Blog from Sweden

Brought to you by Letters from Sweden – your new favourite Type foundry.

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Tele2 Slab

The new Tele2 typeface is all over central Stockholm – what an impact! See the full project at our website.

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Observe Medical

Our fonts are designed to work on paper, screens, products, houses, clothes and even inside products as interface fonts. Here is Trim Mono embedded inside the Sippi product from Observe Medical.

Photo: Observe Medical

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In the loupe

By Göran Söderström

Previously, Posten Frimärken had been setting Futura with a large amount of letter-spacing for it to be readable at that point size. The time had come for something more practical, a font that would work right out of the box. Posten was also interested in an embedded security system in the fonts, in order to inhibit counterfeit stamps. The details of the security system we designed shall remain secret, but Posten have allowed me to show the main characteristics of the typeface. 

  A virtual burin shaping an “S”.

In Sweden we still have a few masters of hand engraving. It seems to be a dying handicraft, unfortunately. I wanted therefore to make this typeface a tribute to the art of engraving. The typeface is visually simulating how it might look if it was engraved by hand — all stroke terminals have the pointed shape of an engraver’s tool, or burin. This has very little effect on the final result due to the extremely small point size, it’s more of a tribute to the art of engraving. 

Key characteristics in Posten Frimärken’s new typeface.

During development it was tested in offset printing and test engravings were done by none other than esteemed Lars Sjööblom. I drew the typeface in three styles, Regular, Italic and a thicker Negative version for setting text on dark or blurry backgrounds. 

Tests with an early version of the typeface. Top: hand engraved. Bottom: offset printing. 

The idea of letters simulating the burin’s path came to me in the first meeting where Lars explained how the tool worked. I am extremely grateful to have been part of such an interesting project and cherish that miniature text on our Swedish stamps. This was one of my last typeface projects with FamiljenPangea before moving all operations under the Letters from Sweden banner.

Printing the stamps.

Photo: Gustav Mårtensson.

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Trim in Deckset

Deckset creates great-looking slides from simple Markdown files. Write down your thoughts in your favourite text editor, and Deckset will turn them into beautiful presentations.

Deckset comes with a set of themes, on of them is called Letters from Sweden and is using Trim Poster and Trim Mono. No more boring slides!

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Ferry

Ferry is the second contribution to Letters from Sweden’s “Fabrik Suite” – a project inspired by Swedish industry, factories and harbours. This time we found our inspiration in the three “Stockholms Ström” ferries that float in our beautiful capital.

These boats were originally built as steam ferries between 1894 and 1907, but today they are motorized and function as charter boats taking groups out to the Stockholm archipelago. We couldn’t find any information about who was responsible for the interesting and sturdy lettering (just look at that K!) but this typeface was built with inspiration from those nine letters.

Ferry Black

Ferry is designed by Erik Moberg and comes in one black style with language support for Latin, Greek and Cyrillic.

Try and buy Ferry on our website

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Acne Studios

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New times ahead

My time with FamiljenPangea has been filled with exciting work for great clients. It has also been frustrating in many ways. Bringing in high profile clients to the company meant I was building another man’s house.

From now on, I will focus solely on my own company. What it means is that Letters from Sweden will be taking commissions for custom type assignments — more in this press release.

This decision should also provide the peace and focus I need to develop even more retail fonts. I have so many ideas for new typefaces, I can’t wait to get started.

Thanks for reading, Göran

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Peter Bruhn, 1969–2014

(English version below)

Fountain var på den tiden Sveriges enda digitala stilgjuteri som gav ut andra typsnitt än sina egna, och jag kände mig väldigt lockad att få ge ut något där. Även om företaget inte var så känt i lilla Sverige så var Fountain ett väletablerat varumärke ute i den stora världen. 

