Sindre Bremnes, Frode Bo Helland form Monokrom Type Foundry

It was early this morning that I got the news of two Norwegian type designers, Frode Bo Helland and Sindre Bremnes, joining to officially open for business their new foundry, Monokrom. The two teased industry watchers during the whole of 2012 with their presence on Flickr and Facebook, with photos of pre-release versions of their typefaces in magazines such as FORM. Those familiar with Frode’s personal site have long wanted to try out the screen face Aften. Typophiles who frequented critique boards were even lucky enough to watch some of these come into existence. To you left waiting, the wait will be over soon. Tomorrow, 5 December, at noon (Central European Time) their collection will go live. Available on FontShop from December 17 on.

The foundry’s library consists of the personal works of each designer; original faces composed with specific requirements in mind. In each case, the forms are refined to the point of demonstrating the concept purely. Particularly interesting to me are Telefon, one I pointed out a few weeks back in Type Trends, and those begun with screen output firmly in mind at the outset. See Faunus and Aften, first and second lines in the above sample. There’s mention also in their initial press release of forthcoming faces from other designers. In critique of their press release, I must say that the photos of the two portray them as menacing; though I happen to know their personalities to be quite the opposite. I should also toast the two for a most concise, thoroughly human-readable end-user license agreement. Until tomorrow.

Tags: Aften, Faunus, Frode Bo Helland, Monokrom, Satyr, Sindre Bremnes, Telefon, Vinter