Signifier

Signifier is a Brutalist response to 17th-century typefaces. Its digital immateriality draws on a deeply material past. Acknowledging the processes and tools of digital form-making, type designer Kris Sowersby worked consciously with the computer to recast the lead, antimony and tin of the 17th-century Fell Types into ones and zeros. Signifier emerged from this alchemy with Bézier curves and sharp vectors determined by machine logic and a Brutalist ethos. Inspired by the realisation that “form is the void and void is the form”, the launch campaign uses a digital version of Yves Klein’s famous International Klein Blue, in reference to his art that dealt with immateriality, emptiness and metaphysics. The typeface is available in seven weights.