A dynamic font for bridging and encouraging interaction

Celebrating our studio's 20th anniversary, we wanted to give our city a gift. From former research we knew that the residents of Oslo felt the city lacked dialogue: ways of communicating – a little more often, and a little bit closer. As an identity-building tool for bridging and encouraging interaction, we created the font heioslo; a dynamic font reflecting Oslo, and the diversity of people living here.

We asked Oslo’s own inhabitants; young and old, of different sexes, from different backgrounds and societies, to share a direct and straightforward expression of communication – their own handwriting. More than 100 handwritten alphabets were collected, to form the basis of heioslo.

To maintain the sense of hand lettering and the people behind the letters, heioslo is constructed with several versions of each letter. When typing, these versions follow a random pattern, creating varied visual expressions: Words with distinctive character. heioslo has become a tool to communicate with our city's own voice.

Won bronze at ED awards 2018 for original tyoeface design.