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typography

Zvezdara: A Typeface Inspired by Serbian Heritage

This article shares the process behind creating Zvezdara Sans, a typeface developed to express the unique atmosphere and cultural context of Zvezdarska Šuma, a large park in Belgrade.

BY ---

July ---, 2025 ∙ -- min. read

SFT Ritam Sans font modification. Visual example of contextual glyph substitution in the DigiRitam font, where Boom symbols replace the letter “o” and the dot of “i” in the phrase “Social Media”. This showcases the playful integration of custom typography in branding and editorial design.

Project Background

In the Serbian capital of Belgrade, there’s a park located on a hill called Zvezdarska Šuma (Zvezdara Forest). It’s one of the largest forested areas within the city and serves as a key source of oxygen for Belgrade. The park got its name in the 1920s–30s, when an astronomical observatory was built on the hill and named Zvezdara — meaning “star-house” in Serbian (zvezda = star). A forest was planted around the observatory, and today the area covers 137 hectares, 21 of which have been developed into a public park.

The park and forest are a beautiful and popular recreational area for locals. However, it lacks a proper wayfinding system. At some point, a group of urban planners came up with the idea to improve the park’s infrastructure by adding modern information boards about the local flora and fauna, as well as clear navigational signage. In short, they set out to develop a visual identity for the park.

One of the members of the urban planning team was art director Alexander Ustinov, who proposed creating a custom typeface as the central element of the park’s identity system. He also led the development of the initial visual concept, which was built around the idea of soft branding — something that would emphasize the natural atmosphere and sense of harmony within the park. A key part of the concept was preserving and reflecting Serbian cultural identity.
This direction was tested and refined through workshops, interviews, and community discussions — and it clearly resonated with local residents.
That’s when I joined the team. Together, we began exploring ideas for what kind of typeface could express this vision.

The team approached me with a request to create a display typeface that would set the tone for the park’s entire visual identity. Its main purpose was to convey a feeling — to reflect the spirit of the park. A more neutral typeface would later be selected to accompany it for longer texts and smaller sizes.

Through surveys, workshops, and interviews, the team gathered feedback from local residents about their perception of the park. They identified several key associations people had with it: kind, protective, child-friendly, green, important, magical — a place that sparks dreams and memories. These impressions became the foundation for developing the graphic concept behind the typeface.

Design Exploration

At this point, Alexander and I began developing and discussing possible directions for the typeface. Together, we explored several conceptual approaches, each aiming to reflect the park’s atmosphere while staying grounded in the idea of soft, culturally rooted design.

1. Something relatively neutral — a lively, soft grotesque with a clean tone and well-crafted Serbian Cyrillic.

As references, we looked at humanist grotesques that support Serbian Cyrillic. In this case, the typeface would serve a purely informational role, while the rest of the visual identity would carry the emotional character. It also meant we could potentially use an existing typeface rather than designing one from scratch.

Some of the references we considered included: 29LT Zarid Sans, Bw Surco, Asterisk Sans Pro and SFT Ritam Sans.

2. An aesthetic rooted in Yugoslav heritage, expressed through the visual languages of modernism and brutalism.

This is a theme that naturally comes to mind when thinking about Belgrade. However, considering that local residents associate the park with something kind, magical, and child-friendly, this aesthetic would likely feel out of place.

3. Something strict and academic, evoking associations with science and stargazing.

Here, we leaned toward a humanist sans serif with subtle contrast — a direction that could quietly reflect the presence of the historical observatory within the forest. But as surveys showed, this association wasn’t central for the local community that actively uses the park.

4. Typefaces with a clear Slavic historical heritage, which are still widely seen across Serbia — not only in the form of old inscriptions, but also in more contemporary reinterpretations.

This theme could fit the park quite naturally, but there’s a risk that, in its pure form, it might come across as too stereotypical and heavy-handed.

While working on the project, I came across a great reference that ended up fitting perfectly into our ongoing exploration of the typeface’s visual direction. Not far from the park lies Belgrade’s oldest cemetery — Novo Groblje (New Cemetery). Like many historical cemeteries, it’s a remarkable source of inspiration for type designers, offering hundreds of stone-carved inscriptions in a wide range of styles and from different periods. One inscription on a chapel caught my eye in particular.

The tomb of merchant Jovan Savić was built in the mid-20th century, based on a design by architect Grigorij Samojlov, a descendant of Russian émigrés in Serbia. The inscription combines historical elements of Slavic lettering with more contemporary grotesque forms — featuring wider proportions, softer, rounder shapes, no stroke contrast, and a bold overall weight.

The reference perfectly matched the character we were aiming for — it felt soft and friendly, yet solid and rooted in local history. In other words, it successfully combined the two directions we had defined: a gentle, approachable grotesque and historical Cyrillic forms.

