Story
How can a typeface improve the world? Even before he had drawn the first letter, Christoph Koeberlin wanted to answer this question. He also wanted to prove that designers can also positively influence the environment.
One way that he is doing this is by donating 25% of his income from Pangea to the preservation of the rainforest and the implementation of large-scale reforestation projects (Trees for the Future, The Green Belt Movement, Fairventures Worldwide). With every font license that you purchase, you are also helping to preserve one of the most important factors in slowing down climate change. It’s just a little bit of a shame that the name, Futura, had already been taken by another geometric sans serif typeface, as it would have been more appropriate here.
For Christoph, the connection and connotation of the name was of great importance. Just like the primeval continent that the typeface is named after, Pangea is a symbol of not only living together but of global cooperation. While Gergő Kókai from Hungary supported him in the design of the upright characters, he brought Tanya George from India on board to work on the italics (work in progress). He consulted with Irene Vlachou from Greece and Ilya Ruderman from Russia to ensure the quality of the Greek and Cyrillic characters. The spacing and the kerning of the font would not have been possible without Igino Marini from Italy and his iKern tool. A broad foreign language extension seems obligatory for this omnicultural approach and in fact, extended Latin, Cyrillic, Greek and Vietnamese are already included. Arabic, Hebrew and other languages are to follow.
One could also mention the fact the typeface works remarkably well due to its refined space saving, it’s more condensed than a normal geometric sans, indeed this could even be sold as a further environmentally friendly and eco-conscious feature, it not only saves paper but screen capacity, but maybe that would be too much of a good thing. This characteristic is actually a pleasant side effect of the smart design decisions that Christoph Koeberlin made during the four years he spent working on Pangea. Another lovely side effect is the consequence between the compactness and unity. He successfully manages the balancing act between narrow grotesque typefaces and geometric ones. This approach is also demonstrated in the unusual ‘spectacle-g’, double-storey a and I with foot. Of course, in this design there is also the more common single story ‘g’ and ‘a’ as well as the simple I as an OpenType alternative.
The second member of the family, Pangea Text is built upon the same concept but aims to improve legibility. With longer ascenders and descenders, a more open form, slight ink traps and more generous spacing, the text variant is great for use in extensive texts and especially good for use in small sizes. Both families complement and harmonize with each other.
Pangea Text (light blue) and Pangea compared
Christoph Koeberlin is not only a designer of highly original typefaces (alongside Pangea, he also co-designed FF Mark and Fabrikat) he is also one of the most sought after Font Engineers globally. As you would expect from such an expert, the entire superfamily has a variable font version. Between the five upright widths and italic styles, from Light to Bold, the variable versions allow a smooth and continuous adjustment of the font width, the ascenders and descenders, the open form of the characters as well as the spacing. As with all other Fontwerk fonts that are already available as variable fonts, the Pangea variable versions are included in the super family package at no additional cost.
Saving the world through one typeface at a time — it’s worth a try.
Fictional book cover design using both Pangea (cover) and Pangea Text (back); Template by Mr. Mockup
