Inspired by children's books, punk zines, and jazz, the Format series explores the potential of variable fonts and the relationship between logic and instinct.

*-OC Format Sans started as a bespoke font design for the mid-century inspired reference manual Analogue Photography. Drawing from the timeless elegance of Futura and the functional typesetting of Akzidenz Grotesk it fuses the aesthetic foundation of a geometric sans with the proportions and rhythm of a neo-grotesque.
**The results can tested live on the dedicated pages for Format Collage and Format Stencil.
-OC Format Stencil is a variable font with three axes: Offset to adjust a glyph’s position relative to the baseline, Jumble to alter the angle of each piece of a glyph relative to the others, and Split to vertically pull apart the pieces of a glyph. Adjusting each axis and the three combined in a Mix allows type to transition seamlessly from functional cutout to an exploded, expressive and musical design.
-OC Format Collage is a variable font inspired by the cut and paste techniques of the illustrators Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) and Lois Ehlert (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom). It employs 3 axes; Cutout to turn the sans serif glyphs into freehand cut paper designs, Jumble to alter the angle of each glyph and Scatter to change each glyph’s vertical position relative to the baseline. Used in any combination these axes allow type to seamlessly transitions from functional geometry to a more playful and hand rendered design.
Each glyph of -OC Format Shards was cut as quickly and with as little conscious consideration as possible with the only logic of slices being made from bottom left to top right.
Inspiration was taken from the classic experimental font Shatter designed by Vic Carless in 1973 which was used widely in Punk graphics of the late 1970s.
In contrast to the consistently parallel angles used to distort Shatter, the characters of -OC Format Shards have been sliced instinctively, quickly and freehand giving them and resulting text a less mechanical and more visceral appearance.
Paul Rand
Paul Rand (1914–1996) was an American art director and graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs, including the logos for IBM, UPS, ABC, and NeXT. He was one of the first American commercial artists to embrace and practice the Swiss Style of graphic design.
Bruno Munari
Bruno Munari (1907–1998 in Milan) was an Italian artist, designer, and inventor who contributed fundamentals to many fields of visual arts.
Eric Carle
Eric Carle (born 1929) is an American designer, illustrator, and writer of children’s books. He is most noted for The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Carle’s style is distinctive and instantly recognizable. His artwork is created in collage technique, using hand-painted papers, which he cuts and layers to form bright and colourful images.
Lois Ehlert
Lois Ehlert (born 1934) is an author and illustrator of children’s books. Her work is recognizable for the collage technique. One of her most celebrated books Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is dominated by type, featuring anthropomorphized letters of the alphabet cut from paper—lowercase for children uppercase for adults.
Erik Spiekermann
Erik Spiekermann (born 1947) is an internationally renowned German typographer, designer and writer. He is founder of MetaDesign and has designed many commercial and corporate typefaces. Spiekermann co-authored Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works and The Anatomy of Type.