A designer’s account of the printed source and italic brief
In a firsthand interview with It’s Nice That, Flores explains that DaVinci developed from his Regular Display, a revival of a Garamond cut encountered in an old book. He connects its organic character to working from printed letters. A request from Zolo Press and Base Design for an italic for Sydney’s Biennale, themed around water and fluidity, provided an opportunity to develop that direction. His own DaVinci project establishes the creator and original resource.
Make a fluid italic carry one editorial role
For an exhibition invitation, set the event title in the original DaVinci specimen and test a short italic phrase as an alternate treatment. Keep the date, venue and booking details in a simpler supporting arrangement, then view the whole card at final size. Compare a phrase in running text with the same phrase isolated as a title: the best display setting may need different spacing and line breaks. Do not assume a historical source makes a face interchangeable with any Garamond in an existing document.
Separate this family from handwriting interpretations
Flores’s account concerns printed type, not a literal transcription of Leonardo’s handwriting. For that other intent, Parachute’s own PF DaVinci Script presentation explicitly describes a handwriting-inspired interpretation and credits different designers. Keep the products separate when choosing files. The local EB Garamond and Playfair Display specimens are independent comparisons. Our copyable Unicode text styles change characters; they cannot recreate Flores’s original italic forms or supply either commercial family.
Your questions, answered.
Is Flores’s DaVinci based directly on Leonardo’s handwriting?
The designer’s cited account traces it to printed Garamond forms. A separately named PF DaVinci Script has a different handwriting-inspired brief.
Can the homepage converter produce the original DaVinci italic?
No. Inspect the creator’s own specimen for the original; copied Unicode styling is a separate text effect.
Sources & background
Sources supporting this page’s explanations. Practical examples are our editorial suggestions.