Kollektiv

Maurice Dusault

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Kollektiv

Personal project where I set out to create ‘the perfect typeface. I have always had a soft spot for typography, but wondered whether it was possible to create the perfect typeface. I was reminded of the notion of collective intelligence. If you were to have a jar full of marbles, and asked a large enough sample of people to guess the number of marbles in the jar, the average of the responses would get you close to the actual number. I wondered what would happen if this principle was applied to typography.

Personal Project

Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Summer 2016

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Typography

Graphic Design

Process

Using Adobe Illustrator, I typed each letter in a different sans-serif typeface, layered them on top of each other with low opacity, and suddenly a common shape started to form. I printed out the letters, squinted my eyes, and traced the most common path. After rescanning them I traced my pencil tracing back in Illustrator and used Glyphs to turn it into a font.

Result

The result is a familiar, yet unique, sans-serif typeface built by combining 30+ of the best sans-serif typefaces. I titled the font ‘kollektiv’, German for collective. Seeing as I created this typeface at home at my family’s in Switzerland, I created posters showcasing the font using bizarre Swiss German words and tongue twisters like chuchichäschtli.

Maurice Dusault