Papaik

Designing a typeface can be a long journey, there are numerous fundamental choices to make before and defining the letterforms often starts physically by drawing, sketching or cutting. Papaik’s story began with one single brush stroke. Originally, existed in one tiny version, but since last year it was modulated and polished. It may seem delicate at first glance, but with getting a stronger formal language, Papaik can solve solutions to problems that seem insurmountable to other typefaces within the genre. Its wide range of applications can often help to vary the layout and suits to a wide range of typographical needs within comic books, cartoons, video games, advertisements, peripheral products ranging from flyers, posters and films. The Regular weight of Papaik is part of Joanna Angulska’s MA thesis at the University of Arts in Poznan, in collaboration with The Designers Foundry. While being an independent graphic designer specialized in type design and visual identity, Joanna also works with calligraphy and illustration. Her Masters diploma is a compilation of calligraphy and type design. That’s how P was born and transitioned into Papaik, her first TDF typeface.

The display typeface Papaik consists of two relevant styles: Regular and Bold. Both styles include small caps, alternates, ligatures and OpenType features. Its handwritten style is based on the sign painting tool, i. e. a pointed brush. The inspiration for this typeface came from the years when signs were commonly painted. Letters appeared on shop windows, walls, vehicles, on anything that could serve as an advertising medium. To diversify the visual side of the text, contextual sets, final sets, standard and stylistic ligatures were created for this purpose and the typeface is usable for whether a small amount of text,  but also for headlines, best for posters.

“Type was always my trigger to move forward and encourages me to take further creative efforts” explains the designer, a philosophy which is certainly not to be missed out on.

Papaik