Gardez was born from the merging of the typical forms and features of traditional garalde italics with those of an inverted contrast design – two styles that are traditionally very far apart. In contemporary design, visual taboos are falling and there is an insatiable appetite for unorthodox and challenging designs; we saw an opportunity to be brave and irreverent by combining two extremes into something very new and very different.

Dalton Maag Designer Rafael Saraiva developed a unique and perfectly-executed display typeface that captures the reader's attention and remains with them. Gardez takes liberties that only digital display typefaces can: extremely large capitals, unapologetic swashes, and fluid, expressive strokes that purposefully defy the laws of legibility.