Scurille is the first of a series of fonts that grew out of lettering for Playfaces. It is based on the logic of writing with a broad brush and has its roots in the modernist posters of Secession (1905). The next significant great-grandfather is Lettera Grotesk (1954), which eventually served as the basis for many variations under different names - Maharaja by Solotype (1986), a-aleph (1994), etc. In the USSR, there was a Cyrillic relative called Decorative Italic (1975), which was later often seen on Soviet book covers and packaging. It was digitized by Alexandra Goffman and published as Hotel Paragon.

While trying to find an alternative, as opposite as possible to the calm Regular typeface, I came across Chekhonin's lettering and realized that it could be perfectly interpolated from the Regular typeface. This is how the Wild lettering came to be - sharp, ringing, predatory.

In my version of the font, I want to modernize the typeface as much as possible, emphasizing its brutal modular structure. It is planned to release a spectrum of lettering from light to bold, as well as a Wild version and an italic for each.
My version of the font was called Retrodelica, and it began in 2019 with lettering on the cover of a Soviet fashion magazine (found in one of St. Petersburg's second-hand shops). It appeared to be a Cyrillic version of ITC Zipper, or a sans-serif slab serif with reverse contrast. In any case, I really liked the look of the font with reverse contrast, but I wanted to make a modern version of it, without the Soviet flavor.

This was my first font created with a more or less deliberate approach, after gaining skills at [Campus](https://campus.designworkout.ru/). Early versions were more brutal, with square internal spaces, square ink traps, and a geometrically simplified form that allowed for variable adjustments in letter width and stroke thickness. However, after creating the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets, the process stalled: at that point, I lacked the technical skills and understanding of the overall product picture, and my attention shifted to an interest in UX/UI.

I've discovered Dima Grenev's works at the Playfaces community in 2023.  We discussed our unfinished projects and discovered that a couple of our fonts shared similar logic, after which we decided to combine our efforts to finish them. We defined the future family of styles, Dima created a variable concept with a couple of symbols, and after some minor adjustments to the concept, we began work. Our process is a biweekly ping-pong with glyphs files — this way, we maintain a small but steady progress on the font and constantly review each other's design decisions.

Currently, the Latin, punctuation, and numbers in all 4 styles are ready, and work has begun on the Cyrillic. The release is planned for the summer of 2024.