A range of display faces

Cinzel was the wrong face. It is inscriptional and medieval, and the inscription it imitates belongs to a different building than this one. So: what else could carry the display work — something with a technical character, or something celestial?

Below is a range, each rendered at the size the headings actually use. Every sample is set on the same ground, with the same gold underline, so the only thing that changes is the letterform.

Cormorant Garamond Light, high contrast, delicate. The most heavenly of the set.
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Cormorant Garamond 400 The same face, given more weight.
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Marcellus Roman capitals. Monumental, but without the medieval fantasy.
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Spectral A serif with a technical edge. The compromise between the two.
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Playfair Display High contrast, sharp, fashionable. Reads as editorial rather than engineered.
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Sora Geometric and engineered. The most technical of the set.
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Manrope Wide apertures, geometric. Legible and modern without being cold.
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Outfit Round and soft. Geometric, but gentle rather than precise.
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Archivo A neo-grotesque. The plainest option on the list.
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Chivo A grotesque with sharp terminals. Quieter than Archivo.
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Oxanium Square, cut and bevelled — the letterforms are machined rather than drawn. A variable face, so the weight can carry the display.
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Oxanium 600 The same face, heavier. The bevels read more clearly as the weight rises.
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13 Misa Zane Townsend, 2003. Square, angular, with hard mitred diagonals. A display face only — one weight, and the letterforms are too tight for running text.
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Fraunces The one in use now, at its display optical size.
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Cinzel Decorative The one being replaced. Here for comparison.
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The pairs

The faces above are candidates for the headings. They work against the technical layer, which stays Space Grotesk and JetBrains Mono either way.

Cormorant Garamond + Space Grotesk — an almost weightless serif over a grotesque and a monospace. Heaven over machinery.

Marcellus + JetBrains Mono — carved capitals and machine text.

Spectral + Space Grotesk — the middle path, a serif that is not too inscriptional and not too geometric.

Sora + JetBrains Mono — everything engineered. No celestial register at all.

13 Misa + JetBrains Mono — the most mechanical of the set, and the strangest. Square letterforms with hard diagonal cuts, which either read as machinery or as a videogame.

Oxanium + Space Grotesk — machined rather than engraved. The closest thing on this list to what the site actually sounds like.

What to look at

Turn the light and dark themes over and read the samples again. The heavenly faces depend on the ground they sit on — Cormorant in particular loses too much of itself on the dark theme.

The gold underline is on every sample, because that is what the headings carry.