As a designer, Clement likes to create contrast in a project, and so he also became very interested in the structure of carved Roman typography. He took inspiration from these ancient letterforms, carved into stone, as he thought they would create an interesting conversation between the digital universe that builds type today and ancient inscriptions. “Mixing references that aren’t obviously mixable interests me; contrasts of time and reference are something I like to use in my work,” he says.
The resulting typeface Base Pixel is a playful take on this combination. It’s a pixel font that, when in its thinnest weight, its building blocks are completely invisible, and in its heavier weights these clunky digital squares are uncovered, sticking out of jagged edges. In its fifth and final weight “trash”, the fonts pixels are completely deformed, giving way to degrading letter forms with expressive and abstract variations. True to the ancient architecture of letterforms, the typeface was finished with “triangular serifs” and “proportions inspired by roman inscriptions”.
The biggest challenge of the project was pushing the boundaries of variable font technology to see just how far they could take this flexible element of the resolution – “managing the interpolations between the different weights” to create changes in resolution, or in other words “the technical part”, Clement says. “But when it works well, the result is there, and I found it fascinating to see all the movements, that gave me the energy to continue.”
Upon its release, the typeface was set to not just degrade but disappear entirely within 80 days, so Base Pixel is available exclusively through Base collections until 29 April.