Typeface of the Month: WT Volkolak

We are delighted to present you our Typeface of the Month: WT Volkolak. The typeface is the latest release of the new Swiss type foundry Wraith Types, which we also present to you today for the first time.

WT Volkolak is a type system designed by Guillaume Jean-Mairet, exploring the common structure shared by didones and grotesque typefaces. It is available in three styles, a Serif, a Grotesque, and a contrasted Sans, and in four optical sizes, which provide designers with a plethora of typesetting options. The family was published by Wraith Types, an upcoming Swiss type foundry.

A Were-Wolf of a Typeface
Intrigued by the idea that typefaces stylistically as different as Didot and Helvetica shared a similar structure, WT Volkolak was designed from both ends of the spectrum at the same time, and many stylistic features stem from this process, such as the serif’s single story “a,” and the grotesque’s double story “g.” This bipolar identity gives the typeface a quirky yet sturdy visual touch, as the contrasting ends of the spectrum both influence the structure at the same time.

A Tool for Designers
With the original idea in mind, the development of the typeface followed Guillaume’s will to create a toolbox for graphic designers, each style working both on its own as well as mixed with the other two, and the numerous optical sizes offer a flexible product. Over the centuries, craftsmen learned the importance of their tools, and reflecting this, WT Volkolak is meant as a tool graphic designers can slowly build their collections up to, with the guarantee that the style they start with can at any time be upgraded with any of the two other matching styles. Given the rise of variable fonts, the typeface is also being adapted to the GX variable format, and a Cyrillic version is starting to see the light of day.

Typeface of the Month: WT Volkolak

Foundry: Wraith Types
Designer: Guillaume Jean-Mairet
Release: January 2020
File Formats: otf, ttf, woff
Styles and Weights: Grotesque, Serif (Poster, Display, Text, Caption), Sans (Poster, Display, Text), and matching Italics for all styles
Price Single Style: $ 50.–, Grotesque: $ 300.–, Sans: $ 350.–, Serif: $ 400.–
Price Full Family: $ 700.–
Buy at MyFonts or Fontspring

 

New York Subway Found Art Series

Within the space of the square frame, Charles wants to share with the viewer his exploration of found art on the walls of the New York subway system. Moving in closely, without too much forethought, Charles grabs bits and pieces of the remnants of torn advertising posters and/or the remains of spaces left bare. By exploring shapes, colors, textures, the photos become pictures in the artistic sense, much like abstract paintings or collages. The images emerge by chance, moving the iPhone gingerly over the horizontal plane, stopping to record a color or shape that catches his eye.

FINF

FINF is an original video game, based on a concept by Shachar Freddy Kislev. The game takes its name from the German word for the number five, pronounced with a Hebrew accent. The concept of the game can be described as tic-tac-toe on an infinite board. Players take turns placing colored blocks on the board: the first player to create a row of 5 connected blocks – vertically, horizontally or diagonally – wins. The color-coded characters can acquire different super-powers, that add a manic and comical aspect to the gameplay.

Tanzquartier Wien campaigns 2019

Tanzquartier Wien (TQW) is Austria’s key institution for the sophisticated, inspired and socially committed discourse on contemporary dance and performance. From the start our guiding principle for the design is simple: movement is the motivation. For the campaign (2018/19), the letters TQW are rendered as clouds of hope or mystic smoke.

Nenuphar de Molitor

The installation for MOLITOR Hotel consists of 29 layers with three rows of colored
fabric each that are mounted above the outdoor pool.
The challange was to capture the soul and heart of the historic space.
Especially the light during the evening hours and the atmosphere of the
hotel inspired the colors of the installation.
Since my work is located between concret and abstract art, it has the possibility to do
both: One the one side, the installations affirm the universal energy art brings in our
lives, giving us an understanding of the profound foundation of the world itself, while on
the other hand, my art is a vehicle for the sensory dimensions that art has on the
individual perception.

L’abbraccio

These illustrations were created for an important music festival in the art city of Ferrara, Italy. The organizers asked me to express the idea of welcome, a hug. I made 3 different images, 3 couples (2 women, 2 men, a man and a woman), whose dancing bodies give life to great faces.

Home Sweet Home – Alio™ Type Specimen

This Home Sweet Home typography design was created with Alio™ Pro and Alio™ Decor from R9 Type+Design. We would like to showcase this font family’s hybrid modular design feature, allowing graphic designers to combine the typeface and its decorative counterpart to make stunning art. Just let your creativity flow and enjoy designing with Alio™.

PLASTIKCOMB MAGAZINE 1.0

The PLASTIKCOMB MAGAZINE 1.0 – A Beautiful Mess is now available at Slanted Shop!

In the States, when it was picture day, you were handed a plastic comb, in which your current hairdo was styled to make you look “presentable,” and more than often you ended up looking like a completely different person. Like collage, you take an image, and make it something else, or perhaps give it a new purpose or meaning. PLASTIKCOMB—a metaphor for collage.

“Digital is Dead,” says Dusty, the magazine’s intuitive mascot.

Starting with PLASTIKCOMB MAGAZINE 1.0 – A Beautiful Mess, PCM is a biannual, analog art publication that pays homage to the great magazines of the past, containing editorial content in a chaotic, abstract style. Each edition will invite a designer to participate in creating layouts, which allows for further opportunities within the artistic community. The first edition is designed by graphic designer Thomas Schostok.

PLASTIKCOMB MAGAZINE arises at Plastikcomb Publishing, an independent, privately financed company. They specialize in small publications with beautiful pictures and type amongst the organized chaos!

The Second Edition of PLASTIKCOMB MAGAZINE will be released in Summer 2021.

PLASTIKCOMB MAGAZINE 1.0

Publisher: Plastikcomb Publishers
Design: Aaron Beebe, Thomas Schostok
Cover: Aaron Beebe
Volume: 132 pages
Format: 21 × 27 cm
Language: English
ISSN: 1034-0941
Price: € 30.–
Buy

Span Studio – Portrait Series

Span’s visual identity reflects everyone’s individual creative energy, generating a visual system that is equally vibrant. With the direction from Bud Rodecker and inspiration from Man Ray’s surrealist portraits, Leah Wendzinski photographed our portraits using the Hungarian artist Nicolas Schöffer’s cybernetic sculpture, Lux II, as an image manipulation device.

Metronom

Metronome is a device that produces an audible click or other sound at a regular interval that can be set by the user, typically in beats per minute (BPM). Metronomes may include synchronized visual motion.

Holland Festival 2019

For the Holland Festival 2019 edition, the fifth in the series, the existing typeface was expanded with four weights. In the campaign an overlay of all type weights was used to maximize the mesmerizing effect of bright and contrasting colors that express the multitude of voices and cultures that make up today’s society. Circles turned the logomark into masks to communicate the general theme of identities and identity politics. The design explores the translation of bright colors across different media. Online in RGB, in print in pantone and CMYK. As a result of these experiments one poster used 6 fluo colors and one facade combined full colour prints and solid fluorescent sticker material.

M+ Annual Review

M+ visual identity uses a range of mid-tone colours. These colours are selected to be tonally equal to 50% black. When they are used as backgrounds for text, black or white lettering will always be legible. The M+ colour wheel demonstrates the changes made to the primary colours to make a series of mid-tones to form the M+ colour set. By using this selection criteria, Thonik developed a huge range of colours, equivalent to about 1000 Pantone colours.

The Anatomy of the Book

Born in Vlora (AL), in 1994. In 2014 he starts his studies in Industrial Design in San Marino (BA).
In 2019 he starts the course of Design for Publication at Isia in Urbino (MA).
Gazmend is a graphic designer, specializing in book design. He participated in the creation of Slanted 36 Coexist. He is currently developing the visual identity of TEDx San Marino, which will take place in October 2021.

PEDU City of Vila Real

Vila Real is one of the oldest cities in Portugal. The old part of the city is being updated in order to become more friendly for pedestrians, children and old people. It was necessary to communicate this to the population, transmitting the new feeling of the renewed and updated city – specially to younger generations. The idea was to create a communication system that could adapt to all kinds of supports in a young and attractive way. Communicate the city renewal in a way that made the population proud of the reconstruction projects. Simple and bright composition modules with strong colours and simple shapes. The endless graphic possibilities were quickly adopted by the city.

Mercados Municipais de Matosinhos

Built between 1936 and 1946, Matosinhos Market was projected by ARS. A Portuguese modernist architecture icon, characterized by its white strong light and the seaside lifestyle. Matosinhos Market maintains its original function, and has been open since the first half of the 20th century. Famous for the fresh fish, it succeeds in allying the tradition of ancient markets – where visitors are confronted with a cornucopia of different delicacies and multicoloured stalls – with the architectural beauty of the surrounding space. Vestígio designed the graphic identity system of the market.

Proudly Portugal

“After all, the best way to travel is to feel.” wrote Álvaro de Campos, one of the identities of Fernando Pessoa, Portugal’s most famous poet. We want the LGBTQ tourist to feel proud to be unique, as we feel about our country’s colourful landscape, a leading LGBTQ destination. Among the 20 most visited countries in the world and considered one of the safest, in Portugal you will feel the warmth of the sun and of our people, discovering tastes and textures of a unique and rich culture. “Proudly Portugal” is the first initiative to promote Portugal as a leading LGBTQ friendly travel destination.