Dragon Reactor is a tabletop role-playing game by Nevyn Holmes and S. Quinn Morris, published by Dinoberry Press. Its gameplay is inspired by mecha media like Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The team tasked me with mixing the style of military guides and documents, with elements from mecha anime and medieval manuscripts. The zine seeks to look slightly chaotic and unrefined, as if it was a document that has been photocopied and annotated by the characters. Small decorations lifted from medieval codices were used through out the book, along the black and white illustrations by Emma Harvey.

From the cover (art by Charlotte Laskowski) to the interior, the typography choices are eclectic and (save the title, set in Respira Black) meant to be accessible and free. Jost* was chosen due to the prevalence of Futura in some documents that we used as inspiration.

Get Out is a minimalist black-and-white shoe by designer Michael Leonhartsberger, launched through a crowdfunding campaign to encourage people to put down their phones, go outside, live real adventures, and proudly wear their shoes until they’re completely worn out. Made for people who collect real memories. Because real experiences count for more than likes, doomscrolling, and binge watching.

For the typography, I used my own Gomer, and Bogart from Zeta Fonts. Bogart serves as the global typeface across all body copy and supporting text, bringing readability and a friendly, approachable feel to the design. It pairs beautifully with the vintage-inspired branding.

For visual impact, Gomer took center stage as the display font on packaging and large headlines. Its bold, distinctive personality commands attention and reinforces the brand's unique identity.

The logo development went a step further. I used Gomer as the foundation and then hand-customized it through lettering and animated it in Procreate. By drawing over the original letterforms, I created a wordmark that maintains Gomer’s DNA while adding a personal, imperfect and handcrafted touch.

The cards inside the shoe box feature custom lettering and illustration alongside the brand typefaces.

From the Melsonian Arts Council:

Benighted Betrothal is an old-school adventure for 3rd-level parties of wandering adventurers, compatible with the Basic and Expert editions of D&D, and any modern simulacra such as Old-School Essentials, Basic Fantasy RPG, and Labyrinth Lord. […] Written by Sándor Gebei, illustrated by L.F.OSR, Odysseus Jones, & coloured by Peter Onyschuk

The game was crowdfunded via Kickstarter in December 2023.

While the title is in Lithops, the author’s name is set rotated in MVB Sirenne Italic.

The book interior combines headlines in Windsor with a yet unidentified text typeface.

MacOS version

TypoTasten is a keycaps set for Windows and MacOS making the extended keyboard layout “E1” from the German keyboard standard DIN 2137 (2023) available to users of mechanical keyboard in Germany and Austria.

Rounded typefaces were often used on computer keyboards during the 1970s and 1980s because of the double-shot moulding production process, which cannot provide sharp corners for the key legends. The TypoTasten keycaps are produced with a dye-sublimation process instead, so any typeface would have worked. Hoss Round was chosen because it can be associated with that time when mechanical keyboards were heavily used, while also being interesting enough to give these keycaps their own unique look. In addition, the range of weights was useful to clearly separate the different layers on the keys. Not all glyphs are directly taken from the fonts. Some glyphs had to be added and some were modified to increase the legibility when being used in such a small size.

The project was launched on Kickstarter in November 2024.

Windows version

Windows version combined with Cherry system keys

MacOS version

Postcard which is shipped with the keycaps

Postcard which is shipped with the keycaps

Wesley Verhoeve's first photo book, NOTICE, was published in 2021. For a crowdfunded fine art photo book published during the pandemic, this was a rousing success with two printings of 1,000 each, including special editions (red cover). The printing was done in the Netherlands by Wilco. Cover and titles are set in Caslon’s Egyptian; in the book interior, it is paired with Adobe Caslon and Caslon Classico (used for small caps). NOTICE was also the first title published by my newly founded New Style Publishing in Amsterdam.

Transeunte – from Alaska to Brazil by Bike is a book about André Fatini’s journey along the American continent. For three years, he traveled from Anchorage, in the US, to his home in São Paulo, in Brazil. It is a delightful tale of his experiences, enriched by his passion for life and for photography. The pictures he took during this crossing were key for us to define the visuals for the project, that incorporated them into collages used for the chapter openings, the cover and the map of the trip.

Design, layout and collages by Estúdio Drama. Printed by BMF Gráfica e Editora in
Osasco, São Paulo, October 2023.

