Forward Font is an heir from Frank Adebiaye’s more than 10 years old experience as a self taught type designer (as, among other things, the creator of the Velvetyne Type Foundry). His new typeface inheriting from his long time love with technologic aesthetics associated with an almost brutalist approach to type design leading to uncompromising shapes. The mixture of a futuristic approach with a voluntarily very personal & heterogenous way of dealing with rules leads to a new take on afrofuturism in type design.
Forward is digital, both by its native process and by its looks. It raises this question: can computers dance & funk? They sure can, in bold dark and light narrow pace.
With its peculiar contrast distribution and rounded corners, Forward sits on the shoulders of the first OCR typefaces or machine-readable magnetic ink numerals meant to be read both by computers and human beings, and of the retro-futuristic typefaces of the photolettering era (1960’s). Think Westminster by Leo Maggs, Gemini by Franco Grignani or Data 70 by Bob Newman. Forward revives this esthetic in a contemporary way by being more organic in its way of dealing with contrast. The weight distribution seems to be always changing as if you were looking at a reflection in water. It also pushes the dial further by offering an absolute black/block design uncommon for the genre, carving its counters with white rays of light as if from a block of dark matter.
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