Silver Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design · 2024
Hupla Typeface Type Design And Type Specimen
by Paul Robb
- A' Design Award 2024 Silver Winner in Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design
- Awarded April 15, 2024
- CLIENT: S6 Foundry
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 104,772
- Verification code B6FCE3BFAA · Verify this award
About Hupla Typeface Type Design And Type Specimen
Hupla emerges as a stylistic font family, meticulously crafted as a mechanical font within a precisely defined grid. This design philosophy extends its versatility, making it an ideal choice for application at various sizes, seamlessly transitioning between text and display settings. Enriched with a comprehensive set of OpenType stylistic features, Hupla becomes more than just a typeface; it transforms into a dynamic tool for creative expression.
Within the tradition of typographic specimen design that stretches from sixteenth-century printing houses to contemporary digital foundries, Paul Robb's Hupla Typeface Type Design And Type Specimen represents a thoughtful meditation upon how letterforms might be introduced to potential users through material artifact. The work positions itself within the lineage of modernist typographic presentation, where restraint and systematic organization serve to foreground the essential qualities of the typeface itself rather than competing for attention through elaborate decorative schemes. The chromatic decision to employ charcoal volumes against neutral grounds demonstrates sophisticated understanding of how value contrast enhances typographic legibility while simultaneously establishing the refined aesthetic sensibility underlying the entire type family. The staggered vertical arrangement of letterforms across the primary face invites sequential reading while displaying the distinctive character of each glyph in isolation, permitting close examination of the rounded terminals, balanced proportions, and generous internal spaces that define the Hupla design vocabulary. Technical accomplishment manifests in the seamless integration of surface texture with typographic presentation, the linen-like finish suggesting craft heritage and material consideration that elevates the specimen beyond mere promotional document into collectible design artifact. The indication of nine weights promises systematic completeness, suggesting a type family engineered for diverse applications across varying scales and contexts. One might consider how the physical presentation format honors the haptic tradition of typography, reminding viewers that letterforms possess material presence extending beyond screen-based experience, inviting contemplation of how contemporary type designers continue to negotiate between digital production and physical manifestation in their communication strategies.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Hupla emerges as a stylistic font family, meticulously crafted as a mechanical font within a precisely defined grid. This design philosophy extends its versatility, making it an ideal choice for application at various sizes, seamlessly transitioning between text and display settings. Enriched with a comprehensive set of OpenType stylistic features, Hupla becomes more than just a typeface; it transforms into a dynamic tool for creative expression.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The specimen dimensions are 210 x 290mm
- Tags
- Type design, Typeface, Specimen
- Production Technology
- Glyphs was used to create the Font family. The Type specimen book and box was printed as a limited run in offset digital, 6 color.
- Design Challenge
- The major challenge was to create a meticulously crafted mechanical font within a precisely defined grid, creating a contemporary visual language.
- Project Duration
- The font family was started in September 2023 and will be launched in Feburary 2024
- Operation Flow
- The font family will be launched as a retail font worldwide and used by international design firms.
- Research
- Our research began with the origins of Swiss-type design, International Style, and Modernism of the Swiss Style, studying classical forms that could be expanded and adapted into new forms and shapes.
- Inspiration
- This Font family’s inspiration was to create a sleek and modern aesthetic with well-defined letterforms inspired by International, modernist, and Swiss styles. We decided that the typeface had to be constructed from straight lines and 45-degree corners, with the letter forms of even width, whereby spacing between words should always be related to the width of an individual character.
- Image Credits
- Copyrights belong to Paul Henry Robb & Moira Bartoloni, 2023
- Patents
- Copyrights belong to Paul Henry Robb & Moira Bartoloni, 2023