The Clifton is a reinterpretation of the Athenian typeface that was distributed around 1896 by the British Type Foundry. It is also close to the Fantail typeface proposed by the American Type Founders. This typeface, with its inverted contrast compensates for the finesse of its stems through its imposing serifs that draw a black dot in the letter, thus providing a particular sparkle to a composition. Less contrasted than the drawing of reference and with its very important x-height, the Clifton has been designed as a body text typeface.
The italic is not a simple slanting of the roman but has its own design, very slender and mobile. It has nonetheless been designed as a duo, marking the difference and allowing for a strong contrast with the roman within a text.
Its style, located somewhere between Italians and Westerns, gives this typeface the American flavour of the latter but with a rawer touch, as if it had come straight from the Bayou. As a tip of the hat to this reference, its name pays tribute to musician Clifton Chenier, father of Zydeco, the style of black music from French Louisiana of the nineteen thirties.