Novo Typo Offgrid

posted by Emily Gosling October 7, 2021

Novo Typo is a type foundry that aims to “make the world a little bit more beautiful, happier and less boring” through its typefaces, according to its founder Mark Van Wageningen. Based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Novo Typo has made a name for itself thanks to what Eye magazine calls the “unorthodox typographic research methods” of van Wageningen.

Over the years these have resulted in pixel-based colour fonts, and then multilayered digital and wood-based “deconstructed” typefaces in which complete characters were only formed when different versions are layered together. His Ziza type family for instance has been made from overlapping, deconstructed fonts in yellow, red and blue.

It was in 2019 when Van Wageningen’s work found wider acclaim internationally, with the publication of his book Type and Colour. As you might expect, it examines the future of type through the lens of its creation in multifarious hues.

The foundry’s latest venture is the book Novo Typo Offgrid. Billed as a “DIY manual for creating a self-sufficient design studio,” the book is said to have begun life as an investigation into taking the resources and production process of design work into the creator’s own hands.

Chapters focus on individual elements of analogue book design like printer ink, paper and letters, and showcase his research into plant-based colours made of ingredients such as saffron that present an alternative to CMYK.

It demonstrates more abstract concerns, such as the designer’s deconstruction of writing and colour; alongside practical tips and instructions on how designers can do things themselves and take the methods of production into their own hands.

In July this year, Van Wageningen showed the Offgrid project at Berlin’s A—Z gallery, underscoring its marriage of how-to guide and experimental art/design project. The name Offgrid denotes the practice that Van Wageningen developed over lockdown in a bid to become typographically self-sufficient.

“Can you do your job completely independently of other parties if an international distribution system of services and goods comes to a standstill?” he asks in the book. “A typographic design studio like Novo Typo is founded on three pillars – letters, paper and ink. The project examines and shows how you can produce these elements yourself.”

This means he first sets out how to create paper, ink, hand-made type and wood pulp-based soap all on your own. The book itself is a manifestation and demonstration of these ingredients.