Elk, Balmorhea, ES8 vlog
Shanghai-based documentarist and vlogger bopular, who also designs men’s clothing, released a short video on April 15, 2026 about his family trips to Yancheng, Jiangsu, China.
The video’s thumbnail features a giant elk that bopular’s family encountered at the Dafeng Elk National Nature Reserve, accompanied with huge text “不被计划的对视” (an unplanned gaze) set in YunFang Stencil (云坊镂空黑体). The video’s title card and credits also features YunFang Stencil. I find that the typeface fits the airy and poetic atmosphere very well, and that the music by Balmorhea is the cherry on the top.
YunFang Stencil was released on April 15, 2026, by the Shenzhen-based YunFang Type Studio (云坊字室), one of the newly emerged independent Chinese type studios. Although being categorized as a Heiti (sans-serif), the skeletons of YunFang Stencil’s Hanzi are based on Lishu (隸書/clerical script). There are five styles in the family: Regular, No Gap, Min Gap, Mid Gap, and Max Gap. The stencil bridges are placed strategically rather than arbitrarily. They’re also carefully designed to avoid cutting through the main strokes, thereby ensuring legibility of the Hanzi in question. The subordinate Latin/Cyrillic/Greek is loosely inspired by Gill Sans.
