowercase ⟨g⟩, while also containing the letter ⟨g⟩ itself.