Typeface Development

Initial parameters:

– The primary script was Cyrillic — specifically, Serbian Cyrillic. This meant the design process began with Cyrillic, and all form exploration happened there first. That’s quite unusual for me, as most of my projects typically start with Latin, with other scripts added later. In this case, the roles were reversed: Cyrillic led the way, while Latin followed.

– Together with the team, we decided to stick to a single weight — DemiBold — since the typeface was intended solely for display use, and the project itself was short-term and created as a pro bono initiative. So I focused on a minimal, but functional character set.

– A text companion was needed. The typeface I was developing was meant to carry the visual tone and even act illustratively in places. For smaller labels and informational content, we needed an additional typeface that would be neutral and highly readable.

I began by translating the letterforms from the reference inscription into a contemporary typeface. This may sound straightforward, but in practice it was anything but.

First, the original letters were hand-carved in stone — full of charming imperfections and organic irregularities — and those qualities don’t easily carry over into the precise, unforgiving world of vector curves in a modern font editor.

Second, I had to carefully adapt the historical shapes from the inscription into a contemporary context, making sure not to overdo the personality. There was a fine line between evoking tradition and drifting into something overly decorative or even liturgical. This part of the process took the most time — we explored countless combinations and character shapes before landing on a solution that felt right.

Visual features in the reference:

1. In my view, the most defining shape in the reference is the letter A. It doesn’t appear only in this particular inscription — it has deep historical roots. This form can be traced back to uncial scripts used in Latin and Greek writing systems between the 4th and 7th centuries AD. The same applies to the rounded form of the letter E.

Letters A and E from our reference.

Example of Latin uncial script.

Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Selden Supra 30.

https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/12e49e0a-4075-4fbe-ba26-d91dfa6d4f27/surfaces/402d792a-f6ec-43b8-a99e-c14be326f0a2/

Example of Greek uncial script

Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Barocci 217:

https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/bb50d638-dcad-4a4f-8414-e6d82f5660fd/surfaces/e76a18d7-1b5a-4491-a482-f2c008a7cdd1/

Example of Greek uncial script

Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Laud Gr. 35:

https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/55b2e494-4845-403e-9ba6-d812bda79329/surfaces/fd38dafc-ad57-4360-ace1-f954ea2f310e/

Cyrillic, which emerged in the late 9th century, borrowed many of its letterforms from Greek uncial script and began its life in the form of the ustav, a formal and structured writing style.

Example of Cyrillic ustav script

Dijak, G. S. (1180) Miroslav's Gospel.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_02363/?sp=4&st=image&r=-0.079,0.036,0.801,0.68,0

Example of Cyrillic Ustav

Ostromir Gospel (Ostromirovo Evangelie)

1056–1057

https://expositions.nlr.ru/facsimile/OstromirGospel/RA5320/prosmotr?t=digit&list=4

2. The shapes of Л and Д in this inscription echo the form of А and share the same historical foundation.

The Л-Д-А combination from our reference sample.

Example of the Л-Д-А combination from Ivan Fedorov’s “Azbuka,” 1578. (Below: людьска)

3. Another detail that made its way into our typeface is the distinctive serif treatment on letters like Б, Г, and Т. This is a well-known feature of the ustav style, even when other serifs in the type system are minimal or understated. In our reference, these elements are clearly stylized to fit the dense, low-contrast grotesque structure, and they resonate nicely with the geometric, triangular terminals seen in letters like Д and Ц.

Example of decorative serifs on Т and Г, and the descender on Ц from our reference.

Example of heavy triangular serifs in Cyrillic Ustav script.

https://expositions.nlr.ru/facsimile/OstromirGospel/RA5320/prosmotr?t=digit&list=4

4. One detail that transferred very naturally into our typeface is the shape of the diagonal in the letter И. In historical examples, you often see the same construction as in our reference — the diagonal doesn’t reach the very top or bottom of the vertical stems. Interestingly, this form is still typical of modern Serbian Cyrillic.

By contrast, if we look at Cyrillic as used in Russia, especially in contemporary grotesques, the diagonal in И usually stretches from the very bottom to the very top. It’s also worth noting that in some historical sources, you can occasionally find the letter Н with a similarly slanted crossbar.

Example of the letter И from our reference.

Example of an inscription with the characteristic diagonal in the letters И and Н, from Krušedol Monastery in Serbia.

Left: example of the И construction in a contemporary Serbian typeface (Orto RNIDS).

Right: example of the И construction in a contemporary Russian typeface (PT Sans).

5. In historical Cyrillic inscriptions, it’s very common to see rounded letters like О and С shaped like drops or leaves — sometimes with pointed edges. These forms give the text a distinctive texture and rhythm. Our reference features exactly this kind of construction, and of course I tried incorporating it into the typeface as well.

However, this approach gave the typeface a much stronger historical tone than we wanted, making it feel overly specific. In the end, I decided to step away from it in favor of a more balanced look.