Jag har idag släppt 4 typsnittsfamiljer på Fountain som utan Peters hjälp förmodligen inte skulle blivit hälften så bra. Vi har också samarbetat på olika uppdrag genom åren. En av Peters styrkor var att han verkligen kunde få andras jobb att lyfta. Han var otroligt generös med feedback och hade alltid tid att diskutera en seriff, ett avslut eller en kurva. Jag skulle till och med vilja säga att han var så generös att han aldrig hade tid att göra klart sina egna typsnitt. Det plågade honom lite vet jag. Vi pratade ofta om det och jag försökte då och då uppmuntra honom att ta en paus från andras typsnitt och istället göra klart några av sina egna.

Första gången jag träffade Peter bodde jag en helg hos honom i Malmö. Jag kände mig så otroligt välkommen in i hans liv och fick lära känna hans fru Lotta och deras fina barn. Peter älskade att laga mat och jag åt några av det godaste maträtter i mitt liv hemma hos honom. Han skulle lätt kunna ha livnärt sig på att bli kock om han ville.

Den helgen drack vi massor av vin och pratade om allt möjligt och när helgen var slut och jag var tillbaka i Stockholm kändes det som om vi alltid känt varandra. Malmö blev också en stad som jag för alltid kommer förknippa med Peter Bruhn och som jag trivs väldigt bra i. Senaste åren har Peter och jag pratat nästan varje vecka på chatten, ibland om typsnitt, ibland om livet.

Peter skrev egen musik och han skickade ofta över låtskisser som jag fick lyssna på. Varje år gjorde hans familj en julsång, lite som ett julkort till vänner och branschkollegor. Jag minns hur kärleksfull han var mot sina barn.

Samma kväll som Peter dog, föddes min son. Det är inte helt lätt att sluta fantisera kring vad det egentligen betyder om man tror på något större i livet än det vi ser. Ibland känns det som att en del av Peter kommer leva vidare i min son, även om mitt förnuft säger att det är omöjligt.

Peter Bruhn var en av de mest generösa människor jag någonsin träffat. Han hade ett enormt stort hjärta och var en fantastisk typsnittsdesigner. Jag kommer för alltid sakna honom och vet inte hur jag ska fylla det utrymme han haft i mitt liv. 

Simma lugnt Peter, var du än är. Jag saknar dig väldigt mycket och vaknar upp varje morgon och önskar att det bara var en dröm att du gick bort.

Din vän Göran

http://open.spotify.com/track/5kGdayTmguCAZP87F56DUg

English version

My first contact with Peter Bruhn was in the beginning of my career, when I emailed him asking if he wanted to release my typeface. He replied quickly with a no and explained why. The typeface didn’t fit in with Fountain’s collection, but we promised to keep in touch. I remember him ending the email with the phrase “Simma lugnt” (swim easy) and I felt like we truly would hear from each other more. What I didn’t realize was that this was the start of a lifelong friendship.

Fountain was at that time Sweden’s only digital type foundry that also released other’s typefaces, and I was eager to have my work released through them. Although the company wasn’t well known in Sweden, Fountain was an established brand in the international market.

To this day I have released four type families through Fountain, which without Peter’s help probably wouldn’t have been half as good. We have also worked together on different assignments through the years. One of Peter’s strengths was that he really could lift the design of others. He was incredibly generous with feedback and always had time to discuss a serif, a terminal, or a curve. I would go so far as to say that he was so generous he never had time to finish his own typefaces. I know this plagued somewhat. We often spoke of this and I encouraged him from time to time to take a break from others’ typefaces and instead finish some of his own.

The first time I met Peter was when I stayed with him for a weekend in Malmö. I felt so unbelievably welcome in his life and got to know his wife Lotta and their wonderful children. Peter loved to cook and some of the best food I have eaten was made in his kitchen. He could have easily made a living off of his culinary skills, if he so chose.

