Synthetic organisms look human, yet are made of artificial materials. Cardinal takes its name from the android characters called "synthetics" in the Alien film series. Synthetics bear a troubling resemblance to the humans they imitate, yet emit no heat, smell, or pheromones. Cardinal translates this idea into type design, navigating between the organicity of classic text typefaces and the plasticity of contemporary digital type. It carries traits of designs by Garamont and Granjon while maintaining its own dryness and rigidity. Reminiscent of old digital typefaces, Cardinal evokes the early days of computing. Synthetics do not die. They are just sometimes deactivated.

The Cardinal system develops in three directions. Cardinal Classic comes in Short, Mid, and Long variants, offering three x-heights suited to different point sizes and line lengths. Cardinal Fruit is a condensed variant recalling early computer advertisements, with italics that are particularly sharp and precise. Cardinal Photo is designed for large, bold headlines, derived from Cardinal Classic Mid with more dramatic contrast and deliberately tight spacing, referencing the typography of photojournalism magazines.

Cardinal Photo is built around a TNT principle, tight but not touching, where letterforms are meticulously pre-kerned to achieve compactness without compression. Suited to headlines, slogans, and large-scale applications, Cardinal is designed for big things.