Heldentica: Design That Makes Me Smile
There are many types of geeks out there, but I believe design enthusiasts create one of the more unique niches in the nerdsphere. I mean, c’mon, what kind of person chooses to obsess (and stress) over the space between letters as both a career AND hobby? A geek does. So, needless to say, Typography and Letterform Design are two of the nerdiest art forms ever. Also, did I mention, they are two of my favorite?
I present to you Heldentica. I suddenly appreciate the ADA!
Yes, that is a typeface hand-made with toothpaste. I wish I could say I made it, but the folks over at authobahn.nl did. Every article I’ve found on it is in a foreign language, but what I’ve gathered from English captions is that they developed a series of typefaces to show at a Pecha Kucha Night, all made from squeezable mediums. The only ones making into processed type form (and ultimately becoming .ttf files) were Heldentica, Gelvetica and Tomatica, which were made of toothpaste, gel and ketchup, respectively.
Make sure you scroll through the page here and see the design process and animations!
I must say I am super inspired. It’s nice to know that my bathroom door and some tracing paper may be the only things between me and a new set of glyphs. It may have also crossed my mind to leave my landlord cryptic messages in mustard on my hardwood floor, but I think I will settle for an email. This time.
I posted about this on my blog last year. I emailed back and forth with them and they are super nice. I can’t wait to see what else they come up with…
I wonder if there’s a handheld device they could use to more accurately draw out letterforms so that creating a stroke wouldn’t also have to include the squeeze action using both hands
Hmmm. The kerning seems a bit off between P and Q, but otherwise an inspiring idea! Although, I don’t think the ADA would approve of the syrup iteration.