Serif Other Hivo 1 is a bold, very wide, very high contrast, upright, short x-height font.
Keywords: posters, headlines, book covers, game titles, event flyers, gothic, macabre, storybook, theatrical, whimsical, atmosphere, display impact, stylized texture, vintage drama, narrative tone, spiky, inked, jagged, flared, ornamental.
A decorative serif with chunky, sculpted letterforms and sharply flared terminals that read like torn ink or carved edges. Strokes alternate between heavy masses and needle-like hairlines, with irregular nicks and notches cut into bowls and joins for a distressed, hand-wrought texture. Serifs are asymmetric and blade-like rather than bracketed, and many characters show exaggerated cross-strokes and spur details that create a lively, uneven rhythm. The lowercase is compact with a relatively low x-height, while ascenders and capitals carry the most dramatic shaping; spacing and widths vary noticeably across the set, enhancing the expressive, display-driven feel.
Best suited to display typography such as posters, headlines, and title treatments where the dramatic edges and ornamental serifs can remain clear. It fits well for book covers, game titles, themed events, and packaging that benefits from a spooky or fantastical voice. For extended text, larger point sizes and generous leading help maintain legibility and keep the texture from feeling crowded.
The overall tone is darkly playful—part gothic, part fairy-tale—suggesting spooky theatricality rather than strict historical revival. The jagged detailing and ink-splatter contours give it an aged, mischievous character that feels at home in fantasy or horror-adjacent settings.
The design appears intended to deliver a bold, attention-grabbing serif with deliberately distressed, spurred detailing—evoking hand-inked or carved signage while maintaining a recognizable serif structure. Its variable widths and animated terminals prioritize personality and atmosphere over neutrality, making it a purpose-built display face for stylized branding and titling.
In longer samples the many sharp terminals and internal cut-ins create a strong texture across a line, producing a busy color that rewards larger sizes. Numerals and punctuation (where shown) follow the same carved, ornamental logic, keeping the set stylistically cohesive.