That weekend we drank gallons of wine and talked about anything and everything, and when the weekend came to an end and I returned to Stockholm, it felt like we had always known each other. Malmö became a town I will always associate with Peter Bruhn and one which in I thrive. These past years I have chatted with Peter almost weekly, sometimes about typefaces, sometimes about life.

Peter wrote his own music and often sent demos for me to listen to. Instead of a Christmas card, his family made a song together every year to send to friends and colleagues. I remember how loving he was to his children.

The same night Peter passed, my son was born. It’s not easy to stop fantasizing about what this really means, if you believe in something more in life than what we see. Sometimes it feels like part of Peter will live on through my son, even if my better judgement considers this impossible.

Peter Bruhn was one of the most generous people I have ever met. He had an enormous heart and was a fantastic type designer. I will always miss him and can’t fathom how to fill the void he left in my life.

Simma lugnt Peter, wherever you are. I miss you very much and wake up every morning wishing it was just a nightmare that you disappeared.

Your friend Göran

http://open.spotify.com/track/5kGdayTmguCAZP87F56DUg

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Moje Kino, Prague

Moje Kino is the place where you can support one of the three independent Prague cinemas. Wonderful use of Line on a website. Designed by Petr Kudláček.

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Spring with Trim

We are happy to see Trim as the main typeface in the Spring visual identity. The mobile app Spring is a rhythm based music service for exercise. Whether you need music for running or power walking, spin class or road biking, Spring has the best workout songs for your movement.

Also, check out some other promotion material on the Spring Facebook page. The identity is carried out by Ori Mace.

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Kumla in Scrabble game

It was a joy to find out that the 2nd edition of Scrabble Typography is using Kumla for some of the bricks. Can you spot the other fonts?

Photos from www.drewcapener.com

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Drawing Line

Stefania is known for the attention to typography in her design work:

“I'm very passionate about photography and I'm very passionate about typography. I never wanted to choose between being a graphic designer and an art director and that's why I love working with magazines and titles for film. Working with Göran on this project has been very luxurious, creating almost like a main character for the magazine.”

For the redesign of Rodeo Magazine Stefania chose Lyon and Benton Sans, two stylish yet traditional text faces. In contrast, she needed something more expressive for headlines, drop caps and graphic elements.

“I created a strict 12 column grid and nice legible styles for the main typography but I felt I needed something to interfer with this. Rodeo wanted to keep it's big format (245x330mm) and there was something about these big pages... I got this idea of a line that went through the whole magazine, like someone had been writing with a thin pen over the grid system.”

To explain her ideas, she made a mood board which became the creative brief for the typeface. The plan was to create a monoline script, but definitely not a traditional one. 

Monoline letters, arabic shapes, scribble, grafitti & tags, lettering, swashes, and different types of handwriting — all of this became inspiration for the new Rodeo Magazine typeface.

When the project started Göran Söderström was on parental leave and had limited time to work with the project, but this was a rare opportunity he couldn’t pass up. Göran explains:

“I’ve always admired designers and art directors who have the courage and vision to not settle for existing type and instead work towards something new. This is quite uncommon in Sweden, but suddenly it happened.”

Göran jumped at the chance to work with Stefania, whose work he holds in high regard. In the beginning he received photo updates with inspiration Stefania had found on the streets of New York.

Inspiration from the streets of New York.

After some time Göran responded with some sketches he thought could work. Stefania, who was still in New York, replied with more sketches and comments — the collaboration was in motion. 

One of Göran’s first drawings.

Swashes had to look different from traditional script typefaces. Stefania made this and it became a point of departure for more.

Sketch for the type composition on the cover.

Testing how thin the lines should be.

The result on the printed magazine.

Inside the first issue.

This project needed a font editor where the letters could be drawn with open contours (rather than closed shapes) and with a possibility to test different line thickness live while editing. The new font editor Glyphs had a function that could work but it was not behaving quite like Göran wanted. Amazingly, Georg Seifert (the inventor of Glyphs) added the missing functionality in a matter of days and suddenly the whole project became more concrete. Now letters could be drawn with just a single stroke and exported with varying stroke weight.

Left: open contours. Right: closed.

Glyphs made it possible to draw with just a single stroke.

Every idea was tested, but somewhere the line had to be drawn; was it supposed to be a typeface or a set of illustrations? Naming this typeface was also bit tricky, but in the end it was named after what it was – lines.

The formula.

Line comes in 5 super thin styles. With the formula 100, 65, 40, 25, 20 it’s easy to create compositions with same stroke weight across different point sizes. This was also a feature from Rodeo. Stefania was working with three styles in three different sizes, looking as if they were coming from the same pen.

The 5 styles in Line.

We deliberately avoided making an OpenType showcase out of this font. There’s an exquisite joy in unpacking a new font, similar to that of a Lego set. Rather than large, extravagant glyphs, the final typeface consists of a basic character set with some alternate letters, plus a large number of modular embellishments which attach to letters in different ways. The embellishments (or krussiduller in Swedish) are perfect for starting or finishing words, and some are flexible enough to do both. And just like the possibilities with Legos, this brings huge variation to the typeface.

Line’s character set.

Rather than hundreds of alternate letters, these are simply kerning pairs.

How alternate versions of ‘s’ connect to ‘a’.

Lowercase h, m and n also have “normal” versions (stylistic set 04).

Letters from Sweden got a new website in the works and Line will be available from our new webshop very soon. Until then you can send us an email if you’re interested in licensing Line for desktop, web or apps.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook or signup for our Newsletter to stay updated.

Stefania Malmsten is an art director and a graphic designer with clients mainly in the fields of art, fashion and film. She was one of the founders of Pop and Bibel magazines in Sweden and is a former art director at Vogue Hommes International in Paris. Stefania Malmsten received The Berling Prize, Swedens most prestigious graphic design-prize, for 2006. On the fourth of July 2013 Stefania founded the new design studio Malmsten Hellberg together with designer Ulrika Hellberg. Stefania is currently the Creative Director at Rodeo Magazine in Sweden.

Göran Söderström is the founder of Letters from Sweden and has been designing type since 2006. He is self taught and has previously published his work through Psy/Ops, Fountain and Font­Font. Göran has designed custom typefaces for ATG, ICA, LO, SEB, WyWallet and others. His commercial typefaces are used pretty much all over the world by companies like Red Bull, Pitchfork, The New Republic, SVT and Expressen. One of Göran’s typefaces has been carved in stone.

Text, photos and illustrations: Copyright © 2013 Stefania Malmsten & Göran Söderström. All rights reserved. No portion of this article may be reproduced without the authors written approval. Thanks to Patch Hofweber for helping out with this article.

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Effektiv Kommunikation

Trim Poster and Trim is effectively used in the swedish book “Effektiv Kommunikation” designed by Helena Lager. The cover alone would make any type designer drool.

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Expressen Siri

A custom “newsified” headline version of Siri is now live on the mobile website of Sweden’s major newspaper Expressen. Check it out with your iPhone, Android or whatever.

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Red Bull TV

The popular Red Bull TV app was updated in August 2013 with new look and new fonts. Siri is used for the interface and all design in the app.

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Letters from London

In August, our colleague and friend Kent Nyberg went to see the Bowie is exhibition at the V&A. Besides designing wonderful things and having an extra ordinary fingerspitzgefühl, Kent sometimes also picks up his camera. This is what he captured on the way to the museum – Searching for Mr. Jones.

Kent Nyberg is a Swedish art director and graphic designer. He’s currently trying to master his new (old) camera – a medium format analog Pentax 67II.

Photo: Copyright © 2013 Kent Nyberg. All rights reserved.

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Journal der Autostadt

We love when a great designer use our (great) fonts. Sabina Keric from Strichpunkt Design in Berlin made Trim look wonderful in the September/October issue of Journal der Autostadt.