Sweden Sans

Il governo svedese ha deciso di commissionare un font che rappresenti la Svezia.
Ecco come è nato il caratere Sweden Sans.

According to its creators, Stockholm design agency Söderhavet and font designer Stefan Hattenbach, Sweden Sans is a "modern" but edgy typeface with some local tweaks -- a filled umlaut for the letter "å," for instance, and a line that cuts through the zero. It’s unusual because it's mono-spaced -- every character is the same width --but takes its inspiration from old street signs.

Sans is meant to encapsulate fuzzy Scandinavian concepts -- progressivism, authenticity, lagom (Swedish for "just the right amount"). So how does it do it? "It's a pretty open typeface. They're simple shapes," Hattenbach says over the phone. "We've worked on the spaces between the letters to try to keep it light and airy." Wide holes inside of an enclosed "p" or "o" might have the same effect. To a type nerd, things get technical, and fast.

"I think it's pretty easy to tell that the descriptions are a typical sales pitch," says Rikard Heberling, a graphic designer based in Stockholm. But ultimately Sweden Sans is more about promoting "the myths of a certain Swedish taste or mentality," he says. "It is merely a branding tool."