Archive · Type design

Spike

A geometric display typeface with sharp cuts, Latin and Cyrillic

Spike is a display typeface built from straight strokes and sharp diagonal cuts: no curves, every round letter becomes an octagon and every terminal ends in a point. It covers the Latin alphabet and Cyrillic, upper and lower case. The idea was something futuristic, a little inspired by the look of Superhot.

Year: 2024
Role: Type design
Tools: FontLab

I wanted a futuristic display face, a little inspired by the game Superhot.

Idea

I wanted a futuristic display face, a little inspired by the game Superhot. The letters are made from a small set of parts: vertical stems, flat bars and 45° cuts. The cuts give it its name and its rhythm.

Specimen sheet of Spike: A to Z, a to z, Cyrillic А to Я and а to я in black on warm off-white, with empty boxes where Ё and the numerals 0–9 are still missing.

Process

I drew Spike in FontLab between September and October 2024; the backups record more than 150 saved versions. The animation below runs through the 16 font builds I exported in the last two days, from 24 Oct 16:04 to 26 Oct 02:20, all set in the same word. By then the shapes were mostly settled, so the changes between builds are small.

Handgloves in the first exported build (24 Oct 16:04) above the same word in the last build (26 Oct 02:20).

Credits

HSE Art and Design School, BA Communication Design