In a sweltering typographic climate that favours ‘organic’ look-at-me typefaces bursting with a thousand OpenType tricks, Graphik is a refreshing splash of cool rationality. It’s serious, pared-back forms reference classic sans serifs but remain thoroughly modern and never get frigid. Any designer worth their salt needs to turn away from the screen & pick up the latest copy of Wallpaper* magazine. There you will find one of the most beautiful, restrained sans serifs designed in a very long time.
Kris Sowersby is a type designer based in New Zealand. His credits include Feijoa, Meta Serif, and National, all of which appear “Typefaces of 2007”.
Editor’s note: Since its launch in 1996, Wallpaper*’s pages have been filled with interesting type. We covered one of their many makeovers back in 2003. The magazine has been through at least one type palette change since — to Christian Schwartz’s Amplitude. They wisely stuck with Schwartz for this redesign. Sitting in a pleasantly humanist space between geometric and grotesque, Graphik is perhaps a safer choice than their previous sans serifs, but it fits Wallpaper* perfectly — crisp, high-brow, with a European bent. — SJC
I’ve heard that this will become available in “mid 2008.” Has Christian hinted at any more specific dates? I’ll be the first in line to license.
Plakat is great. i’ve got a copy of it from a project where we worked with him. it’s a really great take on the standard grotesk
Where can I buy it?
According to Christian Schwartz’s site, it looks like the public release has moved to early 2009.
I can’t wait for this one. I love it.
I’m the graphic designer in the marketing department at Millikin University. We purchased Graphik in December ‘08 (before the release) to be the standard sans for the University used in the launch of our re-branding. There are 7 weights in in the standard size and narrow. This font is really nice to work with.