Example of the letters С and О from our reference.

Example of an inscription featuring pointed forms of the letters С and О, from Krušedol Monastery in Serbia.

Design Process

While working on the typeface, beyond the main ideas already mentioned, we also explored adding smaller graphic nuances — like a slight slant in horizontal strokes (as in В), or different branch constructions for letters like К and Ж.

But through testing and real layout mockups, it became clear that the simpler we kept the rest of the shapes, the better they worked for the project. After all, our goal was to create a contemporary typeface with historical references, not a historical revival. The more specific details we added, the more the design leaned toward a purely historical look — which wasn’t what we were after.

Evolution of the typeface.

[Animation showing the typeface development process]

Evolution of the typeface.

At the first stage, we decided to work with uppercase letters only, as that was enough to test the concept within layout mockups and see if the typeface held up in practice.

Then it was time to think about a type pairing.

What we needed in a companion typeface:
– A relatively neutral, readable grotesque, suitable for small text and captions.
– Its letter construction and proportions had to harmonize with the main typeface, without clashing in tone or width.
– And most importantly, it had to include a well-designed Serbian Cyrillic.

It’s worth noting that finding high-quality Serbian Cyrillic typefaces isn’t easy — there are surprisingly few of them. In the end, we chose a Serbian initiative called „Ћирилица на поклон” (Cyrillic as a Gift), which offers a growing collection of free, well-crafted typefaces with Serbian Cyrillic support.
https://www.tipometar.org/tipometar/Poklanjamo.html

We selected Orto, a typeface designed by Ana Prodanović:
https://www.tipometar.org/aktuelno/akcija!/Orto/Index.html

Zvezdara and Orto used together.

– It features slightly narrowed proportions, just like our main typeface. Testing in layout mockups showed that it fits text into tight spaces well — an important consideration for designs with limited room.
– The subtle angular bends in strokes of letters like У, К, and Ж add texture and complexity to the typeface, which echoes the detailed construction of our display font.
– Orto includes serifs on certain characters (such as С, 2, 3, and 7), while our display typeface also features decorative serifs on select letters — a nod to the historical reference.
– The diagonal in the letter И follows the typical form found in Serbian Cyrillic, just like in our typeface.

To make the two typefaces even more compatible, I adjusted the construction of У, М, and J in our main typeface. As I continued developing it, I also made sure that any new characters I added wouldn’t clash with the forms found in Orto.

Some adjustments to Zvezdara to improve its harmony with Orto.

Next, we had to decide on the approach for the lowercase letters.

We considered two options. The first was to design them as small caps — a stricter, more compact solution with virtually no descenders, which works well in space-limited layouts. This is especially practical in all-caps Serbian Cyrillic, where there are no diacritics, making tight line spacing easy to manage.

The second option was to develop a full set of true lowercase forms. While Cyrillic lowercase doesn’t differ drastically from small caps, the presence of descenders in certain letters adds rhythm and liveliness to the text, improving overall readability.

In the end, we decided to go with true lowercase letters.

Small caps and lowercase forms in the Zvezdara font.

The next step was to add the Latin script. Serbia has a rather unique typographic landscape — Latin and Cyrillic are used side by side. So when we began working on the Latin characters, our focus was specifically on Serbian Latin, which is where we started. Later, the character set was expanded to include full support for English as well.

Serbian Latin script (Latinica).

We began by adding all the Latin letters that directly correspond to their Cyrillic counterparts. Then we drew the remaining characters, making sure they matched the overall stylistic direction. Just like in the Cyrillic set, certain letters — notably A and E — carry historical references to uncial script, grounding the Latin in the same visual logic.

We also included the distinctive curved legs in K and R, and subtle decorative serifs on select characters. The lowercase g was drawn to echo the unique Serbian form of the lowercase б, creating a subtle link between the two scripts.

Overall, the Latin was designed to support the typeface’s personality without competing for attention or introducing visual noise.

Finally, we added figures, punctuation, and symbols, keeping the character set minimal but functional — enough to make the typeface not only usable for the park’s identity, but also adaptable for other projects, especially since it’s intended for free public distribution.

Full character set of the Zvezdara typeface.

Reflections on Creating Zvezdara

Working on this project gave me a chance to dive deep into Cyrillic letterforms, explore how they’re used in Serbia, and reinterpret them in a contemporary typeface. It was unusual, but also rewarding, to focus specifically on developing the Cyrillic script — there’s so much potential for exploring its forms.

I found it fascinating to weave historical shapes into the design in a way that avoided slipping into stereotypical historicism, and I hope the result can find a place in modern projects, whether related to this park or in entirely different contexts.

Zvezdara is available for download here, free for anyone to use. I’d be excited to see the creative ways others might put this typeface to use in their own work.