Juffrouw van Leeuwen Typeface

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What I Did
Creating a concept-driven Typeface inspired by J. Bernlef's poem "Juffrouw van Leeuwen"
Client

Autonomous project

Date

8.24.2022

Service

Typography

Overview

When focus shifts, things tend to become blurry

Inspired by the poem "Juffrouw van Leeuwen" by J. Bernlef, I created a typeface to reflect the writers' state of mind. In the poem, the writer is focused on writing a poem, when gradually his mind starts to wander. He then grabs back attention, before wandering off again. The gradual loss of focus is a concept that inspired me to create a visual representation through the use of the words themselves. I have experimented with numerous ways to visualize distraction. Blurring, smearing or blooming text, or restricting its readability. I tried digital as well as analogue approaches, before landing on a combination of both. Concept-type Juffrouw van Leeuwen shows its writer's loss of focus by creating areas in the letters that are imperfect and incomplete. The edges of the letters are roughly sketched and create a vague distinction between the fore- and background, emulating a blur. By not fully filling in certain areas of the letters, their lack of contrast evokes a sense of unfinishedness or blind spots. The imperfect edges of the letters, even in the focussed areas, give the type a sense of humanity and tactility and play into the concept of human attention and its limits.

Autonomous project
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