Photobook designed with Fernando Valenti. Small typographic details were added throughout the book using Antique Legacy. See more images on otrobureau.com and watch a flip-through video on Valenti’s Instagram.

Where Grape Leaves Grow is a book by Anna Daliza that explores the history of Maronite Catholics in Lebanon over two thousand years. It intertwines Anna's family story and her experience growing up as a second-generation immigrant in the white suburbs of Southwestern Ontario.

The design of the book, by Michelle Kuan and Emi Takahashi, reflects the poetic dialogue through an expressive and evolving textual layout. The book incorporates custom-made glyphs that symbolize the growth cycles of a grapevine. Its materiality and extended two-panel cover are inspired by the traditional wrapping of warak enab, Lebanese stuffed grape leaves. These elements come together to create an intimate and one-of-a-kind artist’s book.

This typography carefully mixes Kalice by Margot Lévêque with Vivaldi by Friedrich Peter. The captions are set in 29LT Baseet, and the font used for the few Arabic words is 29LT Zarid Text, both from 29LT.

The mix of Kalice and Vivaldi is also used for the book launch party.

The Horizon Helvetica ruler revolutionizes traditional rulers by addressing the limitations associated with digital area measurements and everyday portability. It offers dedicated Pixel and Pica sections, cleverly designed in a credit card size format, to overcome these challenges effectively. Crafted from stainless steel, this compact tool not only delivers practical functionality but also offers a delightful tactile experience that captures the attention of users.

With its comprehensive range of smart features, including a Pixel-Pica ruler, inch-cm ruler, protractor, compass, quick circles, isometric grid, and more, the Horizon Helvetica ruler proves to be an indispensable companion for sketching and design tasks.

The choice of the name Helvetica holds deep significance. Helvetica is a widely renowned sans-serif typeface originating from Switzerland in 1957. Derived from the Latin word for “Swiss,” Helvetica pays homage to its country of origin and has left an indelible mark on global design culture. Its use in creating iconic logos and brands, such as Nestle, BMW, Lufthansa, and Microsoft, showcases its enduring impact.

By merging the versatility of a “Swiss army knife” sketch tool with the iconic Helvetica typeface, the Horizon Helvetica ruler embodies both practicality and design excellence. This unique combination is made possible through collaboration with Monotype, the rightful holder of the Helvetica typeface. We extend our gratitude to the dedicated Monotype employees who have supported and contributed to the realization of this project, allowing us to integrate Helvetica into the Horizon Ruler. The logo uses Neue Helvetica.

We are thrilled to present our new Kickstarter project, and your support in this endeavor is greatly appreciated as we continue to celebrate the legacy of Helvetica and its profound influence on the world of design.

Horizon Helvetica is the brainchild of Ufuk Koc, designed under the banner of Horizon Design Solutions. Ufuk Koc’s creative vision and expertise in design solutions have culminated in the development of this innovative and versatile tool.

Many know of the legendary Bauhaus building Walter Gropius designed and the furnishings made by his students in collaboration for this purpose. But few know that when it came to choosing stools for the classrooms and workshops, Gropius deliberately chose the sturdy so called Rowac-Schemel stools from a small family-owned metal factory by the same name in the nearby town of Chemnitz, Germany. It’s exactly this stool that we’re bringing back to the market a century later, via Kickstarter.

We began this project by researching the brand’s nearly 60-year history, which began in 1888. Along the way, we came across various documents, including advertisements, brochures, and stationery. Along with various typography over the years, we noticed that Rowac had used an early sans serif font called Erbar-Grotesk. Coincidentally, this is the same font that is still used today for some street signs in East Berlin. The typeface has a minimalist character, while still retaining an approachable humanistic quality that other later sans serifs lost. We felt that this was the perfect match for Rowac, a brand known for its detailed yet simple industrial furniture.

But after finding out that the current offerings for Erbar Grotesk are extremely limited, we were thrilled to discover CJ Type's Dunbar, a modern reinterpretation of the classic. The different x-heights of the High, Low, and Text versions allowed us to tailor Dunbar to our specific needs.

In the enchanted land of letters is an upcoming book about Bronisław Zelek (1935–2018), Polish poster designer, type designer and painter.

Zelek was a brilliant artist, loved typography and operated it masterfully in his designs. He confessed that “the letter has haunted me all my life” – type is present in most of his works. Typography fascinates me as well, it “attacks” me literally everywhere, including when looking at Zelek’s letterforms. The project hence was born out of our shared passion – the love for letters.

Bronisław Zelek is mainly known as a representative of the Polish School of Posters. He designed more than a hundred of them! In the 1970s, he started designing typefaces, the most popular being New Zelek, which has been used in many projects in Poland and around the world for almost 50 years, for example in Microsoft’s 1980 logo. The last field where Zelek realized himself was painting, creating abstract pictures with his own original approach.

What will you find in the book?
– the story of Bronislaw Zelek
– extensive photo material
– Zelek’s previously unpublished poem “Scent of the taiga”
– historical background
– an essay by Zelek’s girlfriend, Hertha Grimm

For the book, I used three typefaces:
– New Zelek Pro by Threedotstype, which is a digitization of the original New Zelek from 1973
– Sztos by Mateusz Machalski, which is a digital and individually interpreted version of Baccarat from 1922
– Alegreya by Juan Pablo del Peral

The book will have 256 pages and bilingual text in Polish and English. It’s currently available for preorder. If you want to support the project and secure a copy, head over to Kickstarter.com. But don’t wait for too long: the crowdfunding campaign will end on March 31, 2023.

Mecanorma brochures with all five type styles designed by Zelek and produced by the French manufacturer of dry transfer lettering: New Zelek, Zelek Boldline, Zelek Bold, Zelek Shadline, and Zelek Black

Bota – in its updated version from 2021 – is used for titling and body text in the design of Climax.

Climax is the first book by Jb Liautard, a 27-year-old French talent who turned to photography after falling off a mountain bike. Liautard transforms the bicycle into poetry, sport into art. He is an artisan of the perfect image, which he tracks down in the most beautiful landscapes in the world, with the complicity of the best international mountain bike riders. The book was successfully crowdfunded and published by Éditions Mons.

Founded in 2017, Fugue Watches got its start with a watch featuring a modular case with interchangeable lugs. The brand’s second model is altogether more interesting: Fiction One.

From the Kickstarter campaign:

“Fictions” is a new capsule collection that immerses us in inspiring universes of literary genres, embodied by horological creations. The Fiction One is the first edition of the series and is inspired by the mystery novel.

Furthermore, the design echoes the increasing complexity in characters and intrigues found in modern fiction by applying a “smoke-screen” pattern on the dial.

The design of the watch was a joint project by founder Léo Celi and designer Marc Tran. Radikal is used for name and logo. The numbers on the watchface and the information on its back are set in Barracuda. The box, designed by Frédéric Tacer, pairs Radikal and Bauer Bodoni.

Our stories in STEM: 40 Stories of Amazing 21st Century Canadians in STEM is a collection of stories of Canadians currently working in science, technology, engineering and math fields (abbreviated as STEM). The self-published book is initiated by community builder and tech worker Aaiman Amir:

The impact of storytelling through role models at the early childhood education level is enormous. Research shows that girls under 10 absorb the most information in visual and literary formats. That’s why we created 'Our Stories in STEM'. 'Our Stories in STEM' is a children's book about Canadian women currently working in STEM fields from diverse backgrounds. What makes our book different is that it features relatable and current stories of triumph and struggle of women who look just like the girls who are reading the book!

Illustrations by Céline Gariépy. Design studio Equal Parts Studio chose to work with Agrandir throughout both the book and the accompanying website.

Off the back of some incredible crowdfunding success that saw them rise to the top 1% of all Indiegogo campaigns (ever!) Flaus asked us to set the vibe for the world’s first planet-friendly electric flosser. Never one to turn down a toothsome opportunity, we dove in from strategy right through to social media to help bring life to the brand that’s opening up a whole new world of oral healthcare.

Heavily influenced by the retro-futuristic brand direction, the logo is a customised quip on Cheee from OH no Type Co., with both the A and the U taking the shape of teeth. Its chubby, expressive character challenges the category norms of clean, sans serif and subtle typefaces, signifying the brand’s distinct difference in the oral beauty space.

Our headline font, Founders Grotesk X-Condensed, was chosen to represent the brand’s first product – tall and lean, it demands attention and trust while retaining a softness and creating balance with the fun of the brand mark. It sits alongside the Untitled Sans workhorse and both typefaces are used across every touch point of the brand identity.

Brand strategy: Untangld
Brand writers: Cat Wall, Amy Scott
3D illustration: Mitchell Eaton
Photography: Tobias Rowles
Prop stylist: Chloe Wilson
Wardrobe stylist: Oriana Deluca
Website development: Ten Two
Packaging solution: Think Packaging

Creative direction by Image Format for An Other Tarot. The entire tarot deck is set in Romie (by Margot Lévêque). From the website of the set’s initiator and publisher, tarot reader Mathilde Moriniere:

Inclusive and contemporary, An Other Tarot updates the classic tarot deck: the twenty-two major arcana of the traditional version are reinterpreted freely, around new symbolism echoing the modern world, through an unusual format and a radical graphic style.

The cards are printed in France on a large format of 10×15cm, using a hot foil stamping technique on traditional print machines. The thick sheets of paper, whose fibers are dyed blue at the time of their manufacture, are embossed with a metal tool specially made for each side, and heated in order to fix in the paper a metallic silver foil.

The project was crowdfunded on Kickstarter.

Tor grotesk in use alongside custom lettering by Jacek Wielebski for the redesign of a basketball court in Gdańsk, Poland. From design studio Traffic Design:

Radical Passion is a story about the train produced on a global scale for the longest time and its radical enthusiasts. The EN57 model has been operating for 60 years and provokes emotions among various, sometimes antagonistic groups. The publication presents the fanatical attitudes of railway enthusiasts as model makers, passionate photographers, tattoo and graffiti artists. More than 500 hundred pages of the book explore archives that have not been shown before and unveil overlooked social and visual phenomena.

A new typeface named Tor grotesk was developed for this book by Threedotstype. This font is a revival of lettering used on the train EN57 and signage dating back before World War Two. Tor Grotesk is paired with Di grotesk.

The book was authored by Dawid Błaszczyk, Tomek Czechowicz, Maciej Janus, and Marian Misiak. It was jointly published by Torypress and Threedotstype in two language editions; Radical Passion (English) and Kult Jednostki (Polish). It comes as paperback with an open spine and dust jacket, 210×280 mm, 528 pages.

For more info, see the Slanted website.

Cover of the English-language edition

Cover of the Polish-language edition

Poster/invitation for the show with the authors of the book.

Released in August 2021, the bold and beautifully produced book Instant Nudes, designed by Clara Hoppe for Slanted Publishers, is a curated selection of intimate instant photos sent over the years to the tear-off calendar PHOTODARIUM Private project.

Also presented is the work of eleven photographers who use instant images to capture erotic moments. A dreamy and intimate photo book that dares to capture eroticism beyond pornographic clichés – by photographers and individuals from all over the world alike – in 192 pages. Curated by Boris Kahl and Herr Merzi, the book features the work of Alan Marcheselli, Christoph David, Frank de Luyck, Herr Merzi, Jens Voshage, Luc Masson Todeschini, Philippe Galanopoulos, RRRDiaz, Solimano Pezzella, Stefano Questorio and Timo Schäfers.

Instant Nudes is typeset in Parachute Typefoundry’s awarded PF Marlet Swash and PF Marlet Text typefaces that opt for “simple and elegant aesthetics.”

As announced by the Photodarium Private team, the 2023 edition will be its last, partly due to the “enormous increase in production costs and a steadily decreasing demand.”

The book started as Hoppe’s Bachelor thesis at FH Dortmund and was one selected from nearly 100 submissions to be part of the Slanted × Kickstarter mentoring & publishing program.

To commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War in 2018, Swiss photographer François Wavre and designer Chris Gautschi teamed up to conceive and design a book entitled Adieu Vieille Europe (“Farewell Old Europe”).

The book is meant as a window on the intimacy of war protagonists through transcripts of letters and shipped photographs. All of them are from Wavre's personal collection. He began collecting them after being moved by the reading of a letter he found by accident.

Designed with a combination of SangBleu Kingdom and Suisse Int'l by Gautschi, the book is constructed as a cinematic narrative and not as a documentary work.

This project has been crowdfunded on the wemakeit platform.

24 pages, 170×250 mm, available from Payot bookshop.