A new typeface that is introduced with such bad grammar (it should be “elegantly styled…” and “sophisicated” instead of “sophisticated” is a dead give-away) is off to a bad start. It only takes one look to see that this description

… The Silkstone Sans font was originally created to fill a void in the typeface market and is aimed at people looking for a classic elegant styled modern typeface suitable for a vast array of projects and designs. Designed and produced by Paul O’Connell of POCT, it is a sans serif typeface created with many flavours and influences, but still manages to retain its originality and is a tribute to many of today’s modern fonts …

is a load of bollocks. Silkstone Sans is an unashamed rip-off of my ITC Officina. Raising the crossbar on the e a little and straightening the top left on the n hardly constitutes a redesign (the m has been left alone), neither does extrapolating the face to a thinner weight. Making the i-dots square instead of round and taking the serif off the i takes away some of Officina’s strong character without adding originality, so why bother?

I am surprised that no-one at MyFonts saw this. It didn’t take very long after its release that lots of people saw it, recognized the deceit and tweeted about it. I am surprised that Paul O’Connell has had the nerve to so publicly expose his lack of shame. Or has stealing someone else’s work suddenly become something to brag about?



The original:



The fake: