portfolio         case_studies       experiments


The Problem
Peasants Republic is a medieval folk-punk band looking to promote themselves in an unconventional way by commisioning a typeface to accompany their new self titled album.
The Breif
Create a pitch video and a modular typeface for Peasant Republic that fits their genre of music.




background research


We chose to reference Oldstyle typography, like Garamond. Originating in the 1600s, Oldstyle typography is defined by high x-heights, little variation in stroke width, an axis leaning slightly left and double story characters.


This period of type design history coincides with merchantile capitalism, marking the end of feudal lords and serfs and the begining of the bourgois-proletariat class divide. This new economic class —the working class— is the basis for the identity of the postmodern punk movement.



previs work
The Punk aesthetic is all about analog media and a DIY philosophy, so we set out to incorporate physical media into the final product. 

After doing sketches of our type studies, we tried a few different physical media before deciding to proceed with inspiration from scratch graffiti.




type study
To replicate the look of scratch graffiti with machined precision, we used the laser cutter available on campus to engrave 11 x 14in glass plates with our typeface.

We then photographed the plates against a black crushed velvet fabric to provide a sutble texture behind the smooth glass plate.

The plates looked best lit from the side, reducing reflections from the clear parts of the glass while the scratchy engravings scatter light in all directions.



type in motion
To transfer this simple trim paths animation to our laser cutter, we used Overlord by Battle Axe to bring our animation into Illustrator. The biggest hurdle was that Overlord does not support trim paths.

We had to create a custom expression which references the OG path, plug it into a custom Spline function, and then create a custom trim paths function that operates using the path property.