What's the intended use (i.e. headlines, captions, longer texts)?

A half uncial would make sense.

But I would just use Franklin Gothic with Century Expanded and see how many people get the joke.

Have you thought about a corporate typeface?

riccard0 - It would be used as the base of an ID. Initially for a logotype.

Dunwich Type - Not everyone is as eagle-eyed as type designers...

deR - I think a typeface that predates corporate fonts would be more suitable than a more modern face. But I might be wrong.

Thanks guys, just in the exploration stage at the moment. An half uncial could be an interesting route...

This is a tough call. And if you try too hard it's sure to backfire.

A generic sans would be too weak, but a traditional serif isn't
right either because it would be too local to Ancient Italy.

I think what might work is a contemporary, funky serif font
with a strong Roman undercurrent, and fringe influences like
from Greece and Eastern Europe. Not perfect, but what about
Quadraat Italic?

www.fontfont.com/staticcontent/downloads/FF_Quadraat_Specimen_2012.pdf

--

BTW, I love the door in your logo!

hhp

A different approach could be a sans serif version of Trajan.
Or Novecento, which is inspired by european cities’ historical lettering (http://typography.synthview.com/).
If you want/need something which references a period in-between those two, you will need at least some hint of blackletter.
Or, finally, you could go the Typedia route (http://typedia.com/blog/post/behind-the-typedia-logo-design/).

Thank you hrant! My logo was a labour of love. Your points are exactly what I felt, only expressed more articulately! I'll have a look at Quadraat, it certainly seems like a good contender.

riccard0 - I think I'd looked at Novocento; I'm a big fan of geometric fonts, and love the big, round circular characters. However I'm a bit worried that this font might date a bit quickly if used for a logo, or that I'm using it because it's a personal favourite! That's a great back-story to the Typedia logo and something I might consider.

Thanks for all the advice, it's been really helpful. Although I'm an experienced designer, proper typography is an area I'm still working on and a tool I find fascinating. Cheers guys!

I was about to suggest a Roman Capitalis Sans without Serifs, when I spotted that riccard0 had the very idea just posted ;-)
That would embrace and represent the 2000 years of European lettering history. There are several choices of fonts, I’m sure.

A cynic might say Rotis would represent Europe.

Andreas - like an engraver's sans?

flooce - yes, but it's hardly the nicest semiserif out there! There's something nasty going with the 'a's.

I've tried to create my own serif characters for the wordmark, taking elements from Andron and Quadraat, but opening up the counter on B, a & d. I'd be grateful of a critique, and whether it works or not. At this point it's a quick work in progress, and the kerning's all off...

I am not competent to say what would represent Europe, but if this style of old style is what you want to go for, what about Clifford?

For sans options Juvenis, Aspect or perhaps Sparrowhawk.

Tim

> There's something nasty going with the 'a's.

I remember when we were walking around Leipzig we saw
one and Adam Twadroch said it looks like a pooping dog.
But I personally like (and in a way admire) Rotis. However
it is too loose for text.

BTW:
http://typophile.com/node/89847

hhp

> ...it looks like a pooping dog.

Just looked again at a Rotis 'a' - thanks for the chuckle, I needed that!

I'll check out the other link too, lots of good stuff in there.

Trinite by Bram de Does?

I think he means 21st century Europe...

hhp

Livory?

Why not some random Ransom?

It should have Greek and Cyrillic. (With Greece and Bulgaria as members, there are three official “alphabets”—scripts—in the EU.)
And it should work well in accent-heavy languages such as Czech and Slovak.

I'm pretty sure no typeface has the ability to convey the history of the entirety of Europe. I think that's unfair to any typeface to ask it to solve that riddle.

Rem Koolhaus Euro flag:

Just as stupid? (I do love Koolhaas's buildings though!)

I myself am advocating something much more subtle.